Darrell White Posted March 11, 2010 Share Posted March 11, 2010 Here's my newest painting "Shamrock 201: Fangs Out" Oil on stretched canvas, 36"x48"... started back in like June and been working on it off and on since. Has about 500 hours in it, not including research involved. The painting is going to a museum in May for a NAVY and MARINE aviation symposium and will be there for about a year and then find a permanent home at another museum. This particular squadron, VMFA-333 - Trip Trey, will be turning my painting into a commemorative coin pretty soon, so will keep updates on that as it goes. With all of the research, I stumbled across the squadron and they put me in touch with Capt. John "Little John" Cummings, who was the RIO (Backseater, Radar Intercept officer) during this engagement. Been friends with him ever since and it's quite a honor and humbling experience to hear what they all went through over there. He recounted the whole story, sent me tons of photos, details, written transcripts and even the taped recording of the flight of the MiG engagement. It was incredible to listen to, to say the least. You can hear everything going on, warnings, chatter etc... It's a famous airplane, being credited with MiG kills. Unfortunately, the pilot, Major "Bear" Lasseter, died in the early 80's during surgery, but I will be getting in touch with his family for the dedication etc. Here's a synopsis of the story recounted to me by John to get the painting historically correct in every way: On September 11th, 1972, Major Lee T. “Bear†Lasseter and his RIO, Capt. John D. “Little John†Cummings were flight lead along with their wing, Capt. Scott Dudley and his RIO, Capt. Diamond Jim Brady. The mission was a MIGCAP into Route Package 6, giving air support and escort for A7’s on a bombing run to a SAM storage/assembly location. Before reaching the CAP station, the MIGCAP controller onboard the USS England called out a vector for bandits 61 miles to the west. The two McDonnell/Douglas F4-J’s ingressed to intercept. The bandits, three MiG-21’s were circling Phuc Yen Airfield, approximately 10 miles North East of downtown Hanoi, hoping to bait the F4’s into Triple A fire, along with SAM’s. During the initial engagement, the three MiG-21’s were in a trailing formation. Their flight lead was a shiny silver 21, the second a black 21, and the third 21 was blue in color. The trailing blue 21 scattered immediately once in visual range and was never seen again. The black 21 broke formation and left the flight lead, but kept in a circular orbit in the near vicinity. Lasseter and Cummings had locked up the silver flight lead 21, during a hard left hand turn, with each trying to gain the advantage over the opponent and each waiting for an opportunity. During this time, there was extremely heavy Triple A in the form of thick flak from unknown locations on the ground targeting the F4’s. Both countermeasures doors were open, constantly popping flares and chaff to throw off any possible tracking SAM’s from the ground when launched. When good tone came through the headset, two AIM-7 Sparrows were fired, but each failing to hit home during the high-G turn. The MiG was able to stay right within the envelopes of the initial missile lock, but once fired, was able to tighten the turn to break the lock. Once regaining lock and tone, two more Sparrows were fired and they either failed to track or detonated prematurely. Two AIM-9 Sidewinders were then fired, but also failed to find their mark. By this time, six missiles were fired and unexpectedly, the MiG broke his turn and headed after Lasseter and Cummings’ wing, Dudley and Brady, who called “Bingo†and headed for the coast. It is suspected that the MiG driver assumed they were empty on missiles, as Navy F4’s carried 6 missiles, typically, but the marine F4’s usually carried eight (four AIM-7’s and four AIM-9’s). Once the lead 21 eased up on the turn to get into position on Dudley and Brady’s F4, Lasseter and Cummings had loud growling tone in the headset and fired the number 7 missile, an AIM-9 Sidewinder which hit home, directly into the exhaust of the shiny silver MiG-21. The 21 had detonated, leaving only the section of the cockpit intact. Altitude was approximately 500 feet, and it headed straight down with no ejection seen. On their way to rejoin with Dudley and Brady, they had eyes on the initial black MiG-21, who was in nearby orbit earlier, which was now making a run on Dudley and Brady from their 6 o’clock. Lasseter called to Dudley to break port!! The black MiG-21 overshot. Lasseter called for Cummings to lock up the remaining Sidewinder and once they had tone, fired the remaining missile. On it’s way and tracking accurately, the black 21 popped off several countermeasure flares and broke hard right. The missile hit, but the 21 was last seen in the air trailing a wisp of smoke. Once Lasseter and Cummings joined up with their wing, Dudley and Brady, they headed toward the rugged area over Haiphong to make their way back towards the coast. At this point they were low on fuel, due to the dogfights and with afterburner on, and had SAM territory to cross. Electronic Countermeasure alerts were frequent with the warnings of SAM and Triple A locks against their F4’s. While watching each other’s 6 o’clock for SAM launches, Brady called out SAM!! Almost immediately, Lasseter and Cummings’ F4 was badly hit in the tail by an SA-2 Surface to Air Missile and left the wings full of holes. The telepanel and all fire warnings were now going off and Dudley called out that it was burning real bad in the aft section around the engines. The F4 was uncontrollable at first, but Lasseter managed to regain control and stuck with it to head feet wet out to the ocean as far as possible. After clearing the coast and staying with it, the tail section broke off causing the F4 to pitch forward into a nose down inverted spiral with increasing negative G-forces, as both Lasseter and Cummings were being forced against the seat straps struggling to pull the face curtain ejection handles with everything they had. They successfully ejected and were later picked up out of the ocean by an armed and armored “Big Mutha†rescue helicopter. Dudley and Brady also had to be pulled from the ocean as their F4 also took several hits and weren’t able to make it to the refueling tanker. For the day’s actions, Lasseter and Cummings were credited with 1-1/2 MiG Kills. “Bear†Lasseter later assumed command of VMFA-333 and was awarded the Marine Aviator of the Year Award for 1972. This historic dogfight and resulting MiG kills were the only Marine only engagement during the Vietnam War that resulted in the downing of MiG’s. Prints and reproductions on canvas will be available soon once I get the layouts complete and send them off! Will keep you updated on that. Enjoy! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rampage55 Posted March 11, 2010 Share Posted March 11, 2010 Daaang Dude!!!... The detail in that second image of the tail section is absolutely stunning... :unsure: Funny, I was about to send you an email to see how things were going, from the looks of it you've been doing quite well. Semper Fi, Mark Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GreyGhost Posted March 11, 2010 Share Posted March 11, 2010 Darrell, Magnificent Painting ! One of the better Phantom paintings I've seen in fact ... Love those 'St. Louis Sluggers' ! Gregg Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Darrell White Posted March 11, 2010 Author Share Posted March 11, 2010 Thanks guys, much appreciated! I should also point out that Mark (Rampage55) sent me some really nice detailed images of his model of this F4, so that really helped out quite a bit to see how the sun cast shadows across the top and things like that. And Mark, I was going to send you updates as I went, but kept it under double secret probation and wanted to wait until I got it all done :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Darrell White Posted March 11, 2010 Author Share Posted March 11, 2010 Darrell, Magnificent Painting ! One of the better Phantom paintings I've seen in fact ... Love those 'St. Louis Sluggers' ! Gregg Thanks Gregg. Since I'm here in St. Louis, I thought about scheduling a meeting with Boeing here (formerly McDonnell/Douglas) about this painting while I have it for a short time longer. They have a really delicious museum there, but last I heard, was closed to the general public. Now they only do special tours of the place, as I understand it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Art Eggers Posted March 11, 2010 Share Posted March 11, 2010 A very nice piece! I like the feel of it! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
HOLMES Posted March 11, 2010 Share Posted March 11, 2010 Darrell, STUNNING painting....BEAUTIFUL..... :) Like the History that goes behind the painting... And the date of their Mission 9/11..How uncanny... HOLMES Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GreyGhost Posted March 11, 2010 Share Posted March 11, 2010 Thanks Gregg. Since I'm here in St. Louis, I thought about scheduling a meeting with Boeing here (formerly McDonnell/Douglas) about this painting while I have it for a short time longer. They have a really delicious museum there, but last I heard, was closed to the general public. Now they only do special tours of the place, as I understand it. Yes, The Prologue Room, I believe it's called ... I last visited when it was still McDonnell Douglas so it must have been before 1997 or so ... McDonnell Douglas Long Beach had a similar museum also ... Gregg Quote Link to post Share on other sites
tornado64 Posted March 12, 2010 Share Posted March 12, 2010 nice to see this superb painting finnished darrell , can't wait to see your next !! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Suzanne Klamentz Posted May 11, 2010 Share Posted May 11, 2010 Hi, I would like to share my experience about Direct Art Australia paintings. Their Abstract Oil Paintings are 100% handpainted on canvas - no prints! These come in 3 different sizes -Free Delivery and Insurance Australia wide, 30 day money back guarantee. If one is interested in oil paintings then I would truly suggest: http://directart.cart.net.au/store/afforda...-oil-paintings/ Direct Art Australia 99/125 Oxford Street Bondi Junction NSW 2022 Australia Tel: (03) 9489 4695 ABN :11764904653 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
neu Posted May 11, 2010 Share Posted May 11, 2010 Very-very nice work there! Congrats! Greetings, neu www.deploymentproductions.com Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Lasseter Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 Darrell, Thank you so much for the detailed story. As a grandson of Lee Lasseter it was truly a joy to hear a legendary story i have been hearing about sense before i can remember. As i wright this i look at the very helmet he was wearing when he was shot down by that SAM missile. Its a great feeling to know your grandfather made an impact on such a great war. He is a legend in the family and I would have done anything to have met such a man before his death. I made a membership here to tell you thank you and beautiful work with the canvas! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jinxter13 Posted April 22, 2011 Share Posted April 22, 2011 This is one magnificently stunning bit of art.... :worship: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
southwestforests Posted April 22, 2011 Share Posted April 22, 2011 Beautiful work. Even having read the history I'll never comprehend why we built fighters without guns. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.