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Coolest Self-Portrait

heyjoe said:
And wherever the carriers went, the AGis were sure to follow. ... We flew over the Balzam and I asked him what he thought it was.....answer "a cruise ship?"
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True story ... and MOST in the "old days" looked like the "trawlers" that they originally were ....

agispylq4.jpg
(photo coypright by A4sForever:eek:)

We found one AGI that did, in fact, look like a smallish "cruise ship" in the S.China Sea .. complete with swimming pool and WOMEN :eek: midships ... we made a low/slow pass by it, the women took off their bikini tops and "flaunted" themselves at us, waving, smiling ... :) ... we made several more low/slow ID passes by them waving back, beckoning to them, one with the canopy open ... ahhhhh ... love was in the air, hands across the sea. :eek::D
 
Pugs said:
But how many times were we reminded in those Airwing recce games there were balls on a Balzam? Of course we had guys that knew they were Fulcrums because the picture had pine trees in the background :(
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Speaking of Recce games, CVW-5, by virtue of being forward (and always) deployed onboard USS Midway, was identified by some low life jealous CO as having not been through an ORE in over six years as of 1981, so AirPac reluctantly informed us we had to go through one. No one took it seriously at all, and our squadron AI said he had the gouge on the recce exam. For about three weeks, we practiced the recce exam by memorizing the answers. On the day of the actual exam, he handed out the test sheets and, I swear it's true, most of us had all the answers discretely filled in before he had gotten to the first slide (the first three answers were ships).

So you can imagine our horror when the first slide was some airplane, and the second a sub, neither of which any of us knew. Since the AirPac observer was in the room, it wasn't as if we could say "What the f*ck, over."

After the fourth slide, the AirPac observer said "I swear, I've never seen a squadron so lost and baffled and incompetent when it comes to a recce exam." He waited about ten seconds, through pure silence, and then turned to our skipper, a dear friend of hi, and said "Gotcha!"

He then replaced the slide tray with the "correct" slide tray and we all aced it!
 
A4sForever said:
True story ... and MOST in the "old days" looked like the "trawlers" that they originally were ....

agispylq4.jpg
(photo coypright by A4sForever:eek:)

We found one AGI that did, in fact, look like a smallish "cruise ship" in the S.China Sea .. complete with swimming pool and WOMEN :eek: midships ... we made a low/slow pass by it, the women took off their bikini tops and "flaunted" themselves at us, waving, smiling ... :) ... we made several more low/slow ID passes by them waving back, beckoning to them, one with the canopy open ... ahhhhh ... love was in the air, hands across the sea. :eek::D
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A4s is dead on. We had night FLIR tapes of their fore-and-aft replenishment and watched women being cross decked as part of the unrep.
 
Intruder Driver said:
Normally the Phantoms or A7's armed with 'winders escorted the Bears....
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And Badgers in the Sea of Japan, too ... we were the "first carrier" to venture in there for decades (?) .... at least that's what they told us .... and the Rooskie reaction was hot, huffy, and expected.

Only problem was ... they kept coming out, 24 hours a day ... so, of course, we ran 24 hour ops .... and ran us out of F-4's in a couple of days. Sooooooooo ... as mentioned, the Fluffs (A-7's) and Buff's (A-6's) strapped on Winders and went looking for Russian Bear ... O.K. ... Badger. (yes, in the AirWing we sometimes called the A-7 "Fluff" and the A-6 "Buff" --- liked the way it sounded, I guess --- when out of earshot of AF types .... )

I've got some better shots I might dig out ... up close and personal with Badgers .... here's one of a Badger, a Fluff, and "moi" rolling over the top as we harassed him back into the general direction of Vlad ...

dsc01925rc4.jpg
(photo copyright A4sForever:))
dsc01925qi7.jpg
 
Here's the only wiiiings I've got right now. :D
 

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Lonestar155 said:
Any new contemporary flyers have anything to top those pictures? WOW those pictures almost put tears to my eyes. I remember playing Fleet Defender going up to intercept the Bear.. I was 10 back then haha
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This looks really familiar........;)

j8iim_03.jpg


Like A4s said, the more things change the more they stay the same........
 
Renegade One, you look just like a guy I remember getting interviewed on a video I got off the "original" Discovery channel probably early 90's. Was talking something about "blood thirsty killers" or something to that effect, can't remember, it's been a LONG time? Wouldn't have been you would it?

Now that I looked at your profile, the callsign SPIKE sticks in my head, it was you.

Besides the movie Top Gun, and maybe Iron Eagle just a little bit, that documentary made me want to be a pilot, still have it on VHS, somewhere, though I don't own a VCR. Very cool, small world.
 
dammit....i've got some good f-8,(shenyangs...not 'saders)pics somewhere from gettin intercepted.
 
Spike > or < Iron Eagle

FLY_USMC said:
Renegade One, you look just like a guy I remember getting interviewed on a video I got off the "original" Discovery channel probably early 90's. Was talking something about "blood thirsty killers" or something to that effect, can't remember, it's been a LONG time? Wouldn't have been you would it?

Now that I looked at your profile, the callsign SPIKE sticks in my head, it was you.

Besides the movie Top Gun, and maybe Iron Eagle just a little bit, that documentary made me want to be a pilot, still have it on VHS, somewhere, though I don't own a VCR. Very cool, small world.
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I'm sure Spike wouldn't mind being held on a pedestal with Top Gun, but Iron Eagle???? Except for watching Israelis put their aircraft into Hollywood maneuvering "poses", it was pretty hokey IMO. So Spike was muy macho over Iron Eagle?? (assuming the first one) or was Iron Eagle your greater inspiration.....:eek:
 
FLY_USMC said:
Renegade One, you look just like a guy I remember getting interviewed on a video I got off the "original" Discovery channel probably early 90's. Was talking something about "blood thirsty killers" or something to that effect, can't remember, it's been a LONG time? Wouldn't have been you would it?

Now that I looked at your profile, the callsign SPIKE sticks in my head, it was you.

Besides the movie Top Gun, and maybe Iron Eagle just a little bit, that documentary made me want to be a pilot, still have it on VHS, somewhere, though I don't own a VCR. Very cool, small world.
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Two things: Whoever said the last pic looked like "Chunx" is spot on...currently IA to the desert. But he always did take great pix. I dummied up the Sports Illustrated cover for him.

Secondly, reference the quote above, it was a TV show originally made for "Eye on LA", I think, called "The Real Topguns". Made when I was a DH in VF-51. When I was CO of VF-24 in 1990, I was stopped by a young Ensign while I was leaving the Miramar O'Club who said he remembered me from that show and "You're the reason I joined tha Navy." Had to buy that gallant American a beer, didn't I? Thanks for remembering that old show.

V/R, Spike
 
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