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Another Internet Urban Legend. Here's what Barrett Tillman (noted aviation historian and author) said in another blog http://untoldvalor.blogspot.com/2008/08/correction-on-previous-post-tip-of-hat.html The post about "Andy Cowan" needs serious scrutiny. I'm a professional author and...

Returning to NAS Miramar from an overcast W-291 with a low sun shining up the tailpipes of the VF-301 F-14A

Old R.O. Picture of the Day for 6 Aug 2008 Section of VF-301 F-14A Tomcats is joined by a VC-13 TA-4J Skyhawk over San Diego's Mission Valley as they return to NAS Miramar (mid-right edge of photo) from an ACM hop in W-291. circa 1986.

Old R.O. Picture of the Day for 6 Aug 2008 Section of VF-301 F-14A Tomcats is joined by a VC-13 TA-4J Skyhawk over San Diego's Mission Valley as they return to NAS Miramar (mid-right edge of photo) from an ACM hop in W-291. circa 1986.

Old R.O. Picture of the Day for 5 Aug 2008 Old R.O. is back ... tanned, rested and scanners blazing... A division of VF-301 F-4S Phantom IIs in the break over NAS Miramar as seen from dash-4, July 1981

Old R.O. Picture of the Day for 29 July 2008 Not a real strong photo... but I'll have more next week when I get back home to the slide collection and the scanner. VF-301 F-4S section go from NKX (NAS Miramar), circa 1983.

One in the same. He and I were also roommates our first AVROC summer in 1970 (Class 102-II) at Pensacola.

Old R.O. Picture of the Day for 27 July 2008 Back in the States now, but not home yet... Ms. RO wants another week of hiking and kayaking.. this time in Glacier NP. **** VF-301 F-14A overhead USS Ranger (CV-61), SoCal Op Area, January 1986. The triangle of dots in the lower part of...

Old R.O. Picture of the Day for 19 July 2008 Today's Pic of the Day coming to you live from Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada. ***** VF-301 F-4S on a low-level nav route over the Eastern California desert, circa 1983.

Thanks... it might be Bob "Mouse" Shaw of ACM book author fame... I think he was about the only pilot that flew with the helmet.

Old R.O. Picture of the Day for 14 July 2008 Okay, I couldn't stay away for long, thanks to the WiFi at the RV park in British Columbia. VF-301 F-4S circa 1983. Mt. San Jacinto in the background (the mountain just west of Palm Springs). Pilot is wearing a VTAS (Visual Target Acquisition...

Old R.O. Picture of the Day for 11 July 2008 VF-301 Skipper's bird on a low-level over a SoCal desert, circa 1986. With this, the Old R.O. Pic of the Day goes on hiatus (Hiatus? They *loved* us!)... Have to take Ms. R.O. (can't call her "old"... even though she _did_ rob the cradle back...

These are from the New York magazine competition where they asked competitors to change one letter in a familiar non-English phrase and redefine it. Harlez-vous francais?(Can you drive a French motorcycle?) Ex post fucto (Lost in the mail) Idios amigos (We're wild and crazy guys!) Cogito...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helistat Hope it fares better than this one.

Old R.O. Picture of the Day for 10 July 2008 The first squadron designated VF-301 had been equipped with the F4U Corsair in WW II. One of the guys in the squadron knew a man who owned one, so one drill weekend we put up five F-4S Phantoms, a VC-13 photo bird (with a Chief PhotoMate on...

The Phantom's older brother, the F3H-1 and F3H-2 (F-3B) Demon. The really early birds had the POS J40 engine, and most of them were sent to Memphis (Millington) to act as training aids. Also, even though touted as an "all weather" fighter, it could not fly in "visible moisture" or it would...

Old R.O. Picture of the Day for 9 July 2008 VF-302 F-4N over Eastern San Diego on approach to NAS Miramar, May 1978

Old R.O. Picture of the Day for 8 July 2008 VF-21 F-4J USS Ranger Summer 1975

VF-21 F-4J startup.... take 2

From "The Wilson Bulletin" (a bird journal) from 1974: http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Wilson/v086n04/p0461-p0462.pdf The Reader's Digest version: The record for a bird strike is 37,000 feet (vulture over the Ivory Coast). Others have occurred at 21,000 feet (mallard over Nevada) sightings...

"Liberated" from USAF Air Defense Command stocks. We all had a couple of them.

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/mysterious-midair-dent-in-jetliners-nose/index.html As usual, not only do they make speculations on the cause of "this" incident, but drag up things from years past... even ground incidents on non-flying aircaft (museum Concorde nose hit by...

Old R.O. Picture of the Day for 7 July 2008 In keeping with the maintainers theme... here's a start-up scene from NAS Miramar, early 1975. VF-21 F-4J on the ramp east of Hangar 1.

http://www.f-106deltadart.com/eclipse.htm

Old R.O. Picture of the Day for 6 July 2008 During the transition from A-7Es to F/A-18As, the VFA-195 Dambusters were at NAS Lemoore and wore the tail code "NM" before their assignment to CVW-5 at NAF Atsugi in July 1986. (Before CVW-10 stood up in November '86, non-assigned squadrons at...

Don't know about "infamous," but Willie Driscoll was the RIO for all five of the Cunningham MiG kills. He was later a Topgun instructor and then in VF-2 before getting out of the Regular Navy. He was in VF-301 for a while and remained in the Reserves after he stopped flying. Topgun (now a part...

Old R.O. Picture of the Day for 5 July 2008 VF-301 F-14A in low holding over USS Ranger (CV-61), SoCal OpArea, January 1986

Old R.O. Picture of the Day for 4 July 2008 VF-301 F-14A returning to NAS Miramar from the Yuma ACMR Range circa 1985, near the Bard VORTAC. The Colorado River and Imperial Dam are visible at the top of the picture. Crew: Gary Stutzman/Willy Driscoll

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/china/cv-pics.htm

Old R.O. Picture of the Day for 3 July 2008 VF-301 hosted a 4-ship of F-16s from Luke one drill weekend in 1984. On their way home from NAS Miramar, they obtained the services of a March AFB KC-10A and there was a 4v4 (x2) over the Yuma ranges that Sunday. Fight .... tank.... fight... RTB.

VF-154's callsign used to be "City Desk" Being in Brand X, we called them "City Dump" .... or just "The Dumpers"

From left: First (in foreground... back of head), fifth from left (glasses and cigarette) and sixth from left (glasses)...

Speaking of Fallon... How about good times in July 1975. Top pic includes a future CO of Cubi Point and a future CO of NAS Oceana... plus some other riff-raff, as they brief a division-sized contribution to a CVW-2 Alfa Strike. Other pics are F-4Js from CVW-2 -- VF-21 and VF-154 (which has...

Old R.O. Picture of the Day for 2 July 2008 VFA-161 F/A-18A The "Rock Rivers" (tactical callsign... they were officially the Chargers) stayed around for awhile after getting rid of their F-4S Phantoms in 1985. They were part of the ill-fated CVW-10 in the mid/late '80s finally getting the...

T-39s are... but not those airframes. T-39Ds were replaced by the T-47 (around 1984) which was replaced by the T-39N (early '90s).

To be published in the Summer '08 issue of The Hook magazine (on the street in late July), it also made the "e-mail" circuit... good stuff. Just before turning over command of the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group, RADM William E. "Shortney" Gortney wrote the following to his commands...

Old R.O. Picture of the Day for 1 July 2008 When Old R.O. was just a SNFO T-39D NAS Glynco, Ga., spring 1972. Just before or just after this photo was taken, VT-86 stood up. Before that it was just NATTC Glynco. The squadron moved to Pensacola a couple of years later. Some of the...

Like I said, it was a few years ago, and it was confined to some industry/pentagon nerds... haven't heard it since.

Maybe like the debate going on a few years ago about the designation... Is it pronounced "FA" - Eighteen or is it "F 'an A" - Eighteen??? I don't know... sounds like an argument for designation nerds....:D

Another Old R.O. Picture of the Day for 30 June 2008 Since my original "A-6" photo for today got threadjacked/threadsplit off into EA-6A RADAR LOVE :)... here's another variant of the A-6... the F-4's best friend:D... the KA-6D dedicated tanker. VA-145 KA-6D Electron 520 over the Tonkin...

Here's a portion of an article written by the late Hal Andrews about the speed brakes (Hal was an aviation historian of merit... was given many accolades during his life for his historical work... including being designated Honorary Naval Aviator No. 22 in 1991 and the Radford award given by the...

A section of VAQ-309 EA-6As in the Austin MOA near NAS Fallon, Summer 1987

A section of VAQ-309 EA-6As in the Austin MOA near NAS Fallon, Summer 1987

Here's the AW link: http://www.airwarriors.com/forum/showthread.php?t=141198&highlight=clark

Old R.O. Picture of the Day for 29 June 2008 VF-301 F-14A tanking from a VA-304 A-7E. SoCal OpArea (W-291), January 1986

I always shot Kodachrome(R) except for some medium format stuff (120/220) which I shot in either Kodacolor (print film) or Ektachrome. I also had a good mentor in Bob Lawson. For those not in the loop, Bob was the first editor of The Hook magazine when it became a magazine in 1977. Bob was a...

Old R.O. Picture of the Day for 28 June 2008 "Sundown 205 at Cowles, two for the break" VF-21 F-4J approaching NAS Miramar from the southeast, 1973.

Old R.O. Picture of the Day for 27 June 2008 Carrier Air Wing Reserve 30 aircraft line up for tanking on the January 1986 two-week deployment on board USS Ranger (CV-61) in the SoCal OpArea. The tanker is a VA-304 A-7E Aircraft receiving fuel is a VF-301 F-14A Two aircraft in the...

Some of the Prowler guys can embellish on the story, but in the early 90s one of the Whidbey squadrons had some sort of stuffed mascot. One of the other squadrons stole it and took it on cruise with them. Almost every week there was a picture in the base newspaper of the mascot with his "new...