A history: early C-130 operations in SEA and South Vietnam

[tinwhistle]

If you are interested in very early operations of the C-130 in Vietnam and throughout SEA please go to my "My Gallery", then click on MY ALBUMN. I have posted 12 documents that trace my movements in the 1965 and 1966 time frame. Included are a number of documents (now declassified), that were taken from the "Official History of the 314th TCW" that illustrate the difficulty that we had in starting up combat operations in the new war zone. I thought I had up loaded them in proper time frame order, but they did not post in proper order. You will find my TDY orders to Okinawa, administrative orders moving me into the 776th in preperation for further TDY to SEA, then there are the TDY orders and my travel voucher to MacTan, P.I., as well as travel voucher to Okinawa. Plus travel voucher from Okinawa to Cam Ranh Bay, South Vietnam. I think you will enjoy reading from the history transcrips of the start of operations in South Vietnam. There was no Herky Hill no CALSU, we worked out of a tent. In the begining of CRB operations there were only 3 of us Maintenance types, Norm Plantz, Dave Ohmart, and myself. We worked out of and slept (when we could) in that temporary tent only a few yards from the flight line. There is a page that describes a rescue mission flown by Capt. Willard. Plantz and I were the maintenance types that preformed the actual repairs to the stranded aircraft. Enjoy......Chris

[nascarpop]

Interesting! Thanks for posting.

[SamMcGowan]

If you are interested in very early operations of the C-130 in Vietnam and throughout SEA please go to my "My Gallery", then click on MY ALBUMN. I have posted 12 documents that trace my movements in the 1965 and 1966 time frame. Included are a number of documents (now declassified), that were taken from the "Official History of the 314th TCW" that illustrate the difficulty that we had in starting up combat operations in the new war zone. I thought I had up loaded them in proper time frame order, but they did not post in proper order. You will find my TDY orders to Okinawa, administrative orders moving me into the 776th in preperation for further TDY to SEA, then there are the TDY orders and my travel voucher to MacTan, P.I., as well as travel voucher to Okinawa. Plus travel voucher from Okinawa to Cam Ranh Bay, South Vietnam. I think you will enjoy reading from the history transcrips of the start of operations in South Vietnam. There was no Herky Hill no CALSU, we worked out of a tent. In the begining of CRB operations there were only 3 of us Maintenance types, Norm Plantz, Dave Ohmart, and myself. We worked out of and slept (when we could) in that temporary tent only a few yards from the flight line. There is a page that describes a rescue mission flown by Capt. Willard. Plantz and I were the maintenance types that preformed the actual repairs to the stranded aircraft. Enjoy......Chris

Chris, those weren't "early" C-130 Ops in SEA and SVN. By 1965 C-130s had been operating in SEA for over five years. Naha and Tachi C-130A crews started operating there in 1958. There was a CALSU at Tan Son Nhut when we were TDY to Kadena and Mactan from Pope in 1965. 315th Air Division set up a command post in Saigon when the MULE TRAIN C-123s arrived in January, 1962.