Tag Archives: c-130j

World War 3: USAF preps to use C-130 on U.S. Highways! Red Dawn for reals?

Video September 15, 2021 Hutchins AAron

Wyoming Air National Guard photo by Jacqueline Marshall.

“This is an exercise evolution of the Rally in the Valley 2020 exercise conducted in West Virginia. Our efforts will prepare Reserve and National Guard units to execute at the speed and range required to take on near-peer adversaries. Additional training included combat airlift as well as multi-capable mobility Airmen who are able to refuel and re-arm aircraft in austere locations with minimal support.”-Major Christopher Acs, 327th Airlift Squadron, U.S. Air Force Reserve (USAFR)

WANG photo by Jacqueline Marshall, 13SEP2021.

U.S. Air Force Reserve photo by Major Ashely Walker, 13SEP2021.

13SEP2021 saw a dramatic opening to wargame Rally in the Rockies 2021; for the first time a C-130J Super Hercules intentionally landed on U.S. Route 287, in the middle of nowhere rural Wyoming (near Rawlings)!

U.S. Air Force Reserve video by Major Ashely Walker, 13SEP2021:

WANG photo by Jacqueline Marshall.

So far, all the news outlets reporting this landing are calling it Highway 287 which is incorrect. It is officially U.S. Route 287 (aka US287). It would be okay if they wrote highway with a lower case ‘h’, but they use an upper case ‘H’ which indicates an official title.

Cowboy State Daily’s quick slo-mo video of landing:

WANG photo by Jacqueline Marshall.

Anybody thinking about the Cold War era movie Red Dawn, supposedly taking place in next-door-from-Wyoming Colorado?

USAFR photo by Major Ashley Walker.

Rally in the Rockies is scheduled to run from September 13th through the 16th. It involves 12 military units from various state National Guards and the USAFR, as well as the Wyoming Department of Transportation. The wargame is preparation for combat operations within the United States, for ‘contested areas’!

USAF photo by Lieutenant Colonel Marnee A.C. Losurdo, 14SEP2021.

C-130H from Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Georgia, drops supplies near Rifle Garfield County Airport, Colorado.

USAF photo by Major Ashley Walker, 13SEP2021.

The first day of Rally in the Rockies also involved USAFR C-130Hs operating from a Landing Zone near Guernsey, Wyoming. The wargame simulating conflict inside the United States involved the states of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.

USAF photo by Major Ashley Walker.

Cold War era (late 1960s) film of C-130 and C-160 landing on European highway:

World War Three, 2021: USAF PREPS TO USE U.S. HIGHWAYS AS AIR BASES! With a link to Operation Highway 1984 in Germany.

USAF COLLECTS COUNTY TAXES & PATROLS FLORIDA HIGHWAYS, COVERT OP TO EXPAND FEDERAL POLICE FORCE?

AC-130J Banshee Heralds the coming Third World War

Operation CoViD-19: USCG C-130J MAKES 1ST ‘BILL & MELINDA GATES’ VACCINE DELIVERY TO HAITI

Kit Bashing, Technology

C-130J: Retro Dayglo, and how neon paint helps keep airplanes from falling outta the sky!

Video October 27, 2020 Hutchins AAron

Photo by Airman First Class Jayden Ford, 22SEP2020.

In September 2020, C-130s were painted in ‘heritage’ colors to represent some of the first aircraft flown by the U.S. Air Force’s 41st and 61st Airlift Squadrons. The paint schemes included a camo tail, a pre-World War Two yellow tail, and a Cold War dayglo orange/red tail.

Photo by Airman First Class Jayden Ford, 22SEP2020.

The paint-job was handled by the 19th Maintenance Squadron on Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas.

Photo by Staff Sergeant Jeremy McGuffin, 08OCT2020.

On 08OCT2020, USAF and Arkansas National Guard C-130s showed off their new paint jobs, en masse.

Video report by Airman First Class Jayden Ford, explaining the history of the 41st and 61st Airlift Squadrons:

65th anniversary video by Master Sergeant Jason Armstrong:

Photo by Airman First Class Isaiah Miller, 08OCT2020.

USAF photo by Photo by Airman Joshua Maund, 04SEP2015.

Dayglo paint/oil is not only used to make things like vehicles stand-out, it’s also used to make defects in structural components stand-out. It’s a type of non-destructive inspection (NDI).

U.S. Army photo by Ervey Martinez, 18SEP2020.

The ‘penetrant’ paint/oil soaks into any cracks revealing the defects.

Magnetic particle inspection using a black-light.

USAF photo by Master Sergeant Cecilio Ricardo.

This Airman is using a blacklight to inspect a bolt.

The term dayglo originates from the name of a paint company whose primary customers were retail advertisers, but that changed with a big boost from the U.S. Department of War (established 1789-1947) during World War Two, a military supply contract which lasted through the undeclared Cold War (and beyond). Ironically during the Cold War decades, the company was not only getting business from the U.S. National Military Establishment (1947-1949) and U.S. Department of Defense (1949-present), but from the hippie-dippie peace movement by selling its neon paints to producers of peace posters and music industry advertising. In 1969 the company first known as Fluor-S-Art, then as Switzer Brothers (in honor of the founders), changed its name to Day-Glo Paint Corporation. In 1985, Day-Glo was sold to Nalco Chemical Company, and today it boasts of being the world’s largest producer of florescent colors.

C-130J: ONCE A RED COAT, NOW A BLUE ANGEL

ATLANTIC HURRICANE SEASON BEGINS EARLY, AGAIN,1ST WC-130J HURRICANE HUNTER LAUNCHED!

Pandemic Overflight: HERKS FOR HEROES

Bare Metal: C-130 PAINT PREP, OR THE EMPEROR GETS SOME NEW CLOTHES

Vehicle I-D: NORMANDY PAINTED C-130 HERCULES

Neon in Plastic:

BLACKLIGHT REVELL DEAL’S WHEELS

AMT WILLYS VAN RETRO ISSUE

MULTI-MAVERICK

Technology

Once a Red Coat, now a Blue Angel

Video September 6, 2020 Hutchins AAron

The retired ‘Fat Albert’ C-130T, brought out for public Pandemic moral display. (Texas Air National Guard photo by Julie Briden-Garcia, 06MAY2020.

On 06MAY2020, the retired C-130T Fat Albert was brought out to help fight CoViD-19 at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Texas. After 30-thousand hours of flying in support of the Blue Angels demo team, C-130T Fat Albert was retired to static display duty in 2019.

U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist First Class Jess Gray, 28JUL2020.

The new C-130J Fat Albert on second functional check-flight over Cambridge, England, 28JUL2020.

USN photo by Mass Communication Specialist First Class Jess Gray, 28JUL2020.

The ‘new’ Blue Angels Fat Albert is actually an old British empire Royal Air Force C-130J, which underwent rebuild by Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group in United Kingdom. A Forbes report says it cost U.S. taxpayers $29.7-million. (which isn’t too bad, considering that in 2014 a new C-130J would cost between $67-million and $167-million depending on options)

Video by Marshall Aerospace, dressing the bare-metal C-130J in its new Blue Angels uniform:

USN photo by Mass Communication Specialist First Class Jess Gray, 06AUG2020.

On 06AUG2020, C-130J Fat Albert arrived on Fort Worth Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base, Texas.

Video, by Petty Officer Second Class Cody Hendrix, C-130J Fat Albert flying over algae bloom off the Atlantic coast of Florida, 17AUG2020:

USN photo by Mass Communication Specialist Second Class Cody Hendrix, 17AUG2020.

Nobody is on the beach, what is this, CoViD-19 lockdown?

Photo by AAron B. Hutchins, 1989.

This is a photo I took of a C-130T Fat Albert at the Vandenberg AFB air show in California, Spring 1989. Notice that it is not painted blue and white.

Bare Metal: C-130 PAINT PREP, OR THE EMPEROR GETS SOME NEW CLOTHES