Jump to content

alanwbaker

Members
  • Posts

    71
  • Joined

  • Last visited

    Never

Everything posted by alanwbaker

  1. "Refusing to falsify this training certification may have been a career-limiting move, but what could they do? Send me to Vietnam?" http://vietnamairlift.com/paperwork.html
  2. Bob, I'd never heard of Nam Phong--it was opened after my SEA tour--and I was curious about it. After reading its history at https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Royal_Thai_Air_Base_Nam_Phong, I can believe that prison at Sattahip was better! Alan
  3. John, My logs are letters I mailed my wife, so she deserves the thanks for keeping them for 40 years! Weren't we all young and scared? Glad you're enjoying the stories--more will follow. Alan
  4. Wow--I didn't even know C-124's could land on grass. It sure was the original aluminum overcast. What a change from a grass strip in the sixties to the biggest base in Thailand in the seventies! Alan
  5. Wil, While I was at CCK from 1970-1971, missed meal reimbursement disappeared for flight crews. But we only missed meals for half a day at a time while crew chiefs like yourself missed many consecutive meals. I don't know what the missed meal policies were in the maintenance squadrons, but I always believed that extra effort deserves recognition, and a missed meal was what I could do for this one crew chief at the time. Everyone in SEA made contributions that went unrecognized. The Air Force may not recognize those missed meals, but I salute you for your contribution, your extra effort, and your sacrifice. Welcome home, Wil. Alan
  6. A 4,000-mile round trip to a grass field in Thailand, presumably CIA. http://vietnamairlift.com/watthananakhon.html Alan
  7. Yup. On March 5, 1970 I flew 63-7775 to Osan, Korea--a cold, bleak place. I'll write a page about that flight one day... Alan
  8. Bruno was on my crew for most of my CCK tour. He was a great FE and I flew more missions with him than any other. I think of him often. Take a look at this story and scroll down to the last picture. http://alanbaker.net/vietnam/phnompenh.html I also did a little Googling and found his name at this link. Looks like he retired to Donora, PA. http://monarch76.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=headers&action=print&thread=275
  9. Giz, Yes, I thought I'd write this stuff down for posterity while I still have all my marbles (well, most of them). More web pages coming--watch this forum. Alan
  10. Jack, My war stories will probably never be a book, but I'm glad you're enjoying the web pages. I'm writing up my experiences this summer, so there's much more to come--I'll put links here in the forum. We were at CCK together--I was there through August of 1971. I just visited Lancaster County for the first time last month. Beautiful country. Enjoyed the Landis Valley Museum. Alan P.S. What tail numbers were you crew chief for between February and August of 1971?
  11. Muff, Naw, that landing wasn't luck--it was just unusual. Much safer than going around. My FE (Bruno Fronzaglio) was DNIF so I had a new FE named Carress. Sharp guy--he'd seen it all. Hmm, I did feel a little breeze after landing--he may have just missed my head. Alan
  12. http://vietnamairlift.com/gripegripe.html "Since Bien Hoa had a 10,000' runway, I landed 5,000' long with plenty of runway left over. I think 5,000' long was my personal record. ;-) " Has anybody out there touched down longer than 5,000'? Alan
  13. Such a day seems remarkable now, but at the time it was indeed just another day at the office.
  14. "Flying TAC VFR meant using visual flight rules in instrument meteorological conditions. If this sounds like an oxymoron, it was!" http://vietnamairlift.com/tacvfr.html
  15. In October 1970 we took an entire pallet of cash (MPC, green, and Dong) to Chu Lai. We had to do a windmill taxi start to get #3 going, and we did engines-running offloads of our millions at the subsequent destinations. See http:/http://vietnamairlift.com/currency.html
  16. Muff, Each organization had its own rules about buddy starts and windmill taxi starts. In Vietnam those rules were more lax. And yes, Utapao had the ideal runway for a windmill taxi start! Alan
  17. Ken, 3-engine takeoffs required special approval from Hilda and were only used as a last resort (due to a high probability of crashing). I can only recall one during my year from 1970-1971. But buddy starts and windmill taxi starts were quite routine--we did them frequently. My memory's not as good as it used to be either, but all those letters to my wife are a great resource for my memoir. Alan
  18. "I applied the brakes to slow us down and nothing happened! I tried the brakes a second time and still got no braking. So I told the copilot to turn on the auxiliary hydraulic pump and select emergency brakes." http://http://vietnamairlift.com/outnbackcheck.html Alan
  19. "Note to self: 5' tail-to-nose clearance is too much. If you really need a buddy start to work on the first try, pull in tight so the nose of your airplane is 5' UNDER the tail." For the rest see http://http://vietnamairlift.com/windmilltaxi.html Alan
  20. Just a typical day at the office: Combat loading Cambodian refugees, landing on 2800' airfields, one leg to Quang Tri carrying 130 troops plus one jeep. See http://alanbaker.net/vietnam/refugees.html
  21. This summer I'm writing about my experiences flying C-130's in Vietnam and Thailand in 1970 and 1971. Today I wrote about max effort landings at Pope and how Jane Fonda was arrested at nearby Ft. Bragg. Much more to follow. See http://vietnamairlift.com/popeflying.html Alan
×
×
  • Create New...