Graywolf88

After about the middle of April, 1972, the tail numbers and squadrons had very little meaning. So many planes were disabled or lost, and so many crew members killed or injured in the Easter Offensive of 72, that the crews which had DEROSed back to the world were TDYed back in to Ton Son Nhut as replacements. They brought replacement aircraft from stateside bases to replace the ones lost of disabled. Nobody knew what squadrons the replacement crews were assigned to, if any. The crews TDY from stateside were kept together and assigned missions like everybody else. All the crews were TDY from somewhere. I was duty Loadmaster for the 834th for a couple months and flew as replacement LM with crews I had never seen before.

Several places are selling a 1/200 scale model of Spare 617 now. They are from "The Airplane Shop. It looks pretty accurate. There is a video on U-Tube showing the model. For any who do not know, Spare 617 was the call sign of the C-130-E that was shot up really bad on a low level airdrop at An Loc, Vietman in April of 1972. It was flown back to Tan Sun Nhut and crash landed on the runway with only one engine still turning. The entire crew, except for the Aircraft Commander was injured from ground fire, and a fire in the cargo compartment. Spare 617 is now in the USAF Museum in Ohio.

Actually, CRB was the base designation used instead of full name on mission assignments, filing travel vouchers, etc. Each base or air port had a 3 letter designation. CRB = Cam Rhan, TSN = Ton Sun Nhut, ect.....

CRB home of Herky Hill, the only base in country that was a beach. Everything was a beach, sand everywhere, in everything.

Little more information on the seaplane research project. https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/40694/amphibious-mc-130j-transport-is-on-special-operations-commands-wishlist

Best I can remember, back in that time period, the hat rule was, if the wing commander approved it, the squadrons could wear hats of the squadron color with the squadron patch on the front of it. It could be legal for a long time, and then the wing commander got promoted, or reassigned. The squadron hats suddenly became illegal to wear. They were always, only for work uniform and never legal for any other uniform. Had a red hat with 776 TAS patch on the front of it. It was legal, then it was not, then it was. When the new wing commander took over, the custom hats were not legal until he actually approved them.

There are different levels of classified information.

Correct........... classified information remains classified until it is officially de-classified. If anything classified is discussed, I want no part of it.

Plenty on the Internet about C-130 operations in Vietnam. It would be mostly TDY to Det 1 Ton Sun Nhut or rotations to CRB when it was operating C-130 out of there. Just put in search requests and include C-130 and year or battle. You will find plenty. Ton Sun Nhut Association also has a lot of info. The "Wings" programs from the History Channel also has a lot of the episodes on U-Tube. A lot of it is on the web if you look for it. I remember everything and sometimes wish I could forget it.

Bunch of 7s............. I flew that one a lot. Had them put that tail number on the oil painting the old guy in the art shop right outside the CCK gate painted for me.

It might depend on which model Herk it is, but if I remember right, the intercom plugs inside the cargo compartment only have crew intercom. If anything else is fed into the cargo compartment it has to be done by the navigator.

Yeah, you and Charley both went straight to the hospital. They let us in to see Charley. You was in the operating room by the time we got there.

Doing fine. Faced a lot worse odds a lot more times and survived.

Putting chains and straps on, or taking them off, sitting on the ramp without a pile of gear on was no big deal. When it got bad was climbing over the loads, getting the straps off flying low level, while wearing flak helmet, flak vest, survival vest, parachute, and the plane is rocking and rolling, down some river valley just above the water. Getting everything set for a drop wearing all that gear was a work out.