Elsewhere here is the story of Randy and my fishing trip. When we returned to duty at Ft. Campbell, KY, we showed everyone pictures of our trip. Cornel Deboudino, second in command of Campbell, was fascinated by a photo of a pontoon boat. He had never seen one before.
“This thing’s incredible,” the Coronel said to Randy and Me as he looked at our photographs. I could throw a party one of these. Who cares about fishing? Is it some kind of float boat? Does it just sit there like a floating dock, or does it move around?”
“It doesn't just sit there,” I said. “You can fish, pull water skiers and do about everything, even more than with a regular boat. I’ve even seen them pull parachutes, called parasails like at the resorts in the Bahamas. It is kind of like just a platform on two floats. When I was a kid, my dad built one using 50 gallon steel drums.”
Debardino looked up at me. “Your dad built one?”
“He, did,” I said. “I helped. It was fun.”
Debardino chewed on his lip. “Okay,” he said and looked at Randy and me. “Build me one.”
“What,” I said. “How am I supposed to do that? When am I supposed to do that?”
“I’ll get someone to run the office for you when you’re not there. I’ll make a call to the post engineers out at the airfield. They can do the building. You and Johnson tell them what they need to do. I’ll call today. You two report to hanger 12 tomorrow.”
The post engineers were excited to see my pictures when Randy and I reported the next day. None of the engineers had ever seen a pontoon boat before and we all shared ideas.
“The only challenging part is the pontoons,” I said. “My dad strapped barrels to a long 2x4 and had a cone made to fit the front. See here,” I said and pointed to the pontoon. “That’s so it cuts through the water like a boat.”
“Or a submarine on the surface,” an engineer said.
“Or like a C130,” said another.
“Yes,” several engineers said together.
“A what?” I asked.
Randy answered. The C-130 Hercules is a four-engine turboprop. IT’s a transport plane. I don’t remember it having pontoons.”
“Your friend is right,” an engineer said. First, it’s not a plane, it’s an aircraft. We doesn’t need the airframe. We need a couple fuel pods. The pods are auxiliary fuel tanks that fit under the wings. They’re for long distance missions and the pilot can drop them. I’ll order up a couple pods from the Amarillo base. They should be here in a week.”
One of the other engineers pointed at the main body. “This will be easy. Steel channel and some marine plywood. We can weld up some ornamental type rails.”
“Me and Furgason can make the benches. Upholstery’s no big deal. What about motor?”
“Pusher prop,” the lead engineer said. “Just like on an airboat. All right guys, let’s get to work. We’re going to build us a pontoon.”
“So, what should Randy and I do?” I asked.
“Just keep checking in and let us know if something needs to be redesigned.”
The base in Texas shipped the fuel pods up by rail. The engineers did great work building the pontoon. Debardino had a skyhook helicopter to fly the pontoon to Kentucky lake. The Coronel was overjoyed. He profusely thanked Randy and me. Debardino’s pontoon party was the talk of the Fort among the officers. The engineers had the next party. Randy and I saw the pictures but weren’t invited to either celebration.
We did almost benefit, beyond diversion from our regular work. Several officers wanted Randy and me to remodel the basements of their personal homes. It would have been paneling, wet bar, etc. Ww told them we wouldn’t do it for free but insisted we should. Lucky for us, we I said we had to check with the Coronel, they stopped pressuring us.
