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Herky Hill Question


Mt.crewchief
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Hey Ken,

Looks like they used your plane as the inspiration for the patch!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chris

Unfortunately, you may be right!!!

I went from A's to E's in an hour and fifteen minute flight in 1969, and it was like falling into the "lap of luxury"!!

But, Chris, you are just jealous you never got to work on a real man's machine!!!!!!

Anyway, thanks for the reply,

your Montana tour guide,

Ken

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Yes, road to Naminoue and beer at the 41st bar, the best squadron in Naha......I was also in the 21st don't think there was a bar or i never found it.................

JR,

When I was at Naha the 21st (undeniably the best squadron) hung at the Bar Mitzi.

Sonny

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it is amazing how we forget thing as we get older. Now, you know the 41st was the best squadron at Naha, Msgt Lawson told me so!

Dallas

Dallas,

You must mean MSgt. George Tanner, not Lawson. He was the one who told me it was the 21st.

Sonny

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Ken,

I went from E's to A's in 1967. Was told they were the same. Boy was I lied to!!!!!

Sonny

Geez Sonny, that had to be a tough switch. I remember the first E engine fuel control we changed. Remembering the A control, mounted via eight or ten nuts, two of which on the back side and almost impossible to get to. Boy was I a happy camper when discovering the E control was mounted by a marmon clamp. Piece of cake. We changed and ops ckd the E control in less time than it took to get the A control off it's mount.

Going from the A to the E, piece of cake. Going from the E to the A, not so much.

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  • 1 month later...

Ken,

You did us proud. Your only mistake was that the 35th was the only real squadron when it was actually the 21st!!!

Sonny

There was no difference at all in the four squadrons at Naha. We all did the same thing except that each squadron had its own special operations missions. We rotated to Cam Ranh Bay and Bangkok and flew whatever airplane happened to be available. Enlisted crewmembers all lived in the same barracks and in the same hooche at Cam Ranh.
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Well, actually, the numbers that are on the documents I took down are AF serial numbers. I was discharged in July of 1967 and we still had the AF serial numbers at that time. It was at some point after my discharge that the AF (all military??) went to the Social Security number for identification. I'm not here to cause any discomfort so I simply took down those documents. However, as I said, these orders are available. I am going to attach five photographs that will illustrate (to a certain extent) the living conditions we had early on. These pictures were taken at Nha Trang. The "Nha Trang Shuttle". I sure hope some one out there can tell me what kind of aircraft those little prop jobs are......Chris

The first picture is at Mac Tan. Upon arrival, the A.F., in its infinate wisdom, decided that we should have some shelter. Then they issued us tents and said "welcome home"! We put 'em up ourselves.

The next pictures are at Nha Trang. We had one tent, a pickup and nothing else. We begged a couple of buckets from the army and got cold water to shave and clean up with. After several days it got pretty ripe around our area. Chris

Chris, the Mohawk picture is at Lawson Field at Ft. Benning, GA. We were down there dropping troops. We went down in late April '65 and were there when the DR whistle blew and went back home that night. Another group of Pope airplanes from the 779th went down in August to drop the 1st Cav' one last time before they deployed to Vietnam.

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There was no difference at all in the four squadrons at Naha. We all did the same thing except that each squadron had its own special operations missions. We rotated to Cam Ranh Bay and Bangkok and flew whatever airplane happened to be available. Enlisted crewmembers all lived in the same barracks and in the same hooche at Cam Ranh.

Sam,

Yes there was a difference in the four squadrons!!!! The 35th had me, and Sonny always wished it had him too!!!!!

What do ya say to that Sonny!!!!

Ken

  • Haha 1
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Sam,

Yes there was a difference in the four squadrons!!!! The 35th had me, and Sonny always wished it had him too!!!!!

What do ya say to that Sonny!!!!

Ken

Sorry Ken,

The 21st is the only squadron I wanted to be in. Had a lot of friends in the 35th but I never held that against them!!!

Sonny

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There was no difference at all in the four squadrons at Naha. We all did the same thing except that each squadron had its own special operations missions. We rotated to Cam Ranh Bay and Bangkok and flew whatever airplane happened to be available. Enlisted crewmembers all lived in the same barracks and in the same hooche at Cam Ranh.

Sam,

As you yourself said, each squadron had it's own special missions, so that made each one different in my opinion. You are speaking from a flight crew point of view and Ken and I are speaking from a maintenance point of view.

Sonny

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  • 2 months later...

Ken,

I have been slow in getting back to you, sorry about that. I was at Naha June 69 to Jan 71. I was with Section "D" (YP) under Msgt Domi. Rotations on 504 and 512 with Roger Smith and Brian Maxwell to CRB, spent some time at Herky Hill. My first time at the canteen, I got tagged for a round of beers, I had my cover on. Also TDY from Langley in Apr - Oct 72 during the Sping Offensive, to CCK.

Welcome Home,

Bob

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  • 4 years later...
On 5/8/2012 at 11:02 PM, Mt.crewchief said:

Okay you Crew Chiefs/Maint. personnel here is a question that I need to have an answer for!! I might forget it by tomorrow!!!

Do any of you old CRB input or TDY guys remember when Herky Hill was built and put into use??

The reason I am asking is that my first trip/input to Viet Nam--Cam Rahn Bay, was in December 1967. While I was there, I stayed in a quanset on the main base!!

Not Herky Hill. Like I said, it was my first trip but I was with my crew chief (Willard) and assistant crew chief (Lafferty) so it wasn't their first! Every time I went to CRB for the next 3 years, I lived at Herky Hill.

I know some of you guys here on the forum were on inputs to CRB before me so where did you stay???

I do remember that in 67 all of the planes were A's and B's . And no revetments that I can remember. At least where we were parked.

 

Did any of you guys remember it as remember it or did we just stay in the wrong place?

 

Thanks for looking,

Ken

As a Primary Chrew Chief from mid 1969 thru mid 1970 I spent fifteen to twenty five days a month at Cam Rhan from Clark.  We always lived on Herky Hill, at least working ten hours o and ten off seven days a week and walking back and forth from the parking ramp, what little time off we had we spent on the Hill !!!

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  • 7 months later...
On ‎5‎/‎9‎/‎2012 at 11:55 AM, SamMcGowan said:

Herky Hill opened sometime in 1968. I rotated to Cam Ranh from Naha from August 1966 until I left in August the following year after first spending two weeks there in February before the Naha/Tachi rotation started. The West Ramp opened sometime in early 1967 but flight crews continued living in the air conditioned qounsets on the East Side. I think the maintenance troops lived in hooches. I've got pictures of the West Ramp that I took in the summer of 1967 and there were no revetments.

I took the picture with the fuel truck sometime around May or June 1967 - I'm pretty sure it was at Tan Son Nhut. The second was at CRB around the same time - no revetments.

Fueling.jpg

CRB Ramp (2).jpg

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I was at CRB '67-'68 and I don't remember any revetments. We parked the aircraft facing one another as shown in the picture. None of my pictures show any revetments.

As for Herky Hill, it was not there in '67 and I vaguely remember them building it in '68.

CRB_130s.jpg

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On ‎9‎/‎11‎/‎2012 at 7:01 AM, Sonny said:

 

 

Sam,

 

As you yourself said, each squadron had it's own special missions, so that made each one different in my opinion. You are speaking from a flight crew point of view and Ken and I are speaking from a maintenance point of view.

 

Sonny

Not really Sonny. Special missions were just that, "special", but each squadron's primary mission was the troop carrier mission and we all did the same thing. The 21st had E Flight but it was an addendum to the squadron. The squadron's other four flights did the same thing the other four squadrons did. All four squadrons contributed crews to the flare mission, the 35th had the leaflet mission and the 817th had HALO. The 41st had COMMANDO LAVA but it was an airdrop mission of special chemical agents on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Not only were the Naha squadrons the same, so were the other eight C-130 squadrons in PACAF. I was at Clark in 69-70 and did the exact same things I did while at Naha except we had the COMMANDO VAULT bombing mission. But when we weren't bombing, we were hauling trash and people. 

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On ‎9‎/‎6‎/‎2012 at 3:56 PM, Mt.crewchief said:

 

 

Sam,

Yes there was a difference in the four squadrons!!!! The 35th had me, and Sonny always wished it had him too!!!!!

What do ya say to that Sonny!!!!

 

Ken

Ken, I was in the 35th and lived and worked with people from the other four squadrons. In fact, I once went in country with a 21st crew. 

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  • 1 year later...

Since I was assigned to the 374th FMS  "Sparkchaser" shop I got to work on All 21st, 40worst, "E" flt, 35th, 815th they just handed me the work orders! Throughout my career I started with "A"s, Then "B"s and "E"s in country, back to "E"s in the states to "WC"s converted for the Desert and then finished at Pope in 2009 with 87 and 88 model "H"s except for a year on F-4s and B57Gs at Ubon The Herc was and still is my favorite. Been in a couple flaming engine shutdowns but the Herc always got me on the ground again!

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  • 5 months later...

Let me introduce myself: I am a new member.  My name is Dennis Byrne.  I’m a Naha vet circa 1967-1969, with the 374th FMS electric shop(a spark chaser) ...ha ha.  I pulled my share of TDY’s to CRB.  First one during the Tet offensive.  Lot’s of stories about that but not now.  Your question about Herkey hill.  I was one of “the slave labor team” that moved all the “maintenance guys “ from the 12th TFW area hootches to the new 2 story barracks.  We worked from dawn to dusk for several days during August 1968.  Lugging 150 lb locker in and out, up and down stairs.  Talk about bloody hands, sore backs, and I’ll tempers.  No Vietnamese help.  Strictly GI labor.  We also moved all the beds/mattresses/furniture.  But the lockers were the worst.

Later, to add insult to injury, I was ordered to pull the very first dorm guard that night. Now remember  where the Hercules barracks were!!  Adjacent to the beach which had very, very fine sand.  The barracks walls were lined with screens to allow for ventilation because no fans in building.  Early the next morning the guys started waking up.  That’s when the screaming started. The guy’s yelling that they can’t see or hear!!  Seems that the sand blew through the screen and settling in the eye sockets or ears.  What a cluster f...k!!  It was like a Chinese fire drill!!  Ha ha.  Our temporary fix was to go to the hangars and remove the plastic coverings on the new T56 engines that were in supply.  We took the plastic and nailed it to  the inside walls to keep the sand out.  Talk about bad planning by CE or Sea Bee builders.  My TDY was cut short and not sure what the permanent fix was!!  War is hell!!

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Dennis, welcome to the forum. I kind of figured there were no new "old " guys left. Your dates kind of coincide with my idea when Herky Hill was built!  Now, another question. I spent many days and nights living at Herky Hill through June 1970. First with A models from Naha and then with E models from CCK.  For some reason, I can't remember when the Herky Hootch (the bar) was built. Also, how about the officers quarters and club?  It seemed like almost every time I returned to CRB and the Hill, there was something new and different, Also, the chow hall appeared during my time there.

 I do remember the rest room at the Herky Hootch bar. Remember it was a 50 gal drum in the sand. (maybe some structure around it). I also remember a guy stepping in to where it was moved from previously. Of course it was unmarked, ---but very soft and wet----not water by the way.!  

Anyway, if you or any of you other guys still around, can add to this subject, it would be good for some memory jogging.

Again Dennis , happy to have you,

Ken

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