| Back in the 1980s a lot of books were
starting to come out about the
Vietnam War, and about the military of the 1960s and 1970s. Most were
written by former soldiers and Marines, but a few were by pilots,
mostly fighter pilots, while others were by aviation authors of some
note such as Robert F. Dorr. After I contributed to some of Bob's
books, I suggested that he write one about the Air Force troop carrier
mission. He wrote back and said "Why don't you do it yourself?" There
was a definite need for such a book - for several, actually - and I
decided that if no one else was going to do it, I might as well do it
myself. So, I started writing and started looking for a publisher. I
finally found one in the form of TAB/Aero, a now-defunct company in
Pennsylvania that specialized in self-help books but also published a
line of aviation books. In 1988 TAB published my manuscript as The C-130 Hercules,
Tactical Airlift Missions, 1956-1985. I hated that
title! My working title was The Green Garbage Can,
since the book was about the "trash haulers" who flew the Lockheed
C-130 in the troop carrier squadrons of Tactical Air Command, United
States Air Forces, Europe, Pacific Air Forces and Alaska Air Command I
decided to call it Trash
Haulers.
The published title came from someone in TAB's marketing department who
claimed
they did a research study and decided that there wasn't enough name
recognition for the Trash
Haulers title.
As it turned out, TAB's choice of a title hurt sales because another
book came out about the same time by another of my friends, the late US
Navy Captain M.E. Morris, called C-130, The Hercules.
Both books were published about the same time and some bookstore chains
elected not to stock my book because of the similarity of the two
titles even though the actual subject matter was only the same in the
sense that it was about the C-130. TAB ended up doing a production run
of only 2,500 copies and the book went out of print by 1990. Since that
time, I have had a lot of requests from C-130 veterans for copies of
the book. Some copies are available from used book sellers, but they
are rather pricey. I was working on other projects, particularly a book
about the USAF troop carrier mission from World War II through Vietnam.
At the time I was using a word processor, but then lo and behold, along
came the miracle of the computer and the scanner and I was able to scan
the galley of the original book into Microsoft Word. TAB was purchased
by McGraw-Hill and they returned the rights to the book to me after
they decided not to continue publication. |
|
| TRASH
HAULERS is
a revised version of the original book, with a lot of new information
that I have been able to find in the twenty-three years since the
original was published. I have incorporated that information into the
book, along with some corrections to material that was in the original
publication. In addition, I've added information about missions that
were still classifed in the 1980s, but have since been declassified and
information revealed about them. I also included an epilogue giving a
brief description of USAF airlift operations since the time frame the
book covers. |
|
| For those who are not familiar with the
C-130 troop
carrier mission, it was actually one of the most exciting of all of the
Air Force missions, and arguably the most important. To learn more
about it, read my new book ANYTHING, ANYWHERE,
ANYTIME. From the time the
first C-130As were delivered to the 463rd Troop Carrier Wing at Ardmore
AFB, Oklahoma until the tactical airlift mission transferred into
Military Airlift Command after the US role in Southeast Asia came to an
end, troop carrier crews were involved in one history-making operation
after another, starting with the movement of US troops to the Middle
East in 1958 to provide stablity to the region after the president of
Iraq was assassinated. Another crisis erupted almost simultaneously on
the other side of the world when Red China threatened invasion of the
Chinese Nationalist-held islands of Quemoy and Matsu. In 1960 322nd Air
Division C-130s from France were assigned to fly a United Nations
peace-keeping team to the former Belgian Congo, and to support them
while they were there. In 1963 322nd was ordered to support the Indian
military after Chinese troops moved into India's northern provinces. A
year later Tactical Air Command C-130Es from the 464th Troop Carrier
Wing at Pope AFB, NC were sent to the Congo as part of a US Strike
Command mission sent to the region to assist the Congolese government
in its efforts to defeat a rebellion by Marxist-led tribesmen who
called themselves "Simba," or lion. The Simba Rebellion led to an
intervention by Belgian paracommandos who were flown to the Congo by
464th TCW C-130s who were on temporary duty with 322nd Air Division in
France. The USAF C-130s dropped the Belgian paratroopers on the airport
at Stanleyville to rescue Americans and Europeans who were being held
as captives in a Stanleyville hotel, an action that made headlines
around the world. A few months later in April, 1965 TAC and Military
Air Transport Service C-130s airlifted elements of the Army's 82nd
Airborne Division to San Isidro Airfield in the Dominican Republic to
establish order after civil war erupted in the Caribbean nation. |
|
| Meanwhile,
on the other side of the globe, Pacific Air Command's 315th Air
Division was engaged in a number of operations in Asia, some of which
were highly classified and kept from public view. From the time the
first C-130s were assigned to 315th Air Division's squadrons at Ashiya,
Japan and Naha, Okinawa, they were involved in classified missions
including dropping and resupplying indigeneous guerrilla forces in
Tibet. After the Laotian Civil War ended in what was supposed to be a
truce, 315th C-130s, often flown by civilian crews employed by the
Central Intelligence Agency, supported anti-communist forces in Laos.
At the same time, 315th's C-130s were flying missions into South
Vietnam, where the government was battling an insurgency supported by
North Vietnam. In addition to overt air transport missions into
Southeast Asia, 315th's C-130 squadrons were involved in clandestine
missions dropping propaganda leaflets (over North Korea as well as
Vietnam), dropping flares and acting as forward air controllers for
fighters, inserting and resupplying team operating deep in communist
territory and other tasks, some of which have never been revealed to
the public (and probably never will be.) In 1965 the war in Vietnam
erupted into a full-fledged war and 315th C-130s became an integral
part of it. By 1966 315th's troop carrier squadrons, which had been
supplemented by Tactical Air Command squadrons transferred from the
United States, had become the prime mover of men, equipment and cargo
in Southeast Asia. In late 1967 all hell broke loose and C-130 crews
found themselves flying some of the most dangerous missions in US
military aviation history. For 77 days USAF and US Marine Corps C-130
and USAF C-123 crews kept Allied forces at the remote camp at Khe Sanh
supplied, both by air-landing and airdrop. At A Loi C-130 crews went
into a fog-filled valley in weather so bad their escorting F-4s refused
to fly to drop supplies to the troops of the 1st Air Cavalry Division
who had launched an invasion of the deadly A Shau Valley. On May 12,
1968 C-130 and Army and Marine helicopter crews flew the most dramatic
missions of the Vietnam War as they evacuated the camp at Kham Duc,
with a loss of two C-130s and one crew. Four years later C-130 crews
were called on to drop supplies to the besieged South Vietnamese
garrison at the town of An Loc. |
|
| TRASH HAULERS tells the story of
the C-130 troop carrier mission (it was redesignated as "troop carrier"
on August 1, 1966) from start to finish. Much of the material comes
from the author's own experiences as part of the 464th TCW at Pope, the
6315th Operations Group/374th Troop Carrier Wing at Naha and the 463rd
Tactical Airlift Wing at Clark Field, Philippines. Other material was
provided by other troop carrier/tactical airlift veterans and some is
from official sources. E Flight, HEAVY CHAIN, COMMANDO VAULT, FACT
SHEET and JILLI, COMMANDO SCARF, BANISH BEACH - they're all here. If
you want to know what C-130 crews did prior to and during the Vietnam
War, you'll find it here. |
