OLAA Mission ID: 65-7

Mission Date: January 13, 1970

Mission Flight Log Entries

OLAA-ID: 65-7      SAR
Flight Date: 13 Jan 70
Pilot: John W. Weinig–11
Mission ID: SAR
Tail #
Location:
Team Name:
Hours Flown:
  
Remarks: JW flew as SAR lead for successful mission to Recover Capt. Johnson who parachuted from C-130 flare ship
Tags: C-130 Parachute Rescue, Flights of Interest
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OLAA-ID: 65-7      SAR
Flight Date: 13 Jan 70
Pilot: A. Jackson Roberts–12
Mission ID: SAR
Tail #
Location:
Team Name:
Hours Flown:
  
Remarks: Jax flew as SAR wingman for successful mission to Recover Capt. Johnson who parachuted from C-130 flare ship
Tags: C-130 Parachute Rescue, Flights of Interest
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Additional Information from John W. Weinig – Flight Log ID: 5480

Additional Information Goes Here

Additional Information from A. Jackson Roberts – Flight Log ID: 5481

Additional Information about this mission from Jax and Larry provided in 2020:

From Jax on 3Feb20:  This one I DO remember! I was on JW’s wing, first light and as I recall the incident was in a relatively tame area slightly south and east of the “Golf Course”. Here’s where my techno brain fails. There was a procedure where Sandy One… (Spad 11?) once making contact with the survivor could get him to respond non-verbally by “giving a 10 sec tone on his PRC 10 (?) survival radio. That way he would not have to speak out loud in case there were bad guys nearby.

As we were approaching the SAR scene JW began with “Blindbat 13 if you read Spad 11 (?), give me a 10 second tone”. He may have had to try that a few times before we got a response, to which JW replied “Fine, you read Spad 11″, BB13 if you are receiving us 5 x 5 give us a 10 second tone?”  JW …” Fine you have us loud and clear”.  JW “BB13 if you have unknown activity you can hear give us a 10 sec. tone” ………no tone …. JW  “BB13 fine, you can detect no enemy activity in your area.  JW”BB13 are you injured, if you are, give us a 10 sec. tone”…beeee….eeeeeep tone…..  JW  “Fine, you are injured” 😊

For some reason I recall no opposition to this recovery, although I do not recall observing the pick-up. Why Wold and Cadaver flew three that day? Who knows?

May the God of your choice bless John Weinig!!

From Larry Cavender 4Feb20:  I do remember this mission, somewhat.  As I recall, we had word of the incident the evening before, so a first light effort was planned.  I do remember that our job (my lead and I – didn’t know it was Wold until now) was to escort the Jollies.  By the time we arrived on scene with the Jollies everything Jax described must have happened and the pickup proceeded without any opposition.

From Jim George 6FEB21

Right Side Parachute Door C-130

Thanks very much, Bob!

    I’m passing this on to my Spad Buds and Fellow LTs Don Engebretsen and Jax Roberts.  Don has been putting together details on a number of missions and had brought this one up, which he and I discussed.  (Don, I still “owe you” the “Q & A” between me and the female Intel LT as she began briefing us for this First Light SAR effort at Oh-Dark-Thirty in TUOC!)

    Don spoke to Jax, who had the newspaper clipping (that was in one of the earlier emails) about this SAR, Callsign “Blind Bat 13 Kilo” — which remains indelibly in my brain after all these years!   I was leading the A-1s out of NKP in a support role, on this “First Lighter.”  I think it was an 8-Ship, but I’m not 100% confident of that.  I also think we were using the “standard” SAR Callsign, “Sandy,” but again I can’t be totally positive about that.

     Due to the location of the survivor being closer to Pleiku, the Spad’s were On-Scene Commander for the rescue.  Jax was #2 in the Spad flight out of Pleiku, along with another good friend and Fellow LT who was the leader, John (JW) Weinig.  (Jax and Don, you guys may want to pass this all on to JW and his family?)   John and Jax are the guys who would have directed you in for the pickup.

    My recollection of the actual SAR was that it was unopposed.  I’m sure JW and Jax would have done some serious “Trolling” for ground fire, and likely expended some ordnance to see if they could provoke any reaction, but I don’t recall anything of any great significance.  I am not even sure whether our flight out of NKP actually expended any of our ordnance or not.  (I’m going to say I think we didn’t, because I believe I would have remembered it if we did !  (Jax:  Do you recall??)

    Finally, note that this was pretty much an “All LT” operation!!

Cheers!

Jim

PS:  Bob:  You were handsome back then.  What happened??

 

From Bob Bob Laframboise 

 

Glad I could contribute a bit of info.

You are correct the rescue was noneventful no ground fire observed.

Regarding the current degree of handsomeness I still possess; my wife always tells me when I am in photos of us old guys that I am usually the most handsome of the lot  😳🌞👍

 

Wow was able to find this info on subject. I wrote AC-130 on back of photo but don’t believe that is correct. looks like it was save #509.   The nest document reads Left to Right  (L To R)

 

Spadnet posting from Frank Urbanic

 

I was on the acft when Capt. Johnson was pulled out of the C-130 by his parachute. I was TDY with a team to Ubon, from WPAFB’s Limited War Office, to install lasers on the Blind Bat’s night observation devices that were mounted on a chair that could slide fwd and backward on rails. There were handles on the chair with which the operator could rotate the NOD up and down. I’ll see if I can find pics of the equipment.

My in-flight missions were to instruct and evaluate the operator’s use of the laser. This was the first time F-4’s were able to drop laser guided bombs at night. I am even credited, operating the NOD and laser, with a road cut.

 

I observed, on a prior mission, that operators’ chest chute D-rings might get caught on the handles and pop the chute.  Brought this to the attention of Blind Bat Ops and recommended operators wear back packs. Of course, I had no authority and the operators had been using chest chutes for some time; so you know where this went. 

 

Night of the 12th, Johnson wore a chest chute, got up from the chair; handle caught the D-ring and popped the chute that pulled him out of the plane. He was slammed against the fuselage and went through three canopies of trees. He said “My first instinct was to bury the laser’s checklist”. 

 

After he was picked up, the BB’s through a celebration party for him. He didn’t have much to say to me.

 

Frank U

Vietnam era C-130 Parachute Door