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Veteran revisits plane he flew in the Vietnam War at Museum of Aviation

He worked on the C-7A Caribou during the war. Now David Kowalski is seeing one again for the first time

More than 50 years ago, American soldiers were fighting the war in Vietnam on the ground and in the sky.

On Tuesday, two veterans visited the Museum of Aviation in Warner Robins to reflect on their time in the C-7A Caribou during the Vietnam War.

"This was a real forgiving airplane, but you had to have a certain load of technique, certain things to make it work," said David Kowalski.

Kowalski worked as a full-time technician and crew chief at Maxwell in Alabama, working on planes that were sent overseas to fight the war. He also worked on the C-7A Caribou in 1973.

"I might've put that up back in 1973. That's a tin can when you could smoke on airplanes. That was a butt can," Kowalski said.

Walking down the aisles of the Caribou, Kowalski recalled many memories.

"A lot of these dots around the plane... it's not mold, it's droppings from screw worm flies from 40 years ago," Kowalski said.

While some of the plane felt different to him, most of the plane was exactly how he left it.

"It actually seems like it shrunk over the last 40 years or so. It seems like when I was working on them and flying them [that] they were a lot bigger," said Kowalski.

He served for 34 years in the Air Force and retired several years ago as a Chief Master Sergeant.

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