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BRlang

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Everything posted by BRlang

  1. I wish I had a nickel for every time I said this
  2. This worked for me a few times...Have A/C hold brakes..throttle up a bit. Load unlocks the pallets. Release brakes and it all ends up on the ground and off you go..We didn't need no stinking loader
  3. I have had a hearing appeal filed since December of 2014. Back in the spring I got a letter inviting me to move my appeal out of the black hole to the RAMP program. With some hesitation I returned the form and moved into RAMP. It did speed some things up. On August 6th I got a notification that I was being reviewed. They sent me to a civilian Audiologist for a second opinion. Something told me to grab a few documents. I took my entry flight physical test with perfect 19 year old hearing and my last flight physical right before I got out. The last hearing test showed a large drop in my hearing. I also brought information of an explosion on board that killed 3 Cambodians and blew me off the ramp. I think that is when the ringing started. I had included all these documents with my original claim. They sent him a file but none of this was included. After doing my hearing test and seeing the stuff I brought he said I can't believe they made you appeal. Well in late January a bunch of money showed up in my bank account and I got a letter awarding me 10%. Had I left my file at home I am not sure I would have won......But the RAMP program did get my appeal back in the works. Had I not made the move it could have bee a few more years before it could be reviewed. The RAMP program was part of the VA overhaul. They can actually fire people for screwing up or poor performance..
  4. I once tried to pee off the ramp after a leaflet drop over Laos....It's cold as hell back there.. No parka or coat just a Nomex fit suit...
  5. When I arrived at CCK us newbies were not allowed to go to the dirty dozen strip without an "instructor". Had to make sure you knew the ropes
  6. While there was only 5 of us on the crew it took thousands to get is in and keep us in the air. I want to thank all the Crew Chiefs that made sure we had a good airplane each day. They stayed as log as it took to get the airplane back in the "Green". Thanks to all the MX guys that fixed the planes we "broke". The fuelers that topped us off. The list goes on forever. For ever one of us that had wings there was 50,000 to support us. I especially want to thank the great Pilots that brought me home every night. I was 19 and thought these guys were old men..Most were in their late 20s. Happy veterans day to all of you.
  7. Thanks, don't have appeal won yet but at least I got to someone that would look at all my stuff. He said the VA sent him my file to review but they did not include my Flight Physicals or info on the explosion... I guess they just overlooked the three most valuable pieces of my evidence. Don't know if they overlooked this stuff or didn't want a civilian Doctor to see it. Something told me to grab that file on the way to see him...
  8. I'm not sure where this post belongs as the VA claims threads are no longer on the site. Until a few months ago the word RAMP was where we parked the airplane or what I lowered to load rolling stock. I never parked on a Tarmac and never used that word until I heard it on CNN. At FedEx it was still a Ramp. I have had a hearing claim in the Black Hole since late 2014. No one could give me any information as to the progress or when I might get a decision. It was in the appeals process. In the Spring I got a letter from the VA inviting me to move my appeal out of the "legacy" appeals process and into the new RAMP (Rapid Appeals Modernization Process) system. My first thought was if it is good for them it must be bad for me. They claim in this process you could get an answer in less than 6 months. After some investigation and some deep thought, I "Opted in" as they say. They sent me a letter that they had "closed" my appeal on the legacy program and re-entered it into the RAMP program. My first thought was back in the black hole. I did this on June 8th. To my surprise I got a call to schedule a hearing test with a Civillian Audiologist less than 4 weeks after I moved into the new program. I did the test and shared my entry Flight Physical hearing results and my last physical results with the Doctor. I also shared an aircraft explosion that blew into the cargo compartment. He shook his head and told me that this should never have gone to appeal and the VA shoulder have approved it on the first filling. In the first filing the VA doctor did not discuss any of my noise exposure and was not interested in anything but testing my ears. The civilian doctor said his report would state that " Military Combat Noise Exposure was more likely than not" to have caused my decline in hearing and the ringing. That is a legal term used by the VA. They also have a new website where you can actually track the claims in real time with a committed completion date. This was all part of the law that Trump signed last year to start fixing the VA. This was a long winded way to say that the VA actual came up with a better way to track and complete claims. If you get offered the opportunity to enter an appeal in the "RAMP" program I suggest you do it.
  9. That is an amazing story. I got out of SEA in late 1971. It was pretty calm at that time. Mostly flying MAX PAX and general runs. Very few dirt strips in our missions. I thought we had the war won. Actually we did until politics made us quit. Not long after I got back to LRAFB maybe early spring, I was asked to Crew a ferry flight back to CCK to deliver a plane from the 62nd. They need aircraft. I guess many were getting shot up then. Right after we got back from CCK they asked for volunteers to come back 90 day TDY to take a bunch of planes back and fly the line for a couple of months. It took me less than a second to say no. I knew why they needed planes and crews and I wanted no part of it. I was short, only 6 months to go...I am still amazed that He kept this plane from cart wheeling and killing everybody. He was 28 years old. Most of my Acs were under 30. I saw them as old men as I was 20. I hope he gets the CMH as we never got one in the C-130 groups.
  10. That plane appears to be out of CG. Looks like the tail skid struck the runway. That could be the result of a load shift aft. Out of CG nose heavy is recoverable. Tail heavy is not usually recoverable. Looks like it rotated on its on and you cans see them struggle to make it fly. Nose heavy is recoverable to a certain point as long as you have a few thousand feet in front of you. I know as I loaded a 12% MAC right after I got checked out in Viet Nam. Dumbest thing I did in all my flights. Luckly we had another 2,000 feet in front of us. At rotate speed the nose wouldn't come up... I had a great pilot, Maj Cherry, he added speed to the approach and landed with no issues. There is no place to hide in a C130. Loaded three pallets (30,000lbs) of 175 rounds. Locked in the first pallet 2 locks too far forward and the next two right behind it.
  11. I got a call from Ken Rice. He was in the freight side of 2nd Aerial Port at Sewart. many of us Loadmasters did time in Aerial Port before PCS to SEA to fly the line. I was in 2APS before I went to CCK to the 345th. I returned to 2APS at LRAFB after CCK. Other than rigging loads they kept us Aerial Port Loadmaster so we could do the 10 Hr over water missions or 5 hours of touch and goes. 2 Aerial Port is having a reunion in Smyrna TN on Sept 14th-16th. If you know any old Aerial Port folks pass it along. Contact Ken Rice for information. Cel 563-343-5985.
  12. I didn't have the documentation but did get it from Records Center in STL. My point is that it is up to you to use the documentation and present it with explanations that make it convincible to the reviewer why you were in Viet Nam and what you did while there. Some people send in the documents with no narrative as to what they show and mean. It appears that sometime they look harder for reasons to deny you than to give you an approval. I am still amazed that the VA approved my Agent Orange claims and my disability without any thing from the Airforce. It was nice to get the letter from Randolph but the VA didn't even see it.
  13. Thanks, I was trying to identify the unit that moved a buddy of mine off Duong Dong after they shut down the radar post there. I couldn't get the tail number. Heck, Sonny it might have been your bird. Here is one of our CCK birds landed long and stuck in the sand
  14. Can anyone recall which Squadron in SEA had YJ above the tail number
  15. On Christmas Night in 1968 there was a night C-130 Medi Vac of Villagers in Duong Dong. Many killed and more severely wounded by Friendly Fire. I have a Vet friend that set the smudge pots for the night landing. He is writing a book about the events. They had been hit that afternoon by a VC attack. They fought it off by small arms fire and mortar rounds at the white smoke that the FAC plane had sent in. The VC had set up in the edge of the village with rockets and artillery. They fought off the attack and the VC retreated however it left many South Vietnamese severely wounded. The commander called for a C-130 to land Christmas night to evacuate the wounded to SGN. When the C130 approached the Island they lit the smudge pots. The only time a C-130 went in there at Night. They set up a perimeter around the plane and fired into the fields around the runway. Do any of you recall a mission like this. The crew that flew this will never forget it I am sure. We would love to hear from the crew if anybody recalls this mission.
  16. I was the loadmaster on George Elwoods crew when we set the Viet Nam C-130 altitude record. Right at 36,000'...We left some little field by the DMZ empty and no stops to TSN. WE had been hauling rolling stock and chains and devices were scattered all over the cargo compartment. I was stowing the stuff as we climbed through 30,000'...I got really light headed policing up the area. Once finished I went to the flight deck. we were still climbing stair stepping a couple hundred feet and then level then up some more. I looked at the cabin pressure and we were holding 8,000 feet of pressure. That explained my light headedness while working. DangI miss that stuff. It was lots of fun "most of the time".
  17. I forgot about one other use of the O2 system. In the unlikely event that you spend most of your 12 hours off self medicating at the NCO BBQ at TSN it did wonders for your hang over. Not saying that I have personal experience but "have heard others say that".
  18. This is pretty typical of the AP...They assumed since it carried LOX then it must not not be pressurized. All C-130s were pressurized that I flew and had a LOX system. The O2 system served two purposes. Smoke and fumes in the cabin or a HALO drop over 10,000 feet. My not so favorite mission was dropping leaflets at 22,000 on O2 and humping 60 lb boxes.
  19. If there was no electric wench on board you could use this kit by running a cable out the crew door and attached to a vehicle and use the block and pulls to attach to the floor. The end of the cable in the aircraft is attached to the load being winched aboard. the vehicle drives forward and pulls the load on board. The pullys only re direct the pull of the cable. I am pulling this from my Loadmaster C-130 school At Pope.... Thats been a few years ago but I think I'm close. All my aircraft had electric winches. I never had to winch a load..
  20. Bob was born 10/18/1946 and passed on 12/25/2017. That would make him little over 71 years of age.
  21. I'm guessing that Bob was around 71 based on his high school graduation date. Does anyone know what unit he flew with in SEA. I enjoyed his post on this board. RIP Bob. You are cleared to land in Heaven "check wheels down".
  22. I was at CCK when the crash occurred. The loadmaster, Frank Wilson was a buddy and ran with our group. The plane hit a mountain in a remote area leaving TPE. I doubt you can get to the site. It was on a mountain side. Any one of us could have been on that crew but were not. We all had one thing in common. We loved to fly and would go anywhere at any time. All of us crew members were Brothers. Good luck to you in finding the location.
  23. Nope, not basic training. Had 49 close friends an arms length away. Not Sewart, drove back to Tupelo with family.......Christmas Day 1970....I had rotated back From TSN to CCK a week earlier. Just before leaving The Merlin hotel all of my best friends had checked in over a few day period. Me and the engineer packed up and checked out and rotated back to CCK. Got back to an almost empty barracks. They rest of my posse was in BKK. After a couple of days I called the scheduler and begged for a shuttle back to TSN. Everybody but me was in Saigon seeing the CBC band then back to the roof top of the Merlin to party some more. No crews going in country fro a couple of days. He said enjoy a few extra days of crew rest. Christmas eve alone in the barracks. Christmas Day a dude that I barely knew said he was walking to the Chapel to see the USO program. A Korean girl band singing Christmas carols. The USO really could do better. Went to the service club and got a ham and cheese sandwich for Christmas dinner. Went to my room and an empty barracks.....Oh, thanks to the Dude that asked me to walk up the hill to see the show. Merry Christmas
  24. Thats pretty good but we flew 10 hour over waters all the time from Sewart and Lrafb...Never knew objective of this training... From a loadmaster's point of view pretty boring....If you were lucky they would practice some stalls just to make time go by.....After 15 months at CCK why am I in this plane with a 1st Lt. trying to put it into a spin..The 62nd gave all these "good" missions to us Aerial Port Loadmasters...
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