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Jcapsparkchaser

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Everything posted by Jcapsparkchaser

  1. TC just caught this thread , while at WGARS our "E"s were modified to the APN 241 at Dyess wonder what they did with all those APN 59 parts that were removed? This would have been a few years back like 2007
  2. Soc Trang 1969, Dec 23 went in early in morning to fix 006 (Balls Sick) generator problem pulled generator and inserted gear plate on gear box got finished around 1600 called for crew to come from TSN to bring us home. Aerial Port Msg. said no dice too late. Sat rt seat as eng troop and I started #2 #3 to move it back against fence. VC hit us just around midnight. Made it back to TSN next morning, Christmas Eve partied hardy, watched a C/C put a flare in the pistol and fire it off only he forgot to open the outer pressure plate above Nav. He was back at Naha faster than a speeding bullet but thats another story! 834th A/D home of Saigon Tea!
  3. JP, the individual you want to contact is Vince, EFLTatCCK, I am sure Vince can help you
  4. Happy Birthday Ken! The pilot left the the oxygen switch on all night the lox cart is on the way!
  5. Msgt Rock no dumb questions here you brought up some interesting facts. When I first got to Naha in Sep 68 we were working 12's , 7 days a week My first down country was to TSN. When I went back in 69 Dec we moved to CRB and the E's from CCK swap ed with us at TSN. The A'sand B's were at CRB. Just an added fact when I first got to Naha we (Electric Shop) were undermanned and we had Electricians from CCK TDY so we could do our mission. I also remember when the "A" model gunships came to us from Ubon because they needed all the generators changed because of brush failure!, but we got er done! So you see Rock your bullet brings back many great memories!
  6. Bob, if they have new wings they probably have the SCNS mod also along with LAIRCM and the landing mod MLS don' t know for sure was with those guys d during shield and storm in 90-91 CRS is taking over lately! oh and can't forget the new Auto Pilot which replaced the E-4 and last but not least the APN-241 radar which our 63 model "E" got at Willow Grove in the 90's.
  7. Ken, do you remember the names of the 2 electricians from CCK who were TDY to Naha in the Sept. 1968 timeframe? I made the mistake of walking thru the clipper room of the airman club as they were celebrating the birth of a child doing shots of VO with Heineken chasers! I was off alcohol for a few months after that one! Still "GREAT" memories, can't place the names anymore.
  8. Ken, like you and Sonny I was at Naha Sep 68 to Jun 70 with trips to TSN and CRB and all over Nam, we were still using the green cans of stuff during my deployments to DS/DS 90-91 and my 2 Iraq and Afghanistan deployments 03-04 & 05-06 in fact saw a LT after too many beers spray his fatigues while still in them not a pretty site ! I believe I worked on #62-1804 in either Thumbrait Oman or Balad Afghanistan or it could have been the Deid in Qatar a lot of the "E" s 62-63 models were still in use with Reserve units in the 80's and 90's in fact at Willow Grove Pa. we had 12 #63 models which at one time were Dyess plans way back when. We lost them back to active duty when that firefighting "A" collapsed both wings while dropping retardant in California in 2000. After wing box inspections , the Rock Dyess and Pope came and took our 63's because we had fairly new wing boxes which were done PDM in the mid 80's. I am sure Bob Delay can verify that. When WG closed in 2007 I had already PCS'd to Pope with the 440th out of Milwaukee where I retired in 2009 with 29 years albeit with a split in service 1972 - 1985 One more thing the C-123's that went to the Reserves and guard the places they were sent the main folks now are part of agent orange because of working on them and flying them the years before they were sent to bone yard.
  9. Happy Late Fathers Day to my 2 Naha ,Blind Bat buddies Sonny and Ken ! Like they used to say on AFVN radio "We Went To Different Schools Together!
  10. I had the pleasure of working for Chief Danny Formanski at Pope with the 440th, he was one of the survivors. It is hard to believe anyone would survive. Just a shame all the way around. I remember flying into Aracuora in Columbia many times on wet wing offloads and to see the rushing gorge on approach and takeoff . Ladies was a tough place to land and takeoff in a Herc if the weather was bad as it most often was. Here is in remembrance of those who perished AMEN!
  11. Fritz, I was a C/C at WGARS and learned many things while holding the gear doors for Zimmy as he did his pre=flights!
  12. Sonny since you flew while crewing it brings to light a fateful morning at Naha I went to chow and sat with the crew chief who was on the "A" that abruptly had the bleed air problem in the A/C and ditched but the plane sank with everyone on board. I am sure you were there but could have been TDY . I too slept in the shop waiting to GO during the Pueblo incident, of course we eventually stood down but all the Hercs on the ramp were cocked!
  13. Got to Naha Sep 30 1968, 3 level spark chaser 7 days a week 12 hrs a day "Blind Bat" , "E" Flight silver birds and of course can't forget the other 70 or so "A" models rotating in and out of TSN, CRB, in the Nam. They would keep us there for 90 or so days then fly us back to Naha in 8 hours to spend the night in Namanui . Got to work on the nukes in Kadena the ride up highway 1 was always a trip! growing up in the 60's isn't that right Sonny?
  14. I have to agree with Sonny on this one. When we moved the "A"s from TSN down to Cam Ranh Bay in 70 I think it was, we had a PCS Tech Sergeant in charge of us TDY electricians from Naha and Clark. At the top of Herky Hill by the basketball courts and club, were air conditioned trailers where the permanent party people stayed. I spent many nites drinking San Migel and Orion beers after launching and recovering "Herc Birds"
  15. Great article in AFA this month Sam. While at CRB I had the work order to connect the wiring for the cameras on a "B" that was about to drop a BLU-82 back in 69. Picture was taken and put in Air War over Southeast Asia circa 68-72. Don't like to bragg cause my rt hand is holding my tools and my left is in my pocket. I would have certainly been cited if it were todays AF!
  16. Happy Birthday Sonny! Is it "Sonnys Honeys" 533 also?
  17. Yes thats right in fact #1-2-3-4 all had "DC" generators with the added "AC" generators on #2-3 I was assigned to the 374th FMS electric shop 68-70 and other than supporting Nam at TSN, CRB, and a bunch of nameless strips in country with the "A"s we received an urgent mission from Pacaf and all the Gunships started dropping from the sky at Naha seems they were having an issue with the Generator brush inspections at Ubon and the generators started failing in flight. Made friends with the crew chief who didn't get out of the gunship while crash landing back at Ubon. One of 3 fatalities.
  18. Bobs quite right the record for a C-130A model was during the final days just as the fall of Saigon. A Vietnamese pilot crammed 495 people into a 130 made it to Hong Kong I think without a Nav,
  19. Curmudgeon, it would be good to keep any paper work that shows (BOG) in 2009 when I retired at Pope i applied for disability (Diabetes II and bladder cancer) thru the VA in North Carolina. It took me a while in fact I moved back to PA. where the VA there got the ball rolling and within a few mos in 2010 I was awarded 100% disability. it has since been reduced to 40% but thats another story. anyway it good to keep all (BOG) paper work from in country. Hope this helps
  20. I remember back in 69-70 taking vehicle from 374 FMS electric shop and driving up highway 1 to repair a hydraulic pump cannon plug a load stepped on while doing his alert preflight - I was constantly under guard escort and was leery of the internal cargo. The Herc was coked ready to go they even had the MD-3 set up to switch on instant power--- Those were the fun days when not down range to Ubon, TSN, or CRB to all my friends beers tonight in Namanuie---
  21. Sonny, was down at D.C, yesterday, as a member of the WWII veterans group we took a bus of veterans mostly Korea, Vietnam, along with a few of the remaining WWII veterans to the museum for their namesake along with the Wall and Korean monument. Our bus met up with another Pennsylvania bus and one from Indiana. A lot of barricades but I noticed the park police were civil and were not overly enforcing the closed policies. They did barricade and close the Iwo Jima flag raising as soon as our buses left. Also wanted to let all the Blind Bat, Naha, and Ubon guys know a special moment was observed for the crew of Blind Bat 01 lost May 1968. They are gone but not forgotten.
  22. Ken yes I have owned and read this book very nice read. Could have been longer and not too much about the maintenance guys involved with the TDY's to Ubon. I gave it to CMSGT Ray "Batman" fellow member of the 913th A/W at Willow Grove and 440th A/W Pope AFB when I retired there in 2009. I remember being friends of the para rigger who packed the chute -- the nav was actually hanging out the door like you guys liked to do on flare missions when it happened. Big stinl back at Naha but nothing happened to the rigger. Like Sarg has said it tends to stray a bit but then again a lot of people do not know how strange a mission it was!
  23. I have to agree with Ken you don't know what you will find case in point TSN RVN somewhere around Christmas 1969 I was dispatched out to an "A" model just landing from bringing in VC When the CC started yelling at me to get away from the airplane! seems he found a grenade hidden in dual rails. Funny thing as I remember the VC were hog tied to bamboo (hands) and they were blinded folded. made me realize the warning about the QC Vietnamese police were not all friendlies/
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