Mt.crewchief

Sitting on a table behind Bks. 336 CCKAB Taiwan  1969

Dennis Guinane, Ken Carlson. Peter McPheters  & ??

1804 ready to go-----as usual

Nav. Table on 62-1804

1804 parked in with other birds. 

My old bird 62-1804 at Little Rock 

Msgt Andrew Haskell 35th flight chief..Ssgt Bromley left and behind. Sgt Dan Lafferty right rear

Our 
Blind Bat birds had a 400mm starlight night vision scope mounted on a chair  in the right para-troop door. One of us was always sitting in that chair looking for trucks and other activity on the Ho Chi Minh trail.  If enemy activity was spotted we called in air strikes and stayed on station and flared the targets so the fighters could see them.

 This picture is one I took through the scope of a fire ? on a river. 

Ronnie Hensley, a good friend from West Virginia that was stationed with me at Naha. 

He was killed while flying as crew member on an AC-130 Gunship flying out of Ubon Thailand in 1970.  He and all but one of the crew members died in Laos. 

 May you rest in peace Ron

An armed F4 on its way North from Ubon . 

My two partners of 40 missions on BlindBat posing while we were performing an ADS check before crossing into enemy territory. This was done nightly to make sure we could jettison the flares in case of fire. Chris Carter on the left and Paul Henning (real loadmaster) on right. Missions were long and boring unless something happened, then they were far from boring. Sometimes you got the shit scared out of you!

John Chase changing brakes at CRB

    This John Chase my assistant and good friend changing brakes  at CRB on 62-1804.

Back in Korea refueling on a mission on my plane.

   I served a 90 day, 40 mission tour at Ubon Thailand as a Loadmaster/Flare-kicker in 1968.  I was taking my turn pre-flighting the flares and the dual rails before flight time that night.

This was the mission named Blind Bat . We always flew in the dark with no lights on. All missions were flown over North Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia. 

It fit in the Cargo comp!

Loading a small FAC chopper at Tan Son Nhut  Viet Nam  (Saigon)

The load being squeezed into my bird at Cubi Point.

Not a fun mission!

Our load now hooked to back of truck at Osan Korea.

Load was very heavy and just barely fit in the cargo compartment.  

Another taken on the way to Osan

Taken on way from Cubi Point to Osan Korea.

62-1804 parked and OR at Cubi Point PI

Taegu continued!

Approaching Taegu Korea on 62-1804  two day mission from Misawa hauling F4 troops to and from misawa.

Another picture on way to Misawa Japan.

Taken on the way to Misawa Japan on my plane 62-1804 and E-Model from CCK  Only plane I ever stepped foot on while stationed at CCK from Mar. 1969- June 1970.