Submitted by: CDR Tom Clarke

In 1978, I was deployed to NAS Sigonella, Sicily flying the P-3C aircraft with Patrol Squadron 45, homeported at NAS Jacksonville, FL. At the time I was the Maintenance Officer, and on this particular day, my crew (CAC-9) was serving as the maintenance duty crew. It was a fairly routine day until we received the call from Ops to launch the Ready One for a Medevac (Medical Evacuation) flight to Naples, Italy with a pregnant woman who was having issues.

I went up to the Operations Office and suggested that since it was a quick (about 55 minutes) flight to Naples that instead of “burning up” a ready alert crew, why not use the maintenance crew? Everyone liked the idea and Crew 9 started to preflight LN-48 for a pleasant afternoon flight to Napoli and return. Little did we know!

The electric shop rigged up a 60 Hz power converter (Unitron) for the incubator in case it was needed while my copilot and I did a quick weather brief and filed for Naples. My FE grabbed me and said, “Hey, Commander, how much gas do you want?” After a microsecond’s thought I answered, “Just up to Naples and back, a ramp load will do it.”

Things were progressing nicely and the ambulance showed up with our “passenger”, Mrs. Brenda Domogauer and her husband, Chief Bob Domogauer. The base dispensary thoughtfully sent along a nurse, LT Lisa Hiles, to accompany the patient to Naples. We were beginning to think, “What a nice way to spend a maintenance duty day and bag a little flight time too.”

After Mrs Domogauer was “strapped in” another ambulance showed up! It seems an additional Sigonella “Mom to be” was going into labor and needed to get to Naples. Since Mrs D was on a stretcher tied down next to the P-chutes, our new “customer” got one of the bunks. Everything was looking good, so we took off for Naples. Typical Med weather, a little haze, no clouds and smooth all the way. This is Naval Aviation at its best and they pay us to do this!

About half way to Naples, we received a call from Roma Control, informing us that we needed to call our base for a message. Since we were out of UHF range, it was “Croughton, Croughton, this is Navy LN-48 on 89 upper”. We lucked out and got a good HF phone patch and found out that they didn’t want us at Naples that we were to go to Rhein-Main Air Base in Frankfurt Germany. Now this is getting interesting! A couple of thoughts went through my mind, like; Fuel, Flight Plan, Diplomatic Clearance, Swiss Overflight clearance, oh, and by the way how about some chow? I elected to land at Naples and take care of these “admin items.” Little did we know!

The folks at Naval Support Activity at Capodocino Airport in Naples fixed us right up with fuel, weather, flight plans, dip clearance, and yes, even some box lunches. While all this was going on, another ambulance showed up with “another patient for Rhein-Main”! Sure, why not, we have another bunk open, but I am not going anywhere with three pregnant ladies, without a doctor on board. Shortly thereafter Lcdr, (Dr) Soballe climbed aboard. “Ladder’s up, Door secured” was the report from AWCS Avery, our SS-3 and soon to be “honorary midwife,” but I am getting ahead of myself!

Off we go into the setting sun for the trip to Rhein-Main. ASCOMED (Air Surface Coordinating Office-Mediterranean) sometimes irreverently called “FiascoMed”, in Naples told us to take the shortcut across Switzerland, that they would get overflight clearance for us. I thought about that for about a microsecond, and continued up the long way around through France. We flew up the West coast of Italy over Florence and Genoa, then across to Lyon, Dijon and Strasbourg in France, then over Mannheim, Germany and on into Frankfurt. Sometimes you make the right call, and as it turned out, our overflight clearance didn’t come through until we were on the return leg!

As we motored on through the night, our thoughts turned to the upcoming RON in Frankfurt and that little restaurant in the town of Zeppelinheim, just outside the gate at R-M, and the possibility of dining on Wienerschnitzel and some Bavarian beer (scrupulously observing the requirements of OPNAV 3710.7!). Little did we know!

About an hour or so out of Frankfurt, Doc Soballe came up to the front office with a request, “could we heat it up a bit in the back, and maybe lower the altitude’? The heat was no problem, but the Alps made the cabin altitude a bit dicey!

The doc’s next request was for a little more speed, as things were “starting to happen” in the tube, now known as the “Lockheed Pre-natal Clinic”!

OK, “Flight Engineer, Set 1010, Senior Chief.”

A few minutes later, Senior Avery (remember him, the SS-3/Midwife?) calls up on the intercom and announces that we are about to have another entry for the “A Sheet”! At this point, LT Mike Kupfer, the copilot, and I were concentrating on shooting the ILS to Runway 25R at Frankfurt Rhein-Main. Somewhere out around the Outer Marker, we heard “it’s a girl”, and Jill Domogauer transformed the tube into the “Lockheed Delivery Room”!

Some claim that I then made the smoothest landing of my career, but then again, I thought they were all smooth! Now we can park this flying machine and get on with the festivities at Zeppelinheim!

As we were taxing to the Air Force side of Frankfurt Airport, we got the word from the back, “it’s not over yet, it’s twins!“ We stopped for a few minutes on the taxiway and Jill’s brother, Justin, made his grand entrance! We blocked in at the USAF, 2nd Airevac Squadron’s Medevac line and were met by several ambulances and medical personnel. Since it was raining, cold, and windy, the ground personnel used a boarding stair truck to enter via the cockpit side escape hatch. Once everyone was secured in the back of the plane, the medical personnel took our patients off the normal way and we started to button up the plane for the night. Boy, I can taste that Wienerschnitzel and Bier now! Little did we know!

When we checked in with command post (remember, this is an Air Force base), there was a message for us to call Sig. I didn’t like the sound of that, but gave them a jingle anyway. “You need to ‘gas and go’ and bring the airplane back ASAP, we need it for a launch tomorrow”. Rats! I tried the old crew rest angle (remember, this is an Air Force base), but that didn’t work!

Tired, excited at what we had just done, and disappointed, CAC-9 saddled up and made our way back to Sigonella. I don’t remember when we got back, but it was dark and tired out!

Turns out they didn’t need the bird after all, but as they say, “that’s the breaks of Naval Air.” While CAC-9 was crew resting, the Airframers were busy. When we got back to the squadron the next day, the nose gear doors sported a slightly modified Pelican with two babies instead of torpedoes and the title “Clarke’s Stork Taxi.” Several weeks later we were able to get the family together with the crew for a “photo op” with the crew and LN-48 (right).

Sig deployments aren’t all bad, are they?

Epilogue:

The Domogauer twins now live in Myrtle Beach, SC and one is a police officer and the other a fireman. I retired from active duty as a Commander, after 24 years and flew P-3/C-130 as a contractor pilot for another 20 years supporting Navy flight test at Pax River. Of my over 14, 000 hours of flying, this was one of the most exciting/fulfilling flights, except maybe the time I had a fuel tank fire in a C-130, with a Super Hornet on the hose, aerial refueling …but that’s another story!