Never knew you folks felt so spirited about my beloved C130 Hercules. That old, fat, slow girl was awful good to me. They have served our country well and in almost every capacity you can imagine. The taxpayer’s definitely got their monies worth on this defense department purchase.
I spent about 7000 hours of my military career flying them all over this world and carried every kind of cargo from road graders, to weapons, to paratroopers, to livestock and anything else you can think of. Like Perch said, filling the sky with sticks of paratroopers is proud sight. I wish I had a penny for every one we dropped over the drop zone at Ft Benning, or down on the range at Eglin AFB on training missions. Taking off and landing those things in a field or any surface that would hold up to the footprint of say a 50 hp tractor was the most fun you could have with your clothes on.
I sure miss that kind of flying, but I still fly my Herk simulator on the computer and reminisce. They ought to have national holiday or movement to celebrate the Herk. HLM...lol.