If I were a bett’n man, from what I remember, the area looks like the Kabul area.

I can not comment on the credibility of this youtube movie but, Our plane almost hit a few UAVs from a few different nations. Seems ATC has no clue where these things are .
One was bright daylight, and we were on landing approach and this predator come right past our nose at the same flight level…we asked the tower what the hell was going on, and they were clueless…the “operator” was not in contact with them.

Those -131 pods are expensive (we used to use those) but, an F-16 is a lot more… the pilot did a good job.

I don’t believe it’s the actual aircraft (which was c/n 15586/27031 43-49770 and appears to have gone to the SVAF in 1969).

I gather c/n 20835 was in preservation and with EAA WoA when painted as AC-47 043-770 “Spooky770” with side-firing guns to represent the machine in which your hero’s actions resulted in his honour.

Thank you for the clarification.

Could be Italian C-130J?

Very well might be, I know they did buy the option and used the external fuel tanks. I am on my small laptop and can not see the aircraft up close…but if I were to give it a guess I would say Italian just by the Externals.

That was the plane Levitow was on? Correct?

According to what I have read, while the 27J looks like a Herc, any commonality that it had with the 130J is diverging rapidly. According to Rolls Royce website, the 27J engines are smaller and lighter than the 130J ones. The props are the same, but the cockpit configuration and software of the 27J has not changed to match the upgrades to the 130J. That means the cockpit commonality benefit is gone, and also that someone is going to have to invest heavily to bring the software of the 27J up to spec – Lockheed Martin is not doing it as they have severed ties with the aircraft. So far, the only nation who has any 27J airframes even close to being operational is Greece, and the HAF seems to be pretty quiet about the aircraft. Best to dig a bit deeper before making any committments!

I agree, Just because it looks like a “baby herk” Doesn’t mean that the crews will be able to fly the aircraft the same way. All the systems are different so I do not feel that the crews could be Certified on both just because they are certified on one.

I would agree with the C-27s. The USA was stupid to get rid of our after Howard was shut down. There was a lot of missions we did in the Herk that could have used a much smaller aircraft.

The E/H/K type guys so not like the J models for many reasons. The main is safety. Why pull out two guys out of the Flight deck that can clear you on low levels. When flying low I was always in the windows right in back of the Pilot and the Nav was in the windows right in back of the Co-pilot. This way, they can fly the plane and the other guys can clear the aircraft. In the J model, you have to fly with either more loadmasters (there is always a shortage of loadmasters) or two more pilots (that gets expensive)

Another reason, maintiance…those props get damages easily (especially in the dirt)

There is much more but I will go into it later