All posts by Hutchins AAron

Born in Deutschland 1965, hometown was Bütthart, parents were not U.S. government employees. However, when father was tricked into joining the U.S. Air Force Civil Service, in 1969, with the promise that we could remain in Germany, we were promptly shipped off to Iran. Due to one of my Iranian educators being disappeared, along with her husband, by the U.S. ally Shah of Iran's Israeli & U.S. created Savak (for the then official terrorist act of promoting the idea that women can vote), and due to my U.S. citizen mother being placed on Savak's Terrorist Arrest List (for supporting the idea that women should vote, at that time the U.S. ally Shah of Iran did not allow women to vote, now they can) we left Iran for the United States in 1973, literally in the middle of the night. At the U.S. Embassy airbase the CIA operated Gooney Bird (C-47) was so packed with other U.S. citizens fleeing our ally Iran (because the Shah gave the OK to arrest any U.S. citizen for such terrorist acts as promoting the concept of voting) that we were turned away by the Loadmaster and had to take a chance on a civilian flight out of Tehran's airport. My father told me he and my mother had three culture shocks; first when they arrived in Germany as civilians, then after being shipped off to Iran as U.S. government employees, then again returning to the United States as unemployed civilians (because so much had changed in the U.S. while they were gone, their only news source was the U.S. Armed Forces Radio & Television Service which heavily censored information about the home front). Since I graduated high school in 1982 I've worked for U.S. government contractors and state & local government agencies (in California), convenience store manager in California, retail/property management in Georgia, California and Idaho. Spent the 1990s in the TV news business producing number one rated local news programs in California, Arizona and Idaho. 14+ years with California and Idaho Army National Guard and the U.S. Air Force. Obtained a BA degree in International Studies from Idaho State University at the age of 42. Unemployed since 2015, so don't tell me the economy has recovered.
U.S.

All hell breaks loose in Wisconsin, operation Patriot North is underway!

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Video, Nebraska National Guard UH-72 Lakota joins the fun:

Food insecurity, unemployment, failed national and local governments, and non-stop natural disasters leading to race riots and civil war.  It’s July 2019 and Wisconsin is ground zero for Patriot North 2019 DomOps (Domestic Operations).

New Hampshire Air National Guard medic treats a ‘person’ wounded by a ‘zombie’ at Camp Douglas.

Apparently various National Guard focused  ‘patriot’ operations are not called patriot because they’re trying to be patriotic, the ‘patriot’ exercises are a directive of the Patriot Act signed into law after the 9-11 attacks.

Official video explaining The Burn Pit:

Starting the third week of July, Air and Army National Guard units from across the United States converged upon Volk Field and Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, for a massive domestic ‘natural-or-man-made’ disaster response exercise.

Video of Texas National Guard C-130H landing on dirt:

More than 7-hundred federal and local government employees, civilian volunteers and National Guard personnel from more than 20 states are taking part in the inter-agency operation, in preparation for catastrophic events.

Video, various National Guard C-130H Hercules rolling into Wisconsin, off-loading personnel, rescue dogs and equipment:

Patriot South 2019 was already held, in Georgia, back in March.  Watch this official promo video and be afraid of what your government is expecting:

June 2019: ARKANSAS HIT BY UNKNOWN SUBSTANCE, USAF SCRAMBLED!

Tornado prep, USAF style: TORNADO & FLOOD FACTS, ACCORDING TO THE USAF, HOW TO PREP!

U.S.

Kodiak Mace 2019: USMC KC-130J vid fest!

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Kodiak Mace, May 2019, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson Alaska.

Getting ready to jump outta perfectly good airplane.

Videos of various U.S. Marine Corps KC-130J ops:

 

BLACK LETTER C-130J; IT’S A BYATCH!

Technology

Fatal USMC KC-130J crash kept secret?

In December 2018, a U.S. Marine Corps KC-130J was refueling a F/A-18 over Okinawa, Japan, when they aircraft made contact.  Both the F/A-18 and KC-130J went down, only one person survived.

It was not until the end of May of 2019 that the KC-130J’s cockpit voice recorder and digital flight recorder, along with human remains.  And it was not until June of 2019 that the information was made public.  As the investigation is still ongoing no further details were released.

Kit Bashing

Model kit EC-130J gets special handling by National Guard!

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A real 193rd Special Operations Wing EC-130J Commando Solo, October 2020. Air National Guard photo by Munnaf Joarder.

In April 2019, Pennsylvania’s 193rd Special Operations Wing’s Fabrication Shop recently was given the opportunity to repaint the EC-130J Commando Solo aircraft model outside the wing HQ building.

Video of repairs to model that has been on display since 2006:

Kit Bashing:

USAF photo by Airman First Class Thomas Charlton.

WORLD’S LARGEST C-141B STARLIFTER MODEL?

Technology

Black Letter C-130J; it’s a byatch!

Video

In June 2019, a C-130J in Japan was proclaimed to have achieved Black Letter proficiency; no maintenance problems!

In the official video report, USAF 374th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron crew chiefs explain just how hard it is to get the rare Black Letter:

Here’s official Ramstein Black Letter C-130J video report from May 2018:

VEHICLE I-D: LAST ‘SPOOKY’ DAYS OF THE AC-130U GUNSHIP?

Idaho, Kit Bashing

VooDoo redeux: Pocatello Airport

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In April 2012, I published a series of pics of the F-101B Voodoo ‘gate guard’ at Pocatello Airport, Idaho.  That was before it underwent renovation, when it was surrounded by a fence, faded and dirty.

Before you go on to look at the pics, I was allowed to see a secret room in the main airport building where a very nice 1/48 scale Monogram model diorama of the very same F-101B was gathering dust.  The diorama showed tail code AF-90 PO-417 on the flightline in Germany during the Cold War.  Today’s gate guard is painted to match that diorama except it doesn’t have the Native American chief in his warbonnet painted on the nose of the aircraft, near the cockpit.  There was a small plaque on the diorama explaining the aircraft history, but I didn’t get much time to read it.  I asked if I could get my camera and take a pic of it, but was told I shouldn’t even be in the ‘room’.  So, supposedly PO-417 was an actual F-101B, yet a quick internet search revealed no such thing (apparently ‘PO’ isn’t a real USAF tail code).

To update this story, I was recently ‘gifted’ a little red book called The First Fifty Years: Michaud Flats, U.S. Army Base, Pocatello Regional Airport.  It explains the Pocatello Voodoo was originally slated to be burned up as a fire trainer for the Utah Air National Guard.  It was one of two such planes that were already fully dismantled, the Utah Guard decided it wasn’t worth the effort to put them back together just to set them on fire.  Around 1988, Idaho Senator Jim McClure used his pull to get one of the dismembered Voodoo’s to the Pocatello Airport.  Funding for the project came from several donors including the J.R. Simplot Company (which at that time had its corporate HQ in Pocatello, along the border with Chubbuck), and the actual rebuilding of the plane was done by Idaho State University (ISU) Aviation Mechanics School (still located at the airport today).  It was the ISU students who decided on the paint scheme, and created the fake afterburners as the real afterburners were missing.

The 238 paged, hardcover book was published in 1993, it’s available directly from the Pocatello Airport (208) 234-6154.  I was also told the Idaho Unlimited gift shop carried the book, but it didn’t show up when I searched their website.

Click the pics to make bigger:

Idaho, Technology

Wild Fires 2019: DC-10, Idaho’s 911

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15 July 2019-21:32 UTC-07 Tango 06 (25 Tir 1398/13 Dhu l-Qa’da 1440/14 Xin-Wei 4717)

Photo by AAron B. Hutchins.

Another year, another round of wild fires, and Pocatello Airport is temporary home (once again) to DC-10 water bombers.  Two were spotted, numbers 911 and 912.

Click the pics (by AAron B. Hutchins) to make them bigger:

SMOKE ’EM IF YOU GOT ’EM, 2017!: POCATELLO AIRPORT FIRE BOMBERS ARE BACK!

U.S. WILDFIRES 2016: DC-10 POCATELLO AIRPORT

IDAHO WILDFIRES 2015: POKEY AIRPORT DC-10 WATER BOMBER

Idaho, Technology

Vehicle I-D: 1-148 Field Artillery gate guards

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Photo by AAron B. Hutchins.

M1 57mm Anti-Tank gun from World War-2 (clicking the pics makes them bigger:

World War-2 M4A3 Sherman:

Cold War era M109A5(?) Self Propelled Howitzer:

Related: POKEY AIRPORT, IDAHO ARMY NATIONAL GUARD M109

Cold Ware era M548 cargo carrier:

Cold War era M60A3:

116th Cav, 1-148th FA, Pocatello, Idaho. Photo by AAron B. Hutchins.

Armored Gate Guards: ARMOR MUSEUM FORT LEONARD WOOD, MISSOURI

Technology

Vehicle I-D: Fury vs Mig

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MiG-17 on the left, Fury in the middle, MiG-15UTI on the right. U.S. Air Force photo by Airman First Class Tristan Truesdell, 13JUL2019.

In July 2019, the state of Montana was invaded by marauding MiG-15UTI and MiG-17, and a lone FJ-4 Fury came to The Big Sky state’s defense.

USAF photo by Airman First Class Tristan Truesdell, 13JUL2019

MiG-17. USAF photo by Airman First Class Tristan Truesdell, 13JUL2019.

It was part of an air show at Malmstrom Air Force Base.

VEHICLE I-D: MIG 17 V U.S. NAVY FERRARI

POCATELLO AIRPORT 02 AUGUST 2014: MIG-15 UTI & MIG-17

POCATELLO AIRPORT 02 AUGUST 2014: FJ-4 FURY

 

Technology

Vehicle I-D: New armored ECM vehicle

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Currently known as Electronic Warfare Tactical Vehicle (EWTV), testing began in September 2018 at Yuma Army Proving Grounds, in Arizona.

In January 2019, testing shifted to Fort Irwin National Training Center, in California.

Testing is being conducted by the U.S. Army 1st Division’s 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team ‘Greywolf’.  The EWTV is based on a MRAP (Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected) MaxxPro Dash.

The new vehicle allows ground forces to intercept and jam electronic communications (electromagnetic spectrum) from a ‘safe’ distance.  It will be a good use for artillery units because it can pin-point the source of electronic sources and then call-for-fire on those sources (the modern version of triangulating radio signals).

It can integrate with existing ECM (Electronic Counter Measures) vehicles like the VROD (Versatile Radio Observation & Direction) and VMAX (VROD Modular Adpative Transmit) systems.

VEHICLE I-D: GIANT R-C TANKS SEEN TEARING-UP WASHINGTON STATE!