Military Aircraft Pictures & Stories

[WeBeFulltime]

If you have the opportunity be sure to see the museum at NAS Pensacola and allow a full day at least.

[CalandLinda]

These pictures were taken at/near the I-10 rest area (information) near the Pensacola, FL exit.

[richeyb]

During your travelers you might stop by Castle Air Museum, Atwater, Ca. https://www.castleairmuseum.org/ They have 70 aircraft on display. Castle AFB was a SAC training base for B-52 and KC~135 crews back before it was closed by BRAC during early 90s. I had spent a large portion of my 30 year career there, with lots of hr flying in the B-52.

[CalandLinda]

Once while parked at Dickinson, ND we were riding around exploring yard sales one weekend and found this aircraft on display out in a field near a smallish rural airport at Devils Lake, ND.

[CalandLinda]

USS Midway (CV-41) aviation museum, San Diego Bay, CA - down town.

[CalandLinda]

We found these aircraft on display at the Fort Rucker Army Aviation Museum near Ozark, AL.

[Dusters]

As a 10 year old, I spent a few occasions on board the USS Midway at NAS Alameida and explored the ship while father was on duty. The Midway sat in Bremerton mothball for about 12 years and accumulated tons of moss. The moss had to be removed and placed on barges before the vessel was towed to San Diego. One of the last major roles before decommissioning was the evacuations of military/DOD personnel and Dependents during the 1990 Mount Pinatubo, Philippines, which also had numerous newborn babies on board during their voyage from Guam to Hawaii and California. Unfortunately people clogged up many of the internal waste systems with diapers and whatnot items along the way. Hundreds of family members were retained on the lower flight deck on cots. I'm not officially associated with Midway, just a fan of hers from a different military service.

[scottz]

Sounds like a good time; especially the part about sleeping on the hangar deck.

[scottz]

USS Midway & USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) from the flight deck of USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) as she returns from a ten month Persian Gulf cruise 2015. Both ships were dressed up to welcome the Vinson home. I was privileged to ride on her from Pearl Harbor to San Diego.

[scottz]

F18 air show mid-Pacific courtesy VF-94 Mighty Shrikes & VFA-113 Stingers

[scottz]

They actually let us stand on the flight deck during flight ops.

[scottz]

HSM-73 Battle Cats dropping sonobuoys. Later, departing carrier as it nears San Diego. E2C-Hawkeye.

[scottz]

CG-52 USS Bunker Hill shows a little naval fire power

[scottz]

Crew paying respect as ship departs Pearl Harbor.

[CalandLinda]

I was assigned to VF-41 (F-14 aircraft) from 1977 – 1980. During that time we made two deployments to the Mediterranean aboard the USS Nimitz (CVN-68). The last one included a nice long trip the Indian Ocean. VF-41 was home based at Naval Air Station Oceana, VA and assigned to Air Wing 8.

After I completed my initial familiarization of the F-14 I was assigned to the maintenance control office. Once I got certified to sign aircraft safe for flight I became the squadron’s flight deck maintenance coordinator.

One day I decided to take my camera and follow a squadron aircraft (107) from preflight to launch. Here are some of those pictures. The one of 107 returning to the ship was taken by LCDR Lindner, our officer shutter bug.

[CalandLinda]

Here are a couple of pictures I’ve taken during our full time RVing years.

This spy plane, the U-2, (Dragon Lady”) was operated at times by the CIA and the USAF. It became well known to the public when one was shot down and the pilot (Francis Gary Powers) was captured.

This first one is on display at the Davis-Monthan AFB at Tucson AZ. I found the second one on display just inside the main gate at Laughlin AFB, Del Rio, TX

[CalandLinda]

A number of years ago (1997) the Naval Air Station at Miramar officially became Marine Corp Air Station Miramar.

Scurrying around they found some old aircraft to put on display. Here are a couple of them.

[McRod]

Can't say I have ever piloted or even worked on any military aircraft. But I have been flown hundreds of times on different Air Force & Army aircraft.

The only planes were from the Air force. C-130s &141s, occasionally C-5s. I always got the feeling they didn't really like us Army guys because I was usually tossed out the side door in mid flight. Never did understand why they couldn't just land like an American Airlines pilot.

At least the Army chopper pilots were nice enough to give me a rope to slide down when they wanted me out. You could tell if the Army pilots didn't like you because they would bank the Blackhawks on their side, and of course, their mechanics ALWAYS forgot to put the doors on.

[CalandLinda]

The Iranian Hostage Crisis: During the first part of 1980 I was working for the Commander of USN Carrier Wing 8 as a flight deck maintenance control chief. All requests for aircraft movements for parking spaces came to our desk first. The moves were then coordinated and approved by the Nimitz aircraft handler.

The location of the helicopters for the Iranian rescue attempt was secret. Therefore, they came aboard at night from Diego Garcia – an Indian Ocean Atoll – and hidden in the Nimitz hangar bays. Their movement to and from the flight deck had #1 priority. That meant the shuffle was always on and very difficult at times because of their priority; they had to always be hidden from satellite, over flight and foreign ship detections.

In these pictures they hadn’t been aboard very long and that’s the reason for all the yellow shirts around them. The yellow shirts are aircraft directors and handlers. They were becoming familiar with moving such large aircraft around the flight & hangar decks. The blue shirts are chock walkers.

[CalandLinda]

One time while traveling on US-82 through Tuscaloosa, we spotted this memorial in a mall parking lot. We found a place to park our rig and took these pictures.