jconner2

I got to fly across the Mediterranean. Another A/C who believed crew members should be able to sit in during an emergency, operate the radios and at least keep it straight and level.

I think combat weights were somewhat higher. I remember the "E" had a 175,000 ETO and that was used during the resupply to the Dominican Republic in 1965/66. We were loading at Pope and came awfully close to the tree tops on take off heading down to the DR.

Thanks for the link. I sent a note to Jim as I have a need in my business to utilize old aerial imagery to locate plugged and abandoned oil wells. There is a lot of USGS and WPA imagery, but I have had very little luck finding old military imagery and I know there is a ton of it stored away and probably a lot which isn't classified any more. Sorry for the slight hijack of the thread. Glad to see any of the old birds still flight worthy. Its my wish that I go before they all go. Its a tight race:-)

Combat Control guys if they still have them. AFSC 1C2X1

Better be a long shot showing a Herc! If this comes off like some C-123 or C-119 film we're all going to be protesting:-)

Aw yes hard boiled eggs in the flight lunches. Those old flight lunches could be used as a weapon for sure.

Not many places to hide in a Herc. Might want to consider it being an airborne communications model with a capsule inside. Tons of extra communications and a couple rooms. Narrow passageways around it and up on top as well. As to the standard comms, others will help.

That brings back a very bad memory of me loading one of those jungle road graders in-country which had an extra "lotta lbs" of steel welded to the front but not listed on the manifest. Ramp up engaged but not moving. Look out side door at weight and balance device (crew entrance door) and see nose gear off the ground. Luckily I reversed the ramp, got it back down and didn't blow the seals. Got the road grader off and reversed it in. Pilot mentioned it was kind of nose heavy when we took off. It wasn't that high though.

This morning on ABC they were showing tactical operations for the Superbowl. Jets were chasing a Herc around to simulate thwarting a possible air attack on the game. If they need something identifiable, they always use a Herc. LOL.

Sheppard December 1965. So I went digging through my stuff last night. All my training records and evaluations from Dyess. Orders to Mactan. Certificates for all the Air Force Schools. Still have my maps and notes from Survival School at Fairchild. Medals, wings in-country insignia, several zippo lighters etc. I have my Mactan Club card. I have $.05 from the Saigon Airman's Club and some military pay script. From combat loss I have: My canvas tool bag. I have that nylon helmet bag they gave us when they tried out some new goofy headsets. I have my survival knife. I have one flight suit, my B4 jacket and both pairs of my jungle boots (the only item of clothing that might still fit) . I have my old trunk I used at Mactan with some "Tailored clothes" that wouldn't fit 2 weeks after I got back (LOL). I have a .50cal ammo box stamped 1968 will all my records and documents inside. I have an ARVN paratroopers beret (????). I have a ring made out of a 5 dong coin. I have a Vietnamese doll with Saigon on the base I bought on Tudo street for my ex-wife that she didn't like. I have my Red 772TAS ball cap. For some reason I kept a lot of stuff.

Enjoyed looking at your blog. Spent a number of months flying out of Evereaux in 1966 as part of operation Cross Switch and was part of the base move from there to Mildenhall. As a Loadmaster I loaded a large percentage of the metal bed frames that were taken to England. I'm surprised they left the refrigerator. LOL

A bit late, but Merry Christmas and a healthy and prosperous New Year. John

TAC - Tactical Airlift Command TAS - Tactical Airlift Squadron TCS - Troop Carrier Squadron LAPES - Low Altitude Parachute Extraction System CDS - Container Delivery System LMAP - Left hand mill around pattern HUW - Hurry Up and Wait

My first trip to the far east was to deliver one of those birds to CCK in 1966. We were a Dyess crew commanded by Major John Spencer. It already had the capsule installed. We stopped in Clarke on the way over. I know we left CCK and went to Yakota Japan and for the life of me I cannot remember how we went back. Perhaps the capsule was offloaded or we took another bird back for repair. We did two nights in Tokyo and I sure remember those two nights. CRS.

My wife reminds me when a C-130 appears in a movie or a commercial not to launch in to another story, but I always do.

Bob, Here is a link to a series of shots from the Point Cross RAAF bird. John

Check these guys or e-bay which has hundreds of old patches. There is a USAF patch collectors forum as well. http://www.usafpatch.us/ http://www.aeroemblem.com/

Thanks for the post. I hope Bob is snapping them up.

Found a set of James Quality Jewelers bronze ware on E-Bay. Sold for $15.00. Cost me more than that to ship it home back then. No telling what my camel saddle footrest is worth. The place is still open for business in Bangkok. I can probably find the old hotels on Google Earth too.

I was there in 67 or 68. Wasn't there a Continental Hotel downtown? I flew in a couple of times and it seems like we stayed in one of the big hotels. There was a jewelry store called James Jewelry nearby I think. Everyone went there to buy individual star sapphires and other stones and Thai Brass table ware sets to send home. I remember they had a $10 drawer and a $20 dollar drawer and up for the gemstones. I sent my mother a set of brass dinnerware and she wondered who would actually use Brass table ware; especially with a coat of Brasso on it. I figured it would look better if polished before shipping.

Went to some little jungle strip in-country to pick up a road grader with a flat tire to be returned to Saigon to get it fixed (Boy Scouts without adult leadership thinking). Even at 19, I thought that was stupid. Anyway it was just a short frame, motor and a big diagonal blade. Manifest listed it at some big weight (I don't remember the exact number but thousands of pounds) with the CW stamped on the frame roughly a couple feet of dead center. Had them shore the flooring and pull it in backwards. Chained it down and started raising the ramp. Noticed the ramp wasn't moving. Seemed odd. Looked out the side door at the weight and balance device (crew entrance door) and noticed it was kind of high off the ground. Looked closer and noticed the front wheel was off the ground (Heart rate climbs very quickly). Lowered the ramp (actually the front of the plane) and fortunately did not blow out any hydraulic seals; which I was sure was going to happen. Called the army shipper over and asked him how much the load really weighed. He quoted the manifest + so many extra K pounds. I asked where the extra came from. He said they had welded some iron plates on the back of the blade to keep it from hopping up and down after they stripped everything off. Few calculations later I figured we could pull it in front ways and be just a little nose heavy. Had my fingers crossed on T.O. Pilot commented it seemed awfully nose heavy. Thankfully it was a really short haul back to Saigon, I was really sweating that load.

Hauled Korean KIA's to Seoul. Really elaborate ceremony. They hung religious banners on the sides of the cargo compartment and tied down the remains with new out of the box straps. I was only allowed in the cargo compartment to do the take-off and landing checks. They cleaned the bird before loading and left all the straps after off-loading. Had a Monk bring them onboard and a Korean Major stayed with the remains back to Seoul.

I was in it in the 60's. I know it seemed like we flew to hell a few times. I never really noticed the change when we went from TCS to TAS. Patches were different, not much else. A few on here that were in TCS more than TAC and could probably comment. TCS/TAC missions were varied so moving around was part of the package. I remember a lot of the older pilots discussed the "differences" between MATS/MAC and TCS/TAC a lot and usually they didn't say good things about their time in MAC.

The best source for any reunion info would be Pete Fischer who lives in Abilene. I don't have his current e-mail but he owned a company called Abilene Supply and you might be able to get in touch with him through that company. The big reunion was in 2005 at Dyess and all the Loadmaster went including Gary. Pete maintains a "Buddy List" of all those that attended. I think another smaller group got together a couple years later and went to Branson. I've not heard of another scheduled. I know there is a much bigger C-130 group meeting held every year and includes all the different wings and squadrons. You can PM Sam McGowan who is a big driver behind those meetings. Maybe he knows who from the 347th might be there. Unfortunately most of the flight crew personnel exept Loadmasters who were the youngsters at that time are awfully old or have already passed. I'm 65 now and am one of the baby's from that era. You can tell from the posts how important that time was in all our lives and it would be exactly the same for your John.

I recall a couple of the modifications at Khe Sanh. Set tension on locks to virtually nothing. Touch and go, load gone, re-supply and repeat. Another version was to just release the locks after touchdown and go. Both methods worked really well and only took about 45 seconds total.