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Bill Gould: Crash Landing - Dec 67

Click for larger pictureA lot of the events from 1967 are fuzzy but the details of the crash are still very clear. As far as crashes go, this was not a really bad one. It could have been much, much worse.

I was an E5 sergeant flying the Intel seat on Cricket in December of 1967. I was one of six enlisted North Vietnamese speaking cryptolinguists loaned to 7th AF ABCCC from the Air Force Security Service (NSA) to help with manning until enough officers could be trained to fill the slots.

We had just completed a normal 10 hour mission in western Laos. It must have been about 1700 hours in Udorn. There was no indication of a problem until we touched down.

I remember that the rudder activity was a little wilder than usual. After a very few seconds it was apparent that we were going off the left side of the runway at a pretty high speed. The ride got progressively rougher, and we went airborne a few times before we slid to a halt. I am told that we took out a few small trucks during our uncontrolled landing, but I never actually saw them. The last hop into the air was a pretty high one that was caused by an earth berm in our path.

I remember as we were about to hit hard one of the senior officers said aloud “kiss your ### goodbye boys.” I remember that I was angry hearing that because I thought that we would not survive the next impact.

The impact was very hard, and included the crunch of metal and a few bangs. We came to a halt and adrenaline immediately kicked in. As I remember, the front end crew went out the ropes in the cockpit, and most of us went to the left rear door.

At first it would not open but after a few desperate pulls it finally opened. When it did, a burst of dust blew in and the abyss that we had to jump into was bright orange from the reflection of the burning fuel on the right side of the plane.

Number 4’s prop left its engine and pieces came through the capsule and hit one crewmember’s knee, as I remember.

The right side of the aircraft burned in a fireball as we jumped down to the ground. Without the customary stairs and with the tail slightly high it was a jump that one would not volunteer to make except under the conditions that existed. Luckily, fairly soft sand greeted our landing and the entire capsule crew made it out safely in a very few seconds.

My feet were moving when I hit the ground. At first we did not think that the front end crew made it out, but soon we spotted them about 100 yards in front of the aircraft.

Within about 45 seconds Pedro, the firefighting helicopter that always seemed to be in the air at Udorn was on top of our aircraft and emptying its round bomb of foam onto the aircraft to put out the fire. I sat watching the confusion for a few minutes, catching my breath. I walked a few hundred yards to the little RTAFB control tower and entered the store on the bottom floor where I commandeered a case of Sing Ha beer (I didn’t ask).

We drank a warm one while the emergency crews took care of the fire and secured the aircraft. As the Intel person onboard I was responsible for the classified leather briefcase filled with the codebooks and CACs. It took a while to secure them since they wouldn’t let us into the aircraft. Yet I knew that I couldn’t leave without the classified that I had signed out at the beginning of the mission.

I lived in a fancy bungalow in town with my five buddies from the Security Service. After debriefing and taking a cab home, my buddies asked me how the mission went. I told them that we ran off the runway and crashed and burned. And then I went to bed. Of course, they didn’t believe me.

I thank my lucky stars that I was flying in a wonderfully designed and built high wing EC130 that day. It really took a beating for us. It was pure luck that there were no flames in the exact spots where we exited the aircraft. I never really found out what happened to cause the crash other than hearing that the prop reversers might have malfunctioned. At any rate, the powers-that-were decided that our Cricket crew had to get right back on the horse, so we had our day off cancelled and we flew again the next day. The aircraft stayed in Udorn for months until they finally put it back together and flew it to CCK.

That’s what I remember about the crash 40 years later.

I’m not sure how many missions I flew but I believe I flew 1300 hours with Cricket which figures out to about 120 missions. I have lots of memories - some funny, and some not.

I have heard that 62-1791 still is flying and artifacts of the repair can be seen. I’d love to see her again. Does anyone know where she is and could a visit ever be arranged?

Bill Gould

Filed under: Memories •

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Submitted Comments:

Bill - This site - http://www.61tcs.org/c-130_inventory.htm - shows 62-1791 flying from Kadena as a C-130E with the 17th SOS.

Posted by Gene Hilsheimer  on  11/28  at  07:34 AM

After all the years of flying and working on the EC’s I had never heard of 1791 running off the runway at Udon.  We had always heard the stories of 1859 and its gear up landing though.

Gene is right, 1791 is at Kadena, and was assigned to the 17th SOS, but was shared with the 1st SOS as a slick trash hauler, and inflight refueling trainer.  You could get a visit with it if you made it over to Kadena and hooked up with a 17th member.  I dont think the repairs are visible to this day, as many preflights as I have done on that bird, I never saw anything out of the ordinary on it that no other 130 has!

Nathan

Posted by  on  12/02  at  09:52 PM

We have a picture in our gallery that was found on a Japanese site - and says it was taken at Kadena.  This may be 62-1791.  It is here: http://www.abtriplec.com/index.php/abtriplec_gallery/image_full/15/

Posted by Gene Hilsheimer  on  12/03  at  08:56 AM

Nathan, Thanks for your comment about 1791 being in Kadena. That’s quite a coincidence because after I left Udorn on a 1 day notice (leaving my round-eye wife there alone) I went to Danang for a few months and then eventually over to Kadena to be reunited with the 6990th Security Squadron where I flew on the RC135M for 18 months. Our son Scott was born at Camp Kue in Oct 69. I doubt if I will ever get to Kadena to see 1791 . I’ll bet that 1791 doesn’t still have the metal chair frame with a hole in it where we placed a double plastic bag for a toilet. That got pretty ripe after 10 hours with a crew of 12 or so. The rule was that the first person to use it had to take the bags out regardless of rank. That’s why we always waited for the visiting officers from 7th AF to use the bag after take-off. They always wondered why we were lined up after they exited the little curtained area. I saw a lt col pick up the bag after one mission and watched as it broke when he lifted it.
Thanks again.  Bill Gould

Posted by  on  12/04  at  08:34 PM

Bill - your tale of the pooper reminds me of riding the C-130 Taxi (The Klong) from Bangkok around to all the bases.  If there was ever a female on those flights, the Flight Engineers would always have her seated up in the front, by the cockpit bulkhead where the pisser was… That way, nobody would go up there, whip it out, and reliever themselves during the flight… and there was no pisser to be cleaned out after their RTB.

Posted by Gene Hilsheimer  on  12/05  at  03:13 PM

No metal chair for the crapper, unless you are talking about the honey bucket that all e-model 130s have, hehe.  My son was also born in Okinawa, on Camp Lester, where the naval hospital is located.  They must have shut Camp Kue down, as I have never heard of that area before.  I enjoyed getting 1791 at Kadena, with all the history I had with the bird, fisrt working on them at Keesler as a crew chief, then as a flight engineer at the 42nd ACCS at DM when I first cross trained.  It got its dual rail equipment back so it could haul every thing we needed to take with us on our deployments around the pacific.

Nathan

Posted by  on  12/08  at  09:42 PM

I’m a maintainer here at Kadena and I can assure you that she is here!  I see her almost every day and imagine the things that she’s been through.  I work with the 353 Maintenance Squadron.  I’m sure that a visit can be arranged considering what you’ve been through with her.  I’m sure a lot of the maintainers here would love to talk to you about the experience, especially those assigned to her now.

Posted by  on  03/18  at  07:25 PM

After the ABCCC migration, we sent 1791 to Kadena AFSOC in Aug 2003.

Posted by  on  03/27  at  10:25 AM

Bill,

A great story.  You were all lucky to survive.

I had a similiar experience in December 1959 landing at RAF Mildenhall, England.  Unfortunately, our co-pilot forgot to put the gear down when we came back from a mission because of a severe fuel leak.  The tower operator told me that all he saw were sparks enveloping our WB-50D aircraft.  For a photo of the crash, please go to the following link:

http://members.aol.com/kenwitkin/wb50d.jpg

Posted by Ken Witkin  on  03/28  at  04:32 PM

During my short active duty term in the Air Force, I was a crew chief on 91’. As I was leaving so was the 42nd ACCS and 91 was on her way out. Good to know that she’s still around!

I’m currently a wheeled vehicle mechanic for the Army and constantly wish we had 130’s.

Posted by  on  05/15  at  02:36 PM

I’m a maintainer in the USAF at Kadena and 62-1791 is still flying.  She is no longer an EC-130, shes just a hauler now.  She hauls for special forces planes, so her mission is still pretty cool I think.  I heard that she had crashed back in the day, went to the boneyard, and was brought back to life again.  So I wanted to see if I could find any pictures and history on the old bird.  I have a found a few, including one of her up on jacks after the crash you mentioned.  I’ve been trying to research and put together some pictures and history of the aircraft I work on.  If you’ve got anymore pictures of 62-1791 I would greatly appreciate it.  But I can assure you she is in Okinawa.  Thanks.

Posted by  on  08/22  at  11:35 PM

Bill,
Don’t know if you remember me, i was there in Udorn (flew on Hillsboro).  Lived with you, Dick Burke, Lee Allen, Joe Newbold, and Ron Wegner in that fancy bungalow.  Last time i saw you was at a get together when we were getting ready to be separated.  I think it was at the home of the Tech Sgt we worked for in the GDRS days.

I remember the crash.  That plane sat in the revetment area seemingly forever and we would see it ever morning we flew.

larry

Posted by  on  10/21  at  01:56 PM

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