VR-22 New Navy Tranport Squadron

Feb 1963, one year after being transferred to VR-6 at McGuire Air Force Base, many of us that attended their C-118 aircraft maintenance school in Feb 1962 are now transferred to Naval Air Station Norfolk, VA to establish a new Navy transport squadron flying C-118 aircraft. We are the core group that will train the people ordered in that don't have C-118 experience. This is obviously a planned action by the Navy, rather than routine rotation of personnel. In fact, there's another bigger plan in the works that we don't know about!

Six months later in August 1963 most of us are sent to Charleston Air Force Base near Charleston, South Carolina for training on a new cargo aircraft, the C-130E. VR-22 will transition from the C-118 aircraft to the C-130E after our training is complete. This is a modern complicated technical aircraft that will require intense training for us to maintain it. The C-130E schools run from intermittently from August 1963 through Dec 1964. In between schools we are back at NAS Norfolk flying and maintaining the C-118.

Many of the electrical and electronic systems on the C-130E are classified secret. The people selected to maintain these systems must have a secret clearance. A National Agency Check is performed on the people selected for these schools. The investigation is from their date of birth until the present day. My approval date is Dec 20, 1963 and orders are received for Electrical Maintenance Technician, Autopilot, Compass, and Inertial Navigation Schools. Thankfully the orders to school are for Sep-Dec 1964 after Carl Waring Lambert is born on June 7, 1964! It's good to be home with Diane Doris and Carl until Diane has had time to recover from his birth.

At Charleston Air Force Base we are housed in the Air Force barracks. Their barracks are much better than Navy barracks. We are pretty impressed and maybe even a little jealous. Interacting with Air Force guys is interesting. They are pleasant, calm, and polite. Quite a contrast to us more rowdy sailors. Eventually we are ejected from their barracks because of our rowdy behavior. We are told we are "undeserving of Air Force accommodations." The Air Force then PAYS us $40 a day to live off base. We are hysterical! $40 a day in 1964 more than pays for a motel and meals if we choose to eat in restaurants. We can also choose to eat on the base. After the first week is over, we are out fishing on a weekend at a lake outside of town. While fishing, we notice some cabins on the lake. Turns out they are fishing rental cabins with bunk beds that rent for $40 a WEEK!  Six of us rent the cabin. All this time the Air Force thinks they are punishing us while we are making extra money! After several weeks, the Air Force figures this out and forces us back into their barracks. It was sure fun while it lasted! Soon our schools are completed and we are back at NAS Norfolk and working on our new aircraft.

VR-22 has all 12 C-130 aircraft. Five of us AE2s (E5) are assigned to the Electrical Systems Test and Inspection Work Center. Promotions are hard to get during these years. The Navy has a too many people filling too few billets. After taking five exams over 2&1/2 years and passing all of them, the Navy promotes me to AE1 (E6) on Nov 16, 1964 and along with it, a new job as the Work Center Supervisor.

The C-130 is quite a change from a C-118, Four turboprop engines make a lot of power. A turboprop is a jet engine spinning a propeller. The aircraft has many uses, it's durable, has few maintenance problems, carries almost twice the cargo of the C-118 (45,000 pounds versus 24,000), and is capable of taking off on short rough airfields. The photos show the aircraft's many uses.

Interesting to an electrician is the power generation system on the C-130. The P2V has 115 volt AC and 28 volt DC generators. The C-118 has 28 volt DC generators and uses inverters to convert the 28 volt DC to 115 AC. The C-130 has 115 volt AC generators and uses voltage regulators to convert the 115 volt AC to 28 volt DC. The systems sure vary from aircraft to aircraft. All aircraft at that time used DC to power some electrical systems and AC to power others. You all understand all that?

Now I'm an AE1 (E6) with six years of active service, a secret clearance, experience as a Work Center Supervisor, and continue to be the go to guy for autopilot, compass, and inertial navigation systems.

And the Navy is soon going to cloud the issue again.

Load ii up

Air to air refueling

JATO jet assist take off

Blue Angels support

Firepower

Landing on snow

Aircraft carrier takeoff

Aircraft carrier landing

TRANSFERRED! To VR-6 at McGuire Air Force Base

In Feb 1962 a Navy transfer to McGuire Air Force Base, roughly 17 miles from Trenton, New Jersey, means there's going to be new things to learn and new people to work with. The first questions to be answered are. Why to an Air Force base? Can't those Air Force guys fix their own airplanes? VR-6 turns out to be a Navy squadron on the Air Force Base as part of MATS. MATS stands for Military Air Transport System. Certainly the Navy should transport their own stuff and a joint operation managed by MATS command makes sense.

The Navy moved our trailer, aka mobile home, from Brunswick, ME to a park in Browns Mills, NJ. Browns Mills is only about 7 miles from McGuire AFB. Closer is better! Trenton is not only a big city, it's 17 miles from McGuire AFB.

VR-6 Flies C-118 aircraft. V stands for heavier than air aircraft. The R stands for transport. It would seem that T would stand for transport but the Navy uses T for pilot training aircraft. Since R is the next letter in the word transport, it was selected for use with aircraft used to transport people and cargo. The letter C in C-118 stands for cargo. The cargo could be 100 passengers, 60 combat troops with all their gear, or 24,000 pounds of miscellaneous cargo. In it's day it was a modern aircraft with air conditioning, heating, and pressurization systems that enabled it to fly at high altitudes over 10,000 feet without the crew and passengers having to wear oxygen masks.

Since this was a new modern aircraft, the first thing VR-6 does is send all it's new personnel to a two week school where you learn about the aircraft and its engines, electric and electronic systems, plus the hydraulic and pneumatic operating systems. Most systems are electrically controlled and mechanically, hydraulically, or pneumatically operated. New systems for aircraft electricians are propeller synchronization, pressurization and air conditioning, inverters, and autopilot. The inverters converted DC power from the generators to AC power for the instrument and electronic systems. This seemed strange as the older P2V's had both AC and DC generators. The electrical distribution and instrumentation systems are more complicated and numerous. The aircraft also has fire warning systems in more areas and an extensive fuel quantity system. Carrying passengers means modern systems for passenger safety and comfort.

Working in a new electric shop, with new co-workers and supervisors, on new systems, and no flying duties results in the loss of flight pay and pro-pay. You have to qualify for pro-pay on the new aircraft before it becomes part of your paycheck. That typically takes six months. The loss of pay comes to almost $200 a month and Diane Doris is pregnant. New challenges everywhere! Luckily, our trailer is paid for, the trailer park rent is cheap, and we are frugal with utilities.

Since the principles of electrical systems are the same, learning the differences between P2V and C-118 systems doesn't take long and the Pro-pay 1 of $30 a month is quickly restored. With a baby on the way, choosing not to fly and being home with Diane and the baby is a good choice. In Oct of 1962, Cheryl Ann Lambert is borne at Fort Dix Army Hospital near Trenton, New Jersey. Also in Oct 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis occurs, enlistments are frozen, meaning when your enlistment is up, you don't get discharged. The crisis occurred between Oct 16-28 and was over Russian missiles being installed in Cuba 90 miles from Florida. This was a tense moment is history. It's a stare down between President John Kennedy and the Russian President Nikita Khrushchev. It was resolved by each president making concessions and the world breathed a sigh of relief. Plus the guys got their discharges in a few months.

VR-6 works three shifts and operates 24 hours a day. The electric shop has a Chief Petty Officer (E7) in charge of each shift and a Senior Chief Petty Officer (E8) as the overall shop supervisor. It's a big operation. Much different from VP-26 where we only had 8 or 9 electricians and an E6 as the shop supervisor. You work for the Chief in charge of your shift and he works for the Senior Chief.

One night one of the aircraft has a landing gear indication problem. Upon examination, the bolt that screws into the landing gear strut is loose and won't tighten down. This is a mechanical issue. Electricians don't drill holes in metal and use taps to cut new threads. Metalsmiths do that. They don't solder wires and we don't cut threads. The problem is, the shop Chief tells me to cut the threads myself since the metal shop refuses do it. Not doing what you are told to do isn't a good option. The Maintenance Control people won't order the metalsmiths to make the repair either. A tap and die set is available for checkout and the new hole is drilled and threaded and the bolt is tighter but snug would be a better word. The repair doesn't seem right to me. The Chief tells me to safety wire the bolt in place. He has a first class go out and inspect the work. The first class tells the chief the repair is good so I sign the work order, the first class signs the inspection, and the chief signs as supervisor. The next morning the aircraft is pre-flighted by the flight engineer and the pilot and neither makes a comment on the repair. One hundred passengers are loaded and the SWITCH BRACKET FALLS OFF ON TAKEOFF!  The aircraft has to make an emergency landing! And guess who the Master Chief of the Command (E9) is waiting for when the evening shift reports to work. Lesson learned. If YOU don't believe the repair is right, do the work as ordered, but refuse to sign it off! They can make you do it but they can't make you sign it. The most frequent and troublesome system for the electricians was the fuel quantity system. their were numerous fuel tanks for this long range aircraft and each tank had numerous fuel measuring fuel probes in it. Heavy cumbersome test equipment was used to troubleshoot the system. The equipment came with a thick manual and lots of dials and switches. Pain in the ass to use but its use was required. A few people figured out how to fix the system quickly and accurately using their knowledge of electrical systems. Of course the test equipment had to taken out to the aircraft since using it was "required." Good exercise carrying it around.

The Air Force aircraft maintenance paperwork is much more complicated than the Navy's. More codes for what type of work is performed and more detailed repair codes. They actually had a manual you had to use to determine which code to use where when you were filling out the maintenance paperwork. It made for much more accurate and detailed records that could be used to determine where and if changes in parts and procedures could be made.

The C-118 is a large aircraft. You couldn't just climb into it and fix it. You had to push a boarding ramp up to it to enter the aircraft and push checkstands up to the engines to work on them. It always took at least two people to push the stands without bumping the aircraft. Then you had to remove engines cowlings and panels to work on just about any system. It was part of the daily routine.

VP-26 Last VP-26 Post

VP-26. The V stands for heavier than air aircraft. The P stands for patrol. One of the main things we are patrolling for is USSR fishing trawlers. This is the 1960s and the United States and the United Soviet Socialist Republics are engaged in what was referred to as the Cold War. Their trawlers did fish and many of them were also equipped with a wide variety of suspicious looking antennas. Our job was to photograph any trawlers we saw anywhere in the worlds oceans. The photos were sent to Naval Intelligence where records were kept on each trawler and photos from any patrol aircraft or ship were then compared to the photos already compiled on each trawler to note any changes to the trawlers. The changes were then noted in identification manuals.

The cameras we used were big bulky ones at about one square foot. The photos were taken by opening the port (left) side after station window, sticking the camera out of the window and pushing a lever on the right side of the camera forward and quickly pulling it back as cued by the pilot. On the left side of the camera was a strap you slid your left hand through so you could hang onto the camera if it slipped, so it didn't fall out the window! The timing of taking the photo by snapping the lever was crucial.

The timing was cued by the pilot. The aircraft would be flying about 100 feet over the ocean headed toward the trawler. When the trawler reached the aircraft the pilot called MARK over the headphones, then when the trawler passed under the wing he called mark, mark, mark, and you'd quickly snap the lever. Many times several passes would have to be made to obtain a clear photo. Gatch, our ordnanceman, came up with a great idea. After we made the first pass, we'd be standing there holding the bags of trash that the crew had passed back to the afterstation. At mark, mark, mark, out the bags of trash would go. After awhile we got pretty good at the timing and gettin close to the trawlers! After a few months of that, LT Frederick called back asking, "Lambert, why are the men on the trawlers shaking their fists at us when we make multiple runs?" We'd be laughing so hard it was hard to answer him! Eventually an article was published in the Armed Forces News titled "Russian Ambassador Files Complaint of Harassment by Navy Military Aircraft."Gee, wonder what that was about?"

Here are the aircrew rosters for the two Rota, Spain deployments. May not be important to the reader but it was a lot of work to obtain these names and it's important to list them.

First deployment.
Aircraft Commander: Lieutenant Frederick
Co-pilot: Lieutenant Junior Grade Mills
3rd pilot/Navigator: Ensign Malone
Plane Captain/Flight Engineer: Aviation Machinist Mate Second Class Hensley
Plane Captain/Flight Engineer: Aviation Machinist Mate Third Class Watson
Jezebel/Juliet Operator/Electronic Systems Supervisor: Aviation Electronics Technician First Class Herrick
Radar/Radio Operator: Aviation Electronic Technician Second Class Hale
Radio/Radar Operator: Aviation Electronic Technician Third Class Dickerson
ECM Operator/Electrician: Aviation Electricians Mate Airman: Lambert
Ordnanceman: Airman Gatch

Second deployment.
Aircraft Commander: LT Frederick
Co-pilot: LTJG Mills
3rd pilot/Navigator: LTJG Malone
PC/FL: AD3 Watson
PC/FL Trainee: AD2 Erickson
Jezebel/Juliet Operator: AT1 Herrick
Radar/Radio Operator: AT2 Hale
Radio/Radar Operator: AT3 Guernsey
ECM Operator/Electrician: AE3 Lambert
Ordnanceman: Aviation Ordnance Mate Airman Geiter

Photos of three Russian trawlers. Note the differences in antennas.