C-130 Hercules

by Martin W Bowman

  The reopening of Highway 19 in late April ended the critical dependence on airlift for transport to Pleiku, but the closure of Highway 14 north of Pleiku on 24 April left the defenders of Kontum wholly isolated except by air during more than two months of heavy and close fighting. Bladder-bird deliveries into Kontum commenced on 23 April, expanding to 24,000 gallons the next day, rebuilding reserves against daily consumption of 15,600. Meanwhile other aircraft landed with hard cargo, departing with the last of the airborne brigade ordered out earlier. Enemy shells periodically interrupted flight-line activity and ground-to-air fire harassed arriving and departing planes. USAF control and aerial port teams worked on the ground at Kontum to speed the flow, as the volume of shelling increased daily.

  Hair-raising episodes became commonplace. A bladder-bird received major damage on the 26th. The pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Reed Mulkey of the 50th Tactical Airlift Squadron and a veteran of the 1968 campaign, was attempting departure when a rocket detonated immediately in front of his aircraft, flattening the landing gear, silencing one of the engines and causing major fuel leaks. A three man repair party arrived to inspect the damage and begin repairs. While they worked, more rockets began detonating - one ventilated a C-130 which had just landed and another made a direct hit on a VNAF C-123 parked nearby. US Army and USAF bystanders fought the fire with hand extinguishers, courageously climbing inside and atop the burning hulk. An eleven-man repair team arrived to complete repairs shortly before dusk on 30 April. Working with flashlights and into the morning, the team finished at midday. Rockets continued to detonate, nearly destroying a VNAF C-123 taking off loaded with refugees. Mulkey’s repaired craft and a relief C-130 barely managed take-offs in early afternoon, as both received additional shrapnel holes. Mulkey, with fresh fuel leaks and a lost engine on the previously undamaged side - made a three- engine emergency landing at Pleiku. In a separate episode, Staff Sergeant Floyd J. Monville, a fuels NCO, received acclaim for successfully offloading a damaged C-130 and transferring its bladder system to another C-130, all under fire, using the only vehicle available - a small warehouse type forklift. Monville was later nominated for the Jaycee’s award, ‘America’s Ten Outstanding Young Men of 1972,’ both for his exploits at Kontum and for his role as volunteer director of the Gò Vấp Orphanage in Việtnam.

  Altitudes were swiftly increased to above 6,000 feet dropping with ground-radar guidance (GRADS). The drop crews worked with AC-130 gunship crews who provided winds aloft information to the C-130 navigators from their gunsight computers. The results were considerably improved over those attained previously, but ‘high altitude, low-opening’ parachute techniques proved unsuccessful because numerous chutes failed - in part because they had been incorrectly packed by Việtnamese packers. The C-130 crews had no option but to resume the more deadly low-level conventional airdrops; and inevitably the aircraft received hits. Finally, Air Force switched to resupply at night. On the first two nights, the blacked-out C-130 crews enjoyed the element of surprise and managed to get their loads close enough to the target that the South Việtnamese managed to recover most of them. AC-130 gunships provided covering fire. Many if not most of the AC-130 pilots had come from tactical airlift units and were familiar with the airdrop techniques. Light signals used on the ground failed to guide the 130s in and many bundles of supplies missed their mark, some falling into Communist hands. Colonel Andrew Iosue felt that the night landings at Kontum were ‘a dicey operation’ and that the absence of accidents under the conditions was remarkable. Landings ended shortly before dawn on the 25th, with Communist troops lodged at the east end of the runway and delivering small arms fire from three directions at the last C-130 lifting off with the USAF ground teams. Fighting continued throughout the city, with resupply by American and VNAF Chinook helicopters, while the USAF prepared to start C-130 paradrops.

  On the third night, 25/26 April, C-130E 64-0508 of Detachment 1, 374th TAW at CCK AB, Taiwan was flown by Major Harry Arlo Amesbury. This crew had dropped supplies to ARVN forces on the 24th at Kompo Trach and their aircraft had been hit by ground fire no less 86 times on that mission. The aircraft approached the drop zone at An Lôc at 500 feet and 170 knots when it entered ‘a wall of fire’ and was hit and crashed shortly afterwards about five miles south of An Lôc. All the crew were killed. Two other Hercules had already been hit by ground fire during the night’s operation and when Major Amesbury’s aircraft was lost the airdrop was brought to a halt for the night.20

  On 29 April an SA-7 surface-to-air missile was fired in Quảng Trị, confirming for the first time that the NVA were now equipped with the deadly shoulder-fired missiles. With SA-7s in South Việtnam, low-altitude airdrop missions were almost unthinkable. Fortunately, the Air Force riggers at CCK had come up with a solution to the problem. In World War II and Korea supplies were often dropped without a parachute attached and the USAF riggers discovered that with the proper amount of packing material, bundles containing even ammunition could be safely dropped using slotted extraction parachutes to stabilize, but not retard the descent of the load. The loads descended four times faster than a similar load suspended beneath a G-12 parachute and were thus less susceptible to the winds at altitude. As it turned out the high-velocity drops using the GRADS technique not only allowed the C-130 crews to drop from altitudes above the range of the antiaircraft guns at An Lôc and even the SA-7s (which are effective only to about 4,000 feet), they also allowed unprecedented accuracy. Some supplies such as medical materials and fuel proved unsuitable for the high velocity method and had to be dropped using the HALO parachutes, but most items could be delivered without restraining parachutes. Fortunately, the defenders at An Lôc had discovered a source of fresh water so ammunition and rations were the primary commodities that had to be airdropped to the defenders.

  Operation ‘Homecoming’ at Gia Lam Airport in Hànôi in 1973.

  The USAF resumed high altitude GRADS daylight drops at An Lôc on 5 May having solved some of the earlier problems with the system and achieved a 90 per cent success rate using this radardirected drop procedure. Loads were attached to parachutes rigged properly and only one of the twenty-four bundles dropped fell into enemy hands.

  The high-velocity method was developed just in time, for on 11 May the first SA-7 firings were reported at An Lôc. The drop planes were able to operate without fear of the Strela missiles, but the AC-130 gunships were considerably affected. Their guns lost their effectiveness at the 10,000 foot altitudes that were necessary to avoid the SA-7s. Tactics were worked out for the AC-130 and C-130 crews to fire decoy flares when an SA-7 firing was observed. The heat-seeking missiles would home on the more intense heat of the flares instead of the C-130’s exhaust. Four C-130 crews reported SA-7 firings in South Việtnam in May/June but none were hit. The AC-130s did not fare as well; one was badly damaged on 12 May and another was shot down near Huế in June.

  Because only a portion of the C-130 crews at CCK were drop qualified, the missions over An Lôc meant that the same people were bearing the brunt of the burden. The crews were well aware that each mission might be their last. They wore flak suits and helmets while the loadmasters filled the airplane garbage can with tie-down chains and climbed inside it while over the drop zone. For a week the night drops continued, with the C-130 crews encountering heavy fire on each mission and only about 10% of the loads were positively recovered. More than half of the drop planes took hits and several crewmembers were wounded. Two daylight supply operations and one night drop to 20,000 defenders and refugees at An Lôc had cost three C-130s by 3 May and on the night of 2/3 May the C-130s failed to make a single successful delivery. The following night, C-130E 62-1797 of Detachment 1in the 374th TAW from Tân Sơn Nhứt was shot down. Captain Donald Lee Unger had made his low level CDS drop and was pulling up from 500 feet to return to Tân Sơn Nhứt when his aircraft was hit by automatic weapons fire. The Hercules crashed a few miles from An Lôc and all the crew were killed. After this incident no more low leve
l drops were made at An Lôc.

  As from 8 May, when the An Lôc garrison recovered 65 of the 88 tons dropped, things improved and by the end of the siege, on 18 June, 7,600 tons had been dropped by the C-130s in more than 600 sorties.

  Meanwhile, Kontum had been cut off when the NVA captured Đắk Tô on 24 April and cut the road from Pleiku. From then on the only method of resupply of fuel, food, ammunition and other supplies was by air. During the eight days prior to 3 May, the C-130s made approximately fifteen landings daily at Kontum - a typical day’s work was seven loads of munitions, five of POL and three of rice. During the same eight days VNAF transports made fifteen deliveries. On 2 May, a C-130 lost several feet of wingtip in a collision with a helicopter at the crowded airhead, but managed an emergency landing at Pleiku. Rocket damage to another C-130 the next day brought a decision to shift to night operations. Meanwhile, rocket attacks were beginning at Pleiku, threatening both C-130s on the ground there. Day operations to Kontum ceased abruptly on 17 May after enemy fire damaged several C-130s, burned two VNAF C-123s and destroyed a C-130E (63-7798) in the 776th TAS 374th TAW; the latter was hit in one of its engines by a mortar or a rocket while taking off. Captain Richard Harold Hagman and three other crewmen were killed. The lone survivor was rescued by an American helicopter. Hercules operations resumed exclusively at night on 18/19 May, with seventeen C-130s running the gauntlet of enemy fire to carry out successful deliveries and fifteen more on the 20th sustained the flow of supplies. Resupply continued nightly under cover of allied gunships. On the night of 22/23 May two C-130s received shrapnel damage, one managing an emergency landing at Đà Nẵng. C-130E 62-1854 Quan Loi Queen of ‘E’ Flight, 21st Tactical Airlift Squadron, damaged after midnight on 22 May, was further damaged and the next day when it delayed its departure past dawn and was destroyed by a missile on the ground. Two days later the Communists seized a part of the Kontum runway, closing the airfield to landings except by helicopters and it was not until the 28th that the Hercules could resume airdrops overhead. More than 2,000 tons were dropped in 130 C-130 sorties before the Hercules could resume night landings on 8 June.

  An important forerunner of the Kontum airdrops were the drops begun in mid-May at several isolated and hard-pressed camps farther north and west. Dak Pek, Mang Buk and Ben Het received a total of 19 C-130 drops during May using techniques developed recently for release from altitudes above the level of anti-aircraft effectiveness. Drops began at Kontum with a single mission on the afternoon of 27 May. During the next four days, 19 C-130 loads were parachuted to a drop zone near the city’s south-west corner (the Communists held much of the east half of the city). With some success in pushing the Communists from their sectors, the drop zone was shifted to the more convenient north-west sector; 68 C-130 drop sorties took place during the first seven days of June. Although retrieval parties on the ground had trouble keeping up with the volume of deliveries, the II Corps G-4 reported that the drops ‘have been very accurate and nearly all parachute bundles are impacting in the recovery area.’ Much of this success reflected the painful evolution of effective methods experienced earlier at An Lôc. C-130 landings resumed on the night of 8/9 June. Six 130s made blacked-out GCA approaches and landings that night. During C-130 approaches, friendly artillery fire was directed into the likely danger area to discourage enemy shelling and flare shells were detonated near the runway in hopes of distracting any surface-to-air missile. The daytime drops continued, ending on 14 June after another 48 sorties since the 7th. Through the nineteen days of drops, not a single C-130 received battle damage.

  Stretcher cases being airlifted from Việtnam in a RAAF C-130. (Australian War Memorial)

  Australian troops leaving Việtnam in C-130E A97-189 (65-12906).

  A further aspect gave added significance to the Kontum resupply. Sixteen of the drops were performed using the All Weather Air Delivery System (AWADS) by aircraft and crews recently deployed under ‘Constant Guard IV’ from the United States. A preliminary mission on 1 June attained moderate success at Svay Rieng in Cambodia. Two days later, two aircraft released at Kontum, aiming with the aid of a ground radar beacon transponder. Accuracy appeared satisfactory, but half the bundles could not be recovered because of enemy fire on the drop zone. During 7-14 June C-130 crews made another fifteen AWADS drops at Kontum. Navigators aimed using the self-contained radar and computer system, now using reflected radar returns. A bridge south of the town served for late computer update; a river bend at the city served as the final offset aiming point. The largest recorded impact error was 300 metres; all drops were from 10,000 feet. One drop, on 12 June, was performed in two-ship formation using the electronic station-keeping equipment (SKE), the trail ship dropping 5.4 seconds behind the AWADS-equipped leader. The result was spectacular; the second ship’s load landed atop the leader’s. The only significant problems in SKE appeared to be the trail ship’s difficulty in flying in the leader’s turbulent wake while heavy and slow.

  From July 1965-November 1972 the Hercules flew no fewer than 708,087 sorties in Việtnam, with peak monthly operations being recorded in May 1968 when in-country Hercules flew 14,392 sorties.

  US bombing of North Việtnam had resumed with a vengeance on 10 May 1972 with ‘Linebacker I’ raids aimed at the enemy’s road and rail system to prevent supplies reaching the Communists operating in South Việtnam. ‘Linebacker II’ operations began on 18 December 1972 and lasted until the 29th. These were the most effective strikes against enemy defences in the whole war and they ultimately persuaded the Hànôi government to seek an end to hostilities and to conclude a peace treaty. Negotiations in Paris ended with the signing of a peace agreement on 23 January 1973 and all air operations ceased four days later; this brought to an end one of the most horrific wars in history. In its course 58,022 Americans died and it brought America it worldwide condemnation for its role in South-East Asia. A total of 126 tactical airlift aircraft were lost during the war, fifty-five of them Hercules.

  ‘Grunts’ of the US 3rd Marine Division embarking on KC-130F transport/tanker BuNo150687 of VMGR-152 at MCAS Futema, Okinawa en route home to the US late in 1974. (S/Sgt Mennillo USMC).

  Although all US ground forces were withdrawn from South Việtnam, air-raids into neighbouring Cambodia and Laos continued until August 1973. In the spring of 1973 the C-130s switched their full attention to the airlift of supplies to Cambodia, with the last war-related sorties being undertaken in 1975 by an aircraft flown by civilian crews of Birdair Inc., a contract operator to which the USAF gave equipment and technical assistance. Then both Cambodia and Laos fell to the Communists and early in 1975 the North turned its attentions to the final take-over of South Việtnam. Inevitably the South, now without US military support, collapsed under the full might of the Communists’ spring offensive. Indeed the onslaught was so rapid and so intensive that by March, the original ‘Talon Vise’ contingency plan to evacuate US dependents and non-essential personnel was abandoned and beginning on 1 April ‘Frequent Wind’ began the wholesale evacuation of all US forces left in Việtnam.

  C-130s of Tactical Airlift Command joined C-141As and C-5A Galaxies of the Military Airlift Command (MAC) in a mass exodus of US and Việtnamese military and civilians fleeing South Việtnam before the country was completely overwhelmed. (C-5 flights were withdrawn following a tragic crash of a Galaxy on 4 April, which claimed 155 lives.) After 20 April the situation became even more critical and safe operating loads were ignored so that transports could take off from Saïgon, now completely surrounded by Communist troops, in grossly overloaded condition. C-130s departed carrying between 180 and even 260 evacuees on board, while a VNAF C-130 is reported to have fled loaded with 452 people. By 27 April the danger from Communist small arms, Triple-A and shoulder- fired ground-to-air missiles had become too great for most aircraft and all C-141A flights were suspended. The Hercules, however, carried on, flying right around the clock until the early hours of 29 April when heavy and accurate Communist rocket
fire at Tân Sơn Nhứt forced even these to cease operations.

  Việtnamese refugees being evacuated in April 1973.

  From 1-29 April 1975 a total of 50,493 people had been airlifted during the course of 375 C-130, C-141 and other aircraft sorties. On 12 April the US Embassy in Saïgon was evacuated and 287 staff were flown to US carriers offshore. The last US military C-130 loss was the 314th Tactical Airlift Wing C-130E 72-1297, hit by advancing NVA rocket fire on 28 April, forcing Tân Sơn Nhứt Air Base to close to fixed wing evacuation of the collapsing South Việtnamese capital of Saïgon. On 29 April 900 Americans were airlifted by the US Navy to five carriers. Next day, Saïgon was in Communist hands and the South was under control of North Việtnam. Six C-130s were among the ninety aircraft flown out of the country to Thailand by VNAF personnel, but about 1,100 aircraft, including twenty-three C-130As in the 435th and 437th Squadrons, fell into Communist hands before the ink was dry on the surrender document issued to the Republic of Việtnam’s President Dương Văn Minh.

  Chapter 4 Endnotes

  1 This incident was undoubtedly the worst air disaster of the war until the loss of a C-5A near Saigon on 4 April 1975. Vietnam Air Losses by Chris Hobson (Midland Publishing 2001).

  2 Joe M Jackson and Major Jesse W. Campbell of the 311th ACS landed the Provider which was fired at continuously until it took off with the three men safely on board. Lieutenant Colonel Jackson received the Medal of Honor for this feat of skill and courage under fire.