The C-130 was, by far, my favorite aircraft. Due to its versatility and its short legs. Couldn’t carry a lot of fuel and cargo. Therefore, we had to stop at a lot of fun places I’d never heard of before to get gas. Most of my hours were in the Herk. 2500 vs 1500 in C-141 and 1000 in the Goon (EC-47) in Nam. It’s still flying but not in active USAF. It was also overpowered which saved my ass on at least one occasion.
On a formation landing (stupid idea). We got caught in prop wash from the craft in front of us. We were about 100 ft off the ground. Our bird did a 90 degree flip (wings pointing to ground and sky m). Our pilot gunned the engines and we straightened right uo and pulled out of a near fatal approach. Yep. I’m still here thanks to Jack Sharkey(pilot) and an overpowered Herk. What other exaggerations can I spin for you? I’m sure I’ll think of some with a little encouragement.
It’s odd, but one emotion I don’t remember about those sessions of LAPES was fear. My job was easy. Vet them to a visual sighting of the Extraction Zone ( EZ). The pilots had the scary part. I enjoyed the ride and rush(stupid).
My fear came with air drop, because I was the dude who said “Green light to direct the release of cargo or for the stick of troops ( ten or more) to jump ( using side door not ramp). It was MY responsibility to get people or stuff on the drop zone and not in water or trees.
My prime fear was f’ing up and causing injury or worse. I prayed a lot. “Green light. Hail Mary, full of grace———————. Amen “. A very exciting time of my life (1962-1967). Damn. I’m old.
This old man flew as navigator about 2500 hours in the C-130 Hercules and stood back by that open ramp many times. It was an awesome sight. I said “Green Light” many times before a jeep or tank or large piece of cargo went out that ramp in flight
Herky took me to several exotic places like Wake and Midway Islands, Karachi, Pakistan; Asmara and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Recife, Rio and Sao Paulo, Brazil, Adana, Diyarbakir, Yalova, Samsun, and Trabzon, Turkey. And many other hot spots. OMG that was about 60 years ago.