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Ever seen a "Blind Bat"?


KJam
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When I did a tour at Ubon in 1968 as a flare-kicker on a Bat Crew for 90 days, I remember going out to the plane to pre-flight the dual rails and as soon as I got to a plane that had ECM on it, I knew right away as there was an AP watching the plane and the Nav's table had a canvas looking cover on it! Only a few of the planes I flew on had ECM, but when it did, we usually went on a different type of mission/area. If I remember right, one of the hairiest areas was "Barrel-Roll"! I know that was an area that we didn't plan to bail out into!

The E&E (escape and evasion) briefing was usually short!!!

By the way, I was only a volunteer flare-kicker, and when I got back to Naha after that tour I went back to the flight-line and acft. 56-0475!!! Cam Rahn Bay wasn't nearly as exciting as Ubon by the way.

Ken

PS I posted a crew pic of my crew at Ubon, and am still wondering if any of you guys knew any of us!!!!---Especially Chris Carter. He volunteered also!!! The crew pic is in the Blind Bat forum!!! My avatar is a pic of me taken at Ubon beside a black-bellied plane.

Edited by Mt.crewchief
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I found this post this morning while trying to find info on 56-0512.

The link is as follows: http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/lofiversion/index.php?t122246.html

Not sure how reliable the information is, but there appears to be a list of various tail numbers of "Blind Bat" aircraft.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some photos for people who want to make a black bottom one that's not a gunship.

Blind Bat was the project name for 347 TAw C-130As that carried out flare missions over Viet Nam and the Ho Chi Mihn Trail. They were involved in restricting movement of supplies to SVN.

For a good view of the program. Look at Sam's C-130 page. It is difficult to read but very illuminating. Hats off to all of those brave men.

Some were modified with similar electronics as the early AC-130As, with RHAW antennas on the nose, rear fuselage and tail. There was also a belly radome and a large blade antenna in front of and to the right of that radome. There was also what appears to be an channel strips to smooth the air flow under the open cargo ramp. It was attached to the bump on the lower ramp door. Tail codes and acft sns were red.

Some Blind Bats had whte tail codes and early aircraft had just the undersurface white replaced with black. Later aircraft had the black extend further up the fuselage.

These are some tail numbers that I have collected. The list is not definitive, nor do I have photos of all of them. I would write down the tail number of Blind Bats that I saw, whether in some one's photo collection or in a magazine article. Unfortunately, I neglected to list where I saw them. Sorry. So errors most certainly have creeped in.

YD 21 TAS Tail code and sn color

55-0005 red

55-0007 red

55-0023 white

55-0046 red

56-0483 red

55-0005 red

56-0508 red

56-0517 white

56-0533 no code?

YJ 35 TAS

55-0044 white

55-0048 red

56-0471?

57-0469 white

YU 41 TAS

56-0471 red

56-0495 white

56-0500 white

56-0512 red

YP 817 TAS

55-0006? ?

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Sparkchaser here -was at Naha Sept 68 until June 70 got stuck TSN and extended was electrician remember a c/c from my hometown flew Blind bat E. Hubrick still lives there. I just retired Pope 440th wing was Avionics branch chief. Okinawa was my first PCS- the irony of doing 90 days in CRB / TSN then flying back to Naha completely different world!! were not the Blind Bat planes named such as Batmobile /Sapphire/ Azreal?? Cap

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I found this post this morning while trying to find info on 56-0512.

The link is as follows: http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/lofiversion/index.php?t122246.html

Not sure how reliable the information is, but there appears to be a list of various tail numbers of "Blind Bat" aircraft.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some photos for people who want to make a black bottom one that's not a gunship.

Blind Bat was the project name for 347 TAw C-130As that carried out flare missions over Viet Nam and the Ho Chi Mihn Trail. They were involved in restricting movement of supplies to SVN.

For a good view of the program. Look at Sam's C-130 page. It is difficult to read but very illuminating. Hats off to all of those brave men.

Some were modified with similar electronics as the early AC-130As, with RHAW antennas on the nose, rear fuselage and tail. There was also a belly radome and a large blade antenna in front of and to the right of that radome. There was also what appears to be an channel strips to smooth the air flow under the open cargo ramp. It was attached to the bump on the lower ramp door. Tail codes and acft sns were red.

Some Blind Bats had whte tail codes and early aircraft had just the undersurface white replaced with black. Later aircraft had the black extend further up the fuselage.

These are some tail numbers that I have collected. The list is not definitive, nor do I have photos of all of them. I would write down the tail number of Blind Bats that I saw, whether in some one's photo collection or in a magazine article. Unfortunately, I neglected to list where I saw them. Sorry. So errors most certainly have creeped in.

YD 21 TAS Tail code and sn color

55-0005 red

55-0007 red

55-0023 white

55-0046 red

56-0483 red

55-0005 red

56-0508 red

56-0517 white

56-0533 no code?

YJ 35 TAS

55-0044 white

55-0048 red

56-0471?

57-0469 white

YU 41 TAS

56-0471 red

56-0495 white

56-0500 white

56-0512 red

YP 817 TAS

55-0006? ?

56-0533 had white tail numbers and had ECM installed in January 1968. I was the C/C from late '67 until October '68.

Edited by Sonny
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Thanks Ray. Great picture. I know some changes took place after I left in '68. They must have painted the tail codes differently because all the tail codes were white when I was there and each squadron only had two Blindbat birds. I understand they consolidated all the Blindbat birds into the 21st after I left.

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Thanks Ray. Great picture. I know some changes took place after I left in '68. They must have painted the tail codes differently because all the tail codes were white when I was there and each squadron only had two Blindbat birds. I understand they consolidated all the Blindbat birds into the 21st after I left.

Sonny, If I remember right, when I left Naha in Mar. 69, all of the tail codes were still white and just the bottoms were black! Later on when I went to Ubon from CCK, I noticed the Blind Bat birds were painted like the gunships with red where white used to be.

Ken

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Sometime in 69 under 374th, OMS had four section A,B,C,and D. A section was E Flight

and Blind Bat at that time we had 6 black bird's and 6 silver bird's. Blind Bat end Dec 1970. I was in 21 TAS, 41 TAS and then 374th OMS. Three years on Naha, with many TDY (great time). Jan 71 order's to CCK, Chg's Mar 1971 going to Griffiss AFB. And the story goes on.

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  • 7 months later...

I was in 21st TAS E Flight on the silver birds when I was back to Naha from my TDY's from Ubon (Blind Bats), Cam Rahn, & Tan Son Nhut. My Criew Chiefs were SSgt Dintlemen, and Mike Mourbacher. They used to chum around with SSgt (Pussy) Peffier. My profile picture shown was taken at Cam Rahn Bay outside the hootch on "Herky Hill"

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  • 1 month later...

Go to my site http://www.sammcgowan.com/flareships.html and you'll see a photo of the flareships at Ubon that I took in the spring of 1966. Note that they are standard SEA camouflage with gray bellies (although one or two may have had black.) The camouflage had just started a few months before around December and we still had airplanes at Naha that were silver. The tail codes first appeared in July 1967. Prior to that markings were subdued with tiny tail numbers on the tail and minature USAF insignia. I've got some photos on some of my sites showing airplanes that I took in the summer of 1967 just before I left Naha and they don't have tail codes. It was sometime in 1968 after I left that they started assigning particular airplanes to the mission after they were modified with ECM. By that time the mission was on the way out as the AC-130s were coming in. It shut down completely in June 1970. Prior to 1968 any airplane on the flight line that they could get to fly was eligible to go to Ubon for the flare mission.

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