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Clark AB Navigator William Simon III


moosemodeler
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Didn't know him but I was stationed at Clark as a C-130 crew chief in 1969-70's and know the routine of the flight crews as the crew chief went with his aircraft. Standard rotation of the 40 some odd C-130's and crews were as follows: Bag drag to aircraft and take off around 0600 hrs. Stopped at Subic Bay Navel base P.I. and onload pax and cargo. Flew into Vietnam and stopped at several bases to off load pax and cargo. Flew on to Cam Ranh Bay AB which was the home base while in Vietnam. Crew debriefed and went into crew rest. Crew chief inspected acft. ( BPO/Preflight). Refuel and reconfigure acft., climb up on crew bunk and sleep till 0400 when new air crew arrives. Officers file flight plan FE pulls -1 preflight with crew chief. Loadmaster waits for cargo and waits and waits. Cargo is loaded and officers arrive. Engine start and aircraft backs out of revetment. Crew chief gets sand blasted marshalling aircraft out. Sometims crew chief goes with aircraft but most times not. Crew chief and asst. split up for rest/ work schedule. Airctaft returns around 1700 hrs. Crew boards crew van goes to maint. debrief then to squadron operations debriefs then into crew rest. This routine was for a standard 15-21 day rotation to Vietnam. Some maint. support troops  had a 55 day rotation to CRB also. There would be trips to other countries and some R&R but the main function of the C-130's and air crew/ maint. crews was in support of Vietnam. Normal tour of duty to Clark was 18 months but was shortened to 15 months in 1970. 24 months if you took your family to Clark. This gives you a thumbnail shot of life as an aircrew at Clark.

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Don, I can't remember what CRS is.....ha ha. Saw your bio where you were on C-141's. We are about finished restoring 0186 the first 141 to be streached. It's at the museum just out the back gate at Dobbins air base. Go to C-141heaven on the web and check it out. Bill

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Thanks, Bill.  I'll have to check it out.  I visited that museum many, many years ago -- back in the early 1990's.  I remember looking inside the C-141 that was there at the time -- it still had all the 780 equipment in it.  The Credible Sport C-130 was there, too.

Don R.

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