A 346th TAS Diary

By James C. Miller

This diary documents the time that I spent as a Lockheed C-130E Hercules pilot in the 346th Tactical Airlift Squadron (TAS) during the Vietnam War. I was commissioned through the United States Air Force (USAF) Officer Training School (OTS) in the first part of 1966, then spent a year in USAF Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT). I reported to the 346th TAS at Dyess Air Force Base (AFB) in Abilene, Texas, in mid-1967, to fly the C-130E Hercules tactical transport. The squadron was moved from a deployment (rotation) in England to Clark Air Base (AB) in the Philippines in response to the 31 January 1968 Tet Offensive in Vietnam. We operated in Vietnam for several months then returned to Dyess.

We rotated again to Southeast Asia operations for a couple of months that winter, based out of Tachikawa AB in Japan. We came home to Dyess and prepared the squadron for a unit move from USAF’s Tactical Air Command (TAC) to USAF’s Pacific Air Forces (PACAF). Our new home was at Ching Chuan Kang (CCK) AB in Taiwan. I operated from there for 15 months. During the years 1968 through 1970 I flew 689 combat sorties and almost 700 combat hours in Vietnam as a copilot, an aircraft commander, and then instructor pilot. I compiled this diary from notes that I kept, combined with retrospective research.

• Language: English
• Publisher: James C. Miller
• Release date: Aug 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215310960

James C. Miller

I conducted 45 years of applied research and development concerning human cognitive performance and fatigue. I focused mainly on the measurement and analysis of human physical and cognitive performance in military and civil aviation; highway, rail and maritime transportation; and night and shift work. Operator fatigue was at the center of my interests after my days as an Air Force pilot in the C-130E Hercules tactical transport in Vietnam. I'm also the author of "Fatigue" in McGraw-Hill's Controlling Pilot Error series (2001), and the ASIS CRISP report "Fatigue Effects and Countermeasures in 24/7 Security Operations" (2010). In 2018-2021 I taught Physiology as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Life Sciences, Texas &M University-Corpus Christi.

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A 346th TAS Diary

James C. Miller, Ph.D.

Published by James C. Miller, Ph.D. at Smashwords

Copyright 2023 James C. Miller

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Cover photo: turning onto the dirt runway at Đức Phong, viewed from the pilot’s seat, 1 September 1969. (Author)

Discover other titles by James C. Miller:

Maritime Watchstanding Plans: Origins, Variants and Effectiveness. Smashwords, 2015.

21 Tips For Beating Fatigue And Improving Your Health, Happiness And Safety. CreateSpace, 2013.

Anatomy of a Fatigue-Related Accident. Smashwords, 2013.

Cognitive Performance Research at Brooks Air Force Base, Texas, 1960-2009. Smashwords, 2013.

Fundamentals of Shiftwork Scheduling, 3rd Edition: Fixing Stupid. Smashwords, 2013.

Shiftwork: An Annotated Bibliography. Smashwords, 2013.

Fatigue. McGraw-Hill, 2001.

Dedication

To my friends in the Coastal Bend Chapter of the Distinguished Flying Cross Society. Our monthly lunches at Doc’s by the Laguna Madre on North Padre Island are great fun: All war stories welcome, half believed.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1966: OTS

1966-1967: UPT

The C-130 Hercules

The Black Knights of the 346th

Troop Carriers and Tactical Airlift

1967: Joining the 346th TAS

1968: Vietnam

Losing Rich

Winter Rotation

1969: Unit Move to CCK

Ching Chuan Kang AB

1970: Instructor Pilot

Post-Vietnam

The Author

Footnotes

List of Airfields

Vietnam Corps and Air Base Map

Introduction

This diary documents the time that I spent as a Lockheed C-130E Hercules pilot in the 346th Tactical Airlift Squadron (TAS) during the Vietnam War. I was commissioned through the United States Air Force (USAF) Officer Training School (OTS) in the first part of 1966, then spent a year in USAF Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT). I reported to the 346th TAS at Dyess Air Force Base (AFB) in Abilene, Texas, in mid-1967, to fly the C-130E Hercules tactical transport. The squadron was moved from a deployment (rotation) in England to Clark Air Base (AB) in the Philippines in response to the 31 January 1968 Tet Offensive in Vietnam. We operated in Vietnam for several months then returned to Dyess.

We rotated again to Southeast Asia operations for a couple of months that winter, based out of Tachikawa AB in Japan. We came home to Dyess and prepared the squadron for a unit move from USAF’s Tactical Air Command (TAC) to USAF’s Pacific Air Forces (PACAF). Our new home was at Ching Chuan Kang (CCK) AB in Taiwan. I operated from there for 15 months. During the years 1968 through 1970 I flew 689 combat sorties and almost 700 combat hours in Vietnam as a copilot, an aircraft commander, and then instructor pilot. I compiled this diary from notes that I kept, combined with retrospective research.

I’ve described in the diary, briefly, my experiences in Officer Training School (OTS) in 1966 and Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT) in 1966-1967. Then, I’ve explained my introduction to the C-130 Hercules and the tactical airlift mission. Subsequent chapters deal with my time in the 346th TAS at Dyess AFB in Abilene, Texas, and Ching Chuan Kang (CCK) Air Base in Taiwan, and my combat activities in South Vietnam in 1968 through 1970. I’ve included a short synopsis of my post-Vietnam activities. At the end of the book are a map showing the four Corps areas in South Vietnam and some of the airfields there, and an annotated listing of the airfields in South Vietnam that I have mentioned in the text.

1966: OTS

I grew up in West Los Angeles, California. My father was a clinical psychologist and my mother a specialist teacher and tutor. I participated in Army Junior ROTC in high school. I attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, class of 1964. Because the university was a land-grant school, on the grounds of the WWII Goleta Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS), I was required to participate in ROTC (Army) as a male freshman and sophomore. This included Thursday early-morning drills and one class per semester in military history. The land-grant requirement ended in 1962, the end of my sophomore year.

While working as a laboratory technician in brain research at UCLA in 1965, I took and passed examinations to become an Air Force pilot. This was one way to dodge the draft! I was processed through the Los Angeles Selective Service Induction Station and flown to San Antonio, Texas, on 22-23 February 1966. I spent three months at the Medina Annex of Lackland AFB at Officer Training School (OTS), where I was an underclassman during the first six weeks. My roommate was Tom McKay.

I competed for a position of responsibility as an upperclassman in the second six weeks of training and became the Cadet Deputy Commander of Squadron 1. This squadron was composed solely of pilot training designees and we were expected to outperform all of the other squadrons in academic and athletic performance. We did. My new roommate was the late Richard Haven (Rich[1]) VanDyke (1944-1968), the Squadron 1 Cadet Commander. We worked well together, running Squadron 1's day-to-day activities, and becoming close friends. I took responsibility for training our 75 new Squadron 1 underclassmen while Rich took care of the rest of the Squadron's business. A few years later, Rich was to become a focal point for my post-Vietnam survivor's guilt.

Rich and I became Distinguished Graduates (DG) from OTS on 22 May 1966 (Class 66G). All DGs were offered Regular commissions. I declined it, remaining a Reserve officer. My rationale was that I did not plan to become a career officer. I was assigned to Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT) at Webb AFB in Big Spring, in the heart of West Texas. Rich went to Williams AFB in Mesa, Arizona, near Phoenix.

1966-1967: UPT

Upon arrival at Webb AFB we were welcomed by the commander of the 3560th Pilot Training Wing, Colonel Chester Butcher[2] (1922-2013). We watched the movie titled The Year of 53 Weeks, which showed us what to expect during training. In one scene, a new Second Lieutenant trainee meets his assigned instructor pilot and tells the instructor that he can be called by his first name. The instructor replies, And you can call me by my first name, ‘Captain’. We were also learned of an F-104 Starfighter[3] that had crashed at the base, leaving only 40 pounds of the pilot to be recovered.

At Webb, I was in Class 67-H, the Red Hot Branders. During my year of 53 weeks at Webb, I flew 15 hours in the Cessna T-41 (a USAF Cessna 172), 45 hours in the Cessna T-37 Tweet (AKA: the 3700-pound dog whistle or the 3700-pound air-to-noise converter), and 60 hours in the 1.2 Mach Northrop T-38 Talon (AKA: the candy-coated training aid). I graduated with a relatively high ranking in my class. Again, I was offered a Regular commission but chose to remain Reserve officer.

My favorite memories are of spin training in the T-37 and formation aerobatics in the T-38. When we spun the T-37, my instructor (Lt Johnny G. Lockhart, a former Texas A&M football lineman) would tell me in no uncertain terms that he did not want me to put us into an inverted spin. But I loved doing that, so I got cussed out each time.

During UPT, we not only learned to fly an airplane. We also were taught, among other things, aircraft systems, aeronautical theory, meteorology, parachuting, Morse code, and airway navigation. For the latter we used navigational aids (NAVAIDS). The first NAVAIDs that we learned about were the rotating beacons at airports. These were designed initially to guide the earliest contract airmail pilots in the U.S., who often flew in open-cockpit aircraft. We could see these beacons for dozens miles on a clear night. There are five or so codes for the beacons, but I only observed two of them. The white-green flashing code indicated a civilian airport. The white-white-green flashing code indicated a military airport. The beacons were often handy for general visual orientation at night across the U.S., especially west of the Mississippi.

One electronic NAVAID was the very-high-frequency (VHF) omnidirectional range, or VOR. This provided us with radial signals from a ground transmitter. We could choose, for example, to fly in a southwesterly direction inbound to the location of the VOR on its 040-degree radial, make turn over the VOR site, and then continue outbound westerly on the VOR’s 260-degree radial. The VOR was used by both civil and military aircraft. Another NAVAID was the tactical air navigation system (TACAN). This provided the same radial functions as the VOR, but added distance from the TACAN, as well. The TACAN was used by military aircraft. The pilots had displays that allowed us to navigate to and from VORs and TACANs. We used these for airway navigation.

Each aircraft also carried an Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) transponder. The IFF listened for an interrogation signal, usually from radar, and then sent a response that identified the aircraft to aircraft controllers. IFF enables military and civilian air traffic control interrogation systems to identify aircraft friendly, as opposed to neutral or hostile, and to determine their bearing and range from the interrogator. Our IFF in the C-130 had three modes. Mode 1 identified the military aircraft type or mission. Mode 2 provided a military code or tail number. Modes 1 and 2 codes were before flight set in a control device in the cargo compartment. Mode 3 provided an identification code for any aircraft, as assigned by an air traffic controller. The latter was referred to as a squawk code and was operated by the copilot in response to squawk instructions from aircraft controllers.

For C-130 operations, we also learned to use the non-directional beacon (NDB). The NDB provided no directional information. We used an instrument called the automatic direction finder (ADF) to fly toward an NDB. We encountered these mostly in Europe in my day, and sometimes in the U.S.

At Webb we joked that we were in the center of the entertainment section of Texas: we’d need to travel 300 miles in any direction to find any entertainment. Over the decades, Big Spring has grown from a small, dusty town to a pretty impressive little city.

The C-130 Hercules

I became acquainted with the C-130 during one of the graduation ceremonies at Webb AFB. We had a class graduating every six weeks. We would have static displays of various types of aircraft at the graduations. I climbed up into the cockpit of a C-130E from Dyess AFB that was on display. As it turned out, the crew that had flown the bird over from Dyess was from the 346th TAS and would later become squadron mates of mine. I liked the large size of the cockpit (I was 6 ft 3 in tall) and the greenhouse visibility afforded by all of the windows. I asked about a strange-looking gadget in the ceiling of the cockpit and was very surprised to learn that it was a sextant port! I associated sextants with sailing ships. But I was to learn of its usefulness later during my