tinwhistle

Super good question!! I seem to remember sleeping in and/or under the plane. Never slept on top. This would be in places like P.I. (Clark or MacTan), or Okinawa. In country it seemed a bit dangerous to sleep any where near a "mortar magnet", however, if I was tired enough I would doze off in the left seat while waiting for parts etc. As jconner says, wheels up, eyes shut. Don't remember having any trouble sleeping while in flight. Got the AC really mad at me shortly after take off from MacTan, I fell asleep on the bunk almost immediately and the plane flew into a flock of sea gulls, aborted the flight, I woke up and asked why we were turning back, and the AC, told me that if I had been doing my job I'd know what happened!!!!! I didn't do that any more.......

Forgive me for nosing into your conversation, but I can't help myself! You may remember a couple years back I found my old girl ( 63 7877) on static display in the air park down in Peoria, IL. One of the most interesting facts I came across when I visited her was that she had 30,040 hours at retirement. According to what I just read, she did quite well! One other thing I found quite fascinating is that #1 engine had a tad over 25,000 hours. Again, sorry about butting in........

I don't know who wrote this article, but does any one really think Iran will use it's nuclear capabilities for anything but big nasty bombs?????

I think you read a page from my diary......

Oh my!! I have a serious deficiency....

Amazing how similar these two stories are to mine!!!!!

I'm just about 70 years old and sometimes it's a bit scary to think of all the things I've forgotten over the years, for instance, I simply marvel at the skills that I had back in 1965-66 working in primitive conditions, quite often with the sounds and sights of battle close by and never thought twice about it. Sometimes I chastise myself for not re-enlisting and going back to CCK, thinking that I could have done a better job. But every now and then I'll stumble across some long lost Kodachrome that brings back some detail that reminds me that I actually did those things and did them well! Ahhhhh, the memories of an old man!!!!!!!!!

I may not remember much about those days, but I distinctly remember (whenever the rare camo painted Herk showed up) thinking that it was just plain UGLY! I do over look Giz's affinity to the camouflaged Herk 'cause he was young and impressionable and had not served in a squadron of silver birds. Nothing like a flight line of silver!!!!!

Some time ago there was a discussion in this forum concerning the ABCCC birds in Vietnam. Even though I actually assisted in loading the module, both at CCK and at Danang I was told that I was mistaken, that the modules were loaded and hooked up in the States. Just the other day I stumbled upon some old pictures, and low and behold, there is a pic of the ABCCC mod being loaded. And it ain't at Hickam or anywhere else in the U.S. If I'm not mistaken, it's at Danang. I'll see if I can upload the pic to this post. If not it can be viewed in "My Gallery".

Just stumbled upon some old Vietnam pictures and posted them into "My Gallery". They are the last 12 or 13 on the page. Unfortunately, I don't recall where most of them were taken.

Alright you two.... It's obvious that neither one of has any resect for your elders!!!!!!!!

Nice video.... Must say that the "pilot" did a fine job. In fact he made as good a landing (if not better) than a couple pilots of the real thing that I remember !! Actually, Ken, if it ain't silver it ain't right!!!!!!

Really cool!!!! Is it just me, or is the C-130 Hercules the best looking, toughest, most versatile, prettiest, most reliable, sexiest airplane there is?!?!

AWWhhhhh, Geeeeeeeezzzzz!!!!!!!!!!!!

I may not SIGN in, but I CHECK in every day at least once. Most importantly, for myself, is the fact that I have made two wonderful friends through this site. Ken Carlson and Paul Parish have become "Brothers"!!! So, Casey, to you I say "Thank You"!!!!!!!

You bet!!! Let me know where and when to meet and I'll be there!!!!! You bringing Chewy???

Not sure how to take this post. Seems that flight crews had a penchant for disappearing leaving the chief there to care for the aircraft. In this case the chief does what's expected of him, no one from the flight crew bothers to pre flight the plane, (except the LM, who did his job) when the NLG pin is discovered still installed it's the chiefs fault. In the mean time the proper pin is simply thrown away. I wonder who should have had words (a lot of them) with whom. Also, I wonder what happened to the "remove before flight" banner? If it were hanging on the pin it should have been seen long before engine start. If the banner wasn't there, that's the only mistake the CC made.

Thanks Bob That all makes sense, since Steve would have retired very late 80s or early 90s. He is trying to round up some pictures and that will be interesting. Now all I have to do is figure out where Smithsonian hid the airplane!!! While I have your attention: I've been looking for updated information on my old airplane, #877. Something that will place it where it is located now. I can't seem to find anything at all about it here on this site. Granted, I'm not real good with this computer stuff and I have no patience, so that info is probably right in front of me and I can't see it, but if you need that information I have a pretty complete history of that plane that was passed on to me from the folks at Peoria. Let me know. Thanks.... TW aka Chris

My friend/classmate tells me that the aircraft in question was assigned to the Air Guard Unit at Milwaukee and the tail # is 460. He is reasonably sure of that, although he admits that the aircraft pictured in the Smithsonian web site is an A model, clearly not a Roman Nose. He is looking for pictures and anything else to contribute to the conversation.

You are very welcome!!!!!!! Can't tell ya how much we enjoyed having you here! If nothing else, we got the 10 cent tour of the Wisconsin River!!!!!!!!!

Had lunch today with a few members of my High School graduating class (class of 1963), and it turned out that there was four of us there that are Vietnam Veterans. As the conversation continues I discover that the guy next to me flew (navigator) on KC-135s, became a lifer and finished up in the Wisconsin Air Guard on C-130s. OK, no big deal, until he tells me he flew the last remaining "Roman Nose" 130 into retirement at the Smithsonian in DC. Actually, I guess it's on display just out side DC at Dulles airfield where Smithsonian keeps the BIG stuff. I didn't think top ask him if he remembered the tail number. I'll email him and see if he remembers. Thought this was quite a coincidence, what with the Herk anniversary. I did ask him how the old girl flew and he said she was a rough ride, rattled and shook all the way!!!!!!

Don't know what the Fourth Generation Monkey Theory is (although I have a good idea!), but ALL of the above reasons are good reasons as to why we always started # 3 first, all valid. So, I'm guessing that the author of the above mentioned book was simply a victim of faulty memory!!!

Well, we did what we were told most of the time!! My thoughts agree with Ken on this; I thought that #3 brought up all the necessary systems right away. As a side note: when I visited #877 a couple years ago I looked through some of the aircraft records and found that #1 engine had a little over 25,000 hrs on it, the other three varied greatly.

The book is titled "Runway Visions" and I do not have it right here in front of me so I can't give you the author, however, he was a C-130 pilot out of CCK and the book is more or less his recollections of his flying activities in and out of Vietnam. I haven't finished reading it yet, but early on he speaks of the engine start procedure and specifically mentions "turning #2 engine" first. Is that a typo? I recall ALWAYS starting #3 engine first. Any ideas out there?

Took a bird strike only once, just after gear up out of MacTan. Forget which engine it was but went right down the intake. Instant abort, as well as flight crew getting VERY busy!!! Engine change. Made a terrible mess. The only good thing to come out of it was that I was not responsible for the abort......