DanTien said:
Coors - anyone remember the cache with that - college roomate used to drive from Illinois to Kansas to load up!
Do I ever. (Warning: “war story” follows.)
Back in the 70’s I was stationed at an AFB in Wichita, KS. At the time that was the easternmost distribution area for Coors (AKA Colorado Kool-Aid). The AFB shared a runway with Boeing, and the AF periodically sent KC-135 tankers to the Boeing facility for refurb.
When the planes were ready, the home base for the aircraft would send a crew out to Wichita to pick it up and fly it home. If the crew was from the eastern US, they would inevitably make a run to the liquor store and buy several cases of Coors, usually planning to sell it to their buddies back home at a tidy profit.
The new Wing Commander at the base decided he was going to throw his weight around this well-known practice was disruptive to the good order and discipline of the USAF, and he would to put a stop to it. Rather than issue an order to incoming air crews that they could only take back one case per person, he decided to make an example of the next crew who made a Coors run. The hapless crew of 5 arrived, purchased 25 cases of Coors, loaded it on the plane, started engines and taxied out to take off. The WC then sent three Security Police vehicles out to block the runway. The crew was forced to taxi back in, shut down their engines, and offload their beer stash. The WC met them on the ramp and told them they were allowed only one case per crew member.
Of course word of all this had spread to those of us on the flight line at the time, and we conveniently showed up to assist the crew in disposing of their excess cargo. I think we paid them a buck a six pack, being fellow air crew members and all. :
Word of this incident spread all over the tanker fleet and I don’t think any crew attempted to distribute Coors without a license again…at least not in that manner.
