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The Great, Constantly Changing Picture Gallery...part DEUX
- Thread starter Gatordev
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View attachment 12693
The "Legacy" VA-146 Blue Diamonds - 1966 - USS RANGER (CVA-61)
BzB kneeling 3rd from left
BzB
That is a pretty enormous ready room for a single seat squadron (by today's standards).......
The standards of today don't compare to that era. It probably took 4-5 Skyhawks to provide the punch of 1 Hornet. Average manning for an A-4 ATKRON was pumped up by ~15% at the onset of the heavy extended combat up north in late '65 thru '68, when most Hawks were replaced by A-7 Corsair IIs. At the time of that photo, we were at 19 Pilots, 2 Maint. 'pounders, 1 AIO, 1 Flight Surgeon, and 14 A-4Cs. We brought all but 2 Pilots home (1 our CO on our FIRST 'effin day up north), and ran through 6 aircraft, with each loss being replaced fairly quickly from a "ready" A-4C pool.
BzB
I think the trusty ol' Whales would still be useful today, CVW AR hasn't been the same since Whales were turned out to pasture. Relying on USAF for massive strike tanking is kinda lame.
BzB
707guy
"You can't make this shit up..."
What an amazing deck complement - A-1's through F-4's. Time machines ever get invented I'm going back there with my Nikon!
Yeah, those Pfantums in the photo are from VF-143, you can see the li'l black 'Pukin' Dog' on the intakes just aft of the stars 'n' bars.What an amazing deck complement - A-1's through F-4's. Time machines ever get invented I'm going back there with my Nikon!
The A-1 Spads spotted on the angle aft, belong to the VA-145 'Electrons'. It was around the time of this photo, that the late LT Dieter Dengler NC of VA-145, went down in Laos, spent ~2 MOS. in a nomadic captivity, then made a dramatic, bloody, and ultimately successful escape & was rescued.
BzB.
707guy
"You can't make this shit up..."
It was around the time of this photo, that the late LT Dieter Dengler NC of VA-145, went down in Laos, spent ~2 MOS. in a nomadic captivity, then made a dramatic, bloody, and ultimately successful escape & was rescued.
BzB.
Never get tired of hearing your stories BzB!
The first E-2A Hawkeyes to deploy were VAW 11 Det. C... on Kitty Hawk (CVA-63) w/ CVW-11, departed CONUS 19 Oct. 1965.
Shown in the photo above, E-2A from VAW-11 Det. F... the second det. to deploy on RANGER (CVA-61) w/ CVW-14 (&BzB), departed CONUS 10 Dec. 1965.
VAW-11 E-1B Tracer Dets continued to deploy on the smaller 27-C carriers until the end of the air war due to deck space & lack of test equipment facilities needed for Hawkeyes.
BzB
Homer J
I'm with NAVAIR. I'm here to help you.
F-35C Lightning II test aircraft CF-1 performs an engine thrust measurement survey on afterburner July 11 at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. The F-35C is the carrier variant with larger wing surfaces and reinforced landing gear for operations in the aircraft carrier environment. (U.S. Navy photo)
So I realized it's MY fault you didn't get jets...my bad Bro!
Aww shit, the kid DID get jets...even better...
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