C 130?

[jls in az]

My grandson is flying MC130's and AC130's now as a linguist. I don't know when they added linguists to those crews but he's having a blast, sometimes literally on the AC's. The USAF gave him an initial enlistment bonus of $96,000.00 to sign up for six years and go to Monterey to learn a language. While I'm proud he's following in my footsteps, I do worry.

[Limper]

I think it was around the mid 90s. They were talking about DSOs (Direct Support Operators) when I was stationed at Kadena in 95-96. And yeah the bonuses were kinda nice, my timing never was very good. They always seemed to drop when it was time for me to reenlist and rise when I was already committed.

[AZ Husker]

The USAF gave him an initial enlistment bonus of $96,000.00 to sign up for six years and go to Monterey to learn a language.

$96K to go to the Defense Language Institute? When I went in that was one of the toughest jobs to get, we certainly didn't get a bonus. I enlisted for six years just to go there and avoid the draft.

[jls in az]

I did the same thing. I joined the Air Force in 1971 after I got a note that started "Greetings ..." I Originally signed up to be a "Site Projector." The job sounded good- survey airfields and landing areas, layout landing strips, coordinate directly with airborne aircraft. They later changed the job to "Combat Controller." Anyway, took the DLAPT the 5th day of basic training and maxed it, then about 15 days before graduating basic, took a tonal language test and failed it miserably. Everyone else was saying how easy the test had been. When we got our orders at the end of basic, 4 of us were going to Monterey to study Russian and German and the other 56 were going to FT Bliss, Texas to learn Vietnamese. I graduated from basic Russian in 1972, went to Goodfellow, then spent 1973 in San Vito, Italy. Went back to Monterey in 1974 for Intermediate Russian, then to a special school at No Such Agency. Was in Berlin in 1975 and 1976. We were surrounded by 9 Russian armies so it was a target rich environment. Left there in 1977 for Offutt and spent the rest of my 20 flying RC135's, RC130's EC-130H's and laying the ground work for the tactical support and C3CM that came after.

[Limper]

I scored decent on the DLAPT but not well enough to pick my language. Flavor of the day (July 1983) ended up being Korean. Forty-seven started the class, seven of us finished. When I was stationed at Kadena flying RC-135s the Russian missions always included 1 Korling for self protection due to the route proximity to the DPRK on ingress and egress. That meant I was blessed to see some examples of the USSR fighter inventory close up. Never got to see any of the DPRK inventory close up. But that's a good thing cause that meant they were trying to shoot you down.

Even if they aren't trying to shoot you down all it take is one dumbass like PLAF Lt Cdr Wang Wei on April Fool's Day (can't make this sh*t up) to screw up and then your day gets interesting. (article attached)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hainan_Island_incident

Note: The article even has a picture of the Air Force crew member who was flying with the Navy that day. You can clearly see his 390th name tag on his flight suit that has the silhouette of a RC-135. My understanding is it was his first flight solo after qualifying. It was a Sunday. And nothing ever happens on Sundays..............

[jls in az]

I remember that, especially since the Navy pilot was supposed to make sure the plane was destroyed. I spent time flying out of Shemya too. My last trip was when the Cobra Ball crashed on March 15th, 1981. One of the guys killed, my good friend Harry Parsons, had taken my place on that flight so I could go out on the tanker with the alert crew and be ready in case we had to launch once the Ball landed. We landed on the tanker during a break in the storm, the a$$hole SAC pilot tried to land the RC135S in a whiteout in 70 MPH crosswinds 4 hours later. Left the landing gear and part of an engine in the cliff at the end of the runway and spread debris all the way down as the plane came apart. We were lucky though, only 4 killed out of the crew.

I had a good friend when we started the 41st that was the sole survivor of the MC-130 that blew up over the Philippines in, I think, 78. He was an EWO on the MC-130 mission crew and was still in his helmet, mask and chute because they had just come off a tactical run. One second he was sitting at his position in the back of the aircraft, the next he was floating down in his parachute. He couldn't remember how he got there just the fact that his face hurt like hell from the burns. The crash investigation found that there was leak in the bleed air line that ran across the top of the aircraft in the wing root. There's also a fuel line that runs right next to the bleed air so you had 640 degree hot air blowing on a fuel line that developed a leak.

[Az desert rat 1]

Very dependable bird. In the early 70's, I've taken off in them more than once. Landing in one was a different story, most of the time we exited from the rear in flight.

[AZ Husker]

I've taken off in one many times, but never landed for the same reason. If you got a tail jump you were lucky!

[jls in az]

Funny thing was, they paid us a lot more to stay in them than you guys got for jumping out!;-)

[AZ Husker]

$55 a month jump pay was big money back then.

[jls in az]

$350.00 a month was a lot better plus the landings were a lot easier on the knees.