Spectre623

Jerry your thinking is correct as per the "book" .When I was in Rescue 1970-73 the H in HC-130 H,P,N stood for "rescue" "C" was cargo, 130, according to the MDS T.O.s we used then. Our HH-3s, 43s and 53's were "rescue" choppers. The first H ment rescue and the second H ment helo as per the T.O. Course that could all be different as I have been retired since 2003. Anything can be changed if you have enough horsepower, just look at how Kennedy mispoke and the USAF redsignated the RS-71 into the SR-71 just so as not to embarrass him. Bill

Man these posts about CRB really get my 2 or 3 brain cells to going. I remember the 22nd well, still have one of those nifty double folding shovels the grunts used that I picked up there. Anyone remember the truck full of jungle boots that flipped on the curve at the bottom of Herky Hill.

Boots were everywhere. Also remember when the new guy brought the 40MM gernade from the beach into the chowhall to show the cooks. EOD covered it with sandbags in front of the chow hall and blew it up. I had just come up from the F/L to eat chow and everybody was in a tizzy. Those were the days my friend...we thought they'd never end...but they finally did and I miss them ,ha ha. Bill

I remember the M-113 APC's, would pull up and watch the movies like they were at the drive in. Sometimes you would hear their radio and they would fire up and take off to parts unknown then later come back and finish watching the movie. Yelling at luther for screwing up the flick brings back lots of memorys, like peanut butter toast with sand for breakfast. Ken what year are the flightline pics from? When I was there 69-70 we had revetments for all the 130's like in my pic. Bill

Hey Pat, welcome to the site. I was at Sewart from 63-66 as cc in the 314th and scanner in the 4442nd. Read your story about the shoot down. Congrats on a job WELL DONE. Thanks for serving. Bill

We had 84-204 and 205 at Dobbins and they had all the trick stuff such as the flush toilet, no long lines HF, 2 big side escape hatches and dual INS and batteries from the factory. I worked at Lockheed when the first ship with all the mods came down final assy....what a nightmare. I installed the first large set of side hatches as per the prod. engs written instructions. They didn't work. He told me to figure out how to rig them and he would put that in writing. It took me a day or two but I finally got it. Go figure ha ha. I think all the big -2 mods mentioned above started on ship serial 5000 in 1983 or 84. Can you confirm that With your trick book Bob? We had 6 ,81-2"s and 2, 84-2's at the DARB, a real can of worms sometimes... I loved it...but I don't miss it ! Bill

Yep your right...no scanner window. Bill

Just got my new plastic pilot cert in the mail today and it says "English proficiant" on it without my requesting it. Waiting for my A&P cert to see what it says. The issue date shows the date they put on it when they make the card. Don't like that too much as I got all my certs back in 1973 and now it shows 2009. Sucks! By the way your picture is not on it but Wilber and Orvilles are. Ha ah. Bill

If you have an old A&P ticket as I do ( 1973) it has your ssn as the cert number. FAA will give you a new ticket with picture and no ssn as cert #, FREE. Bill

Guess what the Brits will fly the A400M crew back from the boneyard in...yep, a Herk. Bill

When we went from rotating beacon atop the vert stab to the strobe on the backbone I was told it was to eleminate the need for a cherry picker to change the bulb or change out the assy which happened a lot. Also the strobe lasts a lot longer than the rotating beacon. The ladder that attaches to the side of the vert fin wasn't very user friendly for servicing the light on the fin....and who even had one? Bill

Hey Bob, learned a long time ago,NEVER, BUT NEVER turn down extra airframes. Even if you don't have enough crews, they make great CANN birds. Besides, Lockwasher needs the money..right RZ? Ha ha Bill :)

Keel laid huh.., worked Herk's 30 years and help build'em for 3... just where is the keel by the way? Saw several dozen built but never saw the keel.... just wonderin' .ha ha . Bill :)

Actually they are not at Dobbins but located in outside storage at Lockheed. While assigned to Dobbins for many years I visited them many times. As you step off the crew door you have to step over the rotted floor. On the flt deck is all the 780 equipment. Everything is brand new but old and how it stinks. In the cargo compt are all the troop seats new and stowed. It is full from 245 all the way back to the troop doors with wooden crated spares. it is like walking back in time. The Lockheed forms are on the nav table showing the first flt date and later ground inspections done by Lockheed while waiting for transfer. Then the insps. stop. The main gear doors have settled into the chocks when the tires went flat. The flight controls bang the stops as the wind blows because after a short time the boost packs had all the hyd fluid milked out and there are no gust locks. Birds have nested for years in the engines as they used duct tape to cover the intakes. The brand new intake plugs are still stowed inside on the wall. I have some pics somewhere but Bob Daily may still have copies I sent him long ago. They are sitting in 2 groups of 4. If you use Google earth and go to Marietta Ga then zoom in on Dobbins you will see them south of the runway and east and south of the Lockheed flight line. Also SonnyJ, back in the late 80's early 90's some folks from the town where you work came up and did a survey on them and said "Ferget it" as far as them ever flying again. Bill

Deleted after reading last post. Bill

Hey Wayne, welcome to the site. We propably crossed paths a few times between Sewart and CRB. Bill

Having had a good deal to do with converting an E model into a FUT for the schoolhouse at Dobbins I would say the walk around bottles were left on the acft to simulate a complete flight deck for student preflights. We even made up a set of dummy AFTO 781 forms so the student could review them prior to his preflight. Bill

Oh yesss....the old HTTB..first time I saw it was just after Lockheed acquired it. It was sitting outside next to the B-1 building at Lockheed in Ga. Plain old L-100-20. Stunk like it had been hauling camels. Last time I saw it it was a pile of twisted wreckage next to the clinic at Dobbins ARB in Feb. 1993. Saw it fly many times in between and do many things even a J can't do. It was an amazing Herk. Won't waste your time trying to explain it to you...just imagine a cross between the C-130C and Credible Sport C-130's and that was it....then some. Bill

When I worked at the Lockwasher, 1983-85, as the C-130's were being built they would have a " build code" of 2 digits and 1 letter such as "18E", about 6 inches high, stenciled on each side of the nose. This is the so called block number I guess. I never heard it called that on the assembly line when I worked there. The Herks build code, 8 at a time on the final assy line, would skip around because we were building Herks for the whole world. Very seldom would more than 2-3 come down the line together with the same build code. After I quit Lockheed they started building strings of acft with the same build codes such as in 1986, 13 each "69E" versions for Taiwan and collective runs of 8 to 16 with the same code for the Guard and Reserves. We at Dobbins had a split buy of 6 each "18E" and 2 "60E" versions. Of course since then they have been modded to who knows what. Each build code told you what blueprints to call for at the beginning of your shift. The prints told you what went on that acft and how to install or wire the part or system or if it got mud flaps and radio and heater ha ha. The prints were to be turned in at the end of your shift. Funny thing was every 7 days all the Herks were moved forward one position on the swing shift. Next day some of the old heads who rat holed their prints would start working on the acft (not noticing it had moved) and use the prints from the acft that had moved out of their position. I saw this a few times as part of my job as an OJT, which was to try to solve problems before we called in a "Production Engineer". I told several of those guys that Lockheed still builds a great aircraft in spite of them. ha ha. Bill

A1C Joe Tidwell a C-130 crew chief at Sewart AFB Tn. in the mid 60's ,lost his long battle with cancer this past Wed. Joe worked for NASA at Coco Beach Fla. I went on Rote to Clark AB with Joe in 1965 and knew him well. A fine man...God rest his soul. Bill

After the BLC tests it was demodded back to basic B model with wings and rudder from a damaged acft. It picked up the civ reg N929NA and later to N707NA after it went to NASA. NASA put an extended radom on it and several other mods. Bill

Nice pic of the only "C" model Bob. The BLC engines were YT-56A-6 turbojets without the gear boxes and props. It was the 7th B model built. The flaps dropped down 90 degrees from the wing as did the ailerons. It also used a 22 foot dia. drag chute to get the landing speed down to 60 MPH at max weight. It was assigned to the 4950th Test Group. Later this aircraft was moded and became the NASA Earth Survey 2, acft.

Wife and I went to the Smyrna, Ga. "Veterns Memorial" at the city center complex. They had a Blackhawk flyby in the missing man formation and speakers from WW2 all the way to a couple of Marines who just returned (one Wounded). It was a great showing from Dobbins ARB With their "Honor Guard", complete with a 21 gun salute. It was a good day to be alive, and to be able to honor our "war dead" properly. Hey Muff did you make it to the memorial there? Looked for you. Bill

Was on Herks 30 years and also installed and rigged them at Lockheed so... my thoughts on the FE lifting the crew door up about waist high and shaking it, is as about as good a check as walking by the tire and kicking it to check the air pressure. But hey... I'm retired now so , it may have changed...ha ha. NOTE:P.S. I just relooked at the pic a little closer and I see the retract pin on the telescoping rod is not retracted(if jettisoned) but bent, and the lower hinges are still on the acft and the door handle is in the locked position. It tells me the door wasn't jettisoned but looks like the "J" hooks were possibly out of adjustment. Would like to have seen how it was patched up as a prior post surmised and reinstalled. Vedy Inte-resting...as a certain inspector would say....

Well said RZ. Guard and Reserve roots go real deep. The gov gets a lotta bang for the buck with this team... more, if they would just quit playing chess with the bases and planes. Bill

No Donwon it was not Baca, aka Chief. Like Bob said, it was Gary Back . Word was, he and Martinez, an eng. troop were chaining their tool boxes down at 245 when the fwd. cargo door blew. Back went out and Martinez, only part way out hung onto the chain and was pulled back in. I heard "The rest of the story", as to why it blew open, in 1990 from the Lockheed engineer who investigated the failure. Bill