BRlang

Song Bee, supply was over by that large tent. After check out in country my first Flight Engineer was Charlie Brault. I had no idea until later that I was flying with a C-130 hero. He really showed me the ropes. Almost too many ropes. He told me to run in the BX and get a cheap bottle of whiskey. I was still wearing my state side fatigues. We hit Song Bee and he said come with me. We paid a visit to the Supply SGT. I handed him the Jim Beam and he asked me what size. He filled a duffle bag with jungle fatigues and olive green T-shirts and jungle combat boots. There was a story that a CRB crew flew away with a jeep for a case of booze. Anybody remember a jeep sitting around Herky Hill in 69 or 70.   

That picture is not blurry. That is exactly what I was seeing when I took the picture.

Who could forget the CBC Band in Saigon. They got out and are still playing around shout Texas area.

That ain't me. Was my room mate but I did have a shirt like that. It shrunk two sizes since those days in Saigon but I still have it.  Feather knows him. Room mate at CCK and back at LRAFB...I had hair for a while early on at FedEx but figured out that I could trim up and clean up and actually have a career. I went into Management and set up the first Ramp at MSY in 1980. We up graded from a Falcon Jet and DC3 to a B-727. Several of our C-130 Pilots at LRAFB went to work for FedEx and I was able to work with them on the FedEx Ramps. I was a lucky one to take my USAF skills to my life on the other side. Later moved to Savannah and opened the FedEx ramp there. The smell of JP4 still gives me a buzz in a funny kind of way. I am thankful every day of the experience and skills I learned in the USAF and would not trade it for anything. This is me at blown up terminal in Phnom Penn. We were the first US aircraft to land there after the assault on the city. It became a regular stop for our crews hauling Cambodians to get trained at Nha Trang.     

There is no way to tell what will be accepted. I put together an evidence packet that included Travel Vouchers, APRs noting my TDY days in TSN and number of combat missions flown, pictures of me in Saigon and a narrative about my missions and duties. I was entered into the Agent Orange regestry and had my AO related disability approved without a corrected DD214 or letter from the Air Force confirming BOG in Vietnam. My suggestion is to make your initial packet so compelling that it is more likely than not that you did serve in Vietnam. I did send the same packet to Randolph AFB and got a letter back that acknowledged my Boots on the ground. The letter came back after my decision was rendered awarding me 20%. I might be one of the few that got the VA to actually read a packet and not just look at my DD214.

That Pic is on the roof of the Merlin Hotel....

I like your avatar nice patch....Oh for the days back in the 345th and 2 APS......I hope you learned a lesson not to follow me and Ronnie into the woods. You might end up on train tracks and walk to Cabot..

The middle guy at the 3:19 mark was my Co-Pilot... Alabama boy. Me and the Engineer had put away the weapons box and headed to get some "Combat Essential" Beer...We were in the 345th at CCK..

I understand about the memory failure. I remember Major Cherry as I gave him a 12% MAC on a heavy plane. Thank goodness we had 10,000 feet of runway. Routine load of three pallets of 175 shells. 30,000 lbs 18" to far forward is a big deal. Yoke in his lap and full nose up trim and we finally got off the ground. Had to land hot. He didn't chew my ass but  explained to me that no load was routine and I needed to slip every load in the future. It was my second shuttle in country. I remember Charlie Brault, my Engineer. He was one of the toughest people I was ever around. Nerves of steel. My longest A/C was George Elwood. He was awesome. If we loaded rolling stock he would be right there with us putting chains on the load. Our Co-Pilot was John Grillo. He is in several of the Documentary C-130 Films. We were the mission hackers and flew the flag at the end of our missions. John and I got along since he was an Alabama Boy and I was from Mississippi. That is all I can muster up from my memory bank. I have my flight records too. I have taken my Flight logs and my travel vouchers and pieced together 4 years of history on my Calendar on my MAC.     

Jim, I remember you from CCK. My local VA in Fayetteville, AR actually acknowledge my Vietnam service after review of my packet that I sent to the USAF at Randolph. I had all my Travel Vouchers, photographs and APRs stating how many days TDY to TSN. This is the problem that we have. Some VA offices can actually think, read and make a decision. Others go out of their way to be difficult. I even got my Agent Orange disability approved at 20% without my letter from Randolph using the same packet that I used locally to get on the Agent Orange registry and to get my letter from the USAF acknowledging time in country. One VA agent that I talked to said their official position was that it was up to our Branches of service to correct our records and not theirs. In the mean time I am trying to get Congressman Womack to help us get a streamlined way to get this corrected by the USAF. Right now I am trying to help one of the Crew Chiefs that gave us good birds to fly everyday at TSN. He has very little documentation of his TDYs to TSN. I don't know him but I bet he helped us launch many days at TSN. I flew 5 combat missions and a few other missions on his bird based on my flight records. Here is a picture of me having some Combat Essential Crown Royal at TSN. I was an upper middle class Redneck drinking Crown way back in 71... 

Thanks....Made a few stops in there back in the day...

Nice shot. What field is this...??

Here is what was at the end of final approach..

JimH....great pics. I'm not sure when ops moved us CCK folks from TuyHoa to TSN. Before CCK I was in 2APS at Sewart. Most of our post tour LMs in the squadron shuttled out of Tuy Hoa. I got to CCK in May 1970 and we were working out of TSN. We lived in the Merlin Hotel. Half way through my tour they moved us on base. The shuttle to the Hotel was an adventure. But it was nice to have a somewhat safe city to hang out in when not flying. The Merlin had a nice roof top to hang out on. My only time at CRB was leaflet drops. Not my favorite mission. I had a cool Nav that we called "Woodstock". We would hang out at the beach. At night he would loan me his Flight Jacket with his 1st LT bars and sneak me in the officers club...Naturally "they" had better stuff than our "No Hab" snack bar. Everybody had a "No Hab" snack bar....Remember when you ordered a cheese burger..."No Hab Cheese"....OK, then give me a BLT....."no Hab bacon"...Left base to final...   

Bob, when I got to CCK in spring of 1970 no Blackbirds were at CCK. Thanks to several folks here I have enough facts to give Congressman Womack details of our problems getting VA benifits because our 214s didn't reflect service in country. I started this as I was helping Deanna get her husband credit for his Vietnam service and Agent Orange benefits. I am taking her through the process and at the same time trying to get a streamlined process with the VA and USAF to get all of us TDY Crew and MX folks acknowledged as Vietnam Vets. Short final on Bladder Mission... I loved this view 

Sonny, thanks. Hopefully someone that was pcs will chime in. Unless I can get verification I will state that ALL MX were TDY. Most MX that I have gotten info from did 89 days which was the magic number to keep from being listed as tour in Nam. Not sure if it was a political reason or what. At this point it really doesn't matter. 

Larry, you were lucky to have that document. As a flight crew I never had orders it was a rotation. 16 days at TSN then back to CCK. Give B-4 bag to the House Boy to wash my flight suits then  head down to run the dirty dozen. Catch up on a little sleep, repack and head back to TSN. 138 combat missions later and 45 years behind me. Go to the VA to get on Agent Orange register and they tell me I was never in Vietnam. Luck for me my records had all my travel vouchers showing all my rotations in country. I am trying to get the process of proof of BOG in Nam streamlined for the Crews and MX support that did not have the level of Documentation. I have the ear of my Congressman, Steve Womack. Thanks for the replies and giving us good airplanes to Crew.  

Thanks, I have gathered lots of information. Were any C-130 MX folks pcs to Vietnam...I plan to state that ALL MX was TDY to Vietnam but I want to make a true statement.

This link was posted on here last year. We didn't call them Angel flights but almost always coming back out of Hue to Danang we were the first leg home for our Hero's. I didn't realize what an Honor it was to be a part of this. Have a great Veterans Day. This morning I will perform "Angel Flight" for a Veterans group at our local Community College.

36/nascar/Sonny thanks for the input. The travel vouchers are the best proof of where you went TDY and how many days spent there. We did not get individual travel orders. We had blanket orders that covered our entire squadron. We went back and fourth on a regular basis. Leave CCK on the rotator to TSN. Be there 16 days and fly 14 with one day off and one day stand by crew. Then back to CCK for a few days and then back in again. I submitted my packet to the Air Force and they gave me a letter acknowledging my time in Vietnam but said no corrections to my 214 as TDYs regardless of how often were not noted on the 214. The problem was that the VSM used to be the only thing they looked for on the 214 but in recent years they say that does not prove you ever had Boots on the ground in Vietnam. My project is to find a way to streamline this process. Many folks have no vouchers or orders as is the case for the Crew Chief I am trying to get BOG proof. 

I am putting together a problem statement for Congressman Womack. I am hoping he can help me establish some guidelines and a way to get some Crew and MX a way to be more likely than not to have been in Country.

I think I have a better understanding of the scope of this issue. I will draft my letter next week and get it in Congressman Womack's hands.

I know this does not cover all the situations but at least maybe the ones of us that Crewed and the MX folks can get the credit for the time they spent. On Veterans day eve let me be the first to say Happy Veteran's Day..  

Thanks, am I correct to say that the Crew Chiefs rotated in country with their aircraft. Also were all the MX line maintenance folks in 374th FMS TDY or were any PCS to TSN or CRB...I don't want to understate the numbers of TDY Crews and Line folks that "had no boots on the ground" based on their DD214s.  

Bob, Thanks. This will help my case in my letter. I hope some MX folks will chime in as to their rotation schedules. Also if anyone can remind me of the TDY locations in country for the "A" and "B" models. By the way, I was in 2APS at Sewart before rotating to the 345th at CCK in spring of 1970. I didn't fly much at Sewart but did rig all of your airdrop loads...Hope I didn't give you any malfunctions..  

I'm trying to help a retired C-130 Crew Chief prove boots on the ground. He was based at CCK and did rotations to TSN with his plane, I have reached out to my Congressman, Steve Womack, to see if we can get a short cut to getting credit for Vietnam service. I was able to supply the Air Force documentation and photos that proved my service. I was lucky to have all my old travel vouchers. They sent me a letter acknowledging my Vietnam service. Most people are not as lucky. I am trying to quantify the number of C-130 squadrons that were based off shore. I was at CCK and we had three. I can't remember where the "A" and "B" models were PCS or where they based in Vietnam. Also for the line MX and Crew Chiefs how often they rotated in and out of country. I am doing a write up to include in my letter the nuts and bolts of how we ran our trash hauler operations. I am trying to get his support and a short cut we can use to streamline this process. I realize the gunships had similar a similar set up. 

Any input would be appreciated as I think we lost around 55 C-130s and for the most part none of them were PCS Vietnam....Steve Womack is a retired Army Col. He has jumped a C-130 so he will have a good knowledge of what we did.

For all of us Crew Members and MX folks and Crew Chiefs that were stationed at CCK, Okinawa or the Phillipines there needs to be a blanket way to get this fixed. There must be hundreds of us that spent over half our tour actually on Vietnamise soil. One problem we deal with is that lots of these people making these decisions were not even born when we were bouncing off dirt strips from the Delta to the DMZ or spending the night with their bird getting it ready to go again the next day. I saw a denial letter from the airforce that denied "Boots on the Ground" because they could not find any existence of the 345th TAS...Does the airforce not have access to google. This person presented a letter of commendation from an A/C complimenting him  "Crew Chief" for the excellent maintenance of his C-130 while in country. He was in the 345th. They turned the letter down because it did not have a "seal" and they could not find where the squadron existed. How many of us just walked away and dropped it all together. We had to put up with lots of crap when we came home and now they tell us we are all lying about what we did. I got my letter from the Air Force that I used for 'Boots on the Ground" however they would not give me a 215.......Now that I think about my Squadron (345th) sent one of the C-130s to Hanoi to get the POWs...One of my A/Cs , George Elwood flew it for the 345th....   

Here is what worked for me. I ordered all my records from St Louis. It took about 6 weeks to get the file. In it I found all my travel vouchers from my TDYs from CCK to TSN. Also were APRs from my A/C and NCOIC noting how many days TDY in RVN and also the number of Combat Missions flown. I put together a packet that included the Travel Vouchers for TSN shuttles, Pictures of me taken in Saigon with obvious Vietnamese signs behind me and the Performance reports that talked about my duty on RVN flights. I sent this to Randolph AFB with a request to update my DD214 and show my RVN service. They sent back a letter of acknowledgement and then a few weeks later I received a letter the I was instructed to use to verify my "Boots on the Ground". They would not update my DD214. I will send Dianna an email with this paragraph included but I wanted to put this process back out there in case anyone else is in the same situation.

BR

That should help, Thanks, Bob