We have some local skin in the game down in Haiti. From the ABQ Journal:
Medical personnel deployed Sunday are in addition to two aircraft from Cannon that were sent Wednesday
Medical personnel from Cannon Air Force Base's 27th Special Medical Group and 27th Special Operations Support Squadron deployed Sunday to help with earthquake relief efforts in Haiti.
Sunday's deployment from the eastern New Mexico base at Clovis is in addition to two MC-130W Combat Spear aircraft Cannon sent Wednesday from its 73rd Special Operations Squadron. (ed: link added by YrHmblScrb. The pic, too.)
Those aircraft have been delivering personnel, medical supplies, food, water and fuel to support the international aid efforts in Haiti.
Nobody knows how many died in Tuesday's quake. Haiti's government has already recovered 20,000 bodies -- not counting those recovered by independent agencies or relatives themselves, Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told The Associated Press.
Good on our guys! (We use the plural possessive because we're... ahem... "still serving," as it's said.)
―:☺:―
Now about those other wind instruments... I've been spoiled of late, seeing as how we've enjoyed three consecutive days of outdoor Happy Hours. That won't happen today because although our temp is moderate the winds are howling. Shorter: it's not a nice day outside.I'm thinking the wind is much worse than the lil graphic indicates as El Casa Móvil De Pennington is rocking to and fro at an alarming rate. It's a great good thing I'm not prone to motion sickness coz Dramamine isn't stocked in our medicine cabinet.
And a big ol' HOOOAH! to all our service members pitching in and helping Haiti. God bless the U.S. military!
ReplyDeleteNo kidding, Moogie. Our guys in each and every branch are doing a GREAT job down there. But they always do a great job in these terrible circumstances... coz that's who we are, and what we do.
ReplyDeleteI just love an aircraft with lots of bumps, boils, blisters and 'things' sticking out of it! There are so many variants of the C-130, almost as many as the C-135's.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, the Marines are sending the 22nd MEU there, 2000 odd Jarheads whom are just back from a deployment to the Middle-East (non-combat duty). The MEU's are uniquely equipped and qualified for this kind of mission. And YES all of the members of our Armed Forces are doing a commendable job, none better I feel for this activity. None!
BT: Jimmy T sends.
MC-12W Libertys that are based there, some of which had the instrument panel, pedestal and instruments installed by yours truly. Hawker Beechcraft Plant Four, Wichita, Kansas. They simply started life as King Air 350 ERs.
ReplyDeleteAlmost forgot. Many long ones ago, at NAS Norfolk(Chambers Field), I had to sit at a red traffic light at a taxiway. The aircraft was an EC-121 Super Connie. VAQ-33 was still flying them into the mid seventies. Talk about bumps and such. And those huge twin row radials were pure music!
ReplyDeleteJimmy: I think there are more C-130 variants than 135 mods. Just my gut speaking...
ReplyDeleteGlenn: re: 121s. I used to watch the Super Connies (in Air France and TWA liveries) take off and land at Orly Field (part of Orly airport) back when I went to school there in the WAY-back. Quite possibly the most beautiful airliner, ever. USAF flew EC-121s until about '78, IIRC.
"Jimmy: I think there are more C-130 variants than 135 mods. Just my gut speaking..."
ReplyDeleteDepends on how you define "mod." If you only count each major designation, then yes, the -130 has more since the -135 only has three major iterations: KC-, RC-, and EC-, as well as a few "weird" (which is a relative term here) ones, such as the NKC-, the VC-137, and the straight up C-. Looking at the -130 from this standpoint, you've got the vanilla C- (although really the -Js should be counted as a separate model because that's almost a completely new bird), the HC- (USAF and USCG variants, both of which are very different and should be counted separately), the MC-, the AC-, the EC- (of which there have been a few distinct variants...the most notable are the ABCCC airborne command post, the Compass Call jamming aircraft, and the Commando Solo psyop TV/radio broadcasting version), and the Marines' KC- tanker, as well as a few unique versions, like the LC- that the NYANG uses to support missions in the Arctic/Antarctica and the WC- the Hurricane Hunters use.
However, the complication comes if you count the individual RC- variants as different models. For starters, there are currently three main RC- variants in use, all of which have distinctly different missions: the Rivet Joint, which does COMINT and SIGINT (basically a big electronic vacuum cleaner), the Combat Sent, which gathers information to develop jamming and radar warning equipment, and the Cobra Ball, which does recon work on ICBM warheads when they're reentering during a test and other such fun stuff (aka MASINT). This is just the tip of the iceberg, because the project names for the various RC variants changed on an almost yearly basis during the Cold War...Rivet Ball, Rivet Card, Big Safari, Big Team, etc. If you include these each as an individual variant, the -135 probably has more, just by a bit.
There is your aviation history lesson for the day...and no, I did not use any references. I am just that big of a nerd. :-p
As per your earlier article, I noticed that the French are bitching about how the Americans are screwing everything up in Haiti.
ReplyDeleteThe French, of course, are the ones who screwed it up for centuries before, and a century after, Haitian independence.
Mike: Quite a tour de force, you geek, you. ;-) That said, I don't think swapping out the ELINT payload on the 135s qualifies as a different variant. We were constantly changing the configuration of our ground systems with updates, TCTOs, new and improved this and that, yet the system designator remained the same unless there was RADICAL change. But that's just my two cents.
ReplyDeleteGordon: The French always bitch. It's what they do.
Remember, you blue suiters tend to give airplanes more variants than bill clinton had girlfriends.
ReplyDeleteAnd all that block stuff. What gives?
What do you expect from a Navy Airframes guy now working as a crew chief on F-16s at Edwards. Alien, man, alien.
I even read in Aviation Leak once that some of those Secret Squirrel 135s would have a different designation after black boxes got changed.
I say again, What Gives?
A simple letter after seems to work and is much simpler. Like us in the Navy, A-6A, B,C, E and KA-6D. Then there was the A-6E TRAM and that was about it. For an airplane that spent over thirty years in Fleet Service. It begs this.................KISS Principle!
Rant ended.
I do seem to remember the alphabet soup that was Navy aircraft designations before the DOD adopted standard nomenclature.
ReplyDeleteNot that there's anything wrong with that!
Gordon: Heh. Yeah... I had difficulty keeping up with all the F4Us, SBDs, PBYs and the like when I was a modeler in my childhood. Prolly made sense to the Bureau types in DeeSee and Pax River, tho.
ReplyDeleteGlenn: Pbbbbttt! ;-)