Written by Bob Von Bargen

In the 1970s, one Chief Master Sergeant in the 335th Military Airlift Squadron of the Air Force Reserve’s 514th Military Airlift Wing at McGuire AFB took it upon himself to transform long, arduous, and somber air medical missions with often severely injured service members and their families into airborne comedy acts performed with the zest of a circus troupe. It was “show biz” at 35,000 feet!

We called Sergeant Randy Turck “The Candy Man,” in a nod to the famous retired Air Force Colonel Gail Halvorsen.

During the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49 Halverson was a pilot airlifting lifesaving cargo into Templehof Airport in Berlin, Germany. As he approached the runway he observed many starving German children at the edge of the field. Wanting to help them, he purchased candy and other food items and threw them to the children from his airplane as it approached the runway. His humanitarian effort was recognized, and he was soon called “The Candy Bomber” by the media.

Our Dining facility at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, Halverson Hall, was named after The Candy Bomber.

In civilian life, Randy worked for AT&T, the Bell Telephone Company, as a line chief in charge of maintaining phone lines in southern New Jersey.

As a reservist, he volunteered to fly missions in the C-141 on the weekends. He usually worked the air evacuation mission that departed McGuire AFB early Saturday morning and made a stop at Keflavik, Iceland before proceeding to Frankfort, Germany for crew rest. This mission was “hands on” with actual patients who would be flown to Andrews AFB, MD and hospitalization at either the Army’s Walter Reed Hospital or the Bethesda Naval Hospital.

The Sunday morning flight from Frankfort to Andrews AFB took about nine hours. After offloading the patients and families at Andrews the crew would return to McGuire AFB, arriving in the evening. Just in time to hurry home and be back at work early on Monday morning.

The normal C-141A Starlifter flight crew of Pilots, Navigator, Flight Engineers and Loadmasters was augmented by Flight Nurses, Medical Technicians and occasionally a Flight Surgeon. (The dedication and exceptionalism of these medical people is a discussion for another memoir.)

The flight from Frankfurt to Andrews was long and arduous for the patients and their families. The C-141 was a cargo airplane lacking the creature comforts of a passenger plane. Web seats ran alongside the fuselage on either side of the cargo compartment. Temporary passenger seats would be bolted to the floor … facing the rear of the aircraft. There were no windows. Stanchions holding litters would be set up on a portion of the cargo deck. These flights often carried seriously injured servicemen.

The temperature in the cargo compartment varied greatly. If the person was near a heater vent they could be quite warm. Those seated away from the heater vent often encountered frigid conditions. I have seen a man wearing a tee shirt sitting only a short distance away from another man who was wearing a parker to keep warm.

It was noisy, and the constant activity of the nurses and med techs as they attended to the badly injured often created a somber atmosphere. And on top of that … the flight lunches provided by Rhine Main Air Base terminal in Frankfort were a disgrace!

Randy Turck–aka “The Candy Man”–decided to do something about that.

On his own initiative, he would go to the Commissary or Base Exchange upon landing at Frankfurt and purchase candy and other food items that he would add to the flight lunches given to the passengers. He included special items from his kit bag that he distributed personally to the children onboard.

He was soon joined by another loadmaster, Master Sergeant Rene Fougeray, who added to the money fund and created an airborne comedy act that he and Randy performed with the zest of a circus troupe.

They served the meals with the exuberance of a master chef and the flair of a vaudevillian. They sang, bounced and danced around the cargo compartment as they presented meal trays to the patients and their dependents.

They wore large white aprons with their rank and diverse patches sewn on them. They sported chef’s hats as they paraded around the cargo compartment distributing the goodies.

Then they augmented all this with clown apparel, magician’s tricks and a host of chicanery to amuse the travelers. It was quite a show!

As time went by the entire flight crew on these aeromedical missions chipped in money and the meals and the entertainment got better and better.

Chuck Loan, a navigator and future 514th Air Base Group commander, created a special enroute map that he posted on the wall of the comfort pallet that served as an inflight kitchen.

The map denoted the route across the Atlantic; he annotated the location of the plane as it progressed toward Andrews AFB. Chuck would also place humorous comments on the map with each position posting. Passengers would get up and go over to the map to see where they were and come back laughing about something that he had written regarding their journey.

The arrival at Andrews was always the same. The engines would whine to a stop and there would be a moment of silence. Then someone would start applauding.

This would escalate; and impromptu cheers would greet Randy and Rene as they did a curtain call to the delight of the passengers.

Hospital buses and ambulances would approach the rear of the airplane and the stretchers would be carried into them. Smiles and tears abounded as the remaining ambulatory passengers left via the front entrance door. And always … someone would ask for the map that was taped on the comfort pallet … and request the signatures of Randy, Rene and Chuck!

All the players are now retired. Chief Master Sergeant Randy Turck and Colonel Chuck Loan have since left us.

Master Sergeant Rene Fougeray continues to work as a real estate agent and property assessor in the Mahoning Valley of Pennsylvania.

But their legacy endures as the 514th Air Mobility Wing continues to fly aeromedical missions with the C-17 Globemaster III. Only now the mission operates out of Ramstein Germany, as Rhine Main Air Base has been closed.

I sincerely hope that the Aero Med flight lunches provided by Ramstein AB today are of a sufficient quality that does not require aircrew “augmentation”.