Oops, that shoulda read, "----retrieve ('79 MB) in Feb/Mar '79 after
reporting new duty sta. in NC."
Wilt
----- Original Message -----
From: "WILTON via Mercedes" <mercedes@okiebenz.com>
To: "Mercedes Discussion List" <mercedes@okiebenz.com>
Cc: "WILTON" <wilt...@nc.rr.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2016 10:25 AM
Subject: [MBZ] How Did it All Begin?
In 1959, while I was a B-47E maintenance crew chief at Lincoln AFB, NE,
the line chief, a master sergeant, would occasionally drive his new MB
Finny he had bought in Germany onto the flight line. Sometimes we would
sit in his car while waiting for my airplane to takeoff before a training
mission or land after such. I was well-impressed by the build quality of
the car, especially the solid-sounding THUNK of the doors closing.
In mid-April, ‘71 I had been off active duty from USAF for nearly 3 years
and was a month from graduating from NC State U, Raleigh, NC, with BS in
civil engineering and returning to active duty to fly B-52’s at Kincheloe
AFB, MI. ’Needed new car; ’stopped by MB stealer’s on way home one
afternoon and looked at new MB (’don’t remember model - a 123-size 4-door
sedan); ‘was well-impressed again, but it was gonna cost me $7200. Coupla
days later, ‘bought new ’71 Chrysler sta. wagon for $5200.
At Kincheloe, doctor (colonel) directly across street in base housing had
a Diesel version of the MB I had considered in Raleigh. ‘Continued to be
well-impressed by the colonel’s MB and began to regret not paying the
$7200 for new MB.
By July ‘75, I was base civil engineering chief of operations at George
AFB, CA. Sometime in ’76, our squadron administrative officer was
replaced by a female captain who arrived from Germany with a new MB 300D
and her fighter pilot husband. Nearly every day for the next year and a
half I was reminded by the 300D sitting beside my car in the parking lot
that I should have paid the $7200 for the better car in ‘71.
In ‘78, I was director of engineering at Sondrestrom AB, Greenland. One
of my major projects was to remove and replace 12 (700kw) Detroit (GM)
Diesel generator engines with 10 larger (1000kw) White-Westinghouse (I
think they were) engines. The Detroit units had been sitting there
running for 36 years. Original plans were to simply remove old engines
and replace them with the newer, larger ones, but we quickly realized that
the newer ones would need complete rebuilds, which we did in-house,
because of internal rust from sitting for years on a dock in CA after
removal from Vietnam. This project really got me hooked on Diesels.
Meanwhile, in late ‘78, I mentioned to the commander of the Danish Air
Force C-130 unit at Sondrestrom that I’d like to go to Stuttgart to pickup
a new ’79 MB 240D for a short trip around Germany with SWMBO and then drop
it off at Bremerhaven to be shipped to Norfolk, Baltimore or Charleston
ready for me to retrieve in Feb/Mar ’80 after reporting to new duty
station in NC. The Danish commander offered (several times) to fly me
from Sondy to Stuttgart and back to Sondy from Copenhagen aboard a Danish
C-130. Price of 240D in the factory delivery program then was $12000, and
therein lay “the problem.” My savings had been severely depleted during my
3 years (’68-’71) off active duty, and I was reluctant to commit to the
$12K before selling our house in CA and buying or building another in NC.
SWMBO had sold the Chrysler at 125kmi for $700 while I was in Greenland.
Though the Chrysler was a very good-driving and good-riding car, $7200 for
the ‘71 MB certainly would have been the better buy.
By Oct ’79, I was back to flying B-52’s at Goldsboro, NC, had sold the
house in CA, for which I received a check for ’$58K, built a new house in
NC and paid $17K for a new ’80 MB 240D with manual everything. ’Drove it
for nearly 16 years before it was totaled by un-insured driver in a ragged
pickup at 185 kmi. Replaced it with ’91 350SDL that “crapped out” at a
little over 200kmi. Also had an ’81 300D from ’01-’04 that used oil at ~
a qt/1000 mi; replaced with showroom ’87 300D now at 143 kmi.
Wilton
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