Enemy fire had flattened a tire; the crew changed it — using an extemporized jacking rig. The entire time the plane was on the ground, enemy incoming continued to fall all around. Then, as they were taxiing for takeoff, a round hit in front of the nose of the airplane, sending a spray of shrapnel over the C-130 and knocking out one engine. Dallman was making preparations for a three-engine takeoff when the copilot, Captain Roland Behenke, managed to restart the damaged engine. Still receiving hits and low on fuel, the airplane struggled into the air and to safety. For their efforts, Dallman received the Air Force Cross and his crewmen were awarded Silver Stars and Distinguished Flying Crosses.

Subscribe Today

• Did you enjoy our article?
• Read more in Vietnam Magazine
• Subscribe online and save nearly 40%!!!
 

Five days after the experience of Dallman and his crew, a U.S. Marine Corps KC-130F was hit by groundfire while landing at Khe Sanh with a load of ‘elephant turds,’ (i.e., 500-gallon rubber bladders filled with fuel). Several rounds hit the cockpit and cargo compartment, starting a fire and rupturing one of the fuel bladders, which spilled its contents and fueled the fire. Onlookers saw several explosions as the stricken Hercules rolled down the runway after landing. The pilot, Chief Warrant Officer Henry Wildfang, managed to escape through the side windows of the cockpit, as did the copilot, while the navigator and flight mechanic escaped through the crew door after the pilots opened it from outside. The flight mechanic died later, as did one of the passengers who escaped the crash. In all, seven men died in the disaster.

The day after the loss of the Marine KC-130, another Air Force C-130 was seriously damaged by groundfire that killed two passengers and injured the loadmaster. Crew members managed to put out the resulting fire with assistance from two members of the Air Force detachment. Yet, when the fire was out, the airplane was incapable of flight — tires had blown, the engines had received shrapnel damage and the hydraulics had been shot out. Over the next two days the crew worked on their airplane, assisting ground personnel who had been flown in from Da Nang to make the repairs. One mechanic worked on the tail of the airplane at night — easily visible to snipers — using a flashlight. On the second day, a new fire erupted when the airplane was hit by mortar fire. Yet, after two days on the ground at Khe Sanh, Captain Edwin Jenks and his crew managed to get the badly damaged airplane off the ground and safely to Da Nang. There, mechanics counted 242 bullet and shrapnel holes — then stopped counting! Jenks and his crew were nominated for the Silver Star.

After being advised of the near-loss of Jenks? C-130, General Momyer ordered that all Air Force C-130 landings at Khe Sanh cease. General Momyer reasoned that the C-130 was ‘a national resource’ and would be needed for future wars. Besides, the four-engine transports could supply the combat base by airdrop. On the other hand, the smaller C-123s had been declared obsolescent even before the U.S. effort in Southeast Asia began, and they needed less runway than the C-130s and could spend less time on the ground. Consequently, C-123 landings were still allowed when shelling and weather conditions allowed. And for a time the Marines continued landing their own C-130s.

Throughout the siege, the C-123 crews would land at Khe Sanh when possible, along with an occasional Caribou. Yet the C-123s were incapable of carrying the kind of tonnage necessary to keep the base supplied; the bulk of the supplies would have to be airdropped.

By 1968 the prevailing method of aerial delivery in the Air Force was the container delivery system, or CDS. A single C-130 could drop as many as 14 A-22 containers, each filled with up to 2,200 pounds of rations, ammunition, fuel or other cargo, on a single pass. CDS was the primary method of delivery at Khe Sanh. Earlier experiments using GCA to position the airplane for a drop allowed CDS deliveries even when weather conditions were very poor.

Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to