"Wrooong Valley"

My father was a career Army officer, Combat Engineers. He caught the tail end of WWII and the beginning of Vietnam, but the bulk, and worst, of his combat experience was in Korea where he was a company commander. After reading my Oshkosh talk, "CPR for DR," he sent me the following email:

"When I went to Korea I first spent about two weeks in Japan where I spent my time, each day, checking the orderly room twice a day to see if I was scheduled for a flight to Korea. Finally I was. I went down to Takasaki for a flight to Taego. I boarded a C47 which had no windows except one 6" x 6" in one door. I think it was about a two hour flight and I felt the plane reduce power and go into a long glide. After some time the pilot gave it full power, the whole plane shook and rattled and we gained altitude. It had just turned dark. A voice from the cockpit said, "Wrooong valley". We circled a while and the voice said, "I give up. We are going to Seoul." After about an hour we landed at Seoul which had a lighted runway and is located in a flat area of Korea, of which there is not much in Korea. I do not know what kind of navigational aid that C47 had in 1951 but it was not working."

I sent the following reply:

"I would say it's a good thing he gave up and went to Seoul. Sometimes the wrong valley is the one you can't climb out of. The only nav aids common then were non-directional beacons. Homing devices. Basically a simple AM transmitter. They still exist but are seldom relied on by themselves anymore. They are not very accurate and are subject to many errors, particularly as the sun is rising or setting, just like an AM radio. That might have been your closest call in Korea."

The C47 was a military version of the DC-3. The F-86 Sabrejet, shown above, was a Korean War era fighter. I took this picture at Oshkosh this year, in the area known as the Warbirds flight line.