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Home of the KC130F, R, T and J Aircraft Used By The
United States Marine Corps
This airplane was manufactured at Lockheed in 1958. The Marine Corps acquired this plane on July 01, 1960. The plane was striken at Pax River in 2005.
Leon Collins Sends This Information on 09 July 2007
This is a list of my contact with 148246.
Kind of sad seeing 246 go to the scrap heap. I checked my log book and
found her.
May 62--NZJ to Kaneohe for troop shuttle duty.
June 62--Flying Texas reserves
July 62--Yuma-Pendelton troop shuttle, refueling Navy FJs
Aug 62--NZJ--Iwakuni, Japan, K-14(Seoul Korea)
Sep 62--NZJ--Yuma p/u reserves to Dallas
My last entry for a GV-1 was in Nov. 62, 1 Dec. it changed to KC-130F
Feb 63--NZJ-Yuma
Mar 63--NZJ-Twenty Nine Palms
Aug 63--to Camp Pendelton
My last flight on a KC-130F before I was released from active duty.
A lot of hours spent on 246.
Leon Collins.
NZJ = El Toro
Tom Clarke Sends These Photo's of 246 Being Dismantled 4-06-07 - Thanks Again Tom
Tom Clarke Sends This Information on 246 and Other Aircraft
Tom Was a Contract Pilot at Pax River with VX-20
Up until last year I was a contract pilot at VX-20 at Pax River and flew Herks (and P-3, CV880, and E-6). I retired from the Navy (flew P-3/C-130 on active duty) in 86 and started in 87 flying 151891, which at that time was an EC-130G TACAMO plane. It replaced 806 as Fat Al and 806 went to Adak Alaska as the station bird. We (Pax River) got 806 from Adak and flew it until last year when it went to DM. The current Fat AL is 162763 which VX-20 got from the Navy Reserves in New Orleans. We also had 762. These were the two birds that had a ground collision during an engine turn at Belle Chase. We had to return 762 to the reserves and 763 went to the Blues.
246 and 815 spent a long time, tail to tail, in our hangar while they put 246's tail on 815 (had cracks in empennage attach fitting). The last time I saw 815 it was still pumping gas here at Pax. I have a couple of pictures tucked away somewhere showing 246 as it slowly self-destructed! I will look for them. 686, 808, 815 were the KCs at Pax along with one J and an ex Air Force/USCG H model (NC-130H) used a flying test bed for the Hawkeye 2K radar update. These BuNos may have changed since I left the test squadron. I would still be flying over there if I hadn't lost my medical due to heart surgery to fix some blockage (watch your cholesterol and blood pressure!!).
We had a fairly rag-tag group over at VX-20! A combination of active duty Marine and Navy Test Pilots, and contractors consisting of retired Marine and Navy pilots and FE's and even some "blue suiters" (USAF) thrown into the mix. Oh, yes and we had a "coastie" flying the J too. We used the Marine KC NATOPS manual and got our annual NATOPS unit eval from Cherry Point or 4MAW up at Stewart. That kept us fairly standardized which was good considering the variety of backgrounds represented in the ready room.
Tom
Father of a US Marine
Craig Homer Sends This Update on 21 November 2006 in Connection with the Tail Section and Fuselage of 148246.
Thank You Craig
148246 - Tail swap to 815 happened at Pax River. Center wing removed for testing (fatigue life). Carcass sold for scrap. It's all gone now.
These Photo's Were Sent In By Alan Deegan: Thanks Again Alan
246 And 895 at DaNang Vietnam
The tail of this plane was salvaged and given to 149815 at an un-disclosed location. Any stories or other photo's for this plane can be posted on this page. Please submit your stories and photo's to Tom Nickols at Nick@KC130.Com