Spectre623

BTW, where is the wench?

Well Larry, Lockheed got smart on this one. The winch is mounted under the floor at Fuselage station 257 to 277. You have an access panel and you can operate the winch from several locations in the cargo compartment. This mod is also available for ALL earlier C-130's. To bad we don't have the money to mod all the other Herks. Bill

Just curious? I remember the Ranch hands had K's with jets on them when I saw them, but when did they get the jets? didn't early RH's have only the 2 props?

Bob

Bob, between 1966-69 there were 184 C-123B's converted to K models by adding 2, J-85 jet engines. The aircraft was designed at first as a glider with NO engines...now that is funny! Bill

What are you saying Chris...that the C-123K didn't have 2 jet engines? J-85's me thinks. We are getting old huh? Ha Ha Bill.

Another reason Don...look in the mirror. Ha Ha We are old! Bill

Hello Gary. I did many rotations to CRB while stationed at Clark AB, P.I. from 69-70. As far as C-130's hauling AO it would have been in 55 gal drums with an orange band around the drum. C-130's never sprayed it. They used C-123's in operation Ranch Hand to spray AO. As a crewchief on a C-130 at that time we usually had a Crew Chief and an asst. assigned to each aircraft at it's home base, Clark, CCK and Naha . They normally went with the aircraft in-country when it rotated in and maintained the bird while there...with the help of the back shops ie. elect,eng, hyd sheet metal. Normally the crew chief did not fly with his bird after arriving in country. Just the basic aircrew flew the daily missions. When a crew chief's aircraft broke down while on a sortie in counrty, such as a blown or flat tire, engine change or many other problems they encountered, the assigned crew chief would normally be sent with parts and specialist required to fix the bird to get it back to it's in country bed down base..CRB,TSN or wherever. If for some reason the assigned Crew chief could not be located they would ask for a volunteer CC to take his place to fix the aircraft. Also AO was sprayed on the bases to kill the vegetation around the primeter to make it harder for the Viet Cong to sneak into the base. On an AO site on the web I found that they sprayed 21,227 gallons of AO and 1,373 gallons of AW on CRB . Hope this helps you to understand the part the C-130 and it's people did in VN just a little better. ( Another thought) Also Gary since your dad was TDY from Dyess to Tachi there would have been many times when he may have been picked by his Flight Chief in a hurry to just "Get on the bird and go in country" as happened to me also while TDY from Sewart AFB Tn to Clark AB P.I. in 64 and 65. Some times they would have an add on mission and would just grab whoever was on hand. On these TDY rotations from the states to Clark and Tachi, the crew chief flew all the missions with the crew when they went "in country" where as when you were PCS to Clark, CCK and Naha we didn't fly that much while on rotation in country at CRB. Usually when TDY back then there were guys who wanted to fly on every mission and then there were guys who only wanted to stay on the ground...sounds like your dad was the former. That's why he was always on the go. Bill

Thanks Casey....is 979 still in the inventory? I think it used to be in the 6514th at Hill. Bill

Just finished reading about the ABL 747 being sent to the boneyard in this months AF Asso. mag. It also had a pic of an early HC-130 sans ext. tanks with a laser turret in the fwd belly. All numbers were scrubbed with only ET on the vert fin. This is old info and pic...curious as to what the tail number was and did it go to the boneyard too? The article didn't say what happened to the Herk. Bill

You are right on Don. The winds coming out of Ogden Canyon could blow a C-5 off final as I witnessed during the big supply effort for The Yom Kippur war in 1973. All who were familar with Hill's runway knew you had to be set up for the huge 90 degree crosswind in the morning about 1000 hrs. This one wasn't and we were watching from our Hotel2 truck on the Rescue side of the flightline. When he got hit with the crosswind he almost lost it and cobbed the power and came right across our flight line at about 2500 feet. Talk about a scare....we just knew we were going to see a crash but the pilot did a good job on the go around and was set up right for the next landing. I saw a lot of strange things during my 3 years at Hill...mainly due to the 60+ helicopters in our unit. Bill

Hey Frank I guess we can't do it all but I liked Ogden Ut so well I went back for 4 more years after I got off active duty. That's the neat thing about this great country it has so many great places to visit and live....worth fighting for and sometimes dying for huh? Bill

A great spread Casey, thanks for posting it. A couple of nuggets of info about the place: It is offically known as AF Plant 6, it is not on Dobbins ARB proper, but does share Dobbin's runway. The final assy. building is B-1( that is where the pics were taken) and covers 76 acres and is fully air conditioned. There are 2 building number sets and they are B-1,2,etc which were the original Bell Bomber Plant buildings (1943-45) and buildings across the runway that were built by Lockheed and their numbers start with an L prefix such as L-10 (C-5 wing r&R hanger) . Also the mid fuselage for the 2 XB-70's were built in a tent in the B-1 building in the 60's. Also B-1 bld. had 38 miles of fluoresent light tubes. Just some info I picked up about B-1 while working there in the 80's. Any Herk type should tour the plant if ever given the chance. It will only add to your confidence and trust in the Herk as it did for me. Bill

Went to Dover AFB after Clark and when we junked out the C-133's in 1970, I got to pick my next base, Rescue at Pease or Hill AFB Ut. Sure glad I chose Hill. Best assignment of my career as far as a fun place to be...shooting, sking, fishing and hunting, dune buggining, mountain camping... oh yes and the Rescue 130's ,Utah has it all. Bill

Is that why you didn't get very far as an FE...ha ha. Just kiddin' Don. Couldn't pass that one up. Bill P.S. I crumped my first upgrade check ride as a 141 FE...about a million years ago

Great job Casey. Your hard work let's us old and young Herk Lovers stay in touch. Thanks a bunch. Bill

JimH if that ain't it, it is it's twin sister....only been 43 years (69-70) so I'm not 100% sure. The bottom pic with the stairs sure look familar. I do remember the latrine being on the bottm floor and a note scratched on the wall saying " Flush twice, it's a long way to the chow hall" along with the red rat poison boxes Ken spoke of. Thanks for showing the pics. Bill

And what did everybody holler when the film broke or he put on the wrong reel.......wait for it...."ATTA BOY LUTHER" as loud as we could. Bill:)

Yep Ken, you are right on all points. Funny how stuff slowly creeps back from long, long ago, right? Bill

Ken the crew chief shack was a 2 story building close to job control. Bottom floor was a lartine for the area and top floor was a flop house for crew chiefs waiting for their bird to land and the unassigned (55 day rotaters) APG's waiting to be snagged for rigging and other jobs. There may have been some spec. who hung out there too, don't remember. It had ac and a crappy TV that got Armed Forces TV shows and some ragged out chairs, sofas, etc. Not a fun place. Bill

Neat pic of the bunker Sonny, I sure didn't know about it in 69-70. What part of the F/L was it on? That was a big ramp at CRB. For some reason my bird was always parked on the far row near the taxiway fatherest from the crew chief shack. Bill

Hate to make you guys feel bad, but living here near Dobbins ARB / Lockheed, I can OD on sights and sounds of the Herk anytime I need a Herk Fix!! Bill

Hello Col. Good to see you posting again. How you doing? Bill

Never saw an Iron lung used on a Herk but I have hooked up several LOX carts and baby sat a few in flight. We carried them when we went into austere airfields while doing ORI and ORE's. Carried two a few times as they were "Tee'ed" together then to the overboard vent. Only did this at Dobbins thru the years. Don't ever remember doing it on active duty. Bill

Been thinking about the greatest adventure of my life lately (i.e. my time in Vietnam as a C-130 CC) and the question bubbled to the top....where did you guys go or hide when we had rocket attacks while you were on the flight line or your plane at Cam Rahn Bay? I don't remember ANY bunkers near the flight line. I know what I did when the rockets were coming in, which was to hug a piece of AGE equipment in the revetment and pray, but wondered about all the rest of the maint and flight crews who were caught on the flight line and what you did to try to protect yourselves. I know about the barracks, maint control and CC shack but what about on the open F/L. By the way that pic to the left of this post is me on my Herk 956 in the revetment at CRB sans bunkers ha ha. Bill

We had 987 at Hill AFB Ut. in the 1550 ATTW (1551st flying sq.) while I was there from 1971-1974. Good flying bird. No major probs as I remember. We had H,P and N models (10 total) and we removed the nose booms on all birds that had them. Pilots said they made to much noise and we didn't use the system then anyway. Bill

I want a table for H model troops only... I ain't sittin with no J model pukes....and you E model guys stay away too you smell like oil has been blowin outta your gaspers fer eight hours. Ha Ha...MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!!!!!!! Bill

Ahhh yes old Rio Hato, turn left out the Howard front gate and drive 30 minutes down the Panamerican hiway.It goes right across the runway at Rio Hato. I took a tour thru what was left of that base,while on rote to Howard in April after the invasion in December. This was Panamas special forces base. There is a grave of one Panamanian soldier there. Don't know why just one cause from the looks of the base our guys really ripped thru it. I have a floor tile from the base barber shop that took the force of a gernade or some type of exploision...weird impact left on it.

Hate to have been getting a trim when that round hit. I have some pics of Rio Hato but haven't figured how to post them. Good job Rick. Bill