Mt.crewchief

Wayne, That is a good question about Kadena. I can remember going up there and being on a "hot pad" once or twice, but not much else! I was only there at night and couldn't see much! I do remember going to Koza checking out the "local lovelies" but wasn't looking for C-130's. I am posting a pic to see if you can refresh my memory! I know you know at least one of these guys, and I remember most of their names but you may know the rest! Are you in this picture???? Maybe somebody else looking at this post will recognize one of the guys! We got stuck in the barracks during a typhoon so we broke out the emergency rations! Thanks for looking, Ken

Wayne, every time I see one of your posts, I keep thinking that you were in the same room as Gary and I! What the hell do you look like (or rather "did" you look like)? I have a pic I am going to post tomorrow of some of us outside during one of our typhoon alerts! I think you may be in it!! Ken PS Where are the pics you were going to send?

I remember sometimes it would get so hot overnight at Cam Rahn Bay that I would grab something for a pillow and lay on top the airplane and try to sleep with one leg hanging down through the overhead hatch above the flight deck! The plan was that I would wake up before I rolled off the plane! As far as sleeping on the plane in Viet Nam, where else would you sleep? We practically lived on them! If your plane was O.R. and had a scheduled flight early in the morning, you couldn't leave anyway! But, thinking back, out of the almost 3 years of inputs to CRB, I probably didn't manage to actually fall asleep for over ten minutes at a time!!! What memories, wouldn't trade them for anything, Ken

Just found a picture of John Hatcher sleeping on the galley floor with a parachute for a pillow! The back was full of F-4 troops we were moving from Korea to Misawa Japan! On acft. 62-1804 of course!!! Ken

After reading all of the posts and replies to Pacaf's thread, I have mixed feelings about doing favors! I was asked several times to break the airplane by the flight crews at a few of the nicer places I got to go to!! I thought about it several times and had some ways planned to do it, but never did! Every time that I sat on my airplane with nothing to eat and no body to talk to for hours while the flight crew went shopping at the airport or downtown convinced me not to ever do it!! If I could have gone with them maybe it would have made a difference in my thinking, but who was going to refuel the airplane and fix their write-ups? But, I am not saying that I wouldn't have done what Pacaf did. I think it makes a lot of difference who is involved and what is at stake! And he is right, those were different times!! Pacaf, thanks (I guess), for refreshing my memory on the many many hours we spent on the airplanes without a break! Several times I would get back from a CRB input, and go out on a Frag. mission the next day to Korea or somewhere like that and not even know where we were going! Pacaf, you did good---no matter what anybody else says!!!!! Ken

Davis, the hammock story got me wondering what ever happened to the one I bought at CCK for the same purpose! The first time I tried it we were taking a church group to Tokyo. The group consisted of mostly dependent wives and kids! No sooner had I gotten the hammock strung out and climbed aboard, everybody was watching me and I thought I was doing something interesting/dumb. Turned out that somebody had to go pee and guess who was in the bathroom!!! Of course I had to move and then show a male member of the group how the honey bucket worked! (for the ladies)! Men used the outside venting urinal! Of course, the privacy curtain was missing!!! Didn't ever use the hammock again--still have it! Ken

Well put Dan--- It couldn't be put in words better!!!! Ken

A couple of us guys at Naha hooked up a ladder one time but none of us would go all the way to the top so we took it down! We called a cherry picker instead!!! Now, where in hell did I used to store my ladder on A's and E's! I just can't place the location anymore!!! Anybody have a pic of one in it's proper place? Memory's going to hell on me!!! Ken

Ray, I remember you saying you had a lot of pics of CCK! I know because I have seen quite a few of them. Now, how about posting a pic of BB!! I'm sure I would recognize her if I saw her!! Don't say you don't have one, I think you do! Ken Carlson PS You have my permission to use any of the pics I sent to you for whatever you want..

Thanks for the replies guys, but I am not concerned as much about the awards etc. I would just like to reminisce a little about what happened that day! I always had my camera with me but on that day I didn't want to look like a tourist(jeep) so I left it behind! I am always hoping that somebody on this forum would remember that happening or know somebody that does! I saw a lot of very interesting things that day before we were shot up at Katum. That was our second flight into Katum that day! If I remember right we were offloading on the move 105 rounds that day! One other place, we just pushed them out the back while taxiing and the wooden crates they were in were breaking up all over the ground and the poor guys on the ground were trying to catch them to load them up to take them away! Lafferty and I and the Loadmaster were just pushing the pallets out the back with the ramp partially down! I also watched a U-2 take off from Bien Hoa that day! Of course I didn't have my camera for that either! I think it was Bien Hoa!!! Another high point I saw Gen. Westmoreland out on the flightline with a bunch of Vietnamese troops. They were all dressed in their tiger-striped camo!!! Still no camera!! That was at Nha Trang. Dan, the flight crew was all older than me I think, except for the loadmaster! Hell, I'm only 63--almost 64 yrs. old!! Still a young pup!!! Another place we went that day was Phan Thiet.. I'm reasonably sure I am not dreaming up this mission!!! Anyway, someday, somebody will remember this day!!! Thanks, Ken

Every year or so about this time of year, I get to thinking about the mission I went on described above! I figure after about a thousand new members since the date I first posted it, maybe somebody would recall this even happening!! I did go the the Maxwell website and got quite a bit of help but finally gave up when the researcher said there were no missions on record to Katum that day involving 56-475! I do remember a couple of the flight crew members taking pics of the fuel plugging etc. but of course didn't know any of their names! It was my first flight in-country and man I was excited!!! Thanks in advance for your help , Ken

Not too long after I got to Naha in 67, I remember getting a paycheck for $293.00. As an E-2 I realized that that was more than three months pay so I tried getting it straightened out at the Base Finance office. After standing in line in the hot sun along with other Airmen and Officers, I got in and the clerks informed me that there was nothing I could do but not spend it all at once because I wouldn't be getting another paycheck for several months. Yeh right. with Naminoue calling etc. I was broke in a month! Thanks to the pawn shop out the back gate, I managed to make it somehow!!! Hell, I even learned where the chow-hall was!!! Ken

I assume your friend 's last flight on the C-133 was to the "boneyard"!!!!! I worked on them at Dover in late 1970--definately not a "Herk" Ken

Montana had their first wolf season this year and the quota was filled almost before general hunting season finished. In the area I live in there was a quota of 12 wolves mostly in the high country and they had to close that season early because of the quota being filled! Probably won't be a season for wolves next year do to lawsuits etc. Ken

Sonny, If I remember right, when I left Naha in Mar. 69, all of the tail codes were still white and just the bottoms were black! Later on when I went to Ubon from CCK, I noticed the Blind Bat birds were painted like the gunships with red where white used to be. Ken

Appears to be a place where I'm sure many of us spent a lot of time while in Viet Nam. I got to visit Herky Hill at CRB for 33 months. A consecutive overseas tour from Naha to CCK made that possible!!! I will post a pic of some of the gals that worked there soon. Ken Carlson

Man, that chow-hall pic sure brings back memories! Mostly "midnight chow" !!! All the SOS you could eat!!!! It was good too! My favorite was SOS over toast and fried eggs. And of course, all the milk you could drink! I don't remember seeing any of the girls working there at that time of day though! Thanks for the picture Will, Ken PS I had a pair of those cool black rimmed issue glasses!

I was 17 yrs. old and a Senior in High School! A girl came running into study-hall and broke the news!! Ken

When I did a tour at Ubon in 1968 as a flare-kicker on a Bat Crew for 90 days, I remember going out to the plane to pre-flight the dual rails and as soon as I got to a plane that had ECM on it, I knew right away as there was an AP watching the plane and the Nav's table had a canvas looking cover on it! Only a few of the planes I flew on had ECM, but when it did, we usually went on a different type of mission/area. If I remember right, one of the hairiest areas was "Barrel-Roll"! I know that was an area that we didn't plan to bail out into! The E&E (escape and evasion) briefing was usually short!!! By the way, I was only a volunteer flare-kicker, and when I got back to Naha after that tour I went back to the flight-line and acft. 56-0475!!! Cam Rahn Bay wasn't nearly as exciting as Ubon by the way. Ken PS I posted a crew pic of my crew at Ubon, and am still wondering if any of you guys knew any of us!!!!---Especially Chris Carter. He volunteered also!!! The crew pic is in the Blind Bat forum!!! My avatar is a pic of me taken at Ubon beside a black-bellied plane.

5606--That's the number I was trying to remember!!!! When I was a flare-kicker on Blind Bat, we sometimes used to take the chute out of the flare cannister and replace it with two cans of 5606 (at least that what I remember). Boy, did that ever make a nice ground-burner!! Or at least that's what we reported to the AC ! donwon, thanks for refreshing my memory, Ken

I know they were using the letters and numbers when I got to Naha in 1967! I was third wiper on YJ 56-0475 35th TAS Ken

Leon, As far as I know, all of the Blind Bat acft. were A-Models from Naha! I did a 90 day (40 mission) stint as a flare-kicker at Ubon and all of the ones there were crewed by friends of mine from Naha! Now, I'm sure somebody will correct me, but I never ever saw one that wasn't from Naha! I never did see the one that had the bat painted on it though!!! It was either earlier than Sept. 67 or later than Mar. 69 when I was stationed at Naha!!! Or, my memory has faded some more!!! Ken

My friends & I used to do the same! I still think a sort of outdoor cafe on top of the wings would be a nice touch!!! I like the fluorescent overhead lights and the flowers in the cargo compartment kind of make it "homey"! Ken Whoa!!! I just hit 100 posts!!! I'm buying all the Taiwan Beer you can drink down at the "Dozen"

Dan, nice looking family! I'll bet you have a bunch of 30-06 ammo put away to feed them!! I'll bet the two Garands with the fancy stocks aren't issue!!! I'm glad to see you have a 98 Mauser or two! My personal favorite!! Your family speaks several different languages doesn't it!! Nice pics by the way, Ken

Thanks a lot for the great pics! I guess things could or should possibly change since I last set foot in a C-130 39 years ago!! Now, I guess you know, what does the rest of the flight-deck look like? Is there still a Nav's table? How about the bunks? Is there still a gallery and gallery floor? Of course that was on the E-Models I worked on. The A-models weren't quite so modern!!! Somebody mentioned a sextant awhile back. Do they still carry them? I remember them on the A's, but don't remember messing around with them on the E's. If they still have the sextants, are they still in the nice hardwood box? Questions, questions, questions! The next time any of you guys happen to be cruising somewhere over Montana, stop by! I would love to take a tour! 40 miles west of Billings and a paved runway--long enough for a Herk!!! See ya then, Ken Carlson