Pat Hatch's PhotoJournal

Fire in Flight – Page 13.

We heard later from the intel gurus that an airstrike had been called in on the area around the approach to runway 34 at Katum shortly after our shootdown.  I vaguely remember a BDA report that indicated there had been some enemy KIA's, etc.  The story we heard was that there was some elusive bad guy driving around with a pair of .51 cals mounted on the back of a Jeep raising havoc with aircraft in that area.  Almost exactly one year later, a C-130B was shot down in this same area around Katum.  For some insight into this "Duty Anti-Aircraft Gunner," see Reg Manning's excellent article here about this B model shootdown.  Seems to me our intel troops should have been listening to Reg Manning. At the end of his article, Reg has added a chilling account from Jim Hoogerwerf, pilot in the same squadron and colleague of this ill-fated crew. The similarities are striking, but this crew was not as fortunate as we were, may God rest their souls.

Here are some more of the postmortem pictures:

Fig. 24 - What was left of the 155mm howitzer in the fuselage.

Fig. 23 - What was left of the 155mm howitzer in the fuselage.

Fig. 25 - Center wing section totally collapsed.

Fig. 24 - Center wing section totally collapsed.

Fig. 26 - Another view of the howitzer and flare canisters inside the fuselage.

Fig. 25 - Another view of the howitzer and flare canisters inside the fuselage.

Fig. 27 - This looks an awful lot like the base commander that chewed me out.

Fig. 26 - The guy in the center looks an awful lot like the base commander that chewed me out.