Our 4 man SAS team following down their boat…1980s
With the Royal Air Force set to retire the C130, there will be soldiers of my generation and younger (as the C130 improved with updated technology) shedding a tear for her retirement.
My own thoughts are the following:
The first aircraft that I parachuted out of…aged 17.
The first aircraft that I went to war in…aged 17.
The first aircraft I parachuted into a jungle clearing from…aged 17.
With my good friend Noel Brown (RIP) running to be first on the scene of a C130 crash into a wood at RAF Colerne in the early 1970s…nil survivors. I was never the same flying after that.
Landing on desert strips at night.
Low level for hours and hours contouring home and foreign lands with my head in a paper bag.
Flying the whole squadron in low level formation at night.
Parachuting into the South Atlantic during the Falklands War and getting picked up by the crew of HMS Andromeda. Two X (early days of) air refueling from Victor Tankers. First refueling took 3 goes! 6 of the 8 of us were crammed into the cockpit and on the stairs cheering.
Landing on a road in a foreign land.
And last but not least…the lonely feeling of being 1 of only 2 to parachute off the coast of Borneo at night following down a Klepper canoe…over the horizon.
Sad to hear of the loss of such an amazing airframe…but we move on.
To all those amazing aircrew and PJIs/dispatchers…thank you.
Bob Shepherd 
My 1st flight in Aldergrove on a Monday morning, Valentine’s Day.
Funnily never felt the love ❤️
Never fly in a hurc on a Monday with a bunch of still drunk squaddies
Barf everywhere🤮
I’d second that Bob the legend that is the GZomie bird albeit I also remember those early days were not always trouble free. My first big (50-) aircraft JATFOR jump was a September night in 1973 “Bold Guard” and that’s a night I’ll not forget ever.
Yes indeed Bob The Best Táxi l have ever been in,Sad but times are changing só quickly and The past is fading even quicker,we must stag on.