Carolina Moon

[wukong]

I'm continually amazed by my old "war horse" the C-130. I'm sure that all will find this war story interesting as to the unusual use the Herk is usually called to do.

http://www.hometown.aol.com/samc130/cmoon.html

At present I'm trying to track down more information on a project called "Banish Beach." This operation was the use of massed formation (36 ship) drops of napalm rigged as Container Delivery System (CDS) loads without parachutes into the A Shau Valley.

CDS 5:08 or 5:41
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn0cKflBW0s

[Woody]

Who on earth came up with this idea ? When fast jets were routinely being shot down ,how, on earth did they think a C-130 could fly in and out unscathed ?Sending the second plane was a sucide mission imho. Brave men
thrown away .

[dukesix]

Just goes to show how versatile the 'Herk' really is. Coveted by our allies as well. This particular Operation sounds both interesting and unique.....albeit somewhat odd. Yet those fellas didn't complain (at least in front of the brass) they just suited up and drove on. After all of these years...still the best bird to get paratrooper's in a drop zone.

Dukesix

[JohnP]

I'm continually amazed by my old "war horse" the C-130. I'm sure that all will find this war story interesting as to the unusual use the Herk is usually called to do.

http://www.hometown.aol.com/samc130/cmoon.html

At present I'm trying to track down more information on a project called "Banish Beach." This operation was the use of massed formation (36 ship) drops of napalm rigged as Container Delivery System (CDS) loads without parachutes into the A Shau Valley.

CDS 5:08 or 5:41
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn0cKflBW0s

Sorry it's taken so long to get what I could find:

Try this site: http://www.tanwater.com/776/

I haven't figured out how to direct link a web site to this forum yet so you'll have to cut a paste.

The other thing I found was the following:

Operation Name: Banish Beach

Date: 1/7/1969

Service: USAF

Mission: To destroy the enemy and to produce a sustained forest fire

Narrative of Consequences: This was Operation INFERNO until May 1968. Bulk fuel was dropped from C-130s in concentrated areas. The Operation was deemed cost prohibitive based on analysis of missions flown from April 1968 - August 1968.

Source: Preliminary Checklist of United States Military Operations in Southeast Asia

On this site: http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/vietnamarchive/operations/table.htm

[wukong]

I became interested in Banish Beach in 1975 when one of the Old Timers (senior captain) told be stories about the mission. It seems that the heat from the massed fires created so much excess moisture that created rain storms that dampened the fires.

I did receive some heavily redacted materials from the AF Historian that revealed that the airlift users felt the immediate loss of airlift service when the aircraft were removed from user support to the drop missions. Just goes to show how little in life changes. Even today everyone screams when they lose their pork.