Letty Et Al.
I have to laugh every time someone mentions hotdogs ...
We were supposed to have a normal,HC-130 'Duckbuttt" out of Pease AFB, NH ...Fly halfway to Thule Greenland and bore holes in the sky for 11 or so hours and then RTB (Return to Base). We took off with four engines that 'Ops Checked Normal' on the ground ... but by the time we were returning, our two out board engines were now at 'flight idle' and one of the inboard engines was 'iffy'... so rather than landing at back at Pease AFB, we ducked into Goose Bay, Labrador. BTW, A C-130 can maintain flight but not altitude on the two inboard engines .....
Since we had all planned to be in our own beds that night, none of us had brought money. And to make matters worse, the AC (Aircraft Commander) had reneged on the unspoken custom of kiting a check to cover his enlisted ...
So the senior NCO (he had been a Col. in WW II and took a Msgt/Flight mechanic's rating to stay in the cockpit), took everyone's money (it was like $14 and change) and promised to make sure we were fed .... (mind, this was in the days prior to ATMs and Credit Cards ...
He came back several hours later with two dozen hot dogs, and two dozen buns. He had 'five finger discounted' packs of relish, mustard and ketchup from the base bowling alley ....
But the piece de resistance was when he pulled out an extension cord and a couple of ten-penny or bigger nails. He cut the female end off the extension cord, stripped the wires and wrapped them around the nails. He then proceeded to punch one of the nails into each end of the hot dog ...
Then he plugged the extension cord into a wall outlet .... and as the hot dog sputtered and the lights flickered, he made sure none of us were hungry. One by one we were fed .... and if someone told me this story, I would have said something like "Oh, what pitiful stuff' .... but I was there and saw it all.... and the hotdogs had this taste of zinc, but we all went to bed full ... *S*
TTFN,