MARTIN Mars (C-FLYL)

send it to OZ - just for me to look at

Freakin' Awesome!

I bet she was stealing the show at the Oshkosh seaplane base this year!

As a child I I dreamed of flying in this luxurious plane from San Francisco to Shanghai but then the war came and those flights no longer existed. It was just a dream of course, since I lived in Buffalo and we did not afford such things as flying anywhere! I long to see the plane itself these days. I did manage 20 years of being a USAF navigator finishing my career in the C-5A.

Worked with the Mars in California as the airborne tactical supervisor,(ATGS). The Mars didn't "fit" with the retardant air tankers so it was part of close support for fire fighters on the ground. Sequenced with water dropping helicopters. Because of the amount of water/foam being delivered 5 to 7 thousand gallons per sortie it was important to let the ground fire fighters know which aircraft was next in line to support them. A fire fighter on the ground coined the name BIG GULP. "BIG GULP one minute from drop on division (i.a. Echo)".