ThePhantomTwo Posted September 10, 2007 Author Share Posted September 10, 2007 (edited) The final four aircraft that flew Saturday for the last flight.The wing commander had the honor of being the last jet down,of course flying the Wing King jet. And a couple of the Colt's cheerleaders were there,they did a photo-op in front of our Colt's jet,wish I had a better vantage point for those pics. As I mentioned before,Jake will have the best pics to post here,he had a great place for the flying photo's,I can't wait to see the shots he took! Edited September 10, 2007 by ThePhantomTwo Link to post Share on other sites
siesta3 Posted September 10, 2007 Share Posted September 10, 2007 I agree BRAC sucks and to some it doesnt make any sense. But since after Desert Storm you seen units and bases that you thought would never close but they have. You'll find examples of squadrons with alot of history being deactivated and some being reactivated for some reason - ie the 525th Fighter Squadron replaces the 12th Fighter Squadron at Elmendorf next year. Not all of BRAC is political - some of it is done from a operational point of view. Back during Desert Storm the Air Force deployed full 24 plane squadrons. Operation Iraqi Freedom brought only 12 planes per squadron and you've all seen ANG squadrons deploy as a rainbow unit with up to three squadrons and six aircraft each. Don't be surprised to see more changes in the future. Link to post Share on other sites
ThePhantomTwo Posted September 11, 2007 Author Share Posted September 11, 2007 I agree BRAC sucks and to some it doesnt make any sense. True,some of the missions and bases I seen on the list made sense. Not all of BRAC is political True,but alot of it was.They mentioned recruiting as one of the main reasons for us shutting done,that I find hard to believe since we met recruiting goals(or went over)for the last 10+ years.Alot of this was already predetermined when they were studying which bases/units to shut down,the person who studied/inspected our base already let it be known when he rolled into town we would lose the jets,well over a year and a half before the report came out. Link to post Share on other sites
Dispatcher Posted September 11, 2007 Share Posted September 11, 2007 Hello all, long time lurker, first time poster (though I could swear I did have an account here before with some posts to my name a while back. Can't find it now though). I feel I can contribute to this topic a little so I decided to jump in! It is truly sad to see the 181st lose its jets. I grew up watching these jets, all the way back to the F-100's, the silence in the sky's will be deafening. Somehow or another, my family and I missed the last flight, our flyer said the program was to start at 2:30, but when I got there, the jets were already on the ground. I was very disapointed, anybody know when and why the schedule change occured? Anyway, I must have been standing right next to you at some point ThePhantomTwo, I have almost identical photos of the jets and the cheerleaders as they were setting on the ramp. I'll try to get some of them posted up. As for now I thought you gents would find this one interesting from my collection. I did not take it and don't know who did, all I know about it is that it is from one of the Andoya deployments in the 1980's. Link to post Share on other sites
ThePhantomTwo Posted September 12, 2007 Author Share Posted September 12, 2007 Cool!You probably bumped into me and Jake more than a few times,were you the one with the nice camera set-up with the large zoom lense? I was under the impression the last flight would happen about 1430 myself,I didn't know the last flight would actually be around 1pm or so until right before the event. A pic of one of our F-4C's in Norway and another.. Link to post Share on other sites
jefropas Posted September 12, 2007 Share Posted September 12, 2007 My favorite ANG F-4's PERIOD, are the F-4E's from the 113th in the Eygpt gray scheme, can't wait for those decals to make it out soon! (unless Dave was joshin us).... Jeff Link to post Share on other sites
ThePhantomTwo Posted September 12, 2007 Author Share Posted September 12, 2007 Like this one?67-0384 before Don Spering dolled it up for our last F-4 flight.... and after we painted it(lots of Krylon on that baby!) and me when I co-crewed it when we were down to our last five Phantoms Link to post Share on other sites
Boman Posted September 12, 2007 Share Posted September 12, 2007 (edited) Nice pics Dispatcher and PhantomTwo I think however that the photos are from the late 70's or very early 80's as the last F-104's in RNoAF service left in or around 1982. As for the perticular F-104 in these pics, I can add the following information: This F-104 is serial 62-12239, C/N 4040 RF-104G originally delivered August 7th 1963 to RNoAF under MAP. Total flight hours on delivery in 1963: 22:40 Total flight hours on return in 1981: 3385,6 Flew with our 331 squadron the whole time as far as I know, before beeing returned to USAF England on July 9th 1981. It was passed on to the Turkish AF on July 15th 1981 but written off there on June 26th 1986. Edited September 12, 2007 by Boman Link to post Share on other sites
ThePhantomTwo Posted September 12, 2007 Author Share Posted September 12, 2007 Nice pics Dispatcher and PhantomTwo I think however that the photos are from the late 70's or very early 80's as the last F-104's in RNoAF service left in or around 1982. As for the perticular F-104 in these pics, I can add the following information: This F-104 is serial 62-12239, C/N 4040 RF-104G originally delivered August 7th 1963 to RNoAF under MAP. Total flight hours on delivery in 1963: 22:40 Total flight hours on return in 1981: 3385,6 Flew with our 331 squadron the whole time as far as I know, before beeing returned to USAF England on July 9th 1981. It was passed on to the Turkish AF on July 15th 1981 but written off there on June 26th 1986. I believe the pics were taken during our first Norway deployment in March of 1981. Link to post Share on other sites
Dispatcher Posted September 12, 2007 Share Posted September 12, 2007 Great photo's PhantomTwo, I love all the older stuff. If by a nice setup you mean a Rebel XT with a 300mm lens and large black bag that I always have trouble lugging around, yes that was me. I would have had some really good shots of the jets had I not (like a total idiot) left my ISO setting at 1600. They pretty much all turned out overly grainy. When I get some of them cleaned up I'll post them. I'm still kicking myself over that, and missing the last flight. I don't recall ever seeing 384 painted up like that. Somehow or another I missed the whole last phantom flight hoopla. I think I must have been more excited about the F-16's coming than the F-4's going. I wish my priorities would have been straighter at the time! I always thought the F-16's would have looked really nice with the the red white and blue tail as well. As for the Norway deployment, the thing I remember most about that was the 24 (?) jets launching in the wee hours of the morning and waking up everybody in Brazil. Man, that was loud! Everybody was talking about it the next day. Bowman - Great info on the F-104, either you love Starfighters or you are a good detective! Thanks Link to post Share on other sites
ThePhantomTwo Posted September 13, 2007 Author Share Posted September 13, 2007 (edited) Great photo's PhantomTwo, I love all the older stuff. If by a nice setup you mean a Rebel XT with a 300mm lens and large black bag that I always have trouble lugging around, yes that was me. I would have had some really good shots of the jets had I not (like a total idiot) left my ISO setting at 1600. They pretty much all turned out overly grainy. When I get some of them cleaned up I'll post them. I'm still kicking myself over that, and missing the last flight.I don't recall ever seeing 384 painted up like that. Somehow or another I missed the whole last phantom flight hoopla. I think I must have been more excited about the F-16's coming than the F-4's going. I wish my priorities would have been straighter at the time! I always thought the F-16's would have looked really nice with the the red white and blue tail as well. As for the Norway deployment, the thing I remember most about that was the 24 (?) jets launching in the wee hours of the morning and waking up everybody in Brazil. Man, that was loud! Everybody was talking about it the next day. Bowman - Great info on the F-104, either you love Starfighters or you are a good detective! Thanks :blink: 67-0384 flew with artwork for nealy 3-4 weeks before it was transfered to George AFB for training German AF pilots/WSO's.I spent a week in between crewing my jet(68-0490)and cleaning up '384 before Don Spering came on base and started in on it,we spent aboout 3-4 days off and on painting it up in the CC building. I know who you are now,you were along the rope barrier taking pics about 5 feet from me and the family(and Jake more of a couple of times),I remember that big lense you had attached to the camera,I imagine your pics are better than mine,my little Kodak EasyShare 3.1 isn't one for taking professional grade pics :D IIRC,we flew 18 a/c over to Norway on those trips.Heck,we live in the same neck of the woods it sounds like,I'm half way in between Terre Haute and Brazil of of Rio Grande Road. Remember the F-100's when they went over to England for a 2-3 week deployment at Lakenheath?It was a sight seeing our jets and Ft. Wayne's Hun's flying in the old WWII fighter formations. Yeah,we came up with quite a few designs for the tail before we first got the F-16's,I was bummed when they decided on the supersonic chicken,there were some excellent designs that were bypassed for that. I take it you have/had family in the unit? Edited September 13, 2007 by ThePhantomTwo Link to post Share on other sites
Boman Posted September 13, 2007 Share Posted September 13, 2007 Bowman - Great info on the F-104, either you love Starfighters or you are a good detective! Thanks Thanks Dispatcher, the credit belongs to www.starfighter.no - a web page dedicated to the service of the F-104 with 331 and 334 squadron RNoAF You can find any info you need on the Starfighter in Norwegian service here :) Link to post Share on other sites
Dispatcher Posted September 17, 2007 Share Posted September 17, 2007 Phantom Two, Sorry for the delay in my reply but I've been away from work, and therefore my fast internet connection all weekend. I don't remember the F-100 deployment, I guess I was a bit young at the time! And yes, I did have family with the 181st, my dad is 'Ike' if that means anything to you. That is his jet '780' in the background of the Norway photo. I finally got some of my photos cleaned up from the other weekend, here they are: Like I said before, I was pretty upset with the overall quality due to my imcompetence, but live and learn! Link to post Share on other sites
ThePhantomTwo Posted September 18, 2007 Author Share Posted September 18, 2007 And yes, I did have family with the 181st, my dad is 'Ike' if that means anything to you Your dad was my flight chief for the better part of 6-7 years,I remember he had pics of your F-4 and F-16 on his office wall,they were great builds! The next 6-8 months is going to be ripe with 181st decals,both F-4 and F-16 so watch out for them. I was about 13 years old when they took the Huns overseas,I was at the base with my dad when they took off,it was a site to behold. Your pics are ok,get more experiance with you set up and you'll start cranking out awesome pics,I'm stuck with my lil' Kodak digital until I win the lottery <_< Link to post Share on other sites
Dispatcher Posted September 18, 2007 Share Posted September 18, 2007 I was about 13 years old when they took the Huns overseas You've got a couple of years on me then, I would have been max 6 years old at the time. I remember he had pics of your F-4 and F-16 Like this? Dad did the F-84 and F-4C in the 80's, finished with a brush, I did the rest in the early 90's after graduating to an airbrush! They are all starting to show a little wear and tear. Wish I wouldn't have put those three Mavericks on the Viper I don't believe there were any decals available at the time so most of the unit specific stuff is hand painted, and it shows! I'll definately being looking for those decals coming soon. It will be a great reason to build that new Tamiya Viper. . Link to post Share on other sites
ThePhantomTwo Posted September 19, 2007 Author Share Posted September 19, 2007 Wow,you and your dad did awesome jobs!I remember seein the F-4E and F-16C pics on his office wall,I always commented how cool it was you modified the falcon head on the tail when the jets went to that style when decals didn't exist for that style yet.Your dad never mentioned he dabbled with plastic,he always bragged about your builds and never mentioned his. I always liked hearing about EJ's Langley deployment in '780 and the reason why it got "zapped" with TAC badge,it's one of those classic deployment tales Link to post Share on other sites
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