After graduating from Undergraduate Pilot Training

Going to war was not my idea.  I drew a low draft number and entered ROTC in order to finish college.  I was not one of the anti-war types and never considered fleeing to Canada to avoid the draft or serving.  It was just not my first choice of careers when I finished college.  But I was called and I did my duty.

After graduating from UPT (Undergraduate Pilot Training) at Reese AFB, Texas, I received orders to fly C-130’s in Southeast Asia for 18 months.  Arriving in mid 1971, my orders would carry me thru the end of 1972 in the war zone. 

About March of 1971, the 774^thSquadron, the last squadron of C-130’s at Clark AB where I was stationed, received word that we would be deactivated and that our planes would be returned to the US.  All of us would receive orders to new assignments. Our war duty would be ended.  The news was greeted with a mixture of relief and sadness.  No one likes to be exposed to the hazards of war but the thought of being back in the states while the war and our mission was still going on left one a little empty. 

For the next 3 weeks there was anticipation as people found out where they would be assigned for the next few years of their life.  Some people were excited, some dismayed by the results.  Meanwhile, we were still flying our missions out of Cam Rahn Bay, Vietnam.

Then suddenly on April 1^st, everything changed.  Several people, including myself, were told to bring all of our flight gear and several weeks of clothes and report to the base.  The rest of the squadron, without gear, was also told to report with us for the squadron briefing.   Obviously, something big was up.

The Squadron Commander briefed a major enemy troop movement was occurring in a couple of places called An Loc.  Those of us with flight gear were being deployed that day and that we would be gone until the mission was complete.  He then told us that all, ALL, orders to new assignments were cancelled and everyone would complete their tour of duty as assigned.

There was stunned disbelief in the briefing room.  The prevailing view was that this was some sort of April fool’s joke.  Some men had already sent their wives on to the US to begin looking for houses at the new assignment.  Some people had leave set up for the time when our squadron was deactivated.  Furniture had been packed and picked up by shippers to send on to the US. There was anger, frustration and a nagging concern that anything big enough to change orders for an entire squadron was something that was not good.   As a bachelor, I had no complex circumstances to deal with.  I had very little to send back to the US and was one of the only people who had not received orders.  Other people were deeply affected. 

Once in country we were out of touch with our home squadron.  Then, just as suddenly as we had received notice of the new mission, we received notice that the C-130’s from CCK AFB in Taiwan would take the An Loc mission and that we would expand our  “klong” missions in Thailand.  The change was greeted with a ho-hum attitude.  It seemed one mission was about the same as another. 

That illusion was shattered just a few days later, on April 18, 1972, when the resupply mission into An Loc claimed its first C-130 casualty.  Barely one week later, April 25, 1972, another Hercules was lost trying to resupply An Loc.   Then just a week after that, yet a third C-130 was lost at An Loc.

The incident reports below are all taken from the book, Vietnam Air Losses, by Chris Hobson.

The An Loc resupply missions turned out to be one of many dangerous C-130 missions during the war. 

We never were told why those deadly missions were taken from our units and assigned to the guys from CCK, the base in Taiwan.  Just as Providence intervened to put me in the military and in the war zone, Providence intervened to keep me away from the gravest danger that I would have faced in my lifetime.

Ultimately, three C-130’s were lost in An Loc.  Twelve (12) crew members perished.  It turned out to be one of the deadliest few weeks of the war for Hercules crews.