Runner

wow...does that video bring back fond memories. I remember when Brian sang that at a dining-in at Clark AB (ca. 1976) when he was Captain and assigned to the 21TAS

Does anyone know of the particulars involving the crash of a 130 on Guam around '74 or '76? I once heard some bizzare stories that the pilot's were flying a local around the island with some civilian flight attendents aboard, and that the FE and Nav refused to be onboard the aircraft. Any truth to this?

Kurt

The official cause of the 374TAW bird out of Andersen was "oculographic illusion". From what I understand, a very dark (as in no moon) night take-off, the aircraft over rotated on T/O, no ground visual references, the pilot sensing the pitch was to great and over compensated by pushing the nose down (hence the oculographic phenomenon), failed to maintain positive rate of climb, and then grantitis impactus off the end of the runway.

New SEA questions;

Somewhere I had the name of the loadmaster on 62-1853 that was shot down at Soc Trang 12 Aug 72.

He was the only crew member who survived. Does anyone remember his name? Most of the crew were from the 776 TAS.

On 28 Apr 1975 during the Saigon evacuation 72-1297 was destroyed on the ramp at TSN. 72-1297 was a MAC aircraft from Little Rock, but I have seen it in 2 places that it was a 776 AS squadron aircraft. 776 was at Clark at the time so I was wondering if the crew were from 776 or if the 776 thing was a mistake.

Thanks

Bob

FYI...the C-130E that was blownup (mortars) during Operation Frequent Wind while on the ground at TSN was not a 776TAS bird but one from the 314TAW/50TAS flown in from Little Rock. When it landed at Clark AB from the Rock, a 776TAS crew flew it into TSN. The AC was Capt Larry Wessels, whom I flew with at Clark and CCK. None of the LR crews ever flew into TSN, and I firmly believe the Herk was blown up due to misidentification by the NVM. You see, the 314TAW birds had the new MAC fin flash, yellow stripes bordering the black MAC, which is very similar to the ARVN flag. The mortar rounds tracked the C-130E while it was taxing into the ramp, so I think the NVM mistook it for an ARVN C-130. An interesting note: The C-130 loss report had the gross weight of the bird at >200K lbs...seems everything missing from the 374TAW was onboard the bird at that time...all written off due to combat loss.

Over the years while Norty was flying in the 21TAS, I had the opportunity to fly with him on several occassions. On RONs, while most of the crew went out on "extra curricula activities", Norty was studying his Dash-1. Even back then, we recognized his leadership qualities and always remarked someday we would be working for him. Now, many years later, we're retired and he's still going. I teach leadership classes to students pursuing their graduate degree in educational leadership, and one leaderhsip philosophy I have my students read is Norty's epic speech on "The Chemistry of Leadership": http://www.aptusc.org/includes/getpdf.php?f=Lt_Gen_Schwartz_Speech_2003.pdf. No wonder that Sec Gates selected him to lead the AF.

His humble beginings were as a Trash Hauler, in the old 21st TAS,

for a man who who has acheived what he has, I also remember the

IP who took Norty on his first Pilot Trainer at Clark, JGH Jackson, telling us we better nice to him, we would be working for him

someday.

Rg Glenn:woohoo:

actually, if I recall, Norty was first assigned to the 776TAS (circa 1975) until it was deactivated and most of us "Red Lions" went over to the 21TAS (Beeliners). I recall flying with Norty into Saigon (Operation Frequent Wind) when he just pinned on 1LT.