C-123K Provider – Air Mobility Command Museum (2024)

I just stumbled across this site. I was in the Air Force reserve at Westover Air Force Base Massachusetts in 1976 through 1978. I flew the C1 23K. We had one bird that had been used in operation ranchhand, and it still smelled like Agent orange. I hated flying it, because the smell was so bad. As far as I know, we never had anyone Who was affected by anything toxic. I have a question. I was trying to remember did the J 85 outboard engines on the C1 23K run on JP4? I think they must have, but I don’t remember refueling the airplane with two separate kinds of fuel. Obviously, the recips ran on avgas. Can anyone enlighten me?

Flew as FE at phan rang AB VN March 69 thru March 70. Best trash hauler ever. Our squadron received a letter of Congrats for hauling a lg group of nva from Parrots Beak to an R&R ctr in southern VN. When we picked them up, they were wearing SVM ranger uniform, which were very blood soaked. Found out they had wiped out the svn outfit and dressed in their uniforms. Lots of egg on many faces.

I was a C-123K Loadmaster at Da Nang AB 68-69. Came to Tachi in July 69 to the 815th TA Sq. When we stopped flying at Tachi, I was submitted for consideration to fly on the RTAF C-123 at Tachi./ Yoktoa AB Before the selection, we were Air Evaced to the states when my wife had a Brain tumor. I was then transfered to McGuire AFB. All my records were lost when the 815th moved to Clark AB. In the spring of 70 I returned to try finding my records. The Flight records turned up in a desk at Yokota, AB where they had be reviewed for the assignment. I have a pic of the RTAF C-123 in the snow at Tachi, I’ll have to look for it.

In August 1971 I trained on the C123K as an A1C at England AFB, Louisiana with the 4410 Combat Crew Training Squadron. Attended FTD school there to gain in depth training of the aircraft. We trained VNAF pilots there for the duration. Worked the night shift which consisted of just a handful of men to service, maintain, and repair the aircraft every night, there were approximately 27 aircraft and we really busted ass every night trying to get them ready for next mornings missions.

My vietnamese uncle flew a c123 in 1963 to parachute sog commandos in north vietnam, but died in 1964 when his plane struck monkey mountain. He was formed in Hurlburt field, Florida. Did someone knew this contingent of south vietnamese aircrew who are training to low-level flight and para drop in Hurlburt 1963-1964 ?

I flew the C 123K in the 310th Tac Airlift Squadron first at Phang Rang, then later at Tan Son Nhut. I had the honor of being inducted into the enlisted organization of the “Red Eyes” as an officer. I was an aircraft commander and have many memories of flying the C123. I was 25 years old, the oldest person on my crew, and as the aircraft commander(same as a captain in the airlines) was the boss of our crew which as I look back is astounding to have had such responsibility at such a young age. That’s a tribute to the Air Force training and the guys on my crew. I definitely remember Tony Arzate and would appreciate your sending this to Tony along with my email so I could say hello to him. Recently, I was contacted by Terry Justice who was my flight mech(flight engineer) and it was great to talk to him after all these years. As I look back on my time in the C123, I am glad to have had the time flying that aircraft when I was young and adventurous. A lot of great guys in my squadron.

Can anyone tell me if any C123’s were ever worked on at Tachikawa Air Base in 1968 to 1969?

What was the fuel capacity of the aircraft? Was Avgas the fuel?

The tail markings “WM” was the designation of the 310th TAS at Phan Rang AB, Viet Nam. I worked the Phase Docks there from Jan. 71-Dec.71.
After being a Crew Chief on A-1E’s at Hurlburt Field, I loved the C-123’s at Phan Rang

Another proud flight engineer of the C-123k flying for the 356th out of Rickenbacker 1976 thru 1982 under Jack Romero. Charley Mercer and Frank Chraznowski trained me, I have many good memories with friends traveling all over in these birds.

I flew on the C=123K in Nakom Phanom Thailand with the “Candlesticks”. We flew night missions over The Trail. We were forward air control and flare drops. We carried a crew of pilot, copilot engineer and two loadmasters. We carried two starlight scopes and 100 flares, and spotted trucks and called in fighter support.

Can someone tell me what the internal cargo area dimensions were for the C-123 Provider?

I was a Loadmaster in the 24th SOW – 605th SOS at Howard AFB, Panama from June 1970 to August 1971. Checking my logs, I flew on this aircraft many times during that period.

I proudly served on board the C-123K as a ‘Flight Engineer’ in Vietnam under Operation ‘Ranch Hand’, having trained at Hurlburt Field, Eglin AFB, Fl., we were all ‘performance qualified’, Flight qualified, Airdrop qualified.. from there I was assigned to the 315th Air Commando Wing initially at Phan Rang AB, Vietnam. There were 2 parts to the Squadron, one being the famous or infamous some think ‘Spray Birds’, the second was the ‘Fly to were ever-when ever’ bunch, anything involving Troop movements, Cargo, Air Drop etc., I flew with the latter.. We were a bunch of ‘gung ho’ sort of group of young Air Crews, but were like ‘Brothers’.. I belonged to a small group calling ourselves the ‘Red Eyes’, each had a special designation call name, i.e. Tony-i, Dave-i, etc., We flew all over Vietnam. The most demanding mission was that of Volunteering to fly into the border between Laos and Vietnam to evacuate a Montagnard Village ( the famous peoples who so valiantly helped fight the VC and who where attached to Special Green Beret Units), We flew under the control of a FAC (foward air controller) dropped in specially for the mission.. there was nothing there except for a dirt kinda strip , our landing zone.. landed from up high, due to heavy mortar fire.. made a hard landing and evacuated the entire Village, did 3 trips in and back that day.. in the process getting peppered with small ground fire the entire time. My time with the C-123K Providers has been the Best of my time til now… just a bit of History for all to read and remember.

In the April 1956 entry I believe the base should be Sewart AFB, Smyrna, TN instead of Stewart AFB (New York). Very common mistake. In the Nov 1971 entry the word Lockbourne is spelled incorrectly. Really enjoying this web site. God bless our troops, past and present.

While at Rickenbacker AFB I became the crew chief of this aircraft. I crewed it from 1974 till 1982. When the aircraft arrived at Rickenbacker the right wheel door was opened for the first time and a spent 50 caliber spent shell fell out. The aircraft was one of the most dependable of the fleet. It never aborted a flight while I crewed it. The left engine (#1) lasted to its time limit. It had been nearly maintenance free and it was decided to extend the overhaul time 10%. at the end we were slowly sending planes to Davis-Monthan AFB for final storage. One schedule to be shipped soon had low time engines. 658’s left engine was high time and was swapped to that airplane that left a few weeks later for storage. I was also a flight mechanic and flew a few maintenance test flights on it.

I was a “Flight Line Mechanic” and flew on this particular aircraft as a “Flight Mechanic” for the Air Force Reserves at Rickenbacker AFB from 1975 to Nov 1976. I was with the 302nd TAW at that time that included all C-123Ks from Rickenbacker Air Force Reserve Base, 911 Pittsburgh USAF Reserve Base, Pittsburgh PA and Westover AFB MA. I flew all the Rickenbacker C-123Ks including UC-123-Ks, and all 911 TAS in Pittsburgh PA and accumulated over 1800 flight hours total as a Flight Mechanic. The official crew designation at time for the C-123K was Flight Mechanic and not Flight Engineer. The reason why from what I was told that Flight Engineers attended the USAF Performance Course and Fight Mechanic were not required to be performance qualified. I later attended the USAF Flight Engineer Performance Course at Altus AFB in 1982 when I was upgrading to a C-141B Flight Engineer position for the 313 TAS in Mc Chord AFB.

While serving with the 82nd Abn Recon Company I was involved with some testing of the c-123s. We would load up at Pope AFB, short flight, land on a drop zone, same areas we jumped on (can’t remember which one now) not quite stopping the plane. tail was dropping as we were landing, got the green light while moving and we would exit the plane. Drive around simulating and assault and return to a landing plane, still moving forward on the drop zone, up the ramp, secure the “jeep” signal the flight crew and up we would go. Very exciting stuff for a young man. They were something new to all of us and they were just starting to use them as jump planes, I was jumping c-119’s Globmasters? c-118s I think and we were starting to use twin rotor helicopters, Shawnee’s I think also Beaver small aircraft. Lot’s of fun for a young guy. but I said that, smiling of course. this was around 1955 or 1956