Naval Aviation

[Bob R]

Originally Posted by Badbart56

Are you on the P-3 Orion Veterans Facebook site? Jim Hunnewell has that pic on there.

Yes, I am on there. I was in VP 46 with Jim. Then a short time at NADC and then to VP 19 in 1983 for 5+ years. I kept extending on sea duty. Had I known they were decommissioning shortly after I would have stayed.

bob

[Badbart56]

Originally Posted by Bob R

Yes, I am on there. I was in VP 46 with Jim. Then a short time at NADC and then to VP 19 in 1983 for 5+ years. I kept extending on sea duty. Had I known they were decommissioning shortly after I would have stayed.

bob

I was VP-19 airframes 77-80.

[+Ruff Rider]

Originally Posted by gkainz

We launched the last of the Navy's RF-8 Crusaders from anchor in Naples, Italy off the Nimitz ... so, you can do it ... just not regular practice.
I never saw it, but the training films for the E-2 showed a deck run launch ... on 1 engine! Not saying I would want to do it, but apparently it was possible!

I have seen a S2 launch without the catapult. It looked crazy. He had the wheels off the deck way before the end of the flight deck. We were underway at the time. I used to check out the aircraft in the hanger bay. They were something to see. Especially the fixed wing plains. They were huge.

[CWtheMan]

Originally Posted by Badbart56

I worked in AIMD with a Marine from a Harrier Squadron from Cherry Point NC when we were in Kadena rebuilding tires. Those AV8B's were pretty cool to watch landing and taking off!

Than you're really going to be amazed at the new F-35B capabilities. There are some great pictures in this link.

https://www.f35.com/about/variants/f35b

[CWtheMan]

This U-2 (Dragon Lady) is on display at the Davis-Monthan AFB.

The U-2 was a spy plane that became very well known when the USSR shot done Francis Gary Powers – A CIA pilot – during a mission over USSR territory in 1960.

[CWtheMan]

When I got my indoctrination training on the F-14 supersonic (Mach 2+), sweep wing, dual engine, fighter/interceptor aircraft, I was most intrigued by its yaw string. I was assigned to VF-41 from 1977 to 1980.

In 1981, two F-14s from VF-41 intercepted two SU-22 Russian built , Libyan owned aircraft, off the coast of Libya. Because the SU-22s were observed to be armed and heading right for the USS Nimitz they were challenged by the F-14 pilots. All efforts to get them to disengage from their threat to the Nimitz battle group failed, the F-14s crews shot them down. This picture is an artist’s depiction of what the pilots described to him.

[Fishsizzle]

I’m not a navy guy, but my step father was on the Enterprise for 8 years. Worked on A7 and A6 I believe as communications tech. He had to leave the service with the death of his father to come home and take care of his mom.

He had an awesome scrap book with great pictures. I remember one of an A7 that must have been swept over and they somehow retrieved it. I don’t remember the specifics.

His hearing is shot from it all. But he is a proud veteran and I have great respect for him.

[CWtheMan]

I took this picture at the Veterans Museum right on the water front.

[CWtheMan]

When Naval Squadrons are deployed they like to get photographed near world famous volcanos. In the Pacific its Mount Fuji. In the Mediterranean sea its Mount Etna.

I was a member of the four aircraft flight over Fuji. The VF-84 aircraft over Etna was the sister squadron to VF-41.

[CWtheMan]

Many years ago in another life (USN Days), I did a lot work on aircraft carrier flight decks. This is a short story about one of those days.

Early in 1978 I was assigned – once again – to Navy Fighter Squadron 41. The squadron had just transitioned from the F4 Phantom II to the F-14 Tomcat. I got to VF-41 in early 1977 and had completed the entire training syllabus required for managing the F-14 and had worked in the Maintenance Control Office until I had qualified to sigh aircraft safe for flight. Then I became the squadron’s flight deck maintenance coordinator.

On a nice calm, clear day I decided to take my camera with me to the flight deck and follow an aircraft from preflight to launch. I asked a member of the crew flying wing with 107 if they would provide me with a picture of 107 when they returned to the Nimitz. LCDR Lindner was known to always carry a camera on every flight and he took the picture of 107 returning to the Nimitz.

[CWtheMan]

This is a pretty good example of what the A7 aircraft could take into battle from an aircraft carrier.

That aircraft was from Navy Attack Squadron 86, aka the snakes.

[CWtheMan]

I took these pictures while parked at the Laughlin AFB at Del Rio, TX.

The first one was at the entrance to the golf course parking lot and the second was at a rec area at the entrance to base housing.

[CWtheMan]

My first duty assignment right out of boot camp was Air Barrier Squadron Two (AIRBARSRON2). It was located at Naval Air Station Barbers Point on Oahu, TH. Hawaii was not yet a state.

The primary mission of the huge squadron was to provide a “Cold War” early warning barrier from Midway Island to Kodak, AK with Barbers Point as the control base.

The pictures are file photos. Cameras were not allowed anywhere near flight operations during the time I was with the squadron.

The primary early warning aircraft was the Super Connie with the Navy designation WV2, nick named Willie Victor. For moving people and equipment and training the squadron had a half dozen Super Connies with the Navy designation R7V. For pilot training for ground controlled approaches (GCA) the squadron used a twin engine, conventional landing fear beach craft with the Navy designation SNB.

[Badbart56]

I was based at NAS Moffett Field, Ca., with detachment/deployments to Adak, AK., NAF Kadena, Okinawa, Misawa, Japan, Diego Garcia, NAS Cubi Point, PI, with numerous stops in between. Fond memories and good times back when life was much simpler.

[CWtheMan]

Originally Posted by Badbart56

I was based at NAS Moffett Field, Ca., with detachment/deployments to Adak, AK., NAF Kadena, Okinawa, Misawa, Japan, Diego Garcia, NAS Cubi Point, PI, with numerous stops in between. Fond memories and good times back when life was much simpler.

This picture should bring back some memories.

[Badbart56]

Yeah, we used any excuse to fly down there. We would go down there in the winter from Misawa just to wash the plane. And then, mysteriously, something on the plane would break and we would get stuck there for days!

CW, have you been to the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida? When they decommissioned Cubi Point they packed up the O club and reassembled it at the museum. LOTS of memorabilia!

[CWtheMan]

Some have never seen this aircraft and surely not this many in one place.

These are in desert storage at DMAFB, Tucson, AZ.

[Badbart56]

Originally Posted by CWtheMan

Some have never seen this aircraft and surely not this many in one place.

These are in desert storage at DMAFB, Tucson, AZ.

Attachment 27537

I loved watching them take off and land at Kadena along with the F-4's. When the SR-71 rotated it would go vertical and disappear into the clouds in seconds.

[notanlines]

https://militarymachine.com/sr-71-facts/
One of many interesting articles I've read over the years concerning the SR-71. The only one I have ever seen up close and personal is located at the site of the USS Alabama battleship, Memorial Park, just east of Mobile, Alabama.
Also at the park is the USS Drum submarine and a B-52 bomber located where one can actually walk all around and under this aircraft.
This is truly a hands-on park where you (and most positively your children) can wander the decks freely, actually crawl up into the massive gun turrets and sit in the seat used by the person behind those guns.
I could go on and on, but you 'get my drift.'
Now, if only I could convince the board to bring in a retired aircraft carrier....naw, never happen.

[JRTJH]

Originally Posted by CWtheMan

Some have never seen this aircraft and surely not this many in one place.

These are in desert storage at DMAFB, Tucson, AZ.

Attachment 27537

To add a bit of history to this photo, the second aircraft, SR-71B 61-7956, is the only remaining "dual cockpit" SR-71 in existence. Two were built, one crashed at Beale AFB, CA in 1968. The "top cockpit" housed an Instructor Pilot while the lower cockpit housed a student pilot or a qualified pilot who needed upgrade training, qualification/certification in some aspect of the SR-71 operational missions. This aircraft, 61-7956, is currently on display in Kalamazoo, MI at the Air Zoo. Last October was the first time an SR-71 cockpit was "opened for public viewing". It's extremely rare to see the only dual cockpit aircraft in existence, but to have seen it with open cockpits is even more of a "once in a lifetime event".