WWII re-enactors stand in front of a Lancaster bomber whilst holding up a banner to show their support for this year's Armed Forces Day, which was on 29th June.
How ICBM warheads arrival looks like: [video=youtube;AaLvTZqXNmU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaLvTZqXNmU[/video]
Haha, always love to see that one. That was taken at Al-Udeid Air Force Base, and they were all talking about that when I was stationed there. From what I heard it was not released until after the girl left the Air Force, so there was nothing they could do about it.
I'm sure they were pretty rickety by then. It's max speed in 1985 when I left was 145 knots. A couple years later it was slowed to 130 knots due to metal fatigue. Flew. Winged at NAS Whiting Field November 21, 1980. Reported to the RAG January 1981. You?
Semper Fi! My apologies, Marine. Yes, they were still getting some good use out of the Mighty Battle Phrog throughout the 80s. When I first arrived at Tustin, they were just switching over to the E model. I trained in D's and F's but my squadron, HMM-164, was the first to receive the CH-46E's and then we took them to MCAS Futenma via USAF C-5's. Seven trips, three birds per C-5 with the seventh C-5 just hauling parts. They brought back the D/F models that were there. The usual procedure was simply to rotate squadron personnel. After my second deployment in 83-84, someone at HQMC got the bright idea that since the helo squadrons in Tustin always trained with the Grunts at Pendleton, they should be paired up on deployment. The squadrons were resized from 18 aircraft to 12 aircraft and prepared for shipboard deployment after that. I missed it by virtue of being in the RAG squadron, HMT-301 and then, after being RIF'd with 400 others, crossdecked to the Navy.
Bachelor of Science Degree, Flight Science , Parks College of engineering - Cahokia, IL AFROTC Detachment 207 - June, 1986 Commissioned 2nd Lt USAF - July, 1986. (UPT) Undergraduate Pilot Training, Columbus AFB, Miss. - September 1986 – October 1987 T-37B T-39A C-21A C-130H2
Cool. Froze my ass off in the back end of Marine Herkybird's being flown around WestPac. Did the same in a USAF C-141(?) once on the ride back to CONUS. I forget which deployment. The other was on charter bird. Much more comfortable plus we sat facing forward. Did you stay in? I flight instructed in T-34C's from 1989 until 1996, two years active duty and the rest Reserves.
I was a FAIP, first assignment instructor pilot..in the T-39A Sabreliner jet,, long since replaced by the T-1 I owed a minimum of 10 years AD combining the ROTC commitment and being a rated officer...left active after 10 and was an Air Force Reservist for roughly an additional 8 years, until resigning my commission for a medical related issue. I learned in the USAF on the T-37 "Tweet", The high pitch turbine engine noise, would drive anyone crazy, but a very forgiving airplane. I wanted to insert some photos from the web, since this is a photo themed thread.
Yes, the Tweets were some of the noisiest birds I've ever heard along with AV-8s, at least the B-models. Never flew either. The two pics below are of me. One as a flight instructor, 1996. The other is as a Naval H-3 pilot after we stole the squadron flag from a P-3 squadron January 1987:
Semper Fi back. Yea, spent some time out there, was stationed at Seal Beach back then, 1984-1987. Tustin was where we went for clothing and sales, and El Toro for NCO school, JAG, CG authority, and the like. Sounds like we are similar, in that at least some of the bases we were stationed at are now gone. Oh yea, photos. The blimp hangers at MCAS Tustin. And back in the day, when they still had blimps in them:
Thanks for the pics, Marine! Yea, both Tustin and El Toro are closed. The hangars are national landmarks so I don't see some real estate agent tearing them down anytime soon. The hangars are beautiful works of art as you can partially see in the blimp photo. Built around 1936, all that latticework are solid wooden beams over 18" in diameter. You can't find wood like that anymore. At least not in that quantity. IIRC, the hangars were 200' high, 279' wide and over a 1000' long. We'd fit four entire helicopter squadrons in each.
Thank you for sharing the photos! I respect helo pilots, a very difficult machine to aviate between the cyclic, collective and yaw pedals...not everyone can handle the coordination which is required. Flying a helicopter is very difficult to do, it requires constant attention to keep the aircraft in control.
