Forty-six years ago

C131-F 141000 approaching Alameda - click to enlarge

  October 1, 1966 was the day we commissioned as VR-30, up until then we were Detachment Alameda of VR-21, a small difference.  Here is what was accomplished by the five C131F aircraft, in the first 3 months, (Oct 1966-Dec1966).  I had a direct hand in some of it because those were my first months on a flight crew.
  The five aircraft carried 9,473 passengers, 571,955 pounds of expedited cargo for a total of 240,155 nautical miles during 1457 flight hours on 638 flights.  There were 20 pilots and about 30 enlisted flight crew members.  We were all very busy because we didn't only fly missions - - we had other jobs too.  I was in charge of  Material Control (supply) and had a crew of 24 men who I directed, that was my primary job, the flight crew was just a side job.  Getting parts for those planes plus we had 6 C1A COD aircraft (Carrier On board Delivery) that flew another bunch of hours, two C2A Greyhounds which were replacing the C1A planes and out squadron was the primary training place for C2A pilots on the west coast.  We also late in the quarter got one CT39E which was a "Lear Jet" type of Executive Transport.
  Oh, and we had a great time doing our jobs!

A couple of our planes waiting for either work or repair. - click