I believe it was all the fuel in the bladders that was going to be used to
refuel the helos. The bladders couldn't be filled inflight. The aircraft
themselves were light on fuel and did tank airborne.

Les

"David Lesher" wrote in message
...
"Les Matheson" writes:

IIRC all the MC-130's and EC-130's that departed Massirah Island for
Desert
One in 1980 were over gross weight at take off and were pretty severely
stressed on landing in the Iranian desert. There were some pretty hairy
takeoffs from that site, too.

Would it not have been better to takeoff with minimum fuel and
then refuel?
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