BULL WHIP Part 11

One of the constraints that made our operations in the Galuch Valley so challenging is it's isolation. The Galuch is incredibly tough to access, and has only one trail that leads in and out (hence, why we conducted an air assault operation as opposed to a much safer ground assault).

Resupply of our forces quickly became a concern due to the isolation, and there were some very interesting and abstract ideas discussed as to how we could resupply our forces. We decided on multiple resupply methods, one of which is called "Low Cost Low Altitude" (LCLA) resupply. It's a fairly simple process. Supplies are 'rigged' at an air base, attached to a parachute, and then dropped out the back of a C-130 by a specially trained crew.

One of the advantages of this method is that if the drop misses the mark, you can simply call in another drop and not worry about recovering items that may be difficult to get to, since they are considered expendable. We had some very interesting drops. Due to terrain, some that landed within a couple 100 feet were abandoned, while others hit their mark. We even witnessed one that 'burned' in, in which the chute failed to deploy. I must say that MREs and water explode quite nicely when dropped from over a thousand feet in the air.

C-130 deploying 2 LCLA resupply packages.

This photo was taken just as the drop on the left side of the picture was impacting the ground...unfortunately for us, it landed on top of a grave in a cemetery...oops.

C-130 Hercules