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The Good \"Old\" Days


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Just thinking back to my first real experience with Herkys. I think it was in December of 1970. Some of us from the Aerial Delivery section at Travis went on a mobility to Ft. Greeley, AK. It was a joint operation between the Air Force, U.S. Army and the Canadian Forces. They moved the Army guys out of the huts and into tents to make room for us spoiled air force guys. At one point, the wind chill was 116F BELOW zero.

Ft. Greeley\'s ramp could only hold about 2 large aircraft and we were trying to run an operation with Canadian 130\'s and our 141\'s. One time one of our 130 crews asked to have something unloaded from their a/c. I went out there with one of those large, diesel, adverse terrain forklifts and started to unload. I asked if they wanted the milkstool under the ramp and they said it wasn\'t necessary. The offload only weighed about 200 lbs. This Herky still had the skatewheel rollers on it and the piece was sitting on the rollers. While I was trying to get under it, I was moving the blades down and this forklift would exert pressure down, also, unlike with most forklifts. All of a sudden, the loadmaster yelled at me to stop because the nose was rising into the air. I\'m still not sure if that was possible but he was certainly panicking.

One other note on the Canadian Herkys.........they certainly were clean and spotless. They looked like they just rolled out of the factory. I\'m sure they never got the use that ours did.

Anyway, anyone on here old enough to remember any of this besides me?

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Well i am now were near that old, i was born in \'71. However i have worked with the CAF C-130\'s and they have been worked hard since then. We (RAAF) worked with them during East Timor operations in \'99 and they were starting to get near 40,000 hours at that stage on memory. They were reliable but i do recall some of the tech\'s saying they were having structural and wiring issues due to age and useage.

One aircraft did have a wing problem during the deployment, i think they got permission to do a one off flight to RAAF Richmond for a repair from RAAF Darwin.

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;) Gee guys, I really hate to let the air out of your baloon, but; the \"good \'ol days\" were a long time ago in a land far, far,away... Once upon a time there was an air base called, fondly, CCK, from that A.B. teenage crew chiefs and very young flight crews flew the s--t of of nice brand new E model C-130 airplanes. We did, in fact,in 1965-1967 set the standards that crews to this day are trying to match. Soooo, if your Herky Pig is old and worn please remember that she earned every ding, scratch, and dent. Not to mention all the (literal) blood, sweat, and tears that were shed in the old girl. Respectfully submitted...Chris

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ah yea...the good old days...runnin down to \"Bar Twan\", the Half Dozen, and of course the Dirty Dozen....all that per diem we got for going \"In-Country\"...flyin the \"Klong\"...having to crewrest at Bangkok...water skiing the gulf of Siam...Utapao beach...out door movies...ridin the suicide seat on the bus to town...don\'t know how I ever survived.

HEHEHEHEHE

B)

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:woohoo: OK! How about this? Were talking about \"The Good Old Days\".

Lets see just who is the oldest one on this list.

I\'ll start it off with the ripe old age of 67 soon to be 68 next month.

I went in to the Air Force in Nov 1956 and was issued one peice fatiques.

Any one beat that or the age?

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One better. I am 73 and went in to the AF in 51. Was in Air Freight in Newfoundland. We were still tying down cargo with ropes, cables and chains. Went to Sewart in 53 and was a dromaster/loadmaster on C-119, YC 122 and C-123s. Went to EDF in 57 on 123s nd 54s. Went to MATS at Donldson/Hunter on Old Shakeys. n 66 got out for a few months and went back in atDyess. my last 6 years was on C-130 B and e.

Jim Farrar

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Your so right, I did not start feeling old till I visited aircraft that I had flown and they were static displays. I engineered the last P-3A (152152) to NAS P\'Cola for the Navy Museum.

Still engineering C-130A\'s until recently.

Anyone else engineer on KC-97\'s?

Best regards,

Greg

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Whiskeyglenn wrote:

By way Graywolf, we have 2 of the 776th\'s more infamous characters

around here, Arne & The Preacher.

Thought they had retired and were living on an island in Sun-Moon Lake!!

Visited the museum in Pensacola last year ........... very nice. It takes a full day just to walk through it all.

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Started in the air force in 1954. I will be 72 in Nov. Was a Crew chief in the 815th and 817th in 60-62. The a FM in 66 At Pope The to ARRS in Nam in 69 Then Hamilton 70 to 72 Final tour Clark AFB. Gene Brinkman

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Taiwan beer Peeju sells in 12 oz cans now and cost about 75 cents US per can....In Mainland China their beer is also in 12 oz cans and cost about 30 cents each.

Man I did a bunch of those old leiter bottles of Peeju.

Can you imagine all those bag drags to all those sunny sopts all over SEA and they paid us for that duty. Wow sure miss all the good old days but mostly all the great friendships we all shared. Anyone up for a black jack game in the barricks at TSN?

Muff

PS: I moved here to Smyrna Georgia this past June and I get to see and best of all hear the mighty Herk flying in the neighborhood out of Dobbins ARB love it.:)

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Guest cobra935o

Maybe we need to start some kind of C-130 retirement home over here!! Just kidding, good to hear all the old stories, and such. I have been to most of the places people talk about, just from the 90\'s onward though. :laugh:

Nathan

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