Special deliveries
By Deb GauArticle Photos
CANBY - He helped deliver dozens of airplanes for the U.S. military, and spent enough time in the air to circle the globe twice. And he never had to wait in line at the airport.
"We got to go ahead of everyone except for the President of the United States," said Milo Hovland.
As a flight engineer during World War II, Hovland, a Canby resident, spent most of his time inspecting and delivering bombers for the Army Air Corps. For more than two years, Hovland said his life was a routine of flying a new plane to its destination and then catching a ride back to base.
"They told us, 'Just drive it off the runway, and we'll pick you up,'" Hovland said.
When Hovland was drafted in 1942, he said he figured he would be in the infantry - after all, he was just a farm boy. But when he got his assignment, "The officer asked, 'How'd you like to specialize as a flight mechanic?' He said, 'We're training all the farmers we can get, because farm boys can improvise. If you have a machine break down at 10, you gotta find a way to make it hold together until noon.'"
After completing flight mechanic training, Hovland was transferred to Romulus Air Base in Michigan, where he inspected and serviced P-39 fighter planes coming through on their way to Alaska. Later, he was made chief of a crew responsible for inspecting and testing new B24 bombers.
"They'd get dropped off with a checklist about a mile long that I'd have to do," Hovland said. A 20-man crew could inspect about four planes a day.
In 1943, he became a flight engineer with the Ferrying Command. This meant he would fly with the B-24s as they were delivered to bomber groups all around the country.
Hovland said the flight crews were made up of a pilot, co-pilot and engineer.
As the engineer, it was Hovland's job to work the plane's flaps on takeoff and landing, raise and lower the landing gear, and adjust the engine speed. He would also watch for signs of mechanical problems.
Once deliveries were made, Hovland said, the crew would hitch a ride back to Michigan on civilian flights. Special pins on their uniforms allowed them to "bump" ahead of other passengers if needed. They were almost constantly moving.
"I would send my wife a couple of letters from Tucson, but by the time she got them I was in Montreal," Hovland said.
Even though the crews weren't flying through combat zones, there were still some close calls. Once the crew had to make an emergency landing in Chicago after it was discovered their plane's oil had been over-diluted with gasoline to keep it running during the winter.
"I looked, and all four engines were pumping oil overboard," Hovland said. "We had about five minutes' worth of oil in the plane. It was either end up in Lake Michigan, bail out or try to land."
Another time, Hovland said a B-24 got caught in icy conditions and had to land on a tiny civilian airstrip in Elkins, W.Va.
"The funny part is, you're not scared. You have your adrenaline flowing, and you're doing your job," he said of responding to emergencies.
Ironically, Hovland said the worst flight he was ever on was a civilian flight from Minneapolis to Chicago.
"There was a storm on the other end of the runway as we were taking off, and we turned around and went into it," he said.
Hovland and his crew pretended to read newspapers during the trip to hide their fear.
"What would (the passengers) have done if we'd have gotten excited?" he said.
In 1944 and 1945, Hovland started making international flights. One of the first was a trip across North Africa to Karachi, India, to deliver a C-109, a fuel tanker modified from a B-24 bomber.
But when the plane arrived in India, Hovland said, "Nobody wanted to fly it." It was thought that a tanker plane would make a dangerous target flying over the Himalayas to China. "I never heard of a C-109 again after that."
The trip home to the U.S. was pretty harrowing, he said. The crew made it as far as Casablanca, Morocco, and then had to repair a crash-landed B-17 to take them across the Atlantic.
When it was time to go, the plane taking off ahead of them crashed and exploded, Hovland said.
"Then they told us to take off over the ocean, so if we didn't make it, the pieces would land in the water," he said.
Fortunately, they made it back to the U.S. in one piece.
In 1945, Hovland became a flight engineer on C-54 transport planes, moving soldiers, VIP passengers or cargo around the Pacific. Doing his job right became even more important, he said, "because you had to fly over eight hours of water."
Hovland said his crew dropped off members of the Signal Corps to occupy Tokyo in September 1945. For a time, the crew also volunteered to fly supply missions "over the hump" of the Himalayas between India and China after that.
Hovland said he flew a total of 132 B-24s and 57 C-54s during his time in the Army. However, he never went back to being a pilot.
"I walked away and I stayed away. It's too big of a hobby, when you come back to the farm and you're still using kerosene lights," Hovland said. "There was one time, I saw a plane fly over the fields - if I could've gone back in again as a staff sergeant, I would've. But my 90 days were up."
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quinnrocks
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06-13-09 3:06 PM
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I love you grandpa
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marshallpgr
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06-13-09 1:13 PM
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The Mn Patriot Guard salutes the service of Milo Hovland.
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