In 1958, Allan Pope, an American civilian pilot suspected to be working for the CIA in support of the Permesta rebellion, was shot down, He was captured, taken into custody, but was eventually released. During President Sukarno’s visit to the United States in 1959, President John F. Kennedy offered a token of gratitude for Pope’s release. It was the Lockheed C-140 Jetstar to be used as the Presidential aircraft, replacing the Soviet Ilyushin Il-14 which was used at that time.
When Sukarno visited the Lockheed factory in 1961, he chose the Hercules C-130B to replace the Indonesian Air Force’s Canadian de Havilland DHC-4 Caribou transport airplanes. Indonesian pilots ferry flew the ten C-130B over a 13.000 mile distance to Indonesia. The planes were assigned to the Heavy Transportation Air Squadron 31 of the Indonesian Air Force.
Leo Wattimena who in 1964 was the Commander of the Air Force Operations Command, personally commissioned Trubus to paint a number of paintings surrounding the activities of the Air Force. Although the painting does not clearly depict the form of the airplane, it is quite clear that the paratroopers are walking onto a hinged loading ramp at the rear of the fuselage, into the body of the airplane, typical of and unique to the design of the Hercules. During the Dwikora operations in September 1964, three Hercules planes were used to fly the Air Force’s Pasukan Gerak Tjepat paratroopers, dropping them in Kalimantan in covert operations against Malaysia.
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