I was flying on Air America to some remote site to set up a communications site for a team setting up a site for their temporary operations. It was a longer flight than usual, and I never knew the actual location of my destination having learned from some of the oldtimers, "You never want to know where you're going," they would say. "You might get freaked out if you do. And besides, that's why you got a pilot. Let him earn his keep."
I never carried maps or requested information on the locations and depended on the pilot to transport me to the required coordinates provided by Air Operations. I had flown several missions with this pilot, so I felt a sense of comfort he would get me to the right coordinates. Once I became comfortable with my role providing communications at the various distant sites, I began to stray from that standard practice and began researching my destinations and locations prior to take-off.
Along with my Samsonite suitcases of radio equipment, I was carrying a five-gallon can of kerosene with me. The pilot asked about the kerosene. "You know I'm not supposed to transport fuel in my plane, so why are you carrying that, anyway?" he asked.
"The kerosene is the for on-site team's refrigerator," I replied. "They work off a portable generator, so they don't have 24-hour power. They're using a kerosene refrigerator."
"Well, I believe you're pulling my leg. I never heard of such a thing, but go ahead jump onboard and close the door. But if we get hit and die in a fiery crash, I'm gonna be blaming you for it," he mumbled. Believing that kerosene does not have the volatility of gasoline, I felt he was overplaying the drama.
There were two Americans on the site team. They would be onsite for a few weeks but didn't have all the required resources. When they called and asked for communications capability, five gallons of kerosene and five gallons of gasoline, I asked, "What's the kerosene for?"
"Oh, it's for our refrigerator," said the site chief. "We were able to procure a refrigerator locally, but the damn thing uses kerosene. We have no electricity, and we also need gasoline for our generator. We power it up whenever we need to use our radio equipment."
I informed him that gasoline could not be transported on regular aircraft but would try to get them the kerosene. Both Air America and Continental Air Services had dedicated aircraft in which they would transport fuels.
It was a typically boring flight. The pilot called ahead prior to landing, and a jeep was waiting to transport me upon landing at the dirt airstrip. As the driver helped me load the suitcases and kerosene on the jeep, the pilot yelled out to me, "Now, we don't want to stay on the ground here any longer than necessary. Hurry and get back here as soon as you can!"
We headed towards the wooded area totally covered with tall pine trees. As we were driving farther and farther into the wooded area, I kept worrying about setting up my communications site. The denser the vegetation, the more difficult it is to get the signal out of there.
We arrived at their shack where the two other team members treated me as their savior. They asked about a long list of items they had requested. I point to a suitcase one of them was carrying and told them it contained their cigarettes, alcohol and toiletries. They set about divvying up their goods while I began setting up my communications site.
It was miserably hot and quite humid as I and a team member set up two long wire antennas. Not only was the site dotted with pine trees, but it was also in a sort of a valley with tall mountains around us. It was not the ideal site for radio communications. The long wire antennas were a disappointment providing only broken communications with Tiny Tim, the main communications base at Vientiane. I took one of the long wire antennas out and began fashioning an inverted "V" antenna as the pilot kept requesting a status on the installation. It was already mid-afternoon, and we had to get back to Vientiane before dark, which was standard protocol.
We completed the inverted "V" antenna in record time and made numerous radio checks back to Vientiane main base and to a couple of other sites at Savannakhet and Longprabang. The team was satisfied with the communications site and thank me. We had already loaded all my equipment onto the jeep for transport back to the waiting aircraft when I remembered the kerosene refrigerator. They were in a rush to get me out of there and were briskly walking to the jeep when I mentioned, "Hey, I'm not leaving until I see that kerosene refrigerator!" They walked back to their shack, pulled the refrigerator away from the wall and pointed to a glass container underneath the refrigerator cabinet holding the kerosene. A few inches from the kerosene tank was a small bluish flame. Apparently, that small flame was the source of their refrigerant process. I still don't know the concept, but I am here to tell you that kerosene refrigerators do (or did at that time) exist !
Kerosene was used in the lift-off of the Saturn V rocket which took man to the moon.- https://www.nationwidefuels.co.uk/oil-guides/facts-about-kerosene-you-might-not-know/
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