A 346th TAS Diary

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.