June 14th, 2013, 03:50
I'm not surprised to see beer kegs mounted onto pylons or a drop tank used to carry beer. In the logs of VF-17 there is at least one instance in which they returned to the combat area from R&R carrying beer. The pilots pooled their money and bought 148 cases of beer, marked the cases "electronic parts" to keep anyone from stealing the beer, then had the beer shipped with them from Sidney to Espiritu Santo. At Espiritu, they loaded the cases into the ammo bays in the wings of their Corsairs. They flew their beer from Espiritu Santo up to Bougainville with 32 Corsairs, each carrying a mixed load of beer and 50 cal ammo. They flew the final leg of the flight, 45 minutes, at 20,000 feet to chill the beer. When the pilots landed, the ground crew came up to each Corsair to help the pilot out and each pilot greeted the crew with a can opener and instructions to quickly open the ammo bays and hand out some cold beer.