[gt350mike]

The first time I saw a C-5 was at Fort Campbell when we were called up in the middle of the night for a deployment. With little help from the lights on the ground vehicles and a few from the a/c, I could barely make out the outline from a distance of 200 yards (+/-) and I thought my eyes were being deceptive. I wasn’t until we started loading our helicopters did I realize the true size of the C-5. The other fact I found atypical (comparing it to other a/c) was the seating arrangement; it would seat about 80 personnel very comfortably directly above the cargo area, but you’re facing towards the aft of the a/c.

Talking about the reliability of the a/c, when we completed an exercise in Honduras, our brigade commander pulled his name off the manifest because he thought the C-5 would dead-lined. As it turned out, our C-5 left Honduras on schedule while his C-141 developed mechanical and he was stuck in country for two or three days. Believe me, that was the only time a C-5 outshined a C-141 as far as dependability.