[GH85Carrera]

My dad was a MATS pilot. I know he flew C47s, C-54s, and C-124s. I don't remember him talking about a C-97 but I bet he was in one or two over his career. He made over 50 round trips from California to Hawaii and many trips from Hawaii to Japan, and other pacific islands like Pago Pago. He was the first pilot to ever land a C-124 on the island of Pago Pago. Back in the days when the island women only wore tops on Sunday. The island is really pronounced Pango Pango, but the missionary that first brought western culture to the island had a typewriter that the letter N was defective. So his reports spelled the island name without the N. That stuck.

He had to land once on British island with a 124. They needed fuel, and only the civilian FBO had fuel that they could sell. He had to dig a metal credit card out of an envelope sealed up and in the airplane for situations like that. Of course a 124 took a lot of fuel. The FBO gave them a large load of beer. They headed to some other island, I think it was Christmas island. When they landed the island was out of beer. They had a solution for that. They were a very popular crew for the stay.