cfisher

I was reading about patches and Khe Sanh . It brought back old memories when i flew in and out of Khe Sanh. I remember one thing that seemed strange to me and I wanted to see if anybody else remembers it. I landed at Da nang, and there was 4. C-130s parked on the ramp with fire trucks parked in front of them spraying water into the engine intakes. At first I thought there may be a fire. After I got out of the airplane I ask a person on the ramp what was going on. He said that they were C130's that had been on flying into Khe Sanh. And they were washing the dirt and grime out of the engines. I had never heard of such a thing but there they were the firetrucks springing lots of water into the engines. Has anyone else ever seen this before. But

I was stationed at Little Rock in 1974 in the school squadron. We received a mission to Hawaii to do a over water training mission far a navigator. This was unusual because we didn't train navigators. We took a navigator and a loadmaster from one of the other squadrons and took off to HAWAII. We landed in Hawaii that night. They put us up in that big hotel on the beach I think the military owns it we were very satisfied. I had been through Hawaii two times before but I was flying commercial on my way to CCK and Clark and that was only far a refueling. We were to fly back to Little Rock the next morning. The next morning when I was doing my preflight i just happened to check the refueling nozzle and it was full of fuel I thought maybe they forgot to drain it after refueling so I called the crew chief over and he tried to drain it and it wouldn't drain . I talked to the pilot and explained the problem I told the reason that part of the manifold was supposed to be drained in case we had tire failure on landing we could possibly have a fire in the wheel well. So we both decided to put a red cross in the forms. They had to fly the part in from some where so we had the next day to explore the island to walk up and down the beach and see the battleship Arizona monument and see the museum a bout the attack on Pearl Harbor. The part came in and the crew chief replaced it. The next morning on my preflight inspection I checked the fuel nozzle and it was full of fuel again. So, we entered another red cross. The ops officer from Little Rock called me and asked me if I would take the plane as it is. I told him I would but he would have to order me to and except the responsibility if anything happened. He wouldn't do that he said he would order another part. So the next day me and the loadmaster rented a car and drove all over the island went to the pineapple fields and ate pineapple. The next morning preflight went okay so we headed back to Little Rock. I know a few people will probably badmouth me for the kind of preflight I do. I do believe in trusting the crew chief but I also believe in trust but verify.

I know most of us has attended a survival school. I went through basic, water, Arctic and the famous jungle one at Clark. I am sure most of us had one are two unusual experiences. I know I did and I thought I would tell it and maybe get some input from the rest of you. Eight of us were sitting a round the campfire at the jungle survival school and we were eating our C rations and a lieutenant did not want his peanut butter so he threw it in the fire a few minutes later it exploded and blew peanut butter all over me. That night we went to sleep on our sleeping mat I believe every rat in the jungle came after me. You remember the Nets we had over us well a rat got under the net and started jumping with the net over him. In my mind I thought it was the biggest stake in the jungle I beat it to death with my flashlight and then found out it was a rat. All the time I was beating it I was hollering very loud I woke up everyone in our group and most of us set by the campfire the rest of the night.

I have been wondering the same thing . I don\'t always agree with him ibut i sure enjoy reading his comments . I hope he is ok.

What a supprise. I found my picture . I was in 37 SQ Flight 645 1957. We sure looked differant then but that was a very long time ago. Thanks for the info.

My first tdy was in 1958 i was a third wiper on a B52 flying out of Fairchild AFB Wash. It was a exciting trip i got to set on the flight deck and watch a inflight refueling and they had to shut dowm a engine before i left the flt deck. I was a A/3c and at that time you would get fifty dollars for a one day tdy. Ihad a wife and one child making less than two hundred a month getting that fifty dollars was like christmass had come. You had to be a A/3c with a family to understand what fifty dollars ment. We was so poor one day a coke truck was comming down the street and they were going to each house giving away a 6 pack of coke free we hadn\'t had a coke in a long time. The coke man was handing us the free coke ond said all we had was pay him for the bottles and we had to say we didn\'t want any we didn\'t tell him but we didn\'t have 18 cents to pay for the bottles.

If you use Google type in CCK air base Taiwan you can see the barrack you stayed in and the all of the base and many pages and i mean many of info. most info is about the time us old Vietam vets were there.

I guess i was lucky i was having a record check at cbpo after i got back from a tour at CCK and Clark and they gave me a copy of all my travel voucher\'s that had all the trip\'s i went to Vietam. I also received a Air Force Commendation Medal while at Cam Ranh Bay. Two load masters got drunk and went to sleep smoking in the barraks and set there bed on fire and passed out. i had to kick the door down an drag one of them out. I guess i am a pack rat i always saved all of the paper work i got back after a record check so i never had any trouble proveing boots on the ground in Vietam. Twenty years after the war i was put in the hospital for a week they said had PTSD from the war i had never heard of PTSD. V.A. approved my claim and started sending me a check. If you can come up with a travle voucher that will be all you need.

I rember the first time our crew droped the bomb back in1971 I came out to preflight and they were loading this thing on the plane i had never seen one i didn\'t know we had such a thing . It was an exciting mission.Back then it was a top secert. I was in the 772ndTAS stationed at Clark TDY to Vietam.

I was acrew cheif on B 58\'s Ithink we had the J79 engine before the F4\'s. We didn\'t have. much trouble with them but they were new back then.I had to run engines when we had maint. problems and when i went to after burner it nearly scared the heck out of me. We had one crew cheif runing in after burner when he pulled the throtle back he left one in after burner and it spun the acft. aroung. At that time the B58 was about the fastest plane the Air Force had.It set many speed records. It was a very high tec plane in it\'s time. I worked on it for three years i left it in 1966 to become a C130 FE and was glade to make the change.Ihad spent ten years in SAC and going to TAC was like being in a completely different Air Force. If you have never been throw a SAC ORI there is no way i could explain it some times they would last a week and if you did not pass it people got replaced or fired that was in the late 50\'s & early 60\'s it was a one mistake Air Force. I hope i did not bore you to death with all of this i just got to typing and did not when to stop. I am sure there is some old SAC people out there that that this will bring back some old memories.

I Left Elemendorf in Aug 1977 and was assigned to Tinker AFB OK for about two weeks to process out and retire. When i left Alaska we were flying the E model. Don ihad a good friend at Dayess. His name was Dwight Wilkerson. We was at Sewart AFB Tenn. and nearly three years at Clark PI. You probley knew him . Charles Fisher

I was in the 17TAS at Elmendorf in 1975 when we received thoes E models. We thought we were in hog heaven. The old A model was a good herk but we were glad for the change. Charles Fisher

Mr. Wilson. I guess we are not helping the man out with the ess ac buss problem. Like Don Rogers said i need to have thicker skin. I took your comments wrong i thought you were making a personal attack on me.I was wrong and i hope you will except my apology. I have PTSD and when i get angry it gets worse and i say things i should not say so please forgive me. Charles Fisher

It seems that some of the C130 family on this site are PRIMA DONNAS. They seem to enjoy making fun of other peoples posting\'s. They make nasty insulting remarks indicating we are as dumb as a rock and show how much smarter they are than the rest of us. I have never bolox up a check list and never screwed up a check list on the electrical panel. Your statements seem to indicate that I have...words like bolox up, screwed up, and UH sounds like you are insulting me. The remark I made about the atm gen. was just a statement I thought might be of some use. When I gave a check ride I would ask if there is a sw. you can flip and loose the essential ac buss. The question was just a gee wiz question and didn\'t matter if he knew the answer. It was just a way to start asking questions about the electrical system. I don\'t claim to be the smartest FE, I am far from that. However, I do have some knowledge and experience on the C130. Like most FE from the 1960\'s, I flew three years in Vietnam. I was a IFE in the school sq at Sewart and Little Rock. I taught class room to pilots and FE for a month or two, then taught simulator for two weeks, then flew for two weeks, then started the whole process all over again. I was in the 17th TAS in Alaska for three years. The sq OPS officer had me teach pilots and FE systems on some of the days they were not flying. I was also chosen to teach class room and simulator to my wing commander when we changed from A models to E models. I have started engines with a piece of safety wire in remote places of Alaska when the speed sw failed, and yes I pulled the wire out when the engine came on speed. I have been a IFE and stand EVAL FE for years. I have flown the A, B, D, and E models. I have dropped the big bomb in Vietnam and made a jato takeoff on the Greenland ice cap. I know the things and the experiences that I have is nothing great, because many before me has done the same thing. I am not bragging. I just wanted you to know I have been there and done that. I don\'t post messages trying to belittle anyone. Some of your comments I take as a personal insult. I thought us C130 people were a band of brothers and would not run one another down. Let us be courteous with all are C130 family. I posted this message because I don\'t know if you know how you come across to people, or you just don\'t give a darn.

Was the atm gen. involved in this problem. I do know if all four engine gen. are on and the atm gen is on and you turn off the atm sw. with out turning off the atm gem.you will loose the essential ac buss for two are three seconds.When the atm gen voltage drops low enought it drop off line and the aircraft gen. will pick it up. That was in the 1960 &70 on the c130e That was a long time ago things may have changeg.

My barber helps the local undertaker with funerals. I live in small town pop 1300 and we don\'t have many military funerals. They had one last week and had seated the family around the casket, one of the lady\'s was very very large. When the honor guards fired their riffles the chair the large lady was setting in collapsed she fell over backwards her legs were sticking straight up. The lady setting by her jumped up and said OH hell they just shot my mama.