C130 bomb drop missions

[cfisher]

I was stationed at Clark in the early 70s. I was on my way to Cam Ranh Bay with a crew that I was not my regular crew. One morning I went out to the flight line to do the pre-fight when I looked into the cargo compartment I seen something that I'd never seen before didn't even know it existed and didn't really know what it was. It didn't take me long to see that it was a bomb. I never heard of a C-130 dropping a bomb. In about 30 minutes the rest of the flight crew came out they informed me that I had been assigned to a bomb drop crew it was secret and I was never to say anything about it . And I never did. When I got back to Clark nobody ever talked about the mission. I never talked about it for years. I finally seen a C-130 bomb drop on the military Channel. That was a first time I knew then had been declassified.

I liked the mission. It was a welcome change to the normal things we did on the shuttle. I still remember the airplane shaking and the large ball of fire. When the bomb exploded.

A few days later, we flew and other bombing mission. On pre flight , I found the aux cavity drain leaking fuel. It wasn't just linking. It was coming out in a stream I put red x in the forms and all hell broke loose the ops officer came out he was a full Col. and we went nose to nose things got very heated he wanted me to change the write up but I wouldn't do it and nobody would sign the red cross off. They gave us another airplane we had the bomb put on it and completed the mission. The next day the ops officer told me I was vindicated and he was wrong.

A few days later we were on another bombing mission we got ready to drop the bomb and the ramp opened but the door wouldn't the load master tried to get it open with a hand pump it still wouldn't open. The pilot told me to put on a parachute and a oxygen bottle and go back and help the load master I tied myself in with a tie-down strap sure didn't want to fall out. So I give it a try sure glad I remembered what the numbers meant on the control valve nob. When I tried the door came open . I am sure the load master wasn't doing anything wrong I guess I was just lucky.

If there is any other people on this site that flew the the bombing missions i would sure like to here their comments.

[Skip Davenport]

If you are talking about the BLU-82 I didn't drop any in Nam but did drop 3 in Desert Storm.

[6743106]

I was a loadmaster in the 50 TAS CCK 71-72. Did numerous bomb drops in V/N and cambodia. I have slides somewhere that I took of the extraction and blast.

I followed it all the way to the ground, taking pictures laying on the back ramp. Just like a small nuke going off, big mushroom cloud!! We where at 5000 feet and you still got a bump from the blast.

Long time ago.

Bill Marks

[SamMcGowan]

http://www.sammcgowan.com/bomber.html

Charlie, I was in the 29th in '69-'70 and was on a bomb crew. The wing started dropping them right after I got there in February and it became a regular mission after we moved to Cam Ranh from Tan Son Nhut. I checked out on the mission in May and dropped them every time I went in-country after that until I went to Stan/Eval a year later. I don't remember anybody being particularly closed-mouth about it. Everybody knew we were doing it, especially the VC. They put out flyers around Cam Ranh offering $10,000 bounties on the pilots, navigators and loadmasters who were doing it - by name! Chick Anderson, our engineer, was ticked off because they weren't offering a bounty for him.

[donwon]

It was said the VC put a bounty on the Blind Bats when they first started useing the Herk.

[SamMcGowan]

It was said the VC put a bounty on the Blind Bats when they first started useing the Herk.

First time I've heard that. They weren't Blind Bats when they were at Da Nang either. That name didn't come along until the mission moved to Ubon. I flew Blind Bat and COMMANDO VAULT and I'll take the bombing over dropping flares any day of the week. At least we were accomplishing something with them.

[Smokey]

We were told the bombs were for helicopter LZ's. I couldn't believe it when I first saw one in Cam Rahn Bay in the cargo bay.

[SamMcGowan]

We were told the bombs were for helicopter LZ's. I couldn't believe it when I first saw one in Cam Rahn Bay in the cargo bay.

Technically, yes. But they were used for other things as well, such as taking out enemy base camps. At the end of the war the VNAF dropped one at Xuan Loc that reportedly killed 1,000 NVA. The Cambodia Incursion was set off by the detonation of a pair of Blu-82s.