This ain’t your ol’ daddy’s Herky Bird…
by Poetrooper
When my unit was calling in gunships for close air support, those birds were usually old C-47’s, hold-over troop transports from WWII, armed and configured for this new mission. Sometime after I left Vietnam, that gunship role was taken over by the C-130 Hercules, an aircraft I knew as the best jumping platform available during the time I served in Airborne units. The venerable “Herc” has continued that role, providing CAS for American troops around the world. During that half-century of service the Herc has undergone many metamorphoses, but never in my wildest dreams did I think it might become a bomber. And yet, that is precisely what has happened in the latest iteration of this incredibly endurable fighting platform. As this official Air Force description sheet shows, the new AC-130J, Ghostrider, which is supposed to go fully operational this year, has, among its fearsome armament, GBU-39, small diameter bombs but also AGM-176 Griffin, air-to-ground missiles. And other articles out there indicate that laser weapons are in the future of the Ghost.
Back in the early 60’s, I spent many an hour lounging beside airstrips, leaning back on my chute and equipment, closely eyeballing C-130’s as I waited to board them for another jump. To this kid from Oklahoma they were a wondrous thing with that unique turboprop whine that I can hear in my mind as I write this. But never in all those hours of contemplation did I ever imagine that those aircraft would someday be dropping bombs on and firing missiles at enemy targets in the Middle East fifty years later.
Go figure…
Category: War Stories
But will they still smell like puke and canvas??
https://www.airforcetimes.com/articles/the-ghostrider-the-most-heavily-armed-gunship-ever-will-send-enemies-running
FRECKIN’ LASER BEAMS!!
Turn those jihadis into crispy critters. And the Toyotas they rode in on.
I like this.
Take an existing success, build on that success, and make the enemy puke in his (or her) nightmares at the thought of what awaits them.
You mean don’t just hit them, hit them in a way so vicious they toss and turn at night thinking “It could happen again!”? That’s the way I prefer to deal with enemies!
I would think once we hit them, the only way they’d toss and turn is as zombies or in Hell.
Their cousins in the next cave may toss and turn, though…
Hit them three ways….long, deep, and often.
Hit them so hard both their grandparents AND grandchildren will feel it!
Herc sure looked better than the 119’s.
Love the Herc. They made a great air taxi in nam if you didn’t mind flying as cargo.
WAR STORY WARNING!
I chuckle at the preflight warning:
“If you hear the bell, brace and wait for the aircraft to stop and the ramp to drop.”
We had the bell ring once and swapped planes.
Yep, the bell rang on that one also.
Third one was a charm.
War story? Here. Put this on first:
http://www.macoi.net/war_stories.html
Yep, that was my steel pot….. before the flight.
Cool link.
Props (cough) to the Herk. “My” plane, the mighty P-3 Orion, was a Lockheed cousin to the -130 (place upside-down engines joke here). The Herk flies on, but the P-3’s, at least in the US inventory, days are numbered. Sad.
But that’s OK, I’ve got “my” new plane, the Boeing P-8A Poseidon to play with, err, test.
Any landing you can walk away from…………..
Always relevant to any C-130 thread:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ar-poc38C84
That’s a lotta flaps.
I watched them take off early mornings when the air was cold and damp. Engines roared and compression condensed the wash into fog. beautiful.
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Carabou was a great ride. Coming in steep with a crosswind, the pilot just slipped it in sideways. I looked straight down the wing at the runway as we touched down.
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worst unload was a chinook full of classified rounds as the pilot kept the engines spooled up for a quick getaway.
I made about 5 trips dragging out ammo as the twin jets roared above my head. it was 110 outside with the engine blowing more shimmering heat.
That jet exhaust was just the thing you needed after waiting on an LZ in Alaska for five hours at -40.
I still remember opening up my parka and letting the heat warm me up as I climbed up the ramp of one of those things.
I also remember my squad leader punching me in the back and telling me to get the fuck on the damn chopper…
Landing on a postage stamp, no arrester with 13 freaking tons?!
Those gents have brass ones that drag on the ground behind them!
USMC KC-130J Harvest Hawk already doing the job. The 30mm bushmaster is nice.
I liked jumping out of the c130. Much better than the 141.
Mind that jet wash!
The only better jumping available was doing a Hollywood from a Huey on a gorgeous summer afternoon, one of the many bennies of being a battalion staff NCO.
^^^Word^^^ even as a 1LT. Drove your POV to the DZ. Walked over and drew a chute. Walked over to a Huey and went up higher than normal for a longer ride down. Slid off the floor and a sweet ride down. Turned chute in and went back to work. Contrast that to a 0400 show time and hours at Pope and an hour of low level over NC in the hot summer and unending turbulence for 1000 drop.
You went back to work???
We went to the NCO Club…
Yep. They were still doing weekend “fun jumps” from St Mere Eglise DZ in the early 1980s – generally with either UH1s or C7s. Good times.
Dunno about that, PT. Hollywood tailgating a C7 or C130 was IMO an even better jump than doing the same from a Huey.
With all due respect to the much revered Herc, I always much preferred jumping from a Huey.
The view was much better! So was the air you were breathing.
Yeah, but did you ever pull the rip cord too early then let the rotor wash lift you up so the pilot had an aw shit moment? WAR STORY ALERT: The Ranger Company at Fort Lewis did an air drop demo for our carnival in 78′ then once on the ground went right over to the vendor and took the Pepsi Challenge. My clubs got all sorts of freebies from Pepsi for a long time and the company made out with tee shirts and cases of Pepsi. The Ranger who pulled the cord too soon got a royal ass chewing from a certain CWO pilot.
Did a fair amount of drops, mil, certain three letter .gov agency, and sport parachute club, flying old Huey. Mil drops were ok but didn’t much care going to 10,000′ for the sport para clubs, those guys couldn’t seem to coordinate going out the door causing Huey to want to roll at high altitudes. Best drop ever was an early, early a.m. Pathfinder drop between Ft(s) Wainwright and Greely, AK. So quiet and crisp that I swear I hear the chutes pop open from the pilot’s seat. regards, Alemaster
Here’s a lot more detailed info from the excellent military site strategypage.com:
https://www.strategypage.com/dls/articles/AC-130J-Shifts-To-Missiles-5-3-2010.asp
I flew a few times on C-130s, and mostly remember the only thing louder inside was a CH-47 Chinook helicopter. The C-130 also seemed not all that common in II Corps; fixed-wing things tended to move around more often on C-7 Caribous.
For what it’s worth, I was never on a C-47 but did fly once on a DC-3 civilian variant operated by Air America. It had a real 1930s Graham Greene vibe going including lace doilies for the seat headrests. Since it was Air America, I was sort of expecting the passengers to include some cloak-and-dagger types glancing over the tops of newspapers, but it was mostly a bunch of middle-aged mamasans with purses the size of rucksacks.
As I recall the loudest sound came from the hydraulics overhead. Probably the most easily identified aircraft from the ground just by the unique drone sound that goes on forever.
ha the flying crane sounded like a giant bearing grinding down.
While stationed in Germany with the 509th PIR I jumped a C-47 a couple of times as prep for the re-enactment of the 25th anniversary of Operation Market Garden. Also I have jumped C-130’s, C-141’s, C-123’s, UH-1’s, and a DeHavillad Beaver (whatever the mil designation is). I was once infiltrated by parachute into Southern Germany off the ramp of an EC-130, the black electronic countermeasure version, which can fly nap-of-the-earth at 100 feet AGL (we flew at 250) on autopilot. Also on that aircraft with my 4-man SF pilot team was a British SAS team which jumped with cargo rigged dirt-bike motorcycles. We jumped at 1000 feet on static line, but a HALO team on the plane jumped from 20K feet. Needless to say, it was an interesting ride from the UK to Deutschland.
C130 loudest? I’m guessing you’ve never taken off in a C123 w/cargo straps installed in lieu of fusilage doors.
When the small jets fired up on take off, if you were inside your fillings rattled.
Loud you say? How about a B-17 with the nacelle over the RO position removed.
Have someone hold you by the belt as you stick your melon outside to get a good photo. Just don’t grab the control cables.
I have some really cool photos.
There is nothing louder than a C-119 that I have ever experienced. It is even noisier on the cargo deck near the forward bulkhead than the old C-97, which had four engines. As for the B-17, I was surprised how quiet it was by comparison. I think it is because the engines have a reduction gear, so they run at lower RPM’s.
My dad and most of his crew went deaf after the war. As a gunner togglier he was in the nose most of the time. Maybe the brownings did it to them? Never been in a flying boxcar but I can imagine the resonance would be huge.
My first time the 17 was without hearing protection. Ears hurt for days after.
Flew on a C-130 exactly once. Was a MAC flight from Oki (Kadena) to Clark in 1989, so I could save a few bucks in airfare doing a couple of weeks of leave in the PI.
Interesting flight to say the least.
The C-130 is a big fucking plane.
Thought so, too, until the night I was waiting out on the runway for an inbound C-5. Heard it first, then saw nothing but lights as it approached. It was almost down before I saw the aircraft itself – and it really, really, REALLY was H*U*G*E.
Yeah, that was a night I will never forget. Knew they were big. Knew a bunch of the specs on it, but had never seen one.
Concur.
The C-5 is a bigger fucking plane.
Rode the C-5 to Operation Just Cause. What a freaking beast.
Nowadays we get A380s daily into Houston, and occasionally the big Antonov. Damn things seem to float, like a C5. They don’t have that weird engine resonance it always seemed like every C5 had – could ID one landing from miles away by the sound.
Children, children, children. Anyone still around who jumped from a C-119 flying boxcar?
I did two or three of my jump school jumps from a C-119. It was the noisiest airplane I have ever flown in. The others were in C-130’s
Yep. 1963 and 1964. Anyone that says why did you jump from a perfectly good airplane never flew on a 119! Plus the pucker factor of not hitting the jumper from the other door.
Did three of my jump school jumps from 119’s in 1959 and a handful after that in the 101st MP’s.
Forgot to mention how the damned deck vibrated so badly on takeoff you had to lift your jump boots up in the air cause the tingling was unbearable. Also the boattail shape of the fuselage made it imperative for you to really get a good leap out the door to avoid collisions with the troopers jumping the opposite stick.
I remember as a kid seeing waves of “dollar nineteens” out of Westover. People today be freaking out at such a sight. And then sue the Air Force. Oh, and the Navy Blimps passing over the Boston area in the fifties.
They weren’t there for a sporting event.
Damn I’m old.
Club Manager: I jumped AVGAS engined aircraft for my first 10 jumps, C-119, C-123, C-124, then on my 11th jump got to jump a C-130. 11 jump was January 1960.
All of this talk about aluminum pigeons and I’m over here thinking how much I miss by M2A1 and the crew in the old 3/5 CAV….
Not your standard issue C-130. Fat Albert.
That was some cool shit….
Another thing you don’t forget – where you were when you saw it for the first time.
For me, about 8 minutes ago, on YouTube at TAH while sipping black coffeeeeeee.
USNA Blue Angels commencement week. Everyone was talking about the Blue Angels after the show. All I could talk about was Fat Albert.
For me at an air show on a C-130 owned by an ANG unit I would later join. Wonder if that had anything to do with my decision? I can tell you that it is LOUD when it happens and I was grateful for the headset. Shake the ground kind of loud.
About 20 yrs ago at an air show i Dover Deleware… it was amazing!
I’ll see your Fat Albert and raise you a YMC-130H!
I saw a RATO Herc taking off at NAS Glenview in 1996, before the base was closed in the BRAC. Noisiest thing ever, made the ground shake.
BEWARE ANY THINK With a “Y” designator, I think its supposed to stand for Experimental, but in reality it stands for Y should this work…?
And don’t forget – in a pinch, the Herc can carry up to 452 people.
Seriously.
http://www.913ag.afrc.af.mil/News/tabid/1866/Article/674166/last-herk-out-of-vietnam.aspx
America is so filled with engineers that do nothing but build the best platforms for service to her country.
The original design and building of the Hercules engineers had no idea that they would build something that would last for so many years and fit so many tasks like a fucking glove !!!
Compliments to all those engineers at Lockheed that built this baby !!!
I flew on several in Alaska and loved every minute of it !!!
Hah!! The C47/Gooney Bird/DC3 first flew in 1936…and is still freakin’ gorgeous today. And still flying.
Flew in a 130 twice: First from Kalispell to Gowan Field and then the return trip. Back in the good ol’ days when the 163rd was still an Armored Cavalry Regiment. I remember thinking this that is has to be more comfortable than a Chinook…boy what was I thinking? Oh cool, lawn chairs…
Speaking of Chinooks, is it just me or do all those CH47 guys wear flight suits covered in hydraulic fluid?
I never rode in one in RVN that wasn’t leaking that red “cherry juice” somewhere in the cargo compartment. I got on one once that had rivulets of it running down the cargo compartment floor. The crew chief said don’t worry about it, as he had just topped up the reservoirs and it would be a short flight.
C130’s IMHO are the best ride ever. Love being rocked to sleep by the hum of the engines (while wearing double ear protection)and the vibration of the aircraft. Sleep like a baby every time!
Nothing sounds like the Four Fans of Freedom in the world. When you hear it, you just know.