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Sewart C-130 troop drop incident at Ft. Bragg


Spectre623
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  • 2 weeks later...

I crew-chiefed a B model 61-0950 as a spare on that exercise. There were no aborts so we were the last to leave Eglin and flew low level to Pope. As we taxied to parking area we passed one of our birds parked by itself with 3 or 4 armed APs guarding it. I could see a bent prop, dents in the skin above the cockpit, dent in the leading edge of one of the wings, black streaks along the top area of the fuselage and dents in the tail fin. We speculated something bad had happened.

Found out later that the pilot had \"popped up late\" from low level and flew through troops on the silk that had jumped ahead of him. 3 or 4 were killed. Last name of Crew chief on that bird was Middleton.

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Pre-66 the Tac-Trained Killers were probably flying fingertip vics in trail at 1000\' or so, right?

I believe the Pope accident was one of the contributing factors to the move towards in-trail formation we do today. That and strat SAMs like SA2/SA3 with very large warheads, low-level tactics, etc. But the POB accident was the \"nail in the coffin\" that pushed the change if I have my history right...

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There was another incident at Pope that caused the loss of a Herk. It was in 1970 RTU night drop and a fighter doing a simulated straffing low level pass on the drop zone pulled up right under the Herk. Instant crash. I do not remember the crew exept for the FE a class mate of mine at Sewart SSgt Billy Warr.

Muff

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