David Kuhn, Pilot

18th SOS, Da Nang, 1970

In 1968 I was selected as initial cadre to fly the AC-119K, went to Clinton County AFB in Wilmington, Ohio, and then to Lockbourne AFB, which was supposed to, in total, take about two to three months, but ended up taking thirteen months. The reason? In October 1969, we began what became known as the Great Trans-Pacific Air Race. I had Captain Phil Goodwin as aircraft commander, I was the co-pilot, Wayne Seguin Brechtel was the navigator, Ed Pinkham was our flight engineer. It took us quite a while to get over there. We finally made it after many, many mishaps, and we were vindicated of any wrong doing, but they did send us right away to Da Nang. And, shortly after that, in Da Nang, I got my own crew, as aircraft commander, which included, initially, Don Main as co-pilot, David Stemhoffer as one of the navigators, Bill Feezor as the Flight Engineer, Gunners Hans Wurfel, Ollie Merrill, Merced, Samanski, and Martel. We had flown several missions, and had some pretty good success, when another young captain came in as the co-pilot, and that was Jeff Baker, who became my roommate, too.