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

[navyao]

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...

 

[Gatordev]

Remember that these aircraft are being stored for 4 reasons: long-term future use or short-term future use (no idea how that is determined), parts picking, or DOD excess defense articles (planes with usable "life" on them, but considered obsolete in terms of sophistication or mission set by the U.S.). EDA aircraft are often sold or granted to partner nations.

Additionally, the pics you're seeing from navyao are from the tour, which only goes through about 1/5th (?...it's not much) of the property. There's a crap-ton of F-16s of all blocks waiting to be revitalized. It apparently takes about 3-4 months to have them ready to fly. The way they preserve them now leaves some junk on the airframe, but their process is set up to remove it all pretty quickly. As navyao was saying, there's tons of C-5 airframes (some whole, some in pieces). There's also lots of B-1s and rows of A-6Es. Not necessarily modern by today's standards, but should they need them... And as zab said, there's still lots of airframes that are either sold (a bunch of H-2s, for example) or that are being stored by other nations (like the kajillion C-130s that are there).

I'm also convinced that they try and keep a few keepsakes on the property there, as well, like "The Phoenix," or the oldest BUNO (blimp gondola) that I put a picture of in another thread.

 

[flaps]

 

[hlg6016]

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.

 

[e6bflyer]

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

 

[Sapper!]

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

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.

 

[navyao]

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!

 

[MIDNJAC]

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!

 

[707guy]

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!

 

[707guy]

A few from a small airshow in Ohio last summer:

 

[MIDNJAC]

Very cool - congrats!

Thanks, VFR!

 

[707guy]

Thanks, VFR!

Valions all the way!

 

[BusyBee604]

Very cool - congrats!

Amen, ultra cool. My kinda' CO & CAG!

What is that "thang" on the wing tip rail of the photo bird?
BzB

 

[MIDNJAC]

Amen, ultra cool. My kinda' CO & CAG!

What is that "thang" on the wing tip rail of the photo bird?
BzB

It's a TACTS pod, used for telemetry gathering in the TACTS range. Allows us to recreate the fight during TACTS debriefs, and also lets the RTO's have a god's eye view during the flight. Think that scene where Charlie is debriefing Mav in top gun, but slightly newer technology. Among other things, it allows new guys like me to see a graphic depiction of why we were visual/no-joy and cluto coming through the merge

 

[Sapper!]

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!

Bahh, there really isn't too much that has to be hush hush. The enemy knows very well how we interrogate sites and has the media to prove it. Sadly, in my CIED training the only videos I have seen (period) were from enemy observers. Also it is funny EOD personnel are the only people that seem to think their talon bot/pack bot operations are classified. Some of them were pretty livid when regular line units doing route recon/route clearance got them, but realized pretty quick that we used them for numerous interrogations if we couldn't dig physically. Then they appreciated not having to dismount constantly to work a site that would normally turn up empty, or catch crap for leaving the crater in the road. I've seen them being operated on AFN and in quite a few articles online too (but don't tell them that, they get really really sore about it). Would be nice to shoot the breeze about your SWAT teams employment offline, in person though. I saw an interesting interrogation at a mall. Someone called a bomb threat and went through this huge uproar over a bag, anyway the bomb team response was interesting and it would be cool to hear why LEO's procedures are used in that manner. Hey I think if the EOD guys can put a 240B on their Talon Bots, you SWAT fellows should too! Would make for some intersting fun!