The Great, Constantly Changing Picture Gallery...part DEUX

An Apache had to land somewhere outside the FOB so these needed getting rid of. (it's kind of aviation related)


Camp Victory 2004


last "semi aviation" related picture. Well planned hoax being filmed, this was taken from a -58

Did that 64 jettison his stores?

Cool! iBot! Was there an IED in that poor horse? F'n Mullah's...

More from AMARG: A-7E formerly of VA-94; I took a photo of her because the Shrikes were flying A-7E's on my World Cruise in Enterprise, that was their last with the Corsair II. Former NF100, VF-154's CAG F-14A and a few of the S-3B's that are sitting in the sun.

I thought we sliced and diced the Tomcats to prevent our Iranian frenemies from getting their paws on parts?

Lots of Phrogs, 2-seat Harrier's and the last eight F-14's, mostly A & B-mods I think. I haven't seen A-4M's since I left Alameda in '89. I thought the guy who gave us the tour said the A from 154 and the D from 31 would survive while the other one's would be cut up. 213's CAG jet was parked outside of a hangar, not sure what will happen to her. I still don't understand why we're sweating the Iranians getting parts, they've been flying their Tomcats for sometime now and apparently making their own parts. That airplane has been a political tool for its entire flying career, even in retirement...

I know it's supposed to be a "war reserve," but what kind of reserve is it? It looks like a lot of the airframes will need a decent amount of work before returning to service. Are they glorified parts queens or legitimate standbys for WWIII?

AsK the Prowler bubbas who's jets did some time at D-M before joining the fleet!

I know the salvaged some jets to become drone years ago... But I do agree that most of the aircraft there are too obsolete or too far gone to be useful again.

I believe some of the T-39s at P'cola were resurrected from D-M as well. I'm sure other a/c flying now did too, just can't cite specifics offhand. But AMARG is less of a "war reserve" and more of a pik-a-part for DoD.

I thought while I was out there I heard something about a dude being sent to prison for selling an M61A-1??? The whole thing's FUBAR if you ask me. I'll be going to air show's with my kids and one day with my grandkids and we'll be watching legacy fly-bys with F-4's, F-15's, every bloc and lot# Bug and we'll never see another F-14 fly because of some tool whose trying to back door his own country for a few $'s! Frustrating, very, very frustrating. I wanted more than anything to take an arming pin or S/N placard or something before all of our jets were turned over to other squadrons at Fightertown and flown off to AMARG but I never had the kohones to do it. Then during the F-14 sundown I built a model and I was supposed to get a part from a DRMO'd Oceana jet, yea I'm still waiting for that. I just wanted a keepsake, something to remember from all those hours of upload, down load, PMS, dailys, phase, etc. Oh well...we'll always have the memories and a few scars!

The old timer on the bus with us was telling us that only a few more Phantoms would be converted into QF-4's and they're already starting to turn several Vipers into QF-16's. He also mentioned the C-5's are going through upgrades. There were several C-5's without rudders, I'm not sure if they were being cannibalized for the upgrades or what but they were impressive and take up a ton of room. There were a lot of P-3's too, (my other a/c). I turned the Super B though and it sounded like most of the B's were sold to other countries, one is with the DEA and one that was with both VP-90 & 60 is a firefighter bird now, that's good to hear. What blew me away though was how many F-4's there still are, I mean a ton! The IIRAF isn't knocking down the door for Phantom parts though...

Most all my birds are in that yard, I did read that they are pulling the late model KC 130's for the VX squadrons.

This was from a form flight we did over Laguna Seca racetrack near Monterrey, and then back home over San Francisco in 2006. The lead helo is flown by a buddy that was killed in a C-130 crash a few years after this.

Great photos, Spanky! You have a nice eye for composition. What equipment do you shoot with?

Thanks. That was with one of my old cameras back then... Canon 20D I think.

No it was setup as a hoax to see how we interogated/site security etc. Probably to incite an incident too, as some assholes gave a kid a fake two way radio, told him to stand on a big rock, and keep keying the mic. Nothing happened we just took the radio from the kid. We did something a little different for interrogation hopefully to throw any interested parties off. Lots of hoaxes as you can see the wire running off to the side and covered by the rocks, it's definitely no coincidence. We went through that washed out area twice the day before.

Wow...I know you can't get into it but the first thing I thought of was ROE and how fast you guys have to think before reacting to that - FUBAR...My SWAT unit just trained with an ibot from a larger, neighboring jurisdiction, it was our first time working with one and it was pretty impressive and an awesome tool to have if we ever need it. Thanks for the reply, stay safe!

For all the LTJG's out there who want to do something cool for their promotion to LT, this is how it's done! Skipper reading me the oath this afternoon during my promotion ceremony. I'm in the not CAG jet Thanks Skipper, one of the coolest things I've gotten to do in a jet thus far!

Very cool - congrats!