Butterfield was sure that his Air Force career was over, and that he would be FEB'd out of the cockpit. But the accident investigation board exonerated the crew. A DC-130A had a similar problem, but they were on a long runway when it happened. It was because of those two incidents that the A-models were restricted to 4,000 foot runways until a fix could be developed for the problem.

More about the 130 at Tuy Hoa. After the Army class 26'd the fuselage with the cable through the windows trick, the Air Force decided they could salvage the wing. The wing was removed from the airplane and set off to the side. Before the Air Force could get the wing moved, an Army Huey pilot decided to take a close look at it and hovered over it. The down blast from the rotor blades lifted the wing into the air, rotated it and the wing dropped smartly to the ground. The wing was destroyed.

Don'cha just love those Army guys?

Also, on the Tuy Hoa bird and pitch lock, the experienced crews were alert to the problem and any abnormal turning moment going into reverse called for an immediate go-around. What happened at Tuy Hoa was that both #1 and #4 pitch locked and the crew was wondering, "Wha da @$$#&-----", and off the end of the runway they went.

Symmetrical pitch lock. Go figure.

The story on the C-130-A at Tuy Hoa is basically correct except the army first made it into a shower facility. What they did with it later, I don't know.

As to how we got tapped for that mission: Tuy Hoa was the first airfield anywhere to be built by the USAF. When USAF finally convinced the Corps of Engineers, the Army, and the Navy that they could do the job, a final attempt to keep USAF out of site construction was the caveat that no transport aircraft either in theater or stateside could be used for the job. Not to be outsmarted, USAF tapped Alaskan Air Command, who tapped the 17th! As to the Army objection to the use of A-model C-130's, USAF said no problem! The 17th was equipped with D models! Since there were already A, B, and C models, the army made the logical but wholly incorrect assumption that the D model was of later manufacture than either A, B, or C models. The USAF made no attempt to set the record straight, and in fact the first crews sent over were specifically briefed at their classified briefing not to let the cat out of the bag!

All went well, but some really obnoxious pilot from Sewart got into a shouting match with Ron Hebert and Don Wilkerson one day about using A models on the Tuy Hoa 3000 foot strip. Cool hand Ron kept it from going any further by putting us all aboard and taking off for Taipei. Obviously nothing more as said about it to anyone who gave a damn, since we finished up the job next year.

I may or may not have all the niceties straight, but by and large, I think you'll find that really is the way it happened and remember---WE WERE THERE!

I wonder if Don Wilkerson recalls climbing out at night from Tuy Hoa and opening a can of ham and lima beans and finding that the green stuff on top was not lima beans?

 I remember the incident - I don't know what the green stuff was - but I had a bite or two before I figured it wasn't lima beans. I guess we threw it. No one wanted to eat the ham and lima beans, so I could always find some of those around - just not like that can, though.

What I remember most about Tuy Hoa - other than the short runway and PSP was the Vietnamese man who would bring out cold drinks every time an airplane came in. He had them sitting on a box at the edge of the runway. I remember that at least Gerry Harris and I drank several cans of pop before we realized that the garbage dump dogs had already licked all the cans to get the condensation off!

I remember Ron Hebert and I getting a chewing out by some slick wing Captain for making a go around at Tuy Hoa that he didn't think was proper. He a mission commander for a squadron out of Okinawa. We kept the go around tight versus flying over the hills where the "bad guys" might be waiting. The chewing out didn't bother us much.