Firebird Four Ship Formation

In the last days of the C-130A/D/D-6, when maintenance was struggling just to keep the planes fueled, let alone to keep them flying, we were all crowded on the crew bus heading back to the squadron after a real goat rope of a night tactical mission when a lone C-130 flew over the runway at Elmendorf. The commander questioned just who that might be, and from the back of the bus came the comment, "Oh, that's a 17th TAS four ship formation." Needless to say, the CO was not impressed... A sharp-witted flight engineer, Toy Owen was credited with the comment. (Ernie Barnett, Firebird Loadmaster)