After two months of C-141
training
at
Tinker
AFB
in
Oklahoma
City,
I
headed
for
Fairfield,
California
for
my
first
operational
assignment.
My
squadron
was
the
75th
Military
Airlift
Squadron, which was part of
Travis
Air Force
Base's 60th
Military Airlift Wing.
For 40 years the
C-141
Starlifter was the Air Force's mainstay
strategic
airlifter. It could carry 60,000 lbs of cargo or 154
passengers. In
exercises we also airdropped
cargo and paratroopers, but we didn't use C-141's for that in Vietnam.
Our primary job was moving cargo from the U.S. to airfields in
Vietnam:
Danang,
Cam Ranh Bay, and
Tan Son Nhut
(Saigon).
C-130's,
C-123's, and
C-7's
delivered those loads to their final
destinations at smaller airfields.
Our official orders were quite
open-ended. They simply said to perform an
airlift
mission and return within a month. A typical mission
profile was like this:
Crew days were 16 hours, then we got 12 hours on the ground. The
C-141's did not stop to rest when we did. As soon as we landed,
another crew flew the airplane on to the next stop. So our cargo
made it from the U.S. to Viet Nam
in about two days.
We often shuttled back and forth among The Phillipines, Vietnam, and
Japan, so it usually took 6 to 10 days before we finally returned to
Travis. During our 16-hour crew day we crossed up to 8 time
zones, so after a few days of this we were pretty jet-lagged.
Not all our cargo was classified Combat Essential--cigarettes for
example. Ships brought cigarettes to the port at Subic Bay,
Phillippines and trucks brought them to the big Base Exchange at
Clark Air
Base. But the cigarette trucks were hijacked so frequently
that
road transportation was abandoned. Once I carried a C-141 full of
cigarettes from
Cubi
Point Naval Air Station (at Subic Bay) to
Clark. It's just 50 miles and I barely had time to get the gear
up and down!
Our most rewarding mission type was med evac. We flew injured
GI's from Vietnam to hospitals in Japan for treatment and later from
Japan to the U.S. for recuperation. The airplane was rigged with
airline seats for guys who could walk
and cots for those who couldn't.
But we also brought human remains back to the U.S. from the
mortuary
at
Tan
Son
Nhut. Pallets with caskets were always placed all
the way forward next to the flight deck bulkhead so if cargo had to be
jettisoned, the caskets would not have to be. On my first mission
into Saigon I was feeling pretty good because I'd just been promoted to
first lieutenant. The loadmaster rolled the first
pallet--aluminum caskets--up near the crew door. Inscribed on the
nearest one was, "Here lie the human remains of First Lieutenant John
Smith". And I didn't feel so good anymore.
I also had the honor of being a
funeral
escort
for
the
remains of a
young C-130 pilot killed on a training mission in Taiwan.
While I was stationed at Travis I lived in Davis. And there I met
this cute co-ed named Gloria and
I began writing her letters:
December 12, 1969 at Norton AFB
Well, other than THAT, Lt. Baker, how was your trip back from
Yokota?...
We got a call from the Travis command post saying that Travis was
fogged in. So we re-filed and diverted to Norton AFB near San
Bernardino because the weather there was forecast to be clear.
An hour
later we were picking our way down through the mountains and looking
down at a completely overcast Los Angeles basin. Meanwhile a
radio failed and the number 3 throttle was hanging up. And after
the 10-hour flight from Yokota plus the hour from Travis we were
getting
a little low on fuel.
So we made an instrument approach down to
200' and had the runway in sight, but the tower wouldn't clear us to
land so we executed a missed approach. On our second approach we
were cleared to land, but as we touched down, one engine wouldn't
reverse and the right landing gear strut deflated.
After about a year at Travis my number was due to come up for an
overseas (spelled v-i-e-t-n-a-m) assignment. The military
is loaded with situations you cannot control, so I learned early
to nudge things in the right direction when I could. Rather than
wait for the Air Force to give me an undesirable assignment like
spraying Agent Orange,
I volunteered to do
tactical
airlift flying
C-130's.
That turned out to be a good move.
November 30, 1969 enroute to Wake Island:
Our stop at Hickham (Honolulu) was a most profitable one for me.
I'd been trying for days to phone the PACAF officer assignments section
there, so I decided to go in person. And everything just clicked.
My C-130 assignment had no base indicated, but I wanted to request CCK
in Taiwan
rather than Clark in the Phillipines, which was the alternative. It's
indeed a good thing I went because they had already prepared orders
for me to go to Clark, but I was able to persuade the sergeant to
change it to CCK.
I had already spent many days at Clark, so
Ching
Chuang Kang
(CCK) Airbase in Taiwan sounded more attractive. The flying
would be in Vietnam either way and CCK had newer airplanes. First
I
needed to attend
survival
school and
learn
to
fly
the
C-130.
