Kadena AB Herks 1964-65

[kenkat46]

I am doing a pair of illustrations to commemorate a buddy of 35 years Air Force service for his 65th birthday. He was attached to the 824th Air Police Squadron at Kadena AB in 1965 and used to tell stories about pulling duty guarding C-130's at Kadena. One of the illustrations is based on his stories. I am wondering if anyone has information about those Hurkybirds. Specifically the unit they were attached to and their paint scheme. I have not come across a picture of a Herk on Kadena from that time period. Can't ask my buddy as this is a surprise.

[Muff Millen]

During the 60s the C-130s at Kadena were from Naha AB,Okinawa. They were on alert status and we refered to the mission as the planes were on a "cage" mission.

The C-130s were naked...bare aluminum with the standard red white blue winged stars and the tail numbers were black. Also these would have had the three bladed props. I do not remember them having the big tail letters.

Muff

Naha AB 1963-1965

[bruno fronzaglio]

I muff, I log in couple 3 days ago after I got your phone call, I find my way around the site, How old is that picture of you? Bruno

[gmat]

PACAF C-130As were pretty much the same, save the nose numbers were different sizes. I've wondered if each squadron painted them that way to differentiate their aircraft.

All were aluminum metal or aluminized acrylic with PACAF badge on the tail. All had the large U. S. Air Force behind the cockpit and the large fuselage star and bars.

I have photos of these with the large numbers behind the cockpit:

50008, Jan. 1, 66. 50010, Aug. 4, 65. 50013, 70482. Others not dated on the photo.

Medium sized numbers, a little larger than the tail number, behind the cockpit:

70483, old flying jennie jackass placard in the forward lower cockpit window. 815th TAS? May 5, 65.

Small numbers midway between the cockpit and crew door.

0-50041, 0-50048, 60496, Jun. 6, 65. 60509, 60512, and 70469, the latter had a white top with mostly grey undersides. (545 had the same scheme) 469 also had a round camera? window on rear fuselage, under and forward the large fuselage star and bars. It was the same size as the fuselage windows. That area around the camera, the paratroop door and a strip around the last fuselage window appears to be natural metal The cargo door and up up to the frame running roughly parallel to the door was painted gray. Tail number is lower and almost touching the PACAF badge. Oct. 19, 64. All 21st TAS? Only the latter aircraft had the 0 prefix designating aircraft over ten years old.

All had the 450 gal wing tanks and 50010, 60512, 0-50048, 60509, and 60496 had the tip of the tanks painted a dark color.

60509, 0-50048 as well as 70469 had the camera? window in the same position. Photos of the first two on the left side and that latter on the right side. Probably had the window on both sides. 50048 and 70496 had the fuselage star and bar moved aft and higher, to where the lower edge of the bar was at the same level as the top of the paratroop door.

Possibly the 6091st C-130B-IIs might have been the ones to stop at Kadena.

Best wishes,

Grant

[SamMcGowan]

I'm sure your friend is referring to the Naha airplanes that were at Kadena on alert. It was an old mission that was originally on a Pacific Island, Kwajelin I think. The code name for it is HIGH GEAR. When I got to Naha in early 1966 all of the C-130s were painted the same, whether they were TAC or PACAF, which meant no paint at all, which was standard USAF markings for tactical aircraft in the sixties before they started camouflaging them. Some of the Naha birds that had come from Sewart still bore evidence of the Arctic orange.

In the spring of '65 a TAC rotational squadron of C-130Es from Pope set up shop at Kadena as part of TWO BUCK. It was started by the 776th but 779th crews rotated in to replace them. My crew got there in May and we were there until early July. The rotation continued until around December when the squadron was PCSed to PACAF and moved to Tachikawa before going to CCK. We did see the Yokota B's come through as transients. I don't remember any particular guards being placed on any of the C-130s since the flight line was restricted anyway.

The Cage airplanes, however, had an individual guard on each airplane. I know that at one time there were as many as 12 airplanes on alert but by the time I went up from Naha we only had one. I also pulled the same mission from Clark in B-models in early 1970. The only thing that had changed was the 18th TFW had reequipped with F-4s. Each airplane was guarded because it was loaded with special weapons and on ten-minute alert. The airplanes were parked on the 18th TAC Fighter Wing alert ramp along with loaded F-105s. Once the airplane was "cocked", only the flight crew and the AP guard were allowed on board. The mission procedure was for the guard to get on the airplane and go along on the mission if we launched to guard the airplane at destination. He had a small bag (AWOL bag) with him. His position was in front of the nose of the airplane. As I recall, he maintained that position until we had completed the engine start and then he came inside with the loadmaster. While the only launches were for typhoon evacs (Thank God! Because if we launched for real, it meant nuclear war) but each crew went through a couple of alerts during our time on alert. We had ten minutes to get to the airplane from anywhere on the base and be ready to taxi. Each crew had two vehicles, one for officers and one for the two enlisted crewmembers, and we had special parking spots all over the base. Whenever that alert klaxon went off and the orange lights started flashing, everybody got out of our way. The guard would be waiting at the airplane with the pylons and rope down and ready to go. We spent a week on alert and by the time we got off, our nerves were worn to a frazzle.

[Mt.crewchief]

When I was at Naha, I remember some of our planes going to Kadena to sit on the "Hot Pad" whatever that was. I knew it was some kind of alert, but never heard or paid attention to any of the details. My plane never had to go there. There is a story that I remember hearing about an AP guard that walked into a prop while the plane was running. Of course he didn't survive! I think it actually happened, but then again, it might have been another story that got enhanced by an extra beer or two!!!!

Ken

[SamMcGowan]

When I was at Naha, I remember some of our planes going to Kadena to sit on the "Hot Pad" whatever that was. I knew it was some kind of alert, but never heard or paid attention to any of the details. My plane never had to go there. There is a story that I remember hearing about an AP guard that walked into a prop while the plane was running. Of course he didn't survive! I think it actually happened, but then again, it might have been another story that got enhanced by an extra beer or two!!!!

Ken

I never heard that story, but there was a MATS lineman who ran into the prop on an E-model at Clark right after MATS first got them. As I recall, the crew chiefs didn't go to The Cage. They definitely didn't stay with us. An airplane would go up to Kadena and stay for a couple of weeks. If a problem developed, a replacement would be brought up ASAP. I don't remember for sure how we did it when I was at Naha, but when I went back over from Clark when the 463rd took over the mission, there were two crews there. One was on backup and wasn't on full alert for a week while the other was on full alert. It seems to me that when I was at Naha there was just the one crew.

There was an incident in 66 or 67 when an Army troop ran into a prop in-country. They were doing an engine-runnings offload somewhere and this guy somehow got out of the crew entrance door. No one would ever admit to opening it. He wasn't killed because he caught the prop at the bottom of the arc and it hit him in the face. I don't know what happened to him but the word was that he would never be anything but a vegetable.

[SamMcGowan]

PACAF C-130As were pretty much the same, save the nose numbers were different sizes. I've wondered if each squadron painted them that way to differentiate their aircraft.

All were aluminum metal or aluminized acrylic with PACAF badge on the tail. All had the large U. S. Air Force behind the cockpit and the large fuselage star and bars.

I have photos of these with the large numbers behind the cockpit:

50008, Jan. 1, 66. 50010, Aug. 4, 65. 50013, 70482. Others not dated on the photo.

Medium sized numbers, a little larger than the tail number, behind the cockpit:

70483, old flying jennie jackass placard in the forward lower cockpit window. 815th TAS? May 5, 65.

Small numbers midway between the cockpit and crew door.

0-50041, 0-50048, 60496, Jun. 6, 65. 60509, 60512, and 70469, the latter had a white top with mostly grey undersides. (545 had the same scheme) 469 also had a round camera? window on rear fuselage, under and forward the large fuselage star and bars. It was the same size as the fuselage windows. That area around the camera, the paratroop door and a strip around the last fuselage window appears to be natural metal The cargo door and up up to the frame running roughly parallel to the door was painted gray. Tail number is lower and almost touching the PACAF badge. Oct. 19, 64. All 21st TAS? Only the latter aircraft had the 0 prefix designating aircraft over ten years old.

All had the 450 gal wing tanks and 50010, 60512, 0-50048, 60509, and 60496 had the tip of the tanks painted a dark color.

60509, 0-50048 as well as 70469 had the camera? window in the same position. Photos of the first two on the left side and that latter on the right side. Probably had the window on both sides. 50048 and 70496 had the fuselage star and bar moved aft and higher, to where the lower edge of the bar was at the same level as the top of the paratroop door.

Possibly the 6091st C-130B-IIs might have been the ones to stop at Kadena.

Best wishes,

Grant

I got to thinking about this last night and it occured to me that the large numbers that were on the side of the nose were removed from all C-130s by 1965. They were formation numbers and after TAC went to the in-trail formation, they were no longer neccessary. They had been removed from all of the Naha airplanes by the time I got there in February 1966, but the imprints were still visible where they decals had been. There was a very small data sheet on all C-130s right in front of the crew entrance door but they were very small and you had to be standing right in front of them to read them and you couldn't even see them from a distance.