C-130 Hercules
Page 16
Captain James Theis, a young enlisted air freighter at the 15th Aerial Port working seven nights a week recalled that night.
‘I was one of a few guys on break in the line shack about 150 feet from that unfortunate bird. We heard the rocket’s whish a split second before it hit the plane on the top part of the left wing. Needless to say we hit the floor first then hit the road briefly before running back at full tilt. Despite the inferno, I personally can attest to the sheer and unrecognized bravery of many Air Freighters that night. One guy grabbed the fuel line next to the plane to make sure the fire didn’t spread to the fuel system, one moved the fuel pumper away, one grabbed the large extinguisher and started trying to control the fire and one went around back to check for personnel. Others grabbed forklifts and yanked the ammo from the adjacent planes as we did not know if the burning plane was loaded or not and, as far as we knew, it could blow at any moment. The fire was awfully hot but it didn’t blow up as can be seen in the pictures. None of us were trained to do any of those things yet it all seemed a perfectly choreographed play, well rehearsed and acted. Yes, it was a tough night. The rocket on the C-130 was only one of several that landed near the 15th APS that night. We were lucky that no one was injured and that the damage wasn’t worse. Most men cannot remember or they do not have an event that changes them from being a boy to a man. I do.’
‘It was over as fast as it started’ says Alan Baker. ‘We scrambled outside and found the fire department already on scene spraying foam on aircraft 2642. It sustained a direct hit in the APU compartment, forward of the left main gear, by a 122mm rocket. The explosion ripped off all of the port wing outboard of number two engine. The resulting fire was so intense that half the length of the prop blades on number two, were melted off. The centre section of the aircraft buckled in the main spar area and the weight of the aircraft caused it to tilt and lean to the right. Four other aircraft were damaged along with some ground power equipment, one of which was a power cart that also received a direct hit and left a crater in the ramp seven feet wide and three feet deep. Luckily, there were no injuries to anyone in our detachment and only minor injuries elsewhere on base. Our ‘off the line by 0200’ policy worked that night. Given the trajectory of the rocket that impacted the aircraft, had it fallen short there would have been many casualties. Also, if the munitions had still been loaded, damage would have been much more extensive.
‘The only salvageable part of 642 was its tail, which was reused on an AC-130. The quick action of the men of the 15th Aerial Port Squadron kept this attack from becoming a disaster. Luckily, 642 was the only bird on the ramp that was not loaded with ‘Class A’ explosives bound for Khê Sanh next morning and it had no flight or ground personnel inside.
‘During the next week our ‘off duty time’ was spent trying to salvage as much as possible from the other engines. We needed the spare parts. Eventually, a crane was brought in and the aircraft was dismantled in sections, loaded on a flatbed truck and hauled away.
‘On 25 February we were s’pozed to carry a 35,000lb forklift to Khê Sanh but decided not to because it was just too heavy. Loadmaster Steve Hank reported that this two-axle 35,000lb forklift was way over the 13,000lb single axle weight limitation on the floor. So after considerable hassle with various colonels, majors and captains we took drums of Peneprime instead. Landing at Huế a warning light told us that the antiskid system was inoperative on one main wheel but I decided to press on to Khê Sanh anyway. At Khê Sanh one wheel locked up and scrubbed a big bald spot into the tyre as it dragged its way down the runway (we can at least say we’ve left our mark at Khê Sanh!) We could have flown it out that way, but there was a spare available, so flight engineer Bruno Fronzaglio changed the tyre. (Sorry, Bruno.)
Captain William Caldwell (born 20 August 1943 in Illinois) whose crew on Saturday 15th April 1972 of Lieutenant John Hering, co-pilot; Lieutenant Richard A. Lenz, navigator; T/Sgt Jon Sanders, flight engineer and loadmasters T/Sgt Charlie Shaub and A1C Dave McAleece attempted to airdrop ammunition to surrounded SVN troops at An Lôc. While approaching the drop zone ‘Spare 617’ received heavy enemy ground fire that killed Sanders and wounded Hering and Lenz, damaged two engines, ruptured a bleed air duct in the cargo compartment and set the ammunition on fire. Shaub jettisoned the cargo pallets, which exploded in midair. Despite receiving severe burns from the hot air escaping the damaged air bleed duct he extinguished a fire in the cargo compartment. Caldwell decided to head for Tân Sơn Nhứt AB, which had the best medical facilities. His engineer dead and his co-pilot wounded, Caldwell closed the damaged bleed air duct and he shut down the two damaged engines. The landing gear would not come down and the wounded and badly burned Shaub directed McAleece as he hand-cranked the landing gear down using the emergency extension system. Though a third engine lost power Caldwell landed safely. He received the AFC. Charlie Shaub was nominated for the MoH for his role in saving the aircraft, but the recommendation was downgraded to an AFC. Shaub also received the William H. Pitsenbarger award for heroism from the AF Sergeants Association. Colonel Caldwell retired from the Air Force on 1 October 1993. C-130E 62-1787 eventually returned to the US to the 314th Tactical Airlift Wing at Little Rock, Arkansas and then served with several ANG squadrons before being added to the Smithsonian’s collection on 18 August 2011.
‘As we taxied out to the runway the air was filled with choppers and the tower frequency was filled with instructions. Tower cleared us to take off, so I put the power to max and released the brakes. As we started to roll, a helicopter from the right flew across the runway directly in front of us - idiot. I crammed on the brakes and aborted the takeoff. I put the props into reverse pitch and started backing the airplane up toward the beginning of the runway. Meanwhile loadmaster Steve Hank opened the ramp and told me when we reached the beginning again. With a wary eye out for helicopters we leaped off for Đà Nẵng for fuel. Our troublesome wheel was now leaking brake fluid, but fortunately we had no more shortfield landings ahead. So we just capped off the brake line (leaving three good wheel brakes) and leaped off for Tân Sơn Nhứt feet wet. En route near Phú Cát we listened to an F-4 jock with a crippled airplane punch out near a beach and get picked up by a helicopter.8 All this was getting too much like war for my taste. A rather disquieting day.
Late in 1971 the 374th Tactical Airlift Wing at Tân Sơn Nhứt had assumed direction of ‘Commando Vault’ operations and not surprisingly perhaps, they were extended to include attacks with BLU-82B ‘Big Blues’ on troop and vehicle concentrations in South-East Asia. These accounted for many of the 600 weapons dropped (about two-thirds of which were ‘Big Blues’) in Việtnam, Laos and Cambodia, before the Việtnamese ceasefire in 1973. In the last days of the Việtnam War from 9 to 21 April 1975 South Việtnamese VNAF aircraft dropped BLU-82B bombs on NVA positions in desperation to support ARVN troops in the Battle of Xuân Lộc when the town was captured by the PAVN 4th Army Corps.9 During the Mayaguez10 incident 12-15 May 1975 a MC-130 dropped a single BLU-82B to assist US Marine forces attempting to extract themselves from Koh Tang Island.11
After the C-7 Caribou and C-123 Provider were phased out of service by the USAF, the Hercules units remained the only Air Force tactical transports in southeast Asia and these operated from Thailand during the final months of the war. During 1969-71 massive air transport activity supported US and ARVN incursions into Cambodia and southern Laos. C-130s made ammunition drops to US forces near Ô Rang and Operation ‘Lam Son 719’ was preceded by 250 C-130 sorties lifting an ARVN airborne division and other Việtnamese forces from Saïgon to Đông Hà the capital of Quảng Trị Province and Quảng Trị. Over a seven-week period the Hercules lifted more than 14,000 tons of cargo to a reconstructed logistics base at Khê Sanh (which had been abandoned on 23 June 1968).12
In April and May 1972 the Communist spring offensive resulted in more Air Force supply operations being mounted during to isolated pockets at Kontum in the Central Highlands region which shares borders w
ith Laos and Cambodia and An Lôc, a small provincial capital sixty miles northwest of Saïgon which lies on a plateau surrounded by plantations with tall rubber trees. Major Edward N. Brya (later Brigadier General Brya) designed and tested both the low- and high-level airdrop tactics that relieved the siege of An Lôc. After completing pilot training at Williams AFB, Arizona in May 1962 Brya, who was born in Los Angeles in 1938, was assigned to Dyess AFB, Texas as a C-130 pilot. In January 1965 he transferred to the 35th Troop Carrier Squadron at Naha AB, Okinawa. While there he spent two years flying as an instructor pilot on missions to Southeast Asia, including leaflet drops in North Việtnam. He transitioned to B-52s with an assignment to Carswell AFB, Texas in August 1967. During 1969 and 1970 he rotated with his crew to Guam and the ‘Arc Light’ mission (as the B-52 operations were known) in Southeast Asia. Brya returned to tactical airlift and C-130s in May 1970. He was assigned to Pope AFB, North Carolina, where he served as an instructor, flight commander and wing plans officer. In January 1972 he transferred to Ching Chuan Kang AB, Taiwan, as the wing standardization pilot.
‘In April 1972 as the war in Southeast Asia was winding down the North Việtnamese Army (NVA) launched their spring offensive. This caused a major build up and reinforcement of Air Force, Navy and Marine Air from both the cones and Pacific Theatre. In late 1971 and ’72 we had been withdrawing forces from Southeast Asia. The C-130 wings at Clark, Mactan and Naha had been deactivated and the airplanes returned to the states. The 374th TAW at CCK in Taiwan, with its four squadrons, was the only PACAF asset for C-130 airlift in sea. At the start of the spring offensive the wing had 27 aircraft, 43 crews and 260 maintenance personnel deployed to Việtnam, or incountry as we called it. During April we surged to 44 aircraft, sixty crews and 370 maintenance personnel. In response to the NVA spring offensive our short-field operations increased from the occasional landing at an out of the way field to major operations on a 24 hour basis. Early in April we brought ARVN troops from the 3,000-foot strips in the delta to Biên Hòa for defence of the Saïgon area. Other aircraft went to long-forgotten places to pull out men, land and equipment. We operated in the DMZ and Quảng Tri until the enemy forced us out. The major areas of operation were at Kontum, in the highlands and in the south surrounding Biên Hòa and Saïgon. During April we made 358 short field landings including 51 at night. In the south the centrepiece battle of the spring offensive was fought in Biên Long province. The communists boasted that An Lôc would become the seat of government for the liberated provinces. Colonel Ray Bowers in his excellent air force history of tactical airlift describes the battle for An Lôc as ‘the most trying time of the war for the C-130 crews.’
‘In early April the area was cut off and surrounded by the NVA. The northern half of the town was captured… The Raven13 and their American advisors were forced into a small area in the southeast corner of town. The command element was inside a bunker, which was located by a soccer field 200 metres square. The VNAF had tried without much success to resupply the beleaguered troops; during this time, a C-119 was lost to ground fire. On Saturday, 15th April three C-130s were sent in.14 They used the then approved method of a descending slow down into the DZ. They were briefed by 7th Air Force to approach up the road from the south, as all the VNAF drops had been flown and drop on the soccer field. The first aircraft [commanded by Major Robert Wallace of the 776th TAS, 374th TAW at Ching Chuang Kang AB, Taiwan] made a successful run taking only a couple of hits from ground fire [but released their load]. The second aircraft [62-1787, operating under the call sign ‘Spare 617’ and flown by Captain William Caldwell] came in approximately fifteen minutes later and was under constant fire. One 51 calibre round came through the right hand circuit breaker panel, killed the engineer and went on to shatter the windows on the left side of the cockpit. Other shells ripped the cargo compartment and ignited part of the ammo load. The loadmasters jettisoned the load, which landed on the DZ. Number one and two engines were shut down. The navigator and co-pilot were both wounded and incapacitated. With the loadmasters fighting the fire and manually cranking down the landing gear, the pilot, Captain Bill Caldwell managed to get the aircraft back to Tân Sơn Nhứt. [The third C-130 was unable to drop because of problems with its ramp and door. Though both Wallace and Caldwell dropped in the vicinity of the DZ, none of the cargo from either Hercules was recovered by friendly forces].
Sam McGowan ‘The TAC-Trained Killer’ at Recife, Brazil on 1 August 1965.
Supplies ready for shipment by the ‘Trash Haulers’.
‘Around 10 April I had gone in-county with our wing commander Colonel Andy Iosue. That day we had been out flying a leaflet drop. We returned to Saïgon shortly after Captain Caldwell landed. Colonel Iosue directed me to get with our chief navigator, Major Bob Highly and plan a better way and that the three of us would fly it the next day [16 April]. That night we got together with the airborne FACS and devised some ways, which would hopefully get us through with minimum damage. [The plan called for the C-130s to approach the drop zone at tree-top level at 250 knots, then pop-up to the 600 foot release altitude when about two minutes out]. The FAC would serve as our combat controller. To avoid the appearance of the C-130 from the same heading, we drew a circle around An Lôc and laid out six different inbound tracks into the DZ. The FAC would assess the situation and choose the track which would be the safest for us to enter. He also gave us a recommended outbound track to escape on. We proceeded to an orbit point approximately ten minutes from the Drop Zone. In this orbit at a safe altitude of 5 to 10,000 feet we completed the twenty, ten and six minute checklists. After depressurizing, the bleed valves were closed - this item was not mentioned anywhere in our manuals except for assault landings and takeoffs. We were having a problem with the aft cargo door. The up lock did not always work and thus the door would not stay up. While still in the orbit we opened the door from the back of the airplane and left the aux pump on after the loadmaster completed his checklist. The load was hot, all restraint had been removed and it was being held in only by the CDS gate but if the aircraft were hit and the load needed to be jettisoned. The ramp could be opened and the gate cut.
‘Another new checklist item we instituted was for the pilot and co-pilot to lock their shoulder harness to prevent one of them from falling on the yoke if he was hit. When the FAC cleared the crew into the DZ they would start a Low level dash at approximately 100 feet and 250 knots. Inside two minutes, the slowdown was started. While maintaining the low altitude, the power was reduced to idle. Flaps were lowered on Air speed to the proper CDS setting. At approximately 170 knots the engineer started down the ramp; thirty seconds out, the pilot attained his 600 foot altitude and airspeed in order to identify the drop area. The navigator drew three circles around the DZ, a slowdown, a one minute warning and a release line. The pilot and co-pilot were too busy flying the aircraft to be looking for the DZ. The engineer was watching his panel so the navigator was the only one who could make the drop. Of course during all of this time from two minutes in, the aircraft was under attack from ground fire. As soon as the load was clear the pilot increased airspeed, descended and turned to his escape heading. During the escape manoeuvre, the FAC, who was flying up behind the 130 during the run in, gave directions to help the escape. He would tell you to break left or right as required; then clear you to pop up when out of the threat area. Once out of the area, the crew reviewed the checklist and turned off the green light, which was invariably left on. Unfortunately, we were required to return again and again to the same DZ, at roughly the same altitude and airspeed. Even though we made the drops that day, they had us in their sights and the aircraft were hit.’15
Beginning on Tuesday 18 April the first four C-130s successfully parachuted supplies but each received battle damage. A fifth, C-130E 63-7775 of Detachment 1 in the 374th TAW from Tân Sơn Nhứt flown by Captain Donald B. ‘Doc’ Jensen, which was being used to drop ammunition to South Việtnamese troops was hit west of An Lôc and crash-landed into a sw
amp near Lai Khê. For several days the detachment at Tân Sơn Nhứt had been trying to drop ammunition and supplies to the defenders of An Lôc, which came under heavy attack from 12 April following the loss of Lộc Ninh seven days earlier. Several attempts were made but most of the loads fell into enemy hands and antiaircraft fire was becoming more ferocious so a change of tactics to low level CDS drops was required. The CDS drops started with a high-speed, low-level approach (250 knots and below 200 feet) until the aircraft climbed rapidly to about 600 feet and slowed to 130 knots for the actual drop. On the 18th as Captain Jensen approached An Lôc at 200 feet to drop its load his C-130 was hit by automatic weapons fire and damaged as it climbed to commence the final run in. The starboard wing caught fire and the load had to be jettisoned but Jensen headed south in the hope of reaching Tân Sơn Nhứt. However, Jensen had to crash-land the aircraft in a swamp near Lai Khê and all the crew were recovered by Army helicopters. (CDS drops were suspended after this incident but later attempted again during the resupply of An Lôc).16