SamMcGowan

I'm working on getting them in book stores in areas where there are a lot of C-130/airlift folks. You can always have your local book store order them but the fastest way to get them is to order online or direct from me. Sorry, I have not set up to take credit cards - it's a lot of hassle and involves fees. I will take checks or money orders.

Both books are now in print and are available from online book sellers such as Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble. If you want signed copies, order direct from me at Sam McGowan, 3727 Hill Family Lane, Missouri City, TX 77459. I'm trying to keep copies on hand but allow a couple of weeks in case I have to restock. TRASH HAULERS is $28.95 and ANYTHING, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE is $31.95, including shipping. Or, I am offering both books for $56.00. Make it $75.00 and get a copy of my Vietnam C-130 flare mission novel THE CAVE. Full details of each book and links to their pages on Amazon and the publisher's pages are off of my home page - www.sammcgowan.com. They will eventually be available electronically, but will have to be ordered direct from the publisher as I understand it. However, they will work on Kindle, etc.

One of the airlift airplanes was an E-model from Sewart lost on a special operation over North Vietnam.

The answer is No. By the time the AC-130s were deployed to Ubon, LBJ had ceased offensive actions against North Vietnam and they did not resume until 1972. We operated over North Vietnam in LAMPLIGHTER missions in C-130A flareships but that ceased in late 1966 or early 1967 due to the proliferation of antiaircraft in the Route Package One and Two areas where we had been flying. C-130s can't survive in a high threat environment. Get a copy of my new C-130 book. It has a list of all C-130s lost in Southeast Asia, including gunships and rescue (there were two lost on the ground at Tuy Hoa). As it was, the gunships took heavy losses over Laos.Six gunships were lost - which is 50% casualties considering there are 12 airplanes in a squadron. FYI, 62 C-130s were lost in Southeast Asia. 52 of those were airlift, six were gunships, two were rescue and two were USMC. Two of the airlift airplanes were C-130E-(1)s, one on the ground and one flew into a mountain on the Lao/North Vietnam border.

They started snaring satellites with C-119s way back in the early 1960s. The mission then passed to JC-130s.

Trash Haulers is now in print and available from various book sellers. Anything, Anywhere, Anytime will be available within the next few weeks. If anyone wants an autographed copy, I am offering them for $28.95 for Trash Haulers and $31.95 for Anything, Anywhere, Anytime. If you want both, send me a check or money order for $56.00. Make it for $75.00 and I'll throw in a copy of The Cave, my C-130 flare mission novel. My address is Sam McGowan, 3727 Hill Family Lane, Missouri City, TX 77459. Trash Haulers is a revision of my previous C-130 book, with quite a bit of new material. Anything, Anywhere, Anytime is a history of the troop carrier mission and the tactical airlift mission that followed it from World War II through the end of the Vietnam War - it's a must read for anyone interested in airlift history. There has never been a book published that covers the airlift mission in its entirety. The Cave is a novel I wrote several years ago based on my experiences exploring caves in Kentucky and flying the flare mission over Laos in 1966. Details are on the net - go to www.sammcgowan.com/author.html for links to descriptions of all three books. I am expecting a shipment of the C-130 books any day now and will have some left over after I fill the orders I already have.

It must be a problem with your McAfee. When I click on the link, it goes to the site with no warnings. I use Trend Micro. I use to get warnings when I'd go to my own sites with McAfee but don't get them anymore. It's probably because McAfee doesn't recognize the domain.

It's a problem with your McAfee.

Not really. For something to be historical, it has to have made history. Credible Sport was a failed design and has no historical significance. As far as his "where would we be," where were we already long before the SOCOM and AFSOC were created? The Air Force has had a rapid response capability for a long time. That's why the C-130 was developed in the first place. Does this guy think air traffic control was pioneered in Haiti? I remember a time when Tan Son Nhut was the busiest airport in the world, with more takeoffs and landings than Chicago O'Hare. The XB-70 led to the B-1. The Credible Sport airplane didn't lead to anything. It's a curiosity and that is all. If someone wants to display it, truck it down to Hurlburt.

Yes, the Army, Marine Corps and Navy all had khaki uniforms in World War II. They were long sleeve and were worn with ties. Watch some of the military films from the period and you'll see them. There was an olive drab fatigue uniform and olive drab coveralls. The Class A Army uniform was brown. Officers wore tan slacks called "pinks."

It wouldn't surprise me at all. The US had civilians from a number of different agencies in Laos.

I'm not sure that shirt had a designation since it wasn't issued. If I remember correctly, you could get them at clothing sales or in the BX. Never heard a name for it. They were still authorized when I got out in 1975.

I've got a lot of problems with this book. For one thing, he claims the C-130E-Is were "taken off of TAC flight lines." No, they weren't; they were brand new airplanes, all 64 serials. I was in the 779th at Pope when we got them and saw the first one up close after attending a classified briefing on the mission and what we would be doing. He also claims they were moved to Sewart due to a "lack of room" at Pope. Heck, we had two squadrons TDY at that time! One squadron was at Kadena - which never did go back to Pope but went PCS to 315th Air Division as the 776th TCS. If I remember correctly, he really doesn't say much about Heavy Chain at all and nothing about E Flight, which was a troop carrier mission and never was special operations.

Look guys, E Flight and Heavy Chain were two entirely different and unrelated projects. E Flight was set up at Naha in 1961 because JFK wanted to maintain a covert presence in Laos. There was already a similar role at Naha for support of operations in Tibet, but it wasn't named. Heavy Chain was a project at Norton that was set up in 1965 with two airplanes right off of the assembly line and personnel from Sewart. Its role was to test new equipment installed at Ontario. E Flight was actually an extra flight within the 21st TCS that was responsible for maintaining four airplanes that were designated for CIA activities. Heavy Chain was broken up sometime in the seventies and the airplanes went to Hurlburt. There was another mission performed by the same unit that involved transporting classified documents and CIA personnel that is related to Heavy Chain. The term "E Flight" goes back to the 1950s according to 315th Air Division veterans, and was used as a code for CIA missions. Kennedy made it official.

Trash Haulers, the C-130 book, is in print. I'm posting ordering information on my site at www.sammcgowan.com/author.html. The troop carrier book will be out in a couple of weeks. I ordered some copies of Trash Haulers yesterday and they tell me I should receive them by the end of the month. If you want to order a signed copy, I'll be happy to sell you one! Its also available on amazon.com and barnes and noble as well as from the publisher, Author House. My understanding is that electronic copies have to be ordered from Author House but they can be read on Kindle and Nook. By the way, my good buddy Tom Stalvey, who was a loadmaster at Sewart and Clark, is working on his memoir and it'll be out soon as well. Tom was at Clark in the 29th at the height of the Vietnam War (68-69.) He was flying with Col. Coleman when they got shot up over A Loi and flew about 25 drop missions over Khe Sanh. I'll be putting a link to Tom's book on my page as soon as it goes lives. Tom is the current treasurer of the TCTAA.

Somewhere I've got the account Reed sent me back in the 80s when I was working on my book.

Like I said, it was CIA.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/26/us/politics/for-rick-perry-air-force-service-broadened-and-narrowed-life.html http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-politics/perry-colleagues-remember-solid-pilot-and-airman-1863224.html?viewAsSinglePage=true Gov. Perry is very personable. I flew him around one day a few years ago. He's very friendly and easy to talk too. The NY Times article is recent; the Austin-Statesman article is from September.

Governor Perry went back to farming after he got out. He also did some corporate and charter flying.

Sounds like a BS story to me.

I visited Greybull a few years ago and took several pictures. At one time I had a web page but accidentally deleted it while trying to use Front Page. I don't think I have any of the scanned photos on any disks, but I do have the slides. One of these days I'll rescan them and post them. Hawkins and Powers has an interesting collection of airplanes. When I was there in 1999-2000 they still had several Herks. They also have a C-119 with a jet engine on top that was used in the remake of Flight of the Phoenix - they airbrushed the jet engine out. They also had at least one C-97.

You never flew combat, did you?

I never saw a C-130 that didn't have the ladders. They were kept in the cargo door. We did use them at first on scheduled passenger flights but somebody in 315th or 834th decided to build wooden steps. I flew Es TDY to PACAF from Pope, As out of Naha and Bs out of Clark.

Actually, on the scheduled passenger runs passengers were loaded through the troop doors, the left one as I recall. Pax service had special steps that matched with the door. We couldn't load through the ramp because it had a baggage pallet on it.

Peter Smith is British if I'm not mistaken. "MAS" could be a typo. We writers do make mistakes!