Mohawk Legends

(Originally published in The Mohawk Association's Mohawker Newsletter No. 24)

The Mohawker news letter No.22 had an interesting Mohawk Legends. I can address two of them to give them authenticity. First, there were two air to air refueling kits made for the OV-1(series). They were delivered to the 131st at Robert Gray AAF, Ft Hood, Texas, in 1975. The supply officer, Jerry (Ranger) Wright located them at either Tobyhanna or Chambersberg, PA. They were developed in the JOV-1 days, but only tested and not "used." The 131st acquired them to "investigate" the feasibility of air to air refueling in support of the unit's "D-package" deployment mission.

The booms mounted along the right side of the aircraft, above the SLAR boom or above where the SLAR boom would go on the C and D models. The refueling panel door had to be removed and the refueling boom attached to it, much the way the pressure fuel hose was attached. The aircraft skin had to be removed in two or three places to provide access to the mounting "ribs." A duplicate refueling panel was wired into the cockpit and controlled by the TO.

The refueling aircraft of choice was the KC-130. Because of the refueling speeds, we had been told by the Marine Corps to use 160-170 Knots, the KC-130 used the helicopter basket on the extended refueling boom. The helicopter basket gave the OV-1 pilot a better target and provided more resistance for a better connection. Basically, the fixed wing basket could be hit by the OV-1 and knocked aside without making a connection.

Unfortunately, we never got to use the air to air refueling booms on the OV-1D at Ft Hood. Although the USMC was willing to provide a KC-130 in the Cherry Point MCAS area, III Corps refused to allow us to even talk about mounting them on the OV-1. Col Bobby H. Freeman, then the 13th Avn Bn Commander attempted to intercede with III Corps. But was told, as I recall, by the Corps G-4 and G-3, "hell no!"

As far as I know, the air to air kits were returned to the depot and reside there today, much as do the 16 inch cannon barrels for the battleships.

Also while at Ft Hood, Cira 1975, the 131st was tasked to deliver two OV-1Ds to the Isreli AF. The aircraft were returned to Grumman for a PE and the sensors were returned to the manufacturers for rebuild, i.e. Motorola for the APS-94D. Singer for the AAS-24, and ECOM at Ft Monmouth for the Camera Systems.

Since I was the commander at the time, I insured that Grumman and the sensor manufacturers got the biggest hanger queens we had. Both aircraft had to be sent to support maintenance at Hood AAF for a mini PE just to get out of Texas. I flew one of the OV-1Ds to Hood myself with only engine instruments and needle ball and airspeed IFR capability. Upon reaching Hood AAF, about a 10 minute hop with most of the time being spent handed off from Robert Gray to Hood, an aircraft mechanic and I pulled the taped instruments and hand carried them back to West Ft Hood with us (taped instruments were always in short supply).

The 131st also trained 4 Israeli AF maintenance people. They were a pleasure to work with and, in some cases, it was academic as to who was training who. They were either degree engineers or engineering technicians. They came to us because they felt as if the training at Ft Eutice was not at the level they wanted to be and that field experience with a "deployable" unit would be better. Their training was completed in record time.

I hope this information helps with the legends aspect of the Mohawker. Since I was personally and intimately involved in both of the above legends, I can attest to their validity.

One post script here: When the Mohawk started to be phased out of the US Army, the remaining aircraft at Hunter and Korea were supported by controlled substitution, previously known as cannibalization. The Israeli AF was no longer flying their one remaining OV-1D and sold us their PLL and other parts accumulated...for almost 3 times what we had sold the PLL to them for.

Norman Svarrer

Another note: Firefly was a mission flown with OV-1 support for the most part. It occasionally used the sector O-1 (Birddog) instead of the Mohawk. Lightning Bug was almost exclusively an O-1 mission with the Gunships and Bug occasionally operating without any f/w support, although this was mostly in the areas around their home base, i.e. Vinh Long or Soc Trang in the case of IV Corps.