Warbird Information Exchange

This weekend I was looking up the ultimate fate of a couple of Sikorsky H-34s and I found out that both had been struck off charge - one at NAS Barbers Point (in 1972) and one at NAS Memphis (in 1971). It got me to thinking about the term SOC and I have some questions to satisfy my curiosity that I knew you guys would have the answers to.

When an aircraft is SOC is it because it’s been damaged/destroyed in an accident? Or is it because it’s now obsolete and it’s been declared excess and no longer needed by the military? If that’s the case, who actually scraps the aircraft? Do they call local scrap yards to come bid on the stripped carcasses or do military personal do the scrapping on base?

Why weren’t these H-34s for example sent to the “boneyard” at D-M to be disposed of? Maybe because it would have cost too much money to transport them there and it was deemed not worth the expense so they were scrapped in place? I know that '71 & '72 were about the end of the line for U.S. Military H-34s so I'm guessing that they were disposed of due to being replace by newer types UH-1's, SH-3's etc.

I’m sure things are a lot different now that back in the 70’s but this is something I’m curious about strictly for my own edefication…

Thanks in advance for your answers.

-Derek

I think there are plenty of SOC stories out there, at least from WW2 where birds that came off the inventory as SOC were rebuilt as squadron hacks or fat cats.

SOC is basically how a unit gives up a piece of equipment so that they are no longer responsible for it. Nowadays the equipment is sent ("given") back to the larger command unit, and if there is no immediate use the item may be either put in storage, reassigned to another unit (maybe as a gate guard, fire hulk, range target).
Often the Command unit will then call DRMO (defense reutilization and marketing) and DRMO will then sell the item. Currently all aircraft sold by DRMO are sold as to be destroyed scrap.
Back in the old days there was much more latitude at the command level to dispose of equipment. There were "abuses" that led to those days being long gone.
Too bad because some of those abuses resulted in many of the warbirds still flying today.

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All I did was press this red button here...

One that I know some of the story on is C-118 BuNo 131610. In 1974 after a gear collapse on the ramp at NAS Glenview the previous December, it was stripped and left at the end of a taxiway on its belly.



It sat like this for a few years getting graffitied by the Navy brats on the base, until a scrap dealer from Florida purchased the remains. One day I went past the base and the entire upper cabin had been cut away, then the rest was gone soon after. The docent from the base museum told me the remains were cut up and shipped out in several trailer loads. He also said that they had not removed the flaps before they sold it, and had to buy them back from the scrapper!

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All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

The "go to" person on this site if you'd like more information on your H-34's is SIDSIKO. PM me if you need is email address.

It used to be that when an aircraft reached its service life it could be "administratively" SOC. I know in the case of many Marine HRS helicopters, they might then be auctioned "as is, where is."

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Cheers,

Craig

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