Yet another odd Herc encounter

Monday I went to see if I could catch some of the visiting aircraft at Davis-Monthan AFB for the first 2010 Operation Snowbird exercise. Operation Snowbird is actually run by the AZ ANG folks over at Tucson Int'l Airport to get Guard units prepared for deployments to Southeast Asia by the similar conditions of the area. There are squadrons of F-16 visiting from both the New Jersey and Vermont ANG units and seeing Vipers in the air again (especially with the GE engines) is a sight for sore eyes. Don't get me wrong: I love the AZ guard jets but variety is the spice of life, right?

At the same time the Vipers are here there is also a contingent of A-10 Warthogs (Thunderbolt IIs if you're a name purist) from Selfridge ANG Base in Michigan preparing for their first deployment as a Hawg unit since switching from the F-16C/D due to Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) recommendations. So there's plenty to look at with 3 visiting squadrons and the locally based aircraft mix of A-10s, F-16C/D/E/Fs, EC-130/HC-130s and other assorted military and federal law enforcement fixed and rotary wing assets.

It had been a productive day, a little thin on the visiting Hawg-front but quite a bit of great stuff. My buddy Ned had left for the day and I was prepared to tough it out until 3:30 or until something uber-spectacular came along. Well at 3:07 local time I saw a pale blue shape moving through the trees. Initially I thought it was a MArince Herc because they that kind of blue-green color but the color just wasn't right. Making sure I was set to get the props blurred she made her way onto short final emerging from the palo verde trees and I can't imagine how deeply furrowed my brow was because there was a big red blob on the side of the fuselage....

"Holy cow. It's a Japanese Herc." Except I didn't saw cow. Sorry Mom.


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Built as a C-130H on contract number 88-1800, construction number 382-5170 she was one of three Hercs built for Japan (88-1801 and 88-1802 the others) in this batch. This one was assigned the number 95-1081 and because of the incredible networking that can occur on the internet I learned that she is assigned to 401 Hikotai, 1 Yuso Kokutai. To be honest, I have no idea what that means but I'm assuming it is an equivalent to a wing/squadron designation. I have no idea why it flew into D-M, but I'm sure glad it did. So 88-1801 and 88-1802, if you're listening, I'd sure love to have a matching set of Japanese C-130 photos.