Old ‘650' ends her life with a nosedive

"Old 650”, faithful servant of the Marshallese and American people living on Kwajalein atoll is now nothing more than an aircraft wreck. Its last flight, about two and a half months before retirement and possibly a place in an aero museum, ended when it nosed down on the reef just beyond the north end of the Roi-Namur runway.

This four-engined C-54 of the US Army’s Kwajalein missile range, was taking off empty after having landed its passengers from Kwajalein, when there was an apparent tyre blow-out. This was just past the point of no return and the pilot was unsuccessful in his attempts to abort the flight.

Old 650 took its name from its tail number. Its early retirement was another incident in the history of Roi-Namur. The Japanese in the 1930 s and 1940 s set up a powerful air and submarine base on the islands of Roi and Namur. Japanese air squadrons from Roi made many strikes against Wake Island during December, 1941.

In February, 1944 y the US 4th Marine Division seized Roi-Namur, and from then till the end of the war, these islands were used by the Americans as a logistics base. In the early 19605, the Americans renovated the old runway and set up a space-tracking station.