The Monster COD thread (homage to the C-2A Greyhound)

[Gatordev]

Yeah, all our shit was taken out. No seats and no launcher. The crewman that actually has a line in the movie that was credited was the squadron AWCS and the pilot that turns back and says something was the skipper at the time (uncredited).

They did get some Hotels/Fox for the fly-in to the carrier at the beginning.

On topic: I had a LPO that worked for me that was former COD crewman. He said (at the time) they did SEAL delivery all the time, be it raider or jumping or both.

 

[MasterBates]

Gator, sounds like how we trucked them out for Katrina or HVBSS.

 

[bunk22]

Can you rig a C-2 for jumpers, so that you could either HALO/HAHO or static line jump from one? If you could rig it is there any reason you couldn't launch or recover one on a carrier?

Yes, you can do those from the COD though I've never heard of HAHO. I've dropped HALO, static line and CRRC. We could also launch from the carrier for such a mission. It is in the NATOPS. However, we are not allowed to do para-drops anymore, as per ADM Zortman, now retired I believe. Of course as far as I know, the COD has never done paradrops for real, just practice. In 99, we dropped SEALS in Kuwait but again, just practice.

Not sure how it started but I think SpecOps came to our community about 2 years ago, looking to create a brief, a plan, to go forward and use organic assests for paradrops from the boat. That meant the C-2 but it was shot down. We started practicing again last year but that was cut short. Problem in doing it on cruise is that we are so busy with logistics, there simply isn't time. In 99, the only reason we did it was due to the ship being in port and we ended up flying the drops though as I recall, our planes broke after one mission

 

[bunk22]

Much like Hellfire and HSL, the capabilty is there, but is probably not used that often.

I forget wether it was a thread or maybe in chat, but I think Bunky was posting how it was a qual that people used to get. Then again, he also landed on the boat at night. Bunky is weird like that.

Pcola, how's the RAG?

That's right, I can now say, back in the day, we used to fly COD's at night off the boat. A little 3 year experiment that lasted 6 years if you include the RAG and DET 5. Of course I've since learned that COD's did land at night on the boat at times as far back as the late 60's, early 70's. At least that's what I was told, really corrected by the former Skipper of VRC-30 back in 70-71 or so. I gave a speech at an ANA luncheon back in 2000 without about 500 oldtimers in the room. An absolute joke having a COD guy give a speech about COD stuff with real warriors in the room but that's what they wanted after an article about COD's appeared in a couple of aviation magazines. We were still flying nights and I happened to mention that we were the first COD types to do so to the audience. Well, the former VRC-30 CO hung around to politely correct me. My reply....roger that.

 

[Pcola04/30]

Pcola, how long were you in Kingsville? I'm really looking forward to flying the T45. Hope to see you in the fleet in a couple years.

I was there almost a year. Roughly nine months of that at the squadron. Best of luck in the -45. Hit the ground running, backseat rides, sims, etc. that plane will challenge you at first.

 

[Coota0]

If you look carefully in "Tears of the Sun", you can clearly see Bruce Willis and Co jump out of a C-2.

Why i was asking...sorta.
I was watching the history of the SEALs on the military History channel earlier and they showed them jumping out of something that looked alot like an S-2, which got me wondering if you could do it with a C-2. Thanks for the info.

 

[Fly Navy]

So, why no night ops for the COD?

 

[Pcola04/30]

I've heard its a matter of the hits on the airframe required to keep the crews current not being worth it. The airframes are just to old.

 

[MasterBates]

Also, per OPNAV, no PAX at night over water, unless they are dunker qual'd. Which severely limits you available passengers at night.

 

[scoober78]

Probably gets in the way of certain recreational opportunities as well...

 

[MasterBates]

Quiet, they'll catch on!

 

[DirtyShirt]

Yes, you can do those from the COD though I've never heard of HAHO.

Basically the same as HALO at least from the aircraft perspective. The basic difference being the snake eaters deploy their chutes at altitude and glide over distance to their DZ.

 

[HooverPilot]

As said earlier, COD's used to fly at night, but not anymore.

No nights for the COD for several reasons.

1. Airframe is old. Flying night hits reduces the amount of time that maint has to fix any gripes on the planes. We need the time to fix the planes. We only have 2 planes in each detachment so it's not like we can rotate them out that much. Normal ops is having 2 planes to make 2 hits everyday. No other squadron on the ship needs to have 100% availability EVERY DAY. The overnight maint period is a neccessity.

2. Keeping current is too difficult. Night currency req is one night trap every 7 days. We would have to fly night hits just for currency requirements regardless of the need. This would also wreck crew rest. The ship normally wants their first hits of the day pretty early in the day. After that hit, the crew would have to sit around for hours just waiting for dark to make the second hit "just for currency". There are only 6 pilots in a det and mix in SDO, etc and it becomes a very difficult managment issue for Ops.

3. No pax at night. As per OPNAV, we have to be off the ship 1 hour prior to sunset (waiverable to 30 min). Night pax overwater is permitted by OPNAV (not permitted for Helo's), it's the ship part that rules it out for the COD. This wasn't that much of a big deal because night was when they would fly the pony and parts. It's not too hard to fill a COD with all the mail and parts that the boat needs.

4. No real need. The COD does a good job of supplying the ship during the daytime hours, just because we can deliver stuff at night doesn't mean that it's the smartest thing to do.

5. I've got 145 night traps, I don't need/want any more.

 

[kmac]

Probably gets in the way of certain recreational opportunities as well...

6. Glasses must be raised in appreciation for all the guys flying at the same exact time at the boat. Glasses must be filled with alcohol, since the guys on the boat can't have any. We're not doing it for us, we're doing it for them. Cheers!

 

[bunk22]

As said earlier, COD's used to fly at night, but not anymore.

No nights for the COD for several reasons.

1. Airframe is old. Flying night hits reduces the amount of time that maint has to fix any gripes on the planes. We need the time to fix the planes. We only have 2 planes in each detachment so it's not like we can rotate them out that much. Normal ops is having 2 planes to make 2 hits everyday. No other squadron on the ship needs to have 100% availability EVERY DAY. The overnight maint period is a neccessity.

2. Keeping current is too difficult. Night currency req is one night trap every 7 days. We would have to fly night hits just for currency requirements regardless of the need. This would also wreck crew rest. The ship normally wants their first hits of the day pretty early in the day. After that hit, the crew would have to sit around for hours just waiting for dark to make the second hit "just for currency". There are only 6 pilots in a det and mix in SDO, etc and it becomes a very difficult managment issue for Ops.

3. No pax at night. As per OPNAV, we have to be off the ship 1 hour prior to sunset (waiverable to 30 min). Night pax overwater is permitted by OPNAV (not permitted for Helo's), it's the ship part that rules it out for the COD. This wasn't that much of a big deal because night was when they would fly the pony and parts. It's not too hard to fill a COD with all the mail and parts that the boat needs.

4. No real need. The COD does a good job of supplying the ship during the daytime hours, just because we can deliver stuff at night doesn't mean that it's the smartest thing to do.

5. I've got 145 night traps, I don't need/want any more.

All of these are right on. The COD is in general just getting old and is junk. I remember coming down at night with either the front panel vibrating so bad or half the bezzel lights were out and the co-pilot had to shine his grimes light on the gyro or stand-by gyro when the ADI went tits up. Our ACLS and AACS worked 25% of the time, crap like that. Maybe standard stuff for the old timers or other airframes, I don't know, but night is hard enough without all the other little issues that can add up to become a big deal behind the boat at night. I think I've got about 110 left and right seat traps at night and that's more than enough to last me a lifetime.