The Ford Barn - Southwind Heaters

Southwind Heaters: A Story
by
Clem Clement
October 25, 2020

Back in 1962, I was flying WB-50s for the USAF Air Weather Service. Loved the mission and the great flying. We were Hurricane Hunters, nuc fallout sniffers and a flying weather station. (I’m as thrilled to report I am still alive) Many stories came out of those Weather units. Here’s one:

About the 20 of December (or thereabouts,) 1962, the Chinese popped a huge nuclear weapon. (Maybe a TNUC.) We were directed to launch everything we had and find the position of the cloud and collect date (not a visible cloud: nuc and bomb dust.) We coughed up 13 crews: A miracle with those old airplanes. The commander, office staff, anybody they could muster went. (in those days all officers were required to belong to the Officers Club. Our boss stated ”If you don’t join, you will lose 1 point on your OER.” We were all getting ready for the volunteer fun a t the Christmas party. No crewmembers went as they were all gone. We still had to pay for our party!!
I was crewed with Russ and the other crew was led by George, that went to Thule, Greenland.

George was to launch Christmas the 23rd and I on Christmas Eve. Our call sign was Santa Claus Special. George and crew went on the hunt and found the cloud and stayed in it as long as he had fuel (About 6 hours.). Upon return to Thule (all darkness and coldness that time of year!!!) and snow. he was directed to the ramp over a pair of white F106 drag suites. The WB-50’s 28-foot props grabbed the parachute and ate it. The mounting buckles poked holes in the flaps, an engine cowling. The chute wrapped around #3 engine, then swapped the chute to #4 which stopped the engine. Nobody hurt but there was a lot of bent metal.

The 24th we report to his bird and rejected it on preflight due to the damage. This meant we had Christmas day off! We launched Christmas night the 25th with the repaired bird. Radio reporting stations could did not believe a Santa Claus Special was somewhere near 90 miles from the North pole. The customer (CIA) was jubilant and our take was good. I begged him to direct us the 20 minutes we needed to be able to say we went over the North Pole. No such luck…

On Christmas morning Russ got me up early for powdered eggs and SOS and we headed out in a borrowed Jeep with a Southwind heater blasting warm air. I had tools and we went to the dump the other side of the base. The Dutch own Greenland and our junk yard. The area was loaded with metal stuff and busted stuff. We targeted a Southwind heater on a Jeep. Somehow, I had some tools along and then the heater was Russ’s. I got some motor I needed. Ya see, back in Alaska, Russ had a Jeep and it needed a heater. Successful mission and all I know about Southwind heaters. (Russ mounted it and it worked well every time we went North: twice a month from our home base of McClellan AFB, CA.

The rest of the story involves the jeep using kerosene in the radiator and a subsequent fire (not related to the gas in the heater). Russ loaded the burnt jeep into a C-130 transport and they illegally flew it to our home. Russ got caught and there was hell to pay, util it was found out that the wing commander shipped his small boat home from Japan in a WB-50, after which all went quiet….

(Air temp near the pole was minus 56 F deg. at 20,000 feet.)

Clem Clement
Southwind non-expert
See the web for info on Southwind Heaters)