than predicted. Plans were made for the eventual retirement of the Air Force's only fleet of Globemasters. In June 1955, the 6th ATS was merged with the 3rd ATS and was flying operational missions with them. On 1 July, the 6th ATS (Heavy) was inactivated and its C-74s and crews were transferred to the 1703rd ATG's 3rd ATS (Heavy). On 1 November 1955, the C-74s were placed in flyable storage at Brookley AFB while the group waited for instructions as to the disposition of the aircraft. During the first three months of 1956, the 11 remaining C-74s were officially removed from the Military Air Transport Service's inventory and were flown one by one to Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona for long-term storage and disposition. Colonel George S. Cassady, who had accepted the first C-74 for the Air Force and who was by then a Brigadier General, was attending a Continental Division Commander's Conference when he learned of the C-74's last flight. Cassady received special permission to pilot the aircraft on its last flight and on 31 March 1956, flew the last C-74 from Brookley AFB to Davis-Monthan AFB. Most of the C-74s in storage at Davis-Monthan AFB were scrapped in 1965, although four ended in civilian hands, mostly owned by Aeronaves de Panama (holding company for "Air Systems"). The National Museum of the United States Air Force scrapped the last vestige of Air Force Globemasters when they relegated the YC-124C, 48-795 (the prototype of the Globemaster II which had been converted from C-74, 42-65406) to fire-fighting training in 1969. 42-65404 was sold on the civilian market as N3182G. Later operated by Aeronaves de Panama as HP-385 in Europe and the Middle East crashing near Marseilles on 9 October 1963, with six on board killed. After the crash, Aeronaves de Panamas licence to operate from Denmark was withdrawn, and the airline went out of business. A layman's account of travel on aircraft 42-65404, christened 'Heracles' by its owners, in the months before its fatal crash is offered by veterinarian/author James Herriot who was on board the aircraft. In monitoring the health of a cargo of 40 pedigree Jersey cattle cows and heifers from Gatwick/London to Istanbul on 8–9 August 1963, he noted its bald tires, worn instruments, jammed loading hoist and undercarriage which did not properly retract. The starboard inboard engine caught fire en route to Istanbul, and the crippled aircraft barely cleared