As a result of the turf war over roles and missions between the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force, the Caribou aircraft, the De Havilland Canada C-7A, ended up in the U.S. Air Force inventory. In October 1968 the 7406th learned that a C-7A aircraft would be transferred to the squadron. In this case the 7406th Squadron would operate and maintain the aircraft, and the back-enders would be U.S. Army Security Service personnel.

The Army enlisted personnel stayed in the 7406th barracks and readily adapted to Air Force culture. The Army officers took a bit longer. In March 1969 the nucleus of a C-7A Caribou contingent, “CREEK MOOSE”, was formed. This operation was organized as an additional squadron flight, consisting of pilots & flight engineers, and was designated flight “D”. The flight “D” commander was Major William I. Lewis.

The C-7A Caribou was aircraft 61-2600. The aircraft was called “Boo-Boo”. At first the aircraft was not acceptable. Some maintenance practices were questionable and inspections were past due. The aircraft was ferried to Sandhofen where a complete technical inspection was accomplished. When the aircraft was acceptable the Army demanded a receipt. They were issued a standard Air Force laundry receipt. The Army accepted it. The aircraft was accepted by the Air Force at Heidelberg, Germany. The aircraft was scheduled for IRAN in January 1969 but additional ferry tanks had to be installed for the flight to the CONUS. Operational missions started in Jan 1970 and were approximately 3 hours long. After 4 months the missions were changed so that a refueling stop could be made; this resulted in twice the flying time per mission. In June 1970 the 30th Transportation Company (Army), at Fliegerhorst Airfield, Germany, was visited to obtain assistance in support of the C-7A. On 31 July 1970 the C-7A era ended with transfer of the aircraft to TAC and return to the ZI in May 1971.