C-47 Project and Camp Toccoa at Currahee one step closer

By Jessica Waters

On Monday, July 3, a tractor-trailer pulled into the gravel lot at Camp Toccoa at Currahee, delivering engines and props for the C-47 plane that graces the entrance to Camp Toccoa, bringing the C-47 Project one step closer to completion.

In 1941, the C-47 was chosen by the United States Army Air Forces as its standard transport aircraft. It could carry 6,000 pounds of cargo or 28 fully outfitted soldiers. Many of the paratroopers who jumped from C-47 aircraft into Europe prior to the D-Day invasion trained at Camp Toccoa.

The C-47 Project at Camp Currahee began in 2017 when a donated bulldozer was traded for one of the iconic C-47 aircraft, Marilyn Hall explained to WNEG as the engines were being delivered on Monday.

“Finding it on Military Trader and then trading a bulldozer that Rick Phillips donated for the airplane, and Randy Shirley going to the state line with the trucks and bringing it up — this has been like 5 years in the making, ” Marilyn Hall said.

Patrick Hall, President and Construction Coordinator at Camp Toccoa at Currahee, along with volunteers from the local area and as far away as Tennessee and North Carolina, have repaired and painted the plane’s fuselage and wheel carriage and installed new windows and flooring, as well as other restoration work on the vintage aircraft.

Patrick Hall told WNEG about the donation of the engines and props by Basler Aviation in Oshkosh Wisconsin, and the transportation provided for free by Roehl Transport.

“Today’s been a great day. We’ve been working on trying to get these engines and props for over a year,” Patrick Hall said. “It finally came together through Missy Payne at the Elks Lodge; she works for this company in Wisconsin, and they volunteered to bring them down here free of charge for us. The engines were donated, the transportation was donated, and we are just really thrilled to be able to start putting this last piece of the puzzle together.”

Hall said that the delivery of the engines and props was the culmination of a lot of networking and teamwork.

“It’s all about networking. I had a guy here in Toccoa, Lamar Davis, and he said ‘I have a friend up in Oshkosh. Do you want him to go talk to these guys and see if they’ll donate the engine?’ And I said, ‘sure,’” Patrick Hall remembered. “It’s been a concerted effort trying to get all these pieces and they fell in place today.”

Hall added that he hoped to have the props and engines installed on the plane in time for Military Weekend in early October, so that residents can see the progress that is being made at Camp Toccoa.

“We are overjoyed to have these things here, and hopefully between now and Military Weekend, we’ll get these things on and people can come see the camp and see the progress we’re making,” he said.”

For more information on the C-47 Project and Camp Toccoa at Currahee, visit camptoccoaatcurrahee.org.