Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Hill AFB Museum-old airplane pix

On our recent trip to Utah we visited the Hill AFB Museum, which is located on I-15 just south of Ogden. Currently the Museum exhibits over 80 military aircraft, missiles, and aerospace vehicles on the grounds and inside the Major General Rex A. Hadley Gallery and the Lindquist Stewart Fighter Gallery. The museum collection also includes a wide variety of ordnance, an assortment of aerospace ground equipment, military vehicles, uniforms, and thousands of other historical artifacts. Here are some pix of some of the aircraft . The light inside the hangers is not conducive to good photography, thus the poor quality of my pix.


This is a C7A Caribou, veteran of the Vietnam war. This particular aircraft was in the inventory of my squadron, I flew many sorties in this aircraft.


A shot of the flightline outside the front door of the museum.


Wright brothers replicas.


P-47 and B-17.





F4 Phantom

[img]http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b29/jnyork/100_1880.jpg[/img]
SR71.

[img]http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b29/jnyork/100_1881.jpg[/img]
Vietnam War B-26K

[img]http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b29/jnyork/100_1876.jpg[/img]
Trinity Bomb exact replica. I was surprised at the size of this, it only maybe 6-7 feet in diameter, I had envisioned it being much larger.

[img]http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b29/jnyork/100_1878.jpg[/img]
A1 Skyraider, a mainstay of the close air support and air rescue effort in Vietnam, a real mans aircraft. Only a few left flying.

Thanks for posting these photos. I really enjoyed them.

It's understandable, but you left out the forlorn example of my little O-2 Skymaster. It's next to the magnificently restored OV-10 Bronco back in the Fighter Gallery, but almost everybody walks right past the little Oscar Duck.

There is simply nothing cooler than vintage aricraft.

I always thought the F-4 Phantom was the neatest looking fighter. They look fast and mean just sitting on the tarmac.

Toured the museum last year. Great exhibits. I'm a nam vet and the F4 and A1's exhibit brought a lot of memories.

Rocky, I just didnt have room to post them all, wish I could have, no offense intended. I had the privelege to fly a mission with an O2 out of Da Nang one time, it was the model with the loudspeakers urging the NVA's to chieu hoi. Wasnt really a thrill a minute but did get to see some of the country I had not seen before and added to my knowledge of what the war was all about. FAC pilots earned the respect of everyone over there, regardless of the aircraft they flew, no doubt about it.

Here you go, Rocky, just for you http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O-2_Skymaster

its been a few years since i've visited there, drive by it at least 1 time a week. i used to shoot trap at Hill Rod and Gun Club, they also have a nice skeet range on base.

its also worth it to go to the Union Station and see the Browning collection/museum.

Thanks, jnyork. I have pictures of the Duck - even the Hill duck. For a while, I was on the volunteer committee to renovate the thing, but it never rose to even the third page of the Museum's priority list. It'll probably never get started. Pity.

Rocky, I had about that same experience with the Caribou, it was in horrible condition and I volunteered to come down there for 3 weeks and work on it, since I knew what I was doing with Caribous. Well, you would have thought I proposed to abuse the Base Commanders daughter! Not no but hell no. Anyway, about 4 years ago a group of us vets who were all members of the squadron that flew that airplane got togather and put up the $6000.00 it took to get it repainted there at the base, hard for them to say no to that. It got repainted and a very nice job at that. I guess you just have to keep hammering at them, I think they feel that anyone wanting to do something there is somehow intruding on their space and trying to diminish their authority. Kinda sad.

The museum director has his own agenda. He'll act all positive and supportive - until the time comes to provide support or help. If it isn't one of his pet projects, forget it.

Enjoyed the pictures. They brought back many memories. IIRC I flew one time on a Caribou. Caught a hop to Vung Tau. I thought we had crashed on landing, but was told by AF folks that it was a normal landing.

I use to fly canceled checks in a Cessna 337 Skymaster. I really liked flying it. Then again it was not the kind of flying one did in Viet Nam with them.

cool pics i always loved the ww2 warbirds my fav is the p51

Rocky, did you fly 10s also,, or only O2s?
As the guy on the ground I still wish they had maintained something like the A1 and moved it to Army for direct support with some loiter time.


Oh well that was then and a long time ago.

I was a strange kid, in many ways. While all my schoolmates and I were playing pilot in the backyard, I was the one who actually dreamed of being a FAC/Close Support pilot. The other boys had the Phantoms and Falcons and Eagles; for me it was a time of Broncos, Bird Dogs, Skyraiders and Skymasters. Do not misunderstand me, flying a Corsair for Pappy Boyington was also a fine way to play, but my "dream plane" through all those years was an OV-10 Bronco; I still love that plane, a marvelous aircraft.

While I salute ALL veterans, regardless of role, those FAC/CAS pilots always get an extra pat on the pat and salute from me. If the Good Lord had given me the eyesight to do it, I would have been one of them.

Only O-2s, Louis.

There were many times when I wished I had ordnance, even something more lethal than marking rockets. I lost several ground teams that I might have saved if I had something I could shoot with. But didn't.

In the normal FAC role, ordnance is useless for the FAC. Your big weapon is your head and your radio. Getting into a shooting duel with the bad guys was a losing proposition as a FAC. Much better to stay clear and pinpoint the target for the fighters and their big weapons.

Countering my own argument, there were targets that were too small to get an airstrike approved - two or three guys shooting at you, a cargo bicycle - when even one or two HE rockets would have been just the ticket.

The 1st few months I was in the central highlands our air support was A1 Skyraiders, they were great. then we got f100's they were not as good, the last month it was F4F's they were bad. I have a picture of a f101 at treetop dropping a 500 pounder. Everything I have read says the 101 was a recon plane but 1 day in 1969 1 was dropping bombs at tree level. I have caught rides in most of the planes but my favorite is the long body DC8 that landed me back in the land of the big PX july 1,1969.

I'd rate them in that exact order, my brother. THE best were the VNAF pilots in A-1s. I never allowed them to drop bombs in pairs, because they were so accurate that one was plenty per pass. Plus they had hours of loiter time and could make dozens of passes each. I had a VNAF pilot take out A guy hiding behind A tree once. The moment I talked the pilot's eyes to that tree, the gomer was a dead man walking. Except that seconds later, he was a dead man flying, courtesy of a 500-pound suppository.

Huns dropped a lot of 750-pounders when I was there, always in pairs for roll control during the pullup. They were good, but not as good as A-1s or even Navy A-7s. Enough gas for three or four passes each.

F-4? They were such gas hogs down low they were known as "one pass and haul ass" planes. And even when they'd drop a dozen 500-pounders each, they were lucky to hit the correct COUNTRY. Most of them, anyway. I worked one or two good F-4 drivers, but even then the wingman was liable to stink. I'd NEVER use an F-4 in a true troops in close contact situation. I'd rather they dump into the South China Sea than risk any of my ground guys with a bad drop. Believe me, the call signs of the good AND the bad fighter guys were well known, and passed among the FACs.

Never heard of an F-101 with even the right circuitry and racks to drop ordnance, but in 'Nam, ANYTHING was possible.

I'm in Afghanistan, and coincidentally, was having a conversation the other day about the Hill Air Museum with my Group Commander who is deployed from Hill. He's a former A-10 pilot. He mentioned visiting the museum a while ago and looking at an A-10 on display there. Something about the tail number was familiar, so he checked his logbook, and sure enough he has flown the plane (#666). A former maintainer was with us at lunch, and he worked on the same jet, at Myrtle Beach, over 20 years ago. He said he was always a little spooked by being in a hangar at night with that jet - the squadron moniker was "Demons".