And when they're not hauling stuff, they come in pretty handy as a gunship.
Posted on 08/23/2019 8:24:17 AM PDT by fugazi
1942: While Japanese reinforcements depart Truk to join the fighting on Guadalcanal, American P-40 Warhawks with the 49th Fighter Group shoot down 15 Japanese fighters and bombers attempting to target the air base in Darwin, Australia.
1944: When Gen. George S. Patton’s Third Army reaches the Seine River, Adolf Hitler orders Gen. Hans Speidel to destroy all bridges in Paris – which Speidel ignores, as well as another order days later to target Paris with V-1 buzz bombs and V-2 rockets. Speidel’s garrison will surrender in two days and the 28th Infantry Division will parade through the streets of Paris, ending four years of Nazi occupation.
300 miles to the west in Brittany, Staff Sgt. Alvin P. Carey spots an enemy machinegun nest 200 yards up a hill that is pinning down his soldiers. He grabs as many grenades as he can carry and has his soldiers cover him, then crawls up the hill. Carey shoots a German soldier on the way up, then begins hurling grenades at the enemy position – drawing the machine gunners’ fire. Although mortally wounded, he still manages to hurl a grenade right on target, killing the crew and knocking their guns out. Carey is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
1950: Over 70,000 Army Reservists are ordered to report for duty during the Korean War.
1954: A Lockheed YC-130 prototype takes off for its first flight – a 61-minute trip from the Lockheed plant in Burbank, Calif., to Edwards Air Force Base. Designed to haul a tank and take off/land on short, primitive fields, the plane lifts off in just 800 feet. Once it becomes operational, the versatile C-130 Hercules can even make takeoffs and landings on an aircraft carrier without using the catapult or wires.
65 years after its first flight, the
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I had joined the military in 1976 at the age of 22. I was in the field for about a year and was asked to the front office at the administration building to fill out some paperwork to determine what occupational specialty I wished to pursue. I told them that in Bootcamp The only MOS that I was cleared for was bosun mate. The front office looked at my scores on the ASVAB and other tests that were administered in boot camp and said “oh no your qualify for everything except the most technical rating (which at the time was) Fire Control technician. Much to my chagrin I put in my request to be a C-130 mechanic and was told that there was a five-year waiting list to go to that school. A lot can happen in five years so I declined to wait that long and picked the rating which had the lowest waiting list and it turned out to be Communications, 2 weeks. So I went into Communications and later was dumped out of “A” school (due to the inability to copy high-speed Morse code beyond 12 words per minute) training base and was offered the only other opening on the base that I was stationed at which was cook. So I became up Coast Guard cook by proxy, and later on after my enlistment was over I went into electronic engineering on my own.. And never look back. But darn it, I sure really wanted or rather desired to be a C-130 mechanic. If only...
Not bad for a plane where the engines are mounted upside down...
The C-130 first flew a few months after I was born. 65 years later, we’re both still around. I have over 5000 hours as a C-130 loadmaster. Best career for enlisted Air Force/Air Guard ever.
USAF Ping.
And when they're not hauling stuff, they come in pretty handy as a gunship.
The best transport plane ever built, plain and simple.
I was a fireman on the flightline one day on an air strip in the middle of nowhere babysitting some C-130s while they took off. After getting their avionics upgraded the crew said they were headed to Florida for a couple weeks while a crew cleaned their plane.
Problem was, their number 3 engine wouldn’t start. I imagine the prospect of hanging out 100 miles from anything remotely resembling fun, in the middle of winter, was a no-go. So the pilot taxies to the end of the runway, applies full power and uses the wind over the propeller to jump-start the engine, then taxies back and takes off.
Maybe this is nothing exciting, but I was impressed. I don’t think that it’s too much of a stretch to assume this, but if that crews try a little harder to get airborne when they are headed TO Florida and not leaving Florida.
Just one small correction: When Paris was liberated Gen. Hans Speidel was a couple weeks away from being arrested by the Gestapo for involvement in the plot in July of 1944 to assassinate Adolph Hitler. He was a longtime associate of Erwin Rommel. The commander who ignored Hitler’s orders to destroy Paris was Gen. Dietrich von Choltitz. Both men survived the war, Speidel eventually becoming supreme commander of NATO ground forces.
I believe we have almost established that the C130 is a successful design. It will take another 30 years of production to confirm.
I have seen varying accounts credited one or the other general with defying Hitler’s orders and saving Paris. Thanks for bringing this back up; I’ll have to dive into this further!
The USAF has had 2 extremely successful aircraft, both from the 1950s. The C-130 Hercules (1954) mentioned here and its older sibling (1952) the B-52 Stratofortress. In both of these, the taxpayers have more than gotten their value in tax dollars. Both look to be flying to a period where 4 generations will have flown the design, an unheard-of record for any military aircraft.
“Both look to be flying to a period where 4 generations will have flown the design, an unheard-of record for any military aircraft.”
Two generations of my family have flown the C-130.
Flew on a C-130 once when I was in the USAF. Seemed like a lot of airplane. After many years reading what that thing was capable of, I knew it really WAS a lot of airplane. Surely it will go down in history equal to others, such as the C-47 & B-52.
I will not disagree, but the C-47 is still in service. Considering its vintage, that was a pretty solid design.
I am a retired USAF Air Traffic Controller. Of all the aircraft I have worked in both the control tower and RAPCON I enjoyed working the C-130 over all others. Dang airplane would do anything you asked it to in the pattern.
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