Trash Haulers: The Story of the C-130 Hercules Troop Carrier/Tactical Airlift Mission

By Sam McGowan

On August 23, 1954 the most successful airplane in aviation history took to the skies on its maiden flight. A little over two years later the first operational airplanes were delivered to the 463rd Troop Carrier Wing at Ardmore AFB, Oklahoma. Over the next 21 years Tactical Air Command, United States Air Forces Europe and Pacific Air Forces troop carrier/tactical airlift crew amassed a heroic and impressive record from Africa to Vietnam. Trash Haulers is a revision of a 1988 TAB/Aero publication by Sam McGowan, who was part of that mission.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Dec 15, 2011
• ISBN: 9781468501919

Sam McGowan

Sam McGowan is a retired corporate pilot and US Air Force veteran. He logged more than 4,000 hours in C-130s, mostly in Southeast Asia and was decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross and twelve Air Medals. He lives in Missouri City, Texas

Book preview

Contents

Foreword

Chapter One –

Early Days

Chapter Two –

Late ‘50s, Early ‘60s

Chapter Three -

Cold War, Hot War

Chapter Four –

Trash-Haulers Go to War

Chapter Five –

Trash-Haulers At War

Chapter Six –

Special Missions and Special Operations

Chapter Seven –

Trash-Haulers In Southeast Asia

Chapter Eight –

Khe Sanh and the Tet Offensive

Chapter Nine -

Mortar Magnets

Chapter Ten –

The Final Years of Vietnam

Chapter Eleven

End of an Era

Epilogue

Appendix A

Appendix B

C-130 Troop Carrier and Tactical Airlift Units

Appendix C

Glossary

Bibliography

Sources

Other Books by Sam McGowan:

The CAVE, 1st Books Library, May 2002

Anything, Anywhere, Anytime, Author House, October 2011

Foreword

TRASH HAULERS is NOT about an airplane, although the famous Lockheed C-130 Hercules is the main character in the story. It is the story of a MISSION, the United States Air Force troop carrier mission as it was performed by the C-130 aircrews of the Tactical Air Command and the overseas commands – Alaska Air Command, Pacific Air Forces, Southern Command and the United States Air Forces, Europe. It includes participation by the C-130 squadrons of the Military Air Transport Service, which became the Military Airlift Command on the first day of 1966, in regard to their occasional contributions to tactical missions. TRASH HAULERS is the continuation of a story that commenced in the dark days at the beginning of World War II and continued through the Korean War and on through Vietnam, then came to an end in 1975 when all airlift became the responsibility of the Military Airlift Command.

This story does not include the peripheral missions of Air/Sea Rescue, Electronics Intelligence or the famous AC-130 gunships – although they were C-130 missions, they were outside of the transport mission. It DOES include what came to be known as special operations which, to a large degree, was airlift and was actually in many respects an evolvement of the troop carrier mission. In fact, some of the most important special operations missions in history were flown by men assigned to troop carrier squadrons.

While the book focuses on the airplane, the story is about people, people who flew the C-130s and kept them flying, for without people any airplane is just a collection of assembled parts sitting on the ground information. For the most part, the story is about the aircrews because it was they and the missions they flew that were responsible for all of the support functions of the Air Force, including and especially aircraft maintenance. Without the aircrews, the support functions would have had no one to support.

Chapter One –

Early Days

From the days of the first flights of the Wright Brothers, far-thinking military strategists looked for ways to use their new invention as a military weapon. The idea of an aerial vehicle brought new possibilities – high-level observation points, launching platforms for aerial weapons and a means of overcoming natural obstacles such as rivers, swamps and mountains – so it was only natural that the airplane would be seen as a new advancement in warfare. Still, it took two world wars to prove just how effective the airplane could be in the military role. After initial use as observation vehicles in World War I, airplanes were developed into military weapons with the addition of machine guns and bomb racks. Some strategists – particularly US Army Brigadier General Billy Mitchell and some of his disciples, including Major Lewis H. Brereton and Captain George C. Kenney – envisioned airborne armies made up of troops who could be airlifted into airfields behind enemy lines or who would arrive on the battlefield by parachute. Mitchell proposed the formation of an airborne army in 1918, but even though his proposal was approved, World War I ended before the concept came to fruition. It thus fell to the Russians to develop the first truly airborne forces, a development that led to little action on the part of the United States military, but which caught the eye of the Germans, who introduced airborne and air/land operations to the world at the outbreak of World War II.

World War II

Although it did not take flight until 1954, the Lockheed C-130 Hercules was a direct result of events that took place in the early days of US involvement in World War II in 1942. The war in the Pacific was not going at all well for the Allies when General Douglas MacArthur, the commander of the Southwest Pacific Area of Operations, received a new Chief of Staff for Air in his headquarters in Australia. Major General George Churchill Kenney was one of the more innovative members of the pre-war officer corps who were taking the helm of the new Army Air Forces units in Europe and the Pacific at the beginning of the war. After World War I service, he served with the Army Air Corps’ research and development branch and experimented with the use of airplanes to move troops into battle, a capability of which he began making good use as soon as he arrived in Australia. Kenney’s Fifth Air Force soon became the first ray of hope in the battle to turn around the war in the Pacific. As the war continued, the innovative general was responsible for several new developments in air warfare, including the first use of American transport airplanes to ferry troops into a combat zone. Kenney used his small force of transports, mostly Douglas C-47s but also including war-weary B-17s and an assortment of civilian transports, to re-supply fighter and medium bomber squadrons operating far ahead of his lines of supply and to supply ground troops. Kenney also orchestrated the first use of US Army transports to airlift ground troops into position for ground attacks. Troop carrier transports became a key weapon in the battle for New Guinea and the Southwest Pacific as Kenney’s men airlifted ground and airborne troops into battle and kept them supplied until normal lines of supply reached them. Many of the young officers in Far East Air Forces troop carrier groups would be squadron and wing commanders in C-130 wings in future years.

In Europe, the Germans also used the airplane quite successfully in support of ground operations. The war in Holland began when German gliders successfully assaulted the fortified Fort Eban-Emal, which was thought to be impregnable. It was, but not from the air. The Luftwaffe used parachute troops and troop carrier planes to capture the island of Crete, although with losses so heavy that the Germans discontinued their use of parachute troops and airlifted infantry. But the Americans and British copied the German model, as did the Japanese and the Russians, who had been the first to demonstrate the potential of using troops parachuted into battle during exercises before the war. The British and Americans established airborne divisions, which were used in every major operation in the European Theater, and even an airborne army commanded by Lt. General Lewis Brereton, who had authored the first US Army study on the potential of the airplane in the troop carrying role in 1918.

Airborne troops were also used in the Pacific by MacArthur’s forces under Kenney, who used his aircraft to transport conventional ground troops as well. Kenney’s troop carriers were especially resourceful, cutting large vehicles in half so they could be transported in the comparatively small C-47 transports of the day. In the China-Burma-India Theater of war, troop carrier and combat cargo squadrons flew missions in support of Claire Chennault’s Fourteenth Air Force in China, as well as supply missions for long-range commando units under the British General Orde Wingate and the British Fourteenth Army. When not engaged in combat operations, troop carrier and combat cargo squadrons assisted Air Transport Command with the task of airlifting supplies into China across the Himalayan Hump. US transports supported the British Eighth Army as it drove the German Africa Corps out of Egypt and across Libya to the final African battle in Tunisia. In 1944, as Lt. General George S. Patton’s Third Army made a spectacular dash across France, his motorized columns were kept supplied by IX Troop Carrier Command and IX Service Command C-47s, along with several groups of Eighth Air Force B-24s that were detailed for transport duty. This new role led some senior Army Air Forces officers to recognize a new mission, the airlifted resupply of rapidly moving ground forces.

No doubt the most important development was the recognition by senior officers, particularly Generals George C. Marshall, the chief of staff of the Army, and Henry H. Arnold, the chief of the Army Air Forces, that it was possible to use troop carrier transports to drop paratroops to seize territory deep behind enemy lines and establish an air head onto which they could bring in reinforcements, including motorized light infantry and artillery troops. Their new ideas only awaited suitable troop carrier aircraft capable of transporting such forces.

Postwar Developments

Success in the use of the airplane to transport and resupply combat troops led to the development of several new designs to replace or supplement the venerable and versatile C-47, although none would be in operational use by the time the war ended. The Fairchild C-119 and C-123 were both World War II designs that came into active service in the 1950s. The C-119 Flying Boxcar developed from the C-82 Packet, which was designed and entered production during the war but entered service too late for combat duty. The C-82 and C-119 had truck-bed and drive-on loading capabilities as well as heavy airdrop capability, but they were twin-engine and limited by the powerplants of the day. A larger four-engine transport began as the Douglas C-74, but it had no true military capabilities so it was redesigned to fulfill a troop carrier requirement and became the double-decked C-124, which also had drive-on capability to handle vehicles. The three designs were the first transports developed solely for military purposes. The twin-boom C-119 was used in the Korean War and was the mainstay of the Tactical Air Command’s troop carrier squadrons until the advent of the four-engine turboprop powered C-130. The C-123 Provider was built by Fairchild Aircraft after being designed by Chase as a motorized glider capable of flying into a very short landing zone, then flying out after the area had been secured and a short runway constructed. Both the C-119 and C-123 were severely lacking in range and payload. Neither had sufficient power for engine-out operations. The under-powered Dollar-Nineteen had a terrible reputation for poor single-engine performance, especially with the Army paratroopers who had to jump from it. The C-119 and C-47 of World War II were the two airplanes most responsible for causing young paratroopers to be deathly afraid of flying, as there were numerous deaths due to crashes in both types.

USAF and the Berlin Airlift

The National Defense Act of 1947 reorganized the United States military forces, creating a new Department of Defense with three under-departments reporting to the new office of the Secretary of Defense. The old War Department was replaced by the Department of the Army and, along with the Department of the Navy; it became subordinate to the new Secretary of Defense. One of the lessons learned in World War II was that air power was most effective when controlled separately from ground forces. This led to the creation of a new Department of the Air Force, thus divorcing the Air Forces from the Army and establishing the new United States Air Force. Most of Army aviation was to become part of the new Air Force, with the Department of the Army retaining only aircraft suited for the liaison role. The troop carrier mission, which had been established as one of the three combat missions of the Army Air Forces during World War II, became an Air Force responsibility. In essence, the new Air Force was to be responsible for all military aviation, except that which directly related to the mission of the Department of the Navy (which included the United States Marines.)

Within the Air Force, airlift was divided into two basic categories, the tactical or troop carrier/combat cargo mission and the long-range airline-type mission of the old Air Transport Command. Although not originally considered in the reorganization plan, ATC eventually became Military Air Transport Service and operated as a Department of Defense agency, while supported by and reporting to the Air Force – and consuming a large part of the Air Force budget each year. Since the Navy was only allowed air resources directly related to its mission of maintaining control of the seas, the Navy’s Air Transport Command became part of MATS. Until the mid-1960s, Navy crews flew MATS missions – in airplanes with United States Air Force written on the fuselage. The Marine Corps had developed a small air transport capability of its own and was allowed to maintain a few transport squadrons to suit its needs. During WW II the troop carrier/combat cargo mission had been a responsibility of the theater commanders, with squadrons controlled by the numbered air force commanders responsible for a particular region. With the creation of the USAF, the Troop Carrier Command of the Tactical Air Command was responsible for the development of the theater-support mission, with the numbered air force commanders responsible for operations within their areas of responsibility. In 1951 Troop Carrier Command became Eighteenth Air Force, a unit devoted exclusively to troop carrier operations. All troop carrier/combat cargo squadrons were part of TAC or, if based overseas, of the particular theater command in whose territory they operated.

After World War II, the United States found itself with a far-flung line of defense, with troops stationed virtually around the world in countries that had been conquered or liberated by the Allies during the conflict. At the same time, friction between the Western democracies and Eastern bureaucracies of the communist world increased as the two dominant philosophies of government struggled for preeminence in the world. Although the war came to an end in 1945 with the surrender of Germany and Japan, peace never came as a number of small, localized conflicts began breaking out around the globe in locations as diverse as Greece, the Balkans, Palestine and Indochina. In war-devastated Europe, a serious conflict developed over the Berlin question.

Berlin was within the Russian-controlled part of Germany, although the city itself was divided into sectors, with part under control of the Allies of France, Britain, and the United States and the remainder under Russian domination and rule. The Soviets were seeking to establish government on the Soviet model in Germany as well as in other countries liberated by them in the war, with a single-party (communist) system – a virtual dictatorship. The United States and Great Britain influenced the countries they occupied to establish western-style democracies. Because it was divided, Berlin was a major obstacle to total Soviet domination of Germany’s eastern zone. In the summer of 1948, only three years after the end of hostilities in Europe, the Soviets and their East German counterparts declared a blockade of all land arteries leading into Berlin. The blockade shut the city off from outside contact, in an attempt to force the Allies to abandon their sectors and allow all of the Eastern Zone to come under Soviet domination. But they were unable to barricade the air routes into the city and the Allies began what came to be known as The Berlin Airlift, an operation that not only demonstrated that air transport could be used to advance national policies, but also coined a phrase as air lift, which was soon shortened to airlift, became part of the military lexicon. The newly created United States Air Force, along with the British Royal Air Force and with some participation by the French Air Force, began flying food and other supplies – especially fuel and flour – into the airports in Berlin, at first using transports of the United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE), mostly twin-engine C-47s. Although a versatile airplane, the C-47 lacked range, payload, and speed, not to mention that it was highly vulnerable to ground fire. Fortunately, the Russians chose not to use the latter in their attempt to blockade the city (probably because of Strategic Air Command B-29s loaded with nuclear weapons sitting alert in the UK.) The other drawbacks of the C-47 led to its withdrawal from the airlift in favor of the larger four-engine C-54s, which were in use in the Pacific, in Tactical Air Command troop carrier squadrons and with the Military Air Transport Service. They were considerably faster than the C-47 and carried a much larger payload. In fact, the main reason the C-47s were withdrawn was because they were so slow that they got in the way of the larger transports, tying up airspace that could be better utilized by the more efficient C-54s! The airlift was a troop carrier operation, with participation by pilots and crews from other commands, including MATS, to augment troop carrier personnel. Even though the airlift eventually broke the Berlin blockade, the city would be the source of frequent tension between East and West for two decades and trash-hauler crews from TAC and USAFE would often find themselves as pawns on an international chessboard.

A New Trash-Hauler Is Conceived

The Berlin Airlift had no more than ended when the United States became embroiled in another conflict – this time a real shooting war – in the tiny divided Asian country of Korea. While the Berlin Crisis had been a war of wills, the Korean Conflict was a war of guns as the North Koreans invaded non-communist South Korea in June, 1950, and pushed southward, causing chaos throughout the country. Airlift – or the lack of it – very quickly made its presence known as the US theater commander, General Douglas MacArthur, ordered the United States Eighth Army to Korea from Japan. Far East Air Forces C-54s and C-47s went to work moving troops to airfields on the Pusan Peninsula. As the United States began responding to the invasion, a new concept that would become the C-130 was born.

A few days after the conflict began, a special weekend meeting was called in the Pentagon to determine exactly how to best use a special appropriation that had been added to the Air Force’s budget for Research and Development. Author Joe Dabney, formerly of Lockheed-Georgia’s public relations department, told the story in his book on the C-130, Herk-Hero of the Skies. As the meeting continued, the participants began to run out of ideas prior to reaching the $105 million amount of the appropriation. On the second day of the conference an unnamed colonel suggested that what the Air Force most needed was a medium transport that can land on unimproved ground, be extremely rugged, be primarily for cargo, but with troop-carrying ability, and able to carry about thirty thousand pounds of cargo to a range of fifteen hundred miles. Someone asked how much money should be given to this project. An amount was put down and added to the total already allocated to other projects that had been identified as worthy of future R&D. The result of the project funded that day is called Hercules, and brand new airplanes are still coming off of the Lockheed production lines more than half a century later.

Korea

The Korean War saw wide use of airlift, both tactical and strategic. When the conflict broke out, the US forces in the Far East were poorly equipped to fight a war and airlift forces within the region were limited. Every available C-47 in the Pacific was called to Japan and assigned to a hastily created squadron that was for a time designated as the 21st Troop Carrier Squadron, although its personnel often referred to themselves as the Kyushu Gypsies because they were shifted around so much. Far East Air Forces Combat Cargo Command C-54s and C-47s were put to work evacuating refugees from Korea and flying supplies into the country. As the United States responded to the communist invasion, FEAF transports, mostly C-47s since the larger four engine transports were too heavy for the Korean runways, airlifted the first Eighth Army troops to the Pusan Peninsula. Combat Cargo Command established air routes into Korea from Japan and became a major mover of men and equipment into the combat zone.

MATS operated aerial supply lines from the United States to USAF bases in Japan, flying critical cargo and personnel to the Far East and evacuating wounded to the United States. MATS was then equipped with the reliable Douglas C-54 and its larger and more powerful derivative, the C-118, along with the Lockheed C-121 and new double-decked Douglas C-124 Globemaster. Only the C-124 was capable of airdrop of heavy equipment, although all were suitable for cargo and troop transport into established airfields. TAC also operated C-124s and as the war continued, two squadrons of the giant transports were based in Japan for operations into Korea.

Within the Far East, airlift was the responsibility of the troop carrier squadrons assigned to the Far East Air Forces, which was headquartered in Japan. Under FEAF, the Combat Cargo Command was the agency responsible for the troop carrier mission. Combat Cargo Command was soon replaced by 315th Air Division, an Air Force unit that would later be responsible for much of the fame of the Hercules and the tactical airlift mission, and which also had a direct connection to General George C. Kenney. The first commander was Maj. Gen. John R. Henebry, who had flown A-20 and B-25 light and medium bombers and had been a Kenney favorite. Col. Charles W. Howe, who had been a squadron mate of and a close friend of Henebry’s, was the division’s first inspector general, then commanded the 374th Troop Carrier Wing. Howe had also been a Kenney favorite. Many of the units that would later be equipped with the C-130 were used extensively in support of United Nations operations in Korea. The 374th Troop Carrier Wing was the parent unit for the C-47 and C-54 squadrons. TAC sent the 314th Troop Carrier Group from Sewart Air Force Base, Tennessee to the Far East, where its C-119s saw wide service both in the logistics and tactical roles. When the Air Force decided to base C-119s permanently in the Far East, the 483rd TCW was activated at Ashiya, Japan – the 483rd would later equip with C-130s.

During the withdrawal from the Chosen Reservoir in the winter of 1950, 314th Troop Carrier Group C-119s airdropped Bailey Treadway Bridge sections to replace a bridge that had been blown-out at the village of Koto-ri. Marine combat engineers erected the bridge, thus enabling withdrawing troops to bring out vehicles that would have otherwise had to be abandoned. The escape from Chosen Reservoir also resulted in an Air Force Outstanding Unit Award for the 21st Troop Carrier Squadron, then based at Itazuke AB, Japan. Crews from the 21st flew C-47s out of a TDY base at K-27 – Yonpo Airfield – flying supplies in and wounded out of the region of the reservoir. Thanks to the Herculean efforts of the 21st personnel, all Marine wounded were flown out of their front-line environment and airlifted to bases behind the lines for boarding aboard air evacuation flights to Japan.

Paul Fritz was one of the pilots assigned to the 21st TCS, then known as the Kyushu Gypsies. He wrote of his experiences in an article published in the Marine Corps Gazette. He tells how the airstrips were primitive, hastily scraped-out, optimistically 2,500 feet long – in essence, the exact kind of situation that future trash-haulers would face a decade later in Southeast Asia. The flying was tricky, and each takeoff involved coaxing an overloaded C-47 into the air, with the crews knowing full well that the lives of their passengers were in their hands. Although the C-47 was ordinarily used to carry only about twenty-one passengers, the Air Force crews crammed the wounded soldiers and Marines into their airplanes, carrying as many as forty at a time. While the C-47s were landing on the new airstrip at Hagaru-Ri, C-119s from the 61st TCS airdropped supplies alongside the runway. Air Force C-47s also flew into Koto-Ri, where another airstrip had been chiseled out from frozen earth by Army engineers. Thanks to the combined efforts of the C-47 and C-119 crews, the Marine and Army troops withdrawing from Chosen in the face of superior enemy forces were able to break out and withdraw in an orderly fashion, fighting as they went, instead of retreating in disorganized confusion. During the retreat from Chosen, the Air Force transport crews saved the reputation of the United States Marines. Without them, the Marines would have faced starvation and probable defeat, while hundreds of wounded would have perished from a combination of freezing cold and lack of adequate medical attention. It would have been a disaster.

Throughout the Korean conflict, 315th Air Division transport crews continued to play major roles, airdropping supplies to front-line troops, dropping paratroopers to reinforce ground units or delivering supplies from Japan to the combat units. They also played a special operations role as they resupplied UN teams operating on islands off the coast of North Korea. Although the C-46s and C-47s lacked payload capacity and the C-54s and C-119s lacked short and soft-field capabilities, they made a substantial contribution to the war effort and paved the way for future airlift developments that would be built around the new Hercules. Many of the troop carrier pilots who flew C-46s, C-47s, C-54s and C-119s in Korea would play future leadership roles in Tactical Air Command, Alaska Air Command, United States Air Forces Europe and Pacific Air Forces C-130 squadrons.

One of the developments that came out of the Korean War was the establishment of Air Force aerial ports, special units responsible for the processing and handling of cargo and personnel for air shipment, including aerial delivery. When the war broke out the aerial port role was the responsibility of the Army, an arrangement that often caused confusion. Army airborne units were also responsible for the Pathfinders, special airborne units that were trained to parachute into a drop zone in advance of the main force and set up panels and electronic homing devices to guide the formations to the drop zones. Army airborne quartermasters were also responsible for the rigging of cargo for airdrop and for its ejection in flight. Army kickers accompanied Air Force C-47s, C-46s and C-119s on cargo drop missions to eject the loads and operate the aerial delivery equipment. Immediately after arriving in Japan on temporary duty to take over the Combat Cargo Command in the fall of 1950, Brigadier General William H. Tunner recommended the transfer of the aerial port functions to the Air Force. He set up special air terminal units made up of Air Force personnel who were trained to process cargo, load and off-load airplanes and provide radio communications between airlift aircraft and their command and control organizations in Japan. The air terminal units were not truly innovative; such units had been established during World War II but they had remained with the Army in the 1947 reorganization. Shortly after the Korean Conflict ended as the Air Force reorganized its troop carrier operations, Tactical Air Command began setting up aerial port squadrons at US troop carrier bases that were modeled on the 315th Air Division air terminal squadrons that had been formed at Far East Air Forces bases. The TAC, PACAF and USAFE aerial port squadrons would be heavily involved in C-130 operations.

In 1951 C-124s were assigned to 315th Air Division for airlift duty. The huge, double-decked transports could carry much larger payloads than the smaller C-54s they replaced. But as the conflict drew to a close, the commanders of 315th Air Division reported that airlift needs would have been best served if a single type of airplane had been available that could be used for routine air transportation, short field landing work and airdrop. Korea established the need for the Hercules.

The Herk Takes to the Air

It was not until 1956, several years after the Korean Conflict ended in a truce, that the jetprop C-130 entered the Air Force inventory. Korea and other events had dictated the need for rapid air transport and the new Hercules was designed to provide it. In Indochina, the United States had provided USAF C-119s to the French for use during the siege of Dienbienphu. Flown by American pilots employed by Civil Air Transport, the airline established in China by the legendary Claire Chennault, C-119s, along with CAT C-47s, flew daily resupply missions into Dienbienphu in support of the ill-fated French garrison that had fallen under siege. Airlift was America’s main direct contribution to the French effort in Indochina and would continue to play a major role in that part of the world for the next two decades, with the new C-130 eventually becoming the main player on the airlift stage.

The Hercules was the brainchild of Lockheed Aircraft’s Advanced Design Department, the same group that had been responsible for several well-known aircraft of the 1940s and early ‘50s, including the P-38, the Constellation and the Lodestar. This department was NOT the now-famous Skunk Works, a special Lockheed design team that worked on classified projects, although there was a working relationship between the two. Lockheed had developed the first US jet aircraft, the P-80 Shooting Star, which later became the United States’ first two-seat jet trainer, the T-33, and the F-94. All of those designs had incorporated the latest in aerodynamics and leaned toward clean lines, with aerodynamically shaped wings and fuselage. Early 1950s aircraft design trends were toward swept-back wings and tail, turbojet engines, and other characteristics of the Jet Age. The new C-130 would incorporate none of those features.

The Lockheed design team working on the YC-130 realized that the airplane they were designing would be required to operate in a hostile and rugged environment with none of the amenities required by the newer designs that had been engineered with speed in mind – but that required long, hard-surfaced runways and powerful engines consuming large amounts of fuel to achieve and sustain those speeds. Simplicity and rugged were the key words with the Lockheed team. The new transport airplane would have to be simple, reducing maintenance requirements, and rugged, because the mission for which it was designed would require operation into short, unimproved airstrips under conditions that would lead to rapid deterioration of sophisticated designs. It would have a high-aspect ratio wing to supply a high amount of lift to carry heavy loads at low speeds. In the end, the early models of the C-130 gained a reputation for being the most overpowered airplanes in their class, which allowed them to perform a wide variety of tasks and to operate from airfields less than half as long as those required by other large transports of the day (or since, at least until the introduction of the McDonnell-Douglas – now Boeing – C-17.)

Although the design team members directly involved in the project were pleased with the result of their efforts, at the unveiling of the model that depicted the design the remainder of the Lockheed engineering staff was dismayed at the product of their coworkers’ efforts. Instead of reflecting clean lines and other appearances of grace typical of Lockheed designs, the YC-130 model was boxy, squatting on the ground on bicycle landing gear, with high, straight wings and a sail-like tail nearly as large as the fuselage. On top of that, it had a blunt nose that sloped downward from just above the cockpit; this reduced drag significantly, but gave the airplane a Roman-nosed appearance. (The more familiar porpoise nose came later, when a new, larger radome to accommodate a more advanced radar became standard on all C-130s.) The rest of the members of the Lockheed engineering staff who saw the model for the first time at the unveiling were dumbfounded. It’s got a great looking paint job, was the only compliment paid to the design, although the criticisms were many. One of the most critical was the legendary Kelly Johnson, the man who had designed some of the company’s most successful airplanes. Johnson, who is often mistakenly credited with the C-130’s design, did not like his company’s newest product at all!

The story was different three years later in August, 1954 when the prototype YC-130 took to the air for the first time, taking off from Lockheed’s Burbank airport after a ground roll of only 855 feet. There were no criticisms that day! The assembled crowd of Lockheed employees and guests were astounded. An airplane grossing out at almost 100,000 pounds normally requires a runway over 5,000 feet long to get airborne, but the YC-130 just leaped effortlessly into the air in less than 900 feet. Look at it climb! were the words of Lockheed President Robert Gross. The landing at Edwards AFB was just as impressive. Test pilot Stan Beltz later told the Air Force commander of the Flight Test Center there, I could land it crossways on the runway if I had to. He summed up his first impressions of the new airplane after that first takeoff and landing; She’s a real flying machine.

Lockheed elected to manufacture the new C-130 at the company’s facilities just north of Atlanta, at Marietta, Georgia. Test flying would be done there, over the tall Georgia pines of the central part of the Peach State. On the prototype’s third flight, an engine caught fire due to a faulty fuel line connection. The damage was repaired, but the incident caused disappointment at Lockheed. Test flying went on with the other prototype until Number One had been repaired. There were some problems with the Hercules, especially with the sometimes-unreliable electric propellers, which often did not respond properly to in-puts from the cockpit. Eventually the Curtis electric props were replaced with more reliable hydraulic propellers, although it was not until the four-bladed props appeared on the B-model that propeller problems began to shrink into the background. The original A-model had three-bladed Aero Products propellers, but later models would have the Hamilton-Standard four-bladed design.

Prior to delivery of the first Herks, the Air Force conducted tests of the new Allison T-56 turbopropeller engine, using a converted Convair 440 purchased from Philippine Airlines. Al Huff, one of the first C-130 pilots, was sent to Kelly AFB, Texas to fly the test bed aircraft, which the Air Force had dubbed the YC-131. He remembers that since the airplane had no auxiliary power unit and had to be started with a special air compressor, the only place the engines could be shut down was at Kelly! Turboprop engines were new to the Air Force at the time and tower operators would always, without fail, inform the crew that both engines were trailing smoke and appeared to be afire.

After initial flight testing by Lockheed, several test airplanes were turned over to the Air Force test team for testing in the operational realm. Joint Lockheed/Air Force crews put the C-130 through a series of tests to determine its capabilities in the off-runway and unimproved runway environment along with paratrooper and cargo drop abilities. In these areas the airplane demonstrated remarkable performance, affording opportunities never before known in the airlift world. It could land and take off from runways consisting of nothing but simple, nearly-level plots of ground, even using very soft surfaces such as sand that would have been impossible for previous designs.

The YC-130 again proved to be remarkable in its load-carrying capabilities, exceeding the design requirements of 30,000 pounds set by the Air Force. The average C-130 payload would become 35,000 pounds of useful load, meaning load over and above the combined operating and fuel weights. It could carry 92 passengers in side-facing web seats or 72 ground combat troops, using the same seats with wider seat-belt spacing to accommodate combat packs. As an airdrop platform the airplane had no precedent, as it offered airdrop of items previously too large for delivery by parachute. It could drop 64 troops through two doors in seconds, thus allowing the use of short drop zones. Mixed loads of troops and cargo could be dropped from the fully opening rear cargo doors and ramp on one pass. Other airdrop methods would be possible with the airplane, as the future would bear out. The new C-130 also had amazing takeoff and landing performance. At a time when most military transports needed five thousand feet of paved runway, the C-130A could operate off of a 2,500 foot unimproved runway, with unimproved meaning basically nothing but a level spot of land. The airplane’s actual landing distance was 2,500 feet over a fifty foot obstacle but actual stopping distance was much shorter.

Into Service With TAC

When the Air Force had completed all of its acceptance tests, the first operational aircraft were delivered to squadrons in Tactical Air Command, replacing the smaller twin-engine C-119s and C-123s that had been the mainstay of TAC’s airlift force. The first five airplanes went to the 463rd Troop Carrier Wing at Ardmore AFB, Oklahoma, where they were delivered on December 9, 1956. Even though these were the first airplanes assigned to the Oklahoma base, C-130s were not strangers there – the test airplanes had made several stops at the base and some airplanes had spent time there for maintenance personnel and flight crews to become familiar with them. At least one airplane had been assigned to the base while still under Lockheed ownership. The first operational airplanes had a new look. The Roman nose had been changed, with the addition of a larger radome to accommodate a new radar system, to the now-familiar porpoise profile that identifies the C-130. Shortly after the delivery of the first operational airplanes to Ardmore, Al Huff was a guest on a local radio station along with another pilot. When the interviewer asked him to compare the new C-130 with the C-119 he had been flying, Huff replied that the difference was Like going from a Ford to a Cadillac. The local Ford dealer was not happy.

Along with the 463rd, the 314th Troop Carrier Wing at Sewart AFB, Tennessee, also began turning in its C-119s for the new Hercules. Eventually Sewart would become the home base for both the 314th and the 463rd. The C-130 school squadron, the 4442nd Combat Crew Training Squadron, which was responsible for training all USAF C-130 crews, and for other services as well as they began to receive their own versions of the design, would also be based there. Foreign governments who bought C-130s also sent their crews to Sewart for training.

The delivery of the new airlifter meant work and training, training and more training for the former C-119 pilots and flight engineers who were to fly it. Captain Richard L. Stumpy Coleman and a Master Sergeant Morrow were responsible for much of the success of the Herk according to Bill Hatfield, who was one of the first C-130 pilots at Ardmore. Coleman and Morrow worked out operational procedures and checklists to make flying the C-130 easier and safer. Morrow was especially helpful as he worked up the procedures that would be followed by the scanners and loadmasters who would become part of the C-130 crew.

One facet of the transition period that impressed many – in the Air Force as well as outside – was that the crews were able to transition into the airplane without mishap, even though very few of the pilots had either four-engine or turbine experience. There were no accidents as the initial C-119 and C-123 pilots transitioned into the new airplane. Such a record was literally amazing since accidents in transition training had been common with other aircraft types. The Hercules quickly gained a reputation as one of the safest airplanes to ever take to the skies.

Pilots were ecstatic about the new machine; they claimed it flew like a fighter. In the military pecking order of the Air Force, transport pilots were considered to be at the very bottom of the pile, even below bomber pilots. This was due to the fact that during World War II pilot assignments were based on class standing, with the pilots at the top of the list going to fighters and on down the line. Those at the bottom went to transports, as they were considered to be less demanding to fly, although this was not necessarily true as troop carrier transports flew some of the most hazardous missions of the war. Many of the World War II transport pilots had not even been commissioned officers, but were in the NCO grades or warranted as flight officers. TAC troop carrier pilots and crews were at the bottom of the transport totem pole, even as transport crews themselves were last in the Air Force. TAC crews often lived in tents and ate C-rations, using the white spoon carried by every troop carrier crewmember in his flight suit sleeve pocket, while MATS crews lived in hotels and dined on steak at government expense. Even with the C-130 TAC troop carrier crews were low, the only people lower being Air Force helicopter crews! But now the TAC troop carrier pilots were flying an airplane that flew like a fighter, even impressing fighter pilots – many of whom requested C-130s for their next assignment. Knowing that the troop carrier mission was potentially the most dangerous mission in the Air Force, now the pilots could hold their heads up in the officers club because at last they had a decent airplane to fly.

The advent of the Hercules had given TAC troop carrier crews a much needed morale boost. They had gone from flying under-powered twin-engine aircraft, with glide ratios similar to that of a rock, to an airplane that flew like a fighter and had superior performance. In fact, the Herk was definitely overpowered! A Lockheed crew demonstrated the reliability of the airplane after losing two engines by deliberately feathering the outboard engines and flying all the way across the country from Florida to California on the two remaining, and at treetop altitude to boot!

The Four Horsemen

Not only was the new Hercules powerful, it was extremely maneuverable as well. Four crews from the 463rd’s 774th Troop Carrier Squadron organized an aerial demonstration team. Officially known as Hercules and the Four Horsemen and unofficially as the Thunderweasals in a takeoff on the famous Thunderbirds and the green weasel which was the prominent feature of the squadron patch, the team performed at air shows around the country, flying intricate formation maneuvers that held the crowds in awe. The Horsemen came about by accident when the Green Weasel squadron was at Fort Campbell, Kentucky dropping troops. One day there was a stand-down of drops due to high winds, but the crews decided to fly a training mission anyway. Four aircraft commanders, Captains Gene Chaney, who had been the pilot of the first 463rd C-130 to land at Ardmore, Jim Akin, David Moore, and Bill Hatfield took off at five-second intervals and made several passes down the Campbell runway at low altitude and in formation. Another stand-down a few days later allowed them another opportunity to practice. When they got back to Ardmore, they put on a demonstration for the troops on the base.

This was just before the arrival of the first C-130s at Sewart, so TAC sent the new unofficial aerial demo team to Tennessee to demonstrate the maneuverability of their new steeds to the men of the 314th. The men at Sewart were duly impressed. The Air Force allowed the team to perform in both Europe and the Far East to demonstrate the versatility of its newest transport and the competence of her crews. The team applied for official designation as an aerial demonstration team, but the request was denied because airplanes and crews could not be spared from normal airlift duties. Several years later the 774th TCS patch was modified to include a red lightning bolt to denote the legacy of the Horsemen, some of whom remained with the 463rd and the 774th for many years. Many of the former Horsemen played continuing roles in the history of the C-130, including during hostilities in Southeast Asia.

The intent of the Horsemen demonstration was to show how maneuverable the Hercules was. The team began their performance with a formation takeoff then performed a series of intricate maneuvers before the crowd. The performance ended with all four airplanes executing a tactical pitch-out over the runway, then coming in to land one behind the other only seconds apart. Throughout the career of the Horsemen the four aircraft commanders remained the same, but copilots and flight mechanics changed. All of the demonstration flights were flown with a 3-man crew – two pilots and a flight mechanic. According to the pilots, the scanner monitored the engine start, but remained on the ground during the performance. The flight mechanics worked hard to be a part of the Horsemen crew. Although they would eventually be assigned exclusively to aircrew duty, in the early days of Hercules operations the flight mechanics worked on the flight line when they weren’t flying.

The Crew

TAC C-130 crews were soon established at four men – two pilots, a navigator and an engineer, who was officially referred to as a flight mechanic. The airplane could be flown safely with two pilots and an engineer although in an emergency two men could fly it, either two pilots or a pilot and an engineer. The navigator’s presence reflected the worldwide mission of TAC C-130 squadrons and their airdrop capabilities. Navigation on missions within the United States did not require a navigator. A fifth crewmember was required to help keep track of mechanical conditions in flight so a scanner, usually a member of the ground crew, was added to the normal crew. Eventually the scanner would be combined with the loadmaster position, which became a permanent part of airlift C-130 crews in 1964. A few loadmasters were assigned to each squadron from the beginning but in the late 1950s most C-130 loadmasters were assigned to aerial port squadrons, where they would work in the aerial delivery section, rigging airdrop loads, or checking Army cargo to ensure that it was properly rigged for airdrop by Air Force aircraft when they weren’t flying. The turboprop powered C-130 gave TAC a worldwide capability that called for instant response, so loadmasters were eventually assigned directly to the flying squadrons and became part of the five-man crew, taking over the job of scanner in addition to their other duties. From all indications, the first loadmasters to transfer into the squadrons of the 463rd at Ardmore did so during the Quemoy-Matsu Crisis in the summer of 1958. Many early C-130 loadmasters were former C-119 radio operators whose jobs had been phased out as newer technology produced aircraft radios that didn’t require a dedicated operator. Scanners and loadmasters were still flying together as late as 1963, but by 1964 the jobs had been combined. Loadmasters remained in aerial port squadrons and flew as second loadmasters on cargo drops, but the loadmaster position had become a part of the C-130 crew.

The flight engineer position is also of dubious distinction. The job of aerial engineer predated World War II, going back to when the first multi-engine aircraft entered service, but with the advent of the B-29 the job began emphasizing performance qualification. Originally, the Army Air Forces assigned pilots to the B-29 program as flight engineers, but they were soon replaced by men who had been qualified as flight engineers and in most cases were commissioned officers. By the 1950s flight engineers were NCOs, but they had received special training to make them performance qualified, which meant they had received training to determine power settings that would ensure the maximum range for the least amount of fuel. This was very important in reciprocating-engine aircraft, but the new C-130 used Allison turboprop engines which were far less critical on fuel consumption at the higher altitudes at which the Hercules operated on long flights. There was no need for a performance flight engineer on a C-130 crew but there was a need for a crewmember to take care of mechanical tasks away from home base. TAC wanted an enlisted cockpit crewmember who could also perform maintenance; they were given the title of flight mechanic, with an A" prefix added to their Air Force job specialty number (AFSC), and were drawn from aircraft general and jet engine maintenance. Although they had a new name, flight mechanics were the lineal descendants of the World War II aerial engineers who flew on four-engine bombers and transports. Performance qualified flight engineers had a separate AFSC, even though the two jobs were practically identical as far as in-flight duties were concerned – with the exception being that the performance engineers determined power settings and, on some aircraft types, had their own throttles. In the Vietnam War the distinction would lead to problems as C-130 flight mechanics served repeat tours overseas while their counterparts in Military Airlift Command C-141s and C-5s would often spend years on the same base in the same squadron in the States, many never serving a tour overseas.

TAC troop carrier crews suffered through slow promotions, both for officers and enlisted men. An aircraft commander was usually a captain in his