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Ever seen a "Blind Bat"?


KJam
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Leon, As far as I know, all of the Blind Bat acft. were A-Models from Naha!

I did a 90 day (40 mission) stint as a flare-kicker at Ubon and all of the ones there were crewed by friends of mine from Naha!

Now, I'm sure somebody will correct me, but I never ever saw one that wasn't from Naha!

I never did see the one that had the bat painted on it though!!! It was either earlier than Sept. 67 or later than Mar. 69 when I was stationed at Naha!!!

Or, my memory has faded some more!!!

Ken

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I worked on 56482 some when I was at Sewart.

When I got to Naha I worked on 56483 some.

June 65 till Nov 66

Any of the Naha birds could have been Bat Birds.

A lot of us E-3,s moved around when the plane we were assigned to was on a mission somewhere.

I don't remember seeing any of the letters on our 130,s

but other planes had them. The Navy planes had them, or some of them did.

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Here is what I have as far as tail codes for Naha AB.

YD C-130A 21 TAS, 374 TAW Naha AB, Okinawa, Japan

YJ C-130A 35 TAS, 374 TAW Naha AB, Okinawa, Japan

YP C-130A 41 TAS, 374 TAW Naha AB, Okinawa, Japan

YU C-130A 817 TAS, 374 TAW Naha AB, Okinawa, Japan

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I arrived at Naha in May 69 and they already had the letters on them--I crewed 56-0504 as a green, brown and white whisper jet for a while and came back after a weekend off and found it had been painted black but I never did go on any blind bat missions--all my time was spent in TSN or Cam Rahn Bay--I can't remember exactly why they painted her black--to replace one we lost?--to many buds since then

Smitty

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Most of the photos were taken by a local enthusiast at Itazuke AB from 1967 to 1969. The photos appear to be generally posted chronologically, with the earliest dates at page 68 taken sometime in 1967. (the page with the small photos of the silver F-105Ds and grey TF-102A were taken pre 67) I think that it may have been taken by a student as he mentions traveling by bike. The carrier shots were taken at Sasebo in Kyushu. Some of the JASDF aircraft (with the F-86 Sabres) were taken at Iruma Air Base, ex Johnson AB, near Tokyo. The display USAF aircraft and some of the taxiing shots were taken at Yokota. You might recognize the background.

The reason for the wealth of USAF aircraft at Itazuke was due to the Pueblo Crisis and the reactivation of Itazuke (348th CSG) as a bed down for TDY F-102s, 82nd FIS, (NV tail code) RF-4Cs, 15th TRS, (ZZ) EB-66Es/EB-66Cs, Det 001 363rd TRW/19TRS, EC-121Ds, College Eye/Det 552nd AEW&CW. The RF-4Cs were later replaced by 120 day rotational TDY RF-101Gs from the activated ARK/NV/KYANG, in that order. ARK/154TRS, no code. NV/192TRS, no code/RB, and KY/165TRS, RG.

Itazuke had earlier hosted the 8th TFW with F-100D/Fs and later F-105D/Fs, until Project Clear Water in 1964, deactivated the Wing, (the Wing designation went to CONUS, replacing the 32TFW at George AFB) and the three squadrons went to Yokota and came under the 41st Air Division. The 68th FIS with F-102s based there also inactivated in 1964.

Best wishes,

Grant

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Dutch, what year did they start using those letters?

Don

The letters were on them when I arrived at Naha in May '67. At that time each squadron had two aircraft desinated as Blind Bat A/C's. I was lucky enough to be the Crew Chief on one of them, 56-0533.

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  • 2 weeks later...

56-471 was a black bottom. It could only fly certain mission because it did not have the ECM equipment to fly all the missions. It was at Naha in the 35tas when I was there from 68-70. I was a/c/c on that aircraft for a short time and done missions into Cam Ron Bay Svn. It was in Svn. most of the time and did not do many Blind Bat missions

Edited by ang012
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55-0040 was a black bottom and flew Blind Bat missions. I know as I was the crew chief and I also cleaned the entire bottom of the acft to prepare it for painting. I had to bargain to get my acft Blind Bat status. This must have been 1968 as I was at Naha, 35 TAS, 1967 to 1970. 55-0040 was at Ubon as a gunship in 1971 when I was assigned to Ubon PCS. I didn't crew 0040 at Ubon, as I was assigned to crew the First Lady, 53-3129. Great memories but eventually was transferred to Job Control. All this is FYI.

C. Wayne Wright

HighTide

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All I said was with out the ECM equipment they could only fly certain mission. When I was on the maint. team in Ubon we had to have ECM birds on certain mission. When I first got to Naha in sept 68 I was on 56-471 and Ssgt Nelson was the crew chief I only went to Cam Ron Bay with It. Then in the early part of 69 went on 55-046 and stayed on that a/c until I left in feb 70

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