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Mt.crewchief
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I am amazed at how much you guys can come up with in regards to C-130 missions! Is there a way to find out specific dates of missions in Viet Nam? For example, on Jan. 1st. 1968, I was flying on my acft. 56-475, and we were shot up at Katum! I was flying as assistant crew-chief, just for the hell of it--for excitement!!! We usually didn\'t go in-country from Cam Rahn Bay with our acft.

Any way, we made it out after plugging bullet holes in the wings(with fuel running down our armpits) etc. and after transferring fuel with the GTC blowing in the spilled fuel!

I am curious if that mission was ever recorded and if so, could the paper-work be recovered.

I am pretty sure the flight-crew got medals for that mission, but us crew-chiefs didn\'t know anything about how to go about getting any recognition! (As in awards and decorations)!!!

It\'s no big deal, but I am just curious!

The other crew-chief with me was Sgt. Lafferty. The main crew-chief was

Sgt. Willard. We were in the 35th TAS at Naha, and I was there from 1967 to to 1969!!!

We had thirteen bullet holes altogether!

Thanks for any info you may have,

Ken

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I can\'t help you with your January \'68 incident on 56-0475 at Katum because that was before my time there. I can, however, show you the demise of a sister to your aircraft. 56-0472 burned on our runway in May 1969.

Note: I put up the Red Cross flag on my bunker just as an \"Eff You\" aiming stake for the bad guys to shoot at!

Photo URLs follow:

http://www.sflistteamhouse.com/scrapbook/RManning/mem/56-0472.html

http://www.sflistteamhouse.com/scrapbook/RManning/mem/regpic12.html

http://www.sflistteamhouse.com/scrapbook/RManning/mem/regpic13.html

http://www.sflistteamhouse.com/scrapbook/RManning/mem/regpic14.html

http://www.sflistteamhouse.com/scrapbook/RManning/mem/regpic15.html

And another 130 \"gettin\' outta town!\"

http://www.sflistteamhouse.com/scrapbook/RManning/mem/regpic16.html

Reg Manning

A-322 at ka-BOOM, February - December 1969

Owner / Operator of the Katum OB/GYN/ & Clap Clinic

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A flight such as that would have been written up in the 315th Air Division mission record which was kept by the navigator. Those kinds of records should be at the Air University at Maxwell.

Awards and Decs at Naha were taken care of by sections. I was one of the three loadmaster awards and decs guys in the 35th. We would go through the Form 5s and put people in for Air Medals. Since the repairs you guys made were on the ground, it should have gotten either an Air Force Commendation or a Bronze Star. There should have been someone in maintenance responsible for awards and decs. Your right about crew chiefs normally not flying on missions out of Cam Ranh. The only time I remember any of the guys flying with us was on the night cargo flights to Qui Nhon.

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Thanks for the quick replies. Bob, I do have some pics of 475, but will have to scan some of them, and copy from slides the others. Some of the pics are of the bullet holes taken on the top of the wing. One of the bullets went into the left life-raft, and we had to replace the raft and found the bullet in the survival gear in the package! One of the bullets went through the floor and into my tool-box which was secured to the 245 bulkhead. My crew-chief Willard kept all of the recovered bullets and wouldn\'t give Lafferty or me any of them!!! I\'m still pissed about that!

We plugged the hole in the fuel tank with some little wooden dowell looking things and some tank sealant we we accidentally took from Fuel Cell!

I was \"third wiper on the crew, and three of us went on the CRB Input, and it was my first time in-country and I was gung-ho as hell! The time I was flying that day was my time off! Needless to say, Willard made me work the next day! Didn\'t see the fart-sack for several days, but the experience was worth it!!!

I think that was before Herky Hill was built, and we stayed in transit barracks on the main base! After that, all of my next inputs from Naha, and CCK I stayed on Herky Hill!

About the awards and decorations, I found out later that we could have put in for medals or whatever when I flew Blind Bat! I got an Air Medal with an Oak Leaf Cluster for that!!!

I would suppose that it is too late to see if I am qualified for any awards, but it was nice to hear that I could have been!

The only thing I regret about my Air Force tour, is that I didn\'t make a career of it!!!

Ken

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  • 1 year later...

I am amazed at how much you guys can come up with in regards to C-130 missions! Is there a way to find out specific dates of missions in Viet Nam? For example, on Jan. 1st. 1968, I was flying on my acft. 56-475, and we were shot up at Katum! I was flying as assistant crew-chief, just for the hell of it--for excitement!!! We usually didn\'t go in-country from Cam Rahn Bay with our acft.

Any way, we made it out after plugging bullet holes in the wings(with fuel running down our armpits) etc. and after transferring fuel with the GTC blowing in the spilled fuel!

I am curious if that mission was ever recorded and if so, could the paper-work be recovered.

I am pretty sure the flight-crew got medals for that mission, but us crew-chiefs didn\'t know anything about how to go about getting any recognition! (As in awards and decorations)!!!

It\'s no big deal, but I am just curious!

The other crew-chief with me was Sgt. Lafferty. The main crew-chief was

Sgt. Willard. We were in the 35th TAS at Naha, and I was there from 1967 to to 1969!!!

We had thirteen bullet holes altogether!

Thanks for any info you may have,

Ken

Every year or so about this time of year, I get to thinking about the mission I went on described above! I figure after about a thousand new members since the date I first posted it, maybe somebody would recall this even happening!! I did go the the Maxwell website and got quite a bit of help but finally gave up when the researcher said there were no missions on record to Katum that day involving 56-475!

I do remember a couple of the flight crew members taking pics of the fuel plugging etc. but of course didn't know any of their names!

It was my first flight in-country and man I was excited!!!

Thanks in advance for your help ,

Ken

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Rick, that american war library vet site is a bad place to go. It is a one man operation operated out of a basement in Calif. Once you get on that site and provide all your military inf it will take you about 2-3 months to get it out of your computer....it is actually a site to gather info and then bomb you with advertisements to buy stuff...

The best way to gather info about your awards and decorations is to submit a SF 180 to St louis and request a new DD form 214...that is the ONLY document with official info on your military service.

Muff

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The best way to gather info about your awards and decorations is to submit a SF 180 to St louis and request a new DD form 214...that is the ONLY document with official info on your military service.

Muff

The Navy has a site you can goto to see all Unit awards given out. I'm sure the Air Force has one too. You'd be surprised to see the odds are you are missing some unit awards NOT on your 214. I went through the Navy site prior to retiring. I found 6 unit awards I had be awarded, but didn't know it till went through the site. (Most were the command was awarded an award, after I had left the command, but the award covered a time frame in which I was in the command.)

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Thanks for the replies guys, but I am not concerned as much about the awards etc. I would just like to reminisce a little about what happened that day! I always had my camera with me but on that day I didn't want to look like a tourist(jeep) so I left it behind!

I am always hoping that somebody on this forum would remember that happening or know somebody that does! I saw a lot of very interesting things that day before we were shot up at Katum. That was our second flight into Katum that day! If I remember right we were offloading on the move 105 rounds that day! One other place, we just pushed them out the back while taxiing and the wooden crates they were in were breaking up all over the ground and the poor guys on the ground were trying to catch them to load them up to take them away! Lafferty and I and the Loadmaster were just pushing the pallets out the back with the ramp partially down! I also watched a U-2 take off from Bien Hoa that day! Of course I didn't have my camera for that either! I think it was Bien Hoa!!! Another high point I saw Gen. Westmoreland out on the flightline with a bunch of Vietnamese troops. They were all dressed in their tiger-striped camo!!! Still no camera!! That was at Nha Trang.

Dan, the flight crew was all older than me I think, except for the loadmaster! Hell, I'm only 63--almost 64 yrs. old!! Still a young pup!!!

Another place we went that day was Phan Thiet..

I'm reasonably sure I am not dreaming up this mission!!!

Anyway, someday, somebody will remember this day!!!

Thanks,

Ken

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Dan, the flight crew was all older than me I think, except for the loadmaster! Hell, I'm only 63--almost 64 yrs. old!! Still a young pup!!!
I was thinking more of an aircraft loss in country, but if they eat, drink and smoke like I do, then their done for:rolleyes:

Dan

Edited by Dan Wilson
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  • 1 year later...

I am amazed at how much you guys can come up with in regards to C-130 missions! Is there a way to find out specific dates of missions in Viet Nam? For example, on Jan. 1st. 1968, I was flying on my acft. 56-475, and we were shot up at Katum! I was flying as assistant crew-chief, just for the hell of it--for excitement!!! We usually didn\'t go in-country from Cam Rahn Bay with our acft.

Any way, we made it out after plugging bullet holes in the wings(with fuel running down our armpits) etc. and after transferring fuel with the GTC blowing in the spilled fuel!

I am curious if that mission was ever recorded and if so, could the paper-work be recovered.

I am pretty sure the flight-crew got medals for that mission, but us crew-chiefs didn\'t know anything about how to go about getting any recognition! (As in awards and decorations)!!!

It\'s no big deal, but I am just curious!

The other crew-chief with me was Sgt. Lafferty. The main crew-chief was

Sgt. Willard. We were in the 35th TAS at Naha, and I was there from 1967 to to 1969!!!

We had thirteen bullet holes altogether!

Thanks for any info you may have,

Ken

Another year has gone by since I posted this and we now have over 3500 members on the forum! Since that post, I have found that Maxwell has no records of that day on 56-475 at Katum. The guy at Maxwell was very helpful, but couldn't come up with anything.

I do notice there is getting to be quite a few guys on here that were stationed at Naha when this happened.

Does this incident jog any memories??

Thanks for your help,

Ken Carlson

35th TAS, 374th TAW Naha AB Sept. 67 to Mar. 69

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Ken,

A possible way of finding out if anyone was recognized that day would be to find out who the AC was. He, under his Commanders signature would have most likely(but not always) put all officers aboard in for recognition. Officers tend to take care of their own. Not selfishly, it's just the nature of the beast. I will say, based on experiences with the DAV, had you been in the Army or Marine Corps your NCO would have seen to it that you were recognized. That's how they operate. Air Force NCO's however are generally not exposed to such events, and many just didn't care, or, didn't want to be bothered with the paper work. Another possibility is records kept at Katum may site the incident. The Army and Marines commonly called broke birds MORTAR MAGNETS for obvious reasons, so a daily log entry is probable . As well, any troops stationed there will remember it too, especially if they had duty near where the repair was taking place. Just some thoughts. Been there done that.

JG

Edited by The Red Stuff
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JG,

Thanks for the reply. For the life of me, I can't remember the AC's name--or any of the rest of the crew. The FE and I transferred fuel before we took off and the fuel had stopped running on the ground, and I should remember him! Also the loadmaster!!

A few months later, and a "change of command" ceremony I watched the flight crew receive medals for that mission! I felt slighted to say the least, but I don't remember even being put on the manifest that day!! I was warned that it would be a tough mission that day---and it was!!!

Sometimes, I think I have the date wrong, but I distinctly remember the fireworks at midnight at CRB the night before. Unauthorized I'm sure!!

I keep thinking that somebody at one of the shops at Naha will see this and remember 475 being in Fuel Cell or AR shop repairing holes!! Also I had help replacing the life-raft. Maybe one of the guys will remember doing that!!!

Thanks again,

Ken

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I watched the flight crew receive medals for that mission! I felt slighted to say the least

I know what you mean there, I was eligible to get a DFC (as the Primary spotter and director on a SAM launch in the stan) but the pilot blew it off and PCS'd.

Everybody told me to write the package myself but I just couldn't do it.

Yeah its a pisser.

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  • 1 year later...

I just happened to stumble upon this thread while browsing around and it hit a tender nerve. Myself and an Airman Plantz were engaged in a repair similar to what MTcrewchief was. I have no idea of the date, only that it was in 1966, I do however, have the ACs name and the report that he was put in for the DFC. With only the year, a discription of the mission (repair) and the AC, does anyone think it worth my time to contact Maxwell? I agree with MTcrewchief: it's not the award, just the recognition that a nasty, dangerous job was accomplished and we did it!!!

tinwhistle

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