larry myers

1955 regular Air Force Khakis.

I may be the oldest member of this outfit. If not I bet I am close to it.

Marvin, Your right your close to the oldest. I'm 76 and my guess is as soon as I post this, someone older will pop up. Came in Apr. 57 but unlike you was almost 21. By the time I got to tech school was 21. As a result me and another troop from Brockton Mass. were the only guys in our flt. over 21. I guess for this reason the sqd. saw fit to issue the two of us class A passes. That was almost our undoing. Didn't take long to become familiar with all the honkytonks where the ladies were. Looking back am surprised I even graduated. By rights probably should have been thrown out for ecxessive partying. lol

Had forgotten the long sleeve khakis. They were 100% cotton and after about five minutes of wear they looked as though you had slept in them. I disliked this uniform so much that I bought an optional taylor made gabardine one while still in B-47 tech school at Amarillo AFB. In 1957 the only blue uniform was the class A. The 505 uniform was also 100% cotton and looked like crap after about five minutes of wear. When the laundry returned your cotton uniforms they were stiff as a board from gross amounts of starch. The 1505 uniform was somewhat of an improvement as it contained some polyester and didn't require starch. I remember the bush jacket, pith helmet, shorts and knee shocks well. Wore it a total of one time to a Saturday morning sqd. open ranks inspection. Looking back, it's my observation the people responsible for uniform decisions in those days must have left thier brains at home that morning.

Does anyone remember when the AF changed from khakis to blue uniforms? Didn't wear blues much as I was a flt. line troop until my last couple of years.

My guess is she is a Democrat and went to Brown. Probably voted for Obama.

I put Hamilton on my dream sheet twice....and got Langley twice. In those days the APG AFSC had an F shredout which was applicable to turboprop acft. i.e., C-130 and C-133 acft. My worst fear was returning from overseas and being assigned to either 133 outfits at Travis or Dover

Every year, I think on 4 July, the Langley club had a big big all day and most of the night party. My favorite was the beer truck with the spigots on the side. There were enough so the line was never very long. The guy who invented this truck was a genius. And it was very successfull as it contributed to massive drunkedness of all particpents. I think you're correct Ken. If this kind of activity happened today the CC would without a doubt lose his job. However, times change and what was acceptable becomes unacceptable, sometimes for the better, sometimes not.

I had a new 66 Dodge Cornet 500, 383 ci, 335 hp, four speed. Estimate I wore out three sets of rear tires on Mecury Blvd. My oldest son had his provisional driving permit. After a period of time getting a permanent license required an appearence before a judge. When Bruce appeared it was it was to revoke his permit. Seems a local LEO clocked him at a high rate of speed on, were else, on Mecury Blvd.

I've been thinking about Trev also. Seem to recall, based on his old posts, the Yeman AF had two 130s. Shortly before the situation went to hell in Yeman, one of those aircft. ran off the runway in France and was heavily damaged. I sure hope he was able to get out of Dodge safely. From what I've seen/read in the media it's not safe for man or beast in the country. Hopefully he will see this thread and post up.

Be very carefull Giz. You're getting very close to revealing classified information.:D

Hallejula, it's a miracle!!! The horse is not dead after all!!! R.

Damm, I failed. Am going to call Dan Wilson to do the job right.

Apples and oranges!!! The gauges are still bad you are just prolonging the inevitable.

Do you think this horse is dead yet!!!

I declare this horse dead!

Just because the TO doesn't say to do it doesn't mean its a tech data violation to do it. I haven't seen any warnings, cautions, or notes in the TO saying you can't do this.

Rest assured you would be hard pressed to defend this position if in front of an accident investigation board. Suggest some research is in order to ascertain just exactly what a tech order is and is not.

Lots of very experienced current and past maintainers advocating subject procedure, citing different methods. However, in all the posts did not see a single TO, page and paragraph detailing hammering a deflated strut to ensure removal of air/nitrogen. Seems to me if this was, in fact, a valid procedure, it would be in the TO. As a flight line troop most of my career starting as a third wiper and concluding as sqd. superintendent including a tour as QA super. was adament about following tech data. In those instances where tech data was deficient or just plane dumb - and there were many - we made every effort to change it. If an AFTO 22 failed we made it a PMR/MMR adjenda item. The point am trying to make is if the procedure is valid it needs to be in the tech data!

It shouldn't be done because it's not in the TO. Think about it, how would pounding on a gear strut move air. Service struts iaw the TO and you can't go wrong.

PS Larry and Don, I was the first visitor!!!

Am going to do my best to prevent that from ever happening again.:)

Don,

Don't have a good answer. Except like Ken, am always looking for someone I might have flown with, worked with, got drunk with, got in a fight with, went to the cat house with, ect. And like Ken am disapointed when I check the new member's bio and there is nothing there.

Ken, The wingtip lite mode was fleet wide. I seem to recall these lites, when on, interfered with the N1 compass. So they were deactivated. Don't remember the fix. To the best of my knowledge the aft urinal was there from day one. There were also two up front at FS 245. I rivited the fwd. ones closed. Was worried about leakage into the bilge. That yellow liquid is bad stuff on airplanes.

Larry

When they demoded the B-II's we got 2 at 706 TAS NOLA and then 6 plus 1 NOLA at 68 TAS Kelly.

I flew 7 of the eight. 1532 and 1535 at NOLA and 1526, 27, 30, 31, 35, 37 at Kelly, I never got to fly 1528.

I think all were demoded and became FMC. They kept the LOX system on board. 1531 might have been an exception to FMC.

They kept that bird at Greenville for a long time until about 1981 1982 and did not demod it like the others. Last time I flew it it still had the strucures in the back and we only used it on pro missions. It ended up on the other side of the base now Lackland as an aircrew ground trainer and the back end is now back in a cargo configuration.

Bob

Bob, thanks much for the info. Was under the impression the sqd. flew A-IIs up until its deactivation mid 74. After reading the 7406 Suppron history it's clear the sqd. flew B-IIs the last several years of its existance. Which means the B-IIs were still flying the recce. mission from Rhein Main during the 73/74/75 time frame during which the Reserve Forces were struggling with thier demodded A-IIs. The fog is beginning to lift.

Fritz, I know the feeling. None of those acft. were the same. And I couldn't agree more about the goofy electrical system, and the enviromental system, and the nav. systems, and the ect.,ect. Of course, all the nonstandard systems on the acft. were required for the mission and worked reasonably well. But when they didn't, we often had to be innovative. The tech data covering the nonstandard stuff was, at best, sketchy.

I was assigned to the TAC/LG when these acft. begain to show up at Guard/Reserve units. As such, was privy to all the message traffic between the units and thier Hqs. asking what the hell are we to do with these bastard acft? And, I think to spread the pain, they were frequently transfered from unit to unit. Did any unit suceed in getting any of these acft. FMC? If I had been assigned to one of these acft., after inspecting it would have gone to my car and went to the club. :(

The C-130A II Rivet Victor acft. fwd. cargo door was also not deactivated. Sometimes we would need to open it to allow the back end maintenance troops to remove/install equipment too large to get through the crew or troop door. As I recall, Big Safari issued a modified TCTO at about the same time WR-ALC issued the fleet wide one. It was a simple one consisting of wedges placed at the bottom of the door in the space between the door hooks and the door frame thereby preventing the hooks from rotating open. Not nearly as big a hassle to open 56-534s door as 55-022s.

Does anyone know if the A II acft. received the standard TCTO after demodification and return to the airlift fleet?

I'm impressed. You guys have super recollection. You're talking about stuff that took place almost 50 years ago and you remember not only tail numbers, names, and places to include on what maggie your acft. was parked. In my case I'm hard pressed to remember my old tail numbers.

Geez Tiny, it's sure tough to be retired.:)

Not much work gets done at WPAFB area B when an acft. is scheduled to arrive at the museum. Everyone is as close to the runway a one can get. A traffic jam usually occurs as the public highway at the west end of the runway is closed. As I recall the runway is about 4,000 ft. When the SR-71 landed it was stripped of everything not needed for flight. Further, it had just enough fuel to make two passes. Not a problem as it landed on the first approach. Putting a C-130 in there is nothing more than busness as usual.

BTW, agree with Sam. If your in the Dayton, Oh area, don't miss this place. Could spend a week there and still not see it all.

As 1838s crew chief from 66 to 68 and being aware it crashed, am wondering if anyone can provide details surrounding the crash?

Thanks much Bob. The photo was taken after my time on the acft as the sqd. logo is not the 36th. Perhaps assigned to a 374 TAW sqd.

I was 838s crew chief in the 36th TAS at Langley from mid 66 untill 68. Good aircraft as I recall.

Dutch, C-130A aircraft up to tail number 54-1640 were produced with APS-42 radar. These acft. were easily identified by thier blunt or so called Roman nose. This radar was the same as installed on KC-97s. All As' from 54-1641 up came with APN-59 radar. As usual, early on there were exceptions. For example our standard acft., 54-1637 was modified early on with 59 radar. AFSC had several early As' with 59 radar. When you puruse the gallery you will notice that early As' with APS-42 show up in later photos modified with APN-59. My guess is that these acft. were modified, prior to being transfered to other air forces, most likely via FMS. I can't speak for the early A gunships but my guess is that APN-59 radar was incorporated as part of the gunship conversion.

I agree Jensen, the 3.5/NP2000 upgrade holds great promise. However, I think it will be a long hard road to get from an MOA between two private sector companys to an approved AF modification directive. Especially in view of the impending fiscal downturn. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for anything that improves herk reliability/maintainability.