Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire My buds brothers Vietnam War story in pics. This will take a while- probably days.

They're Zunis. 2 shots on 2 hard points.

VMFA[AW]-212

BuNo 148670

Aircraft lost 28 Feb 1967 - Kaneohe, Hawaii

Evidently this aircraft was transferred to the Marine Corps






Ejection History of 148670

The carrier Coral Sea left San Diego with 5500 servicemen, weighing 65,000 tons at 1000 ft long headed to Hawaii. In Nov '64.

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Looking back toward home while wondering what lays ahead and if home will ever be seen again.


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2 jet fighters ready for emergency take-off 24 hours a day with pilots aboard constantly while rotating 2 hr shifts.

I dont remember at what point in the six month deployment pilots began the 2 hour shifts. It was called CAP for combat air patrol. 2 jets would be ready with one on the catapult, if takeoffs and landings were not occurring, and able to be airborne in 30 sec. One jet would be F8 Crusader and the other an F4 Phantom. The Phantoms had a pilot and radar man aboard.

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Sorry for the blurred pic. This shows the side of the ship with hundreds of liferafts stocked with provisions.

In the 80s the birds sitting on the cats were "alert 5s" Off the deck in 5 minutes. Crew on board, electrical powered up so the Nav systems were synced and the gyros spinning. Tractor with a "huffer" (small jet engine that provided air for the turbines on the jet to start) sitting manned and ready. I was on the Coral Sea for 16 months in 87-88

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Entering Pearl Harbor at sunset. I think the previous pic of liferafts was after being outfitted at Pearl.

Thanks for that info, SRM.

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This is an F4 Phantom with centerline fuel tanks below the fuselage which look like bombs. Notice the tall landing gear. Jack said the F4 pilots kind of looked down on the F8 pilots as they had newer jets. However, as Jorge mentioned, they knew the F8s and their pilots would normally win in a dogfight, though the Phantom was a little faster.

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Here Jack or his F4 counterpart launch to intercept a Russian Bear Bomber on a publicity exercise near the carrier, after it had left Pearl for the Philippines. He said he was proud to beat the F4 to the Russian bomber after making the 200 foot launch.
He said they wanted a 30 knot headwind and the carrier was able to provide that in dead calm seas. The carrier would change course if there was a heavy tailwind.

Perhaps others can elaborate.

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This was a picture taken of the Bear by Jack taken with a USN 35mm camera. The next picture shows his wingman shadowing the bomber. Instructions were to come in to the side and watch the canons that protruded from the rear machine gun turret. If those guns ever moved they were to hit the bomber with their 20 mm guns. They were also to watch the bomb doors. If they opened they were to drop back 2 miles and hit it sidewinders and pull off to escape being downed by debri.

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Notice in the top pic the double propped counter rotating engines.

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A friend of Jacks was a jet pilot and photographer for the carrier and later provided him this picture of Jack staying between the carrier and the bomber, iirc.

Spent 4 yrs with Navy A3's. I believe the Air Force version was labeled a B66. A stable platform put to a lot of uses. Bombing, electronics monitoring, photography, tankers, and IR night time surveillance. Largest plane to habitually use carriers. One could watch the skin wrinkle when they caught the wire.

Replaced by the A6's, and now those are gone as well. Makes one feel really old.

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Here they are in the Philippines for jungle survival training. They couldnt believe the small size of the native men, who were given a tour and were grateful for pics of them with the pilots and fighter jets.

We played with Ivan up in the fiords of Norway. Amazing how loud a bear is (and how fast it is) you can hear them from your jet.

They were in the Phillipines one week for that training before heading to the South China Sea. The pilots had received survival traning at mock prisoner of war camps in the hills near San Diego before putting out to sea.

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This is a pic of the flight boss window enclosed cabin. Jorge could probably expound on his function and duties

Jag, Next time you see Jack shake his hand for me and tell him this Yankee says Thanks for being a badass.

Cool stuff, thanks for the tour.

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Refuling tanker taking off. Roundtop plane in lower pic to the right is a radar plane that goes out to extend the range of the carriers radar range.

Thanks Pugs for that info you posted above.

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Will do David.

These are the landing "lenses (?). Indicating high, low, or good approach. Nowdays on gyros to keep pilots on landing approach even in boat pitching seas. [img:left][/img]

That's a Grumman C-1 Tracer. It was adapted from the C-1 Trader Carrier on Board (COD) Delivery airplane. The original airplane it was based on was the S-2 AntiSubmarine warfare plane.

The Trader had the nickname "Stoof" so the C-2 Tracer became the "Stoof with a Roof" It was replaced by the E-2 Hawkeye still in service today.

Great pictures and thanks for the history.

Approach-Ass clenching time. By carriers photographer.

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Well, schitt.