Vietnam C-130 Sunrise

Airborne at sunrise in C-130 … Vietnam – 1972. Captain Ed silhouette against eastern sky on what was probably our first sortie out of home base at Tan Son Nhut, Saigon. Daily flight routine was to arrive early at C-130 Ops to pick up flight itinerary which usually consisted of a half dozen or more cargo upload/offloads at many different bases throughout Vietnam, Thailand, and sometimes Cambodia or Laos. Base Ops would also provide weather briefings, and intelligence reports mainly to warn of hot spots to avoid overflight. Schedule was fairly flexible in terms of time … general rule was to return to home base before nightfall. Photo shows the many C-130 windows, including car-like windshield wipers, dangling map light, headset cords, and green translucent window visor.