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Gray fuselage, white upper C-130A, 1966


SamMcGowan
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I was looking through The Airlifter yesterday and came across a picture of an A-model taken at Naha of an airplane with a white upper fuselage. The photo is black and white so its hard to tell but I assume the fuselage was painted gray. I remember seeing this paint scheme on the White Whale C-123 but don't recall ever seeing a C-130 painted this way at that time. The caption says the airplane was undergoing an inspection by the new 374th FMS, which had just activated. In fact, the article was the occasion of the activation of the 374th Troop Carrier Wing. Anyone have any idea what airplane this was? The only thing I can think of would either be the 315th AD command airplane or an AWS WC-130A. It seems to me Col. Howe used an 815th airplane which would have been unpainted. The AWS might have sent their WC-130As to Naha for inspections but if they did, it wasn't common knowledge and they were from a different command. If anyone has a GOOD idea what it might have been, drop me an Email at [email protected] since I only come on here occasionally. (No, it doesn't show a number - if it did I'd look it up.)

By the way, I also discovered that 53-0023 was at Naha and 53-3135 left for the States in either late '66 or early '67 because it was useless to the 315th AD mission.

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  • 3 weeks later...

There were two C-130As with the white top and grey bottom. They flew in the early 60s out of Naha, just about as the last of the Far East C-130As lost their white tops. I have or had a small color photo that confirmed that it had a grey bottom. I can't find the photos quickly, by one was 545, which later was a E flight aircraft. The other was 469?, I think.

The ASW C-130As were always camo because they flew in SEA on rainmaking sorties rather than storm tracking weather missions. I heard that weather aircraft were left in grey as some foreign countries in South America did not want camo aircraft flying near their border. I guess that this didn't apply to trash haulers.

Best wishes,

Grant

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  • 3 months later...

Sam there were only three WC-130A,s--60-519 last seen at Tonsanut(spelling) and 60-522, 60-537! We flew them from 1967 to 1969!

Weather modification out of Udorn Thailand! They were maintained at 54th Weather SQ on Guam! Painted in Vietnam version no SQ markings etc! This continued after I left and ended in 1970 after I left! Replaced by 3 C-130B,s! This went on till 1972!!

Fitz

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There were two C-130As with the white top and grey bottom. They flew in the early 60s out of Naha, just about as the last of the Far East C-130As lost their white tops. I have or had a small color photo that confirmed that it had a grey bottom. I can't find the photos quickly, by one was 545, which later was a E flight aircraft. The other was 469?, I think.

The ASW C-130As were always camo because they flew in SEA on rainmaking sorties rather than storm tracking weather missions. I heard that weather aircraft were left in grey as some foreign countries in South America did not want camo aircraft flying near their border. I guess that this didn't apply to trash haulers.

Best wishes,

Grant

Grant, when I got to Naha in February, 1966 most of the Naha airplanes were unpainted. You could still see where the red nose and tail painted had been removed from them. They were just starting to camouflage the entire C-130 fleet. I'd have to look but I believe this picture was taken in the summer of 1966. It shows some airplanes lined up for periodic maintenance.

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Sam there were only three WC-130A,s--60-519 last seen at Tonsanut(spelling) and 60-522, 60-537! We flew them from 1967 to 1969!

Weather modification out of Udorn Thailand! They were maintained at 54th Weather SQ on Guam! Painted in Vietnam version no SQ markings etc! This continued after I left and ended in 1970 after I left! Replaced by 3 C-130B,s! This went on till 1972!!

Fitz

There were no 60 series A-models. The last A-models were 57 serials. All 60 serials were B-models.

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