A-4 Driver in a precarious position in 1967...

[Don]

Hey all,

 

I was just looking for research photos for one of my builds and stumbled across this one:

 

The caption read "During the 1967 Mediterranean cruise of USS America (CVA-66), what normally would have passed as just another day of flight operations turned into a literal "cliff hanger" for LT(JG) Karl Leuffen and his A-4C Skyhawk, of VA-36 "Roadrunners."

 

Good granny that must have made for some tense moments for that Scooter driver!

 

And then I came across these humorous pictures. The first is what happened to a Banshee pilot (...or rather his aircraft) when he landed on the wrong carrier (LOL... imagine the teasing he got when he returned to his proper carrier!):

And a Corsair that suffered the same fate:

Interesting modeling subjects!

Regards,

Don

 

[afoxbat]

""Must be Air Force"" That's good! The ultimate insult for a Naval Aviator! Thanks for posting!

 

afoxbat

NAVAIR ret.

[Rex]

Graffiti like that and other 'zaps' were a normal part of the Navair fun.

 

Anytime a pilot landed on the wrong carrier, for non-emergency reasons, they got treated like idiots. Zaps happened also, all you had to do was sit on an airfield that wasn't "home" overnight,,,,and it got zapped by some squadron that "lived there."

 

True story, when my Uncle was with Black Knights in Vietnam, he and a small group painted Boondockers on one of the Eagles birds on the tail. His very next deployment was with,,,,,,,,yeah,,,,,,the Eagles.

 

We even did that during TDYs from MART-D to MART-D,,,,,,MCAS Yuma did NOT take it as well,,,,,,but, EL Toro just waited it out and got us back when they could. (shrug, I thought "Pink Barrons" looked good on Yuma's Scooter, but, I guess they didn't)

Edited September 13, 2017 by Rex

[GW8345]

"Zap'ing" also happened between rival squadrons or when ever one squadron "pissed" off another squadron.

 

Prime example, when VF-103 Slugger's "zap'ed" VF-143's Tomcat's back in Sept 91. Basically, we (VF-103) make their Pukin Dog tail marking "anatomically correct" the night before the Dog's flew out to the boat for a cruise.

 

Also, VA-37 had their tail markings "anatomically correctly" back in the day when they were flying A-7E's in the early 80's. Don't know who did it but heard the story when I was stationed in Cecil Field.

[afoxbat]

Ah yes, those were the days. Zap'ed the Flyboys at Nellis  back in '77 by leaving some informative remarks ( in large letters) regarding DACM (F-4N vs F-15)......on their water tower. We "won" the majority of the sorties with broken old Phantoms and the PAO got a great pic of four of our birds flying over the tower on the way back to Miramar. Air Force guys have no sense of humor..... Good times, though!

 

afoxbat

[Janissary]

12 hours ago, GW8345 said:

"Zap'ing" also happened between rival squadrons or when ever one squadron "pissed" off another squadron.

 

Prime example, when VF-103 Slugger's "zap'ed" VF-143's Tomcat's back in Sept 91. Basically, we (VF-103) make their Pukin Dog tail marking "anatomically correct" the night before the Dog's flew out to the boat for a cruise.

 

Also, VA-37 had their tail markings "anatomically correctly" back in the day when they were flying A-7E's in the early 80's. Don't know who did it but heard the story when I was stationed in Cecil Field.

 

Very curious, were you with VF-103 in 90-91 time frame? I am researching that period, specifically the Tomcats on Saratoga. I am trying to find out what year and month it was that Saratoga did a port stop in Antalya Turkey, and the Tomcats, Intruders and Hornets visited Eskisehir. 

[GW8345]

2 hours ago, Janissary said:

 

Very curious, were you with VF-103 in 90-91 time frame? I am researching that period, specifically the Tomcats on Saratoga. I am trying to find out what year and month it was that Saratoga did a port stop in Antalya Turkey, and the Tomcats, Intruders and Hornets visited Eskisehir. 

Yes, I was with VF-103 during the Desert Shield/Desert Storm cruise. I'll have to check my cruise book to see when we were in Antalya, I think it was September but can't remember the exact dates.

 

I'll check later tonight once I'm home.

[Janissary]

Wow! That would be awesome. I have to admit I am very pleased to have connected with you. I can't tell you how big an impression that Saratoga's visit had on me. I was 13-14 at the time, early years of my interest in aviation and modeling. Of course I was fascinated with all the US naval aviation and our primary resource was a magazine called Ucan Turk. I begged my dad for a pair of binoculars, which he bought. He and I went spotting around the air force base in Eskisehir. My heart almost stopped when I saw the Tomcats and the Intruders for the first time in real life. I remember the Slugger arrows on the Tomcats and the AA tailcode on the Intruders. But I have to admit, they were such a fantasy-laden years of my life that I cannot remember how much of it is real versus how much of it I have been making up in my mind. So strange. Part of my inquiry is to see if you can confirm that the Sluggers were in Eskisehir. If not, I need to see a doctor.

 

They also flew over my middle school several times in the few days or weeks they were there. I distinctly remember taking off my prescription glasses when they flew by to have absolutely nothing between my eyes and the Tomcats except for clear air. It's weird but it is the truth. 

 

Sorry for straying from the main topic. Just got over excited here.

[GW8345]

2 hours ago, Janissary said:

Wow! That would be awesome. I have to admit I am very pleased to have connected with you. I can't tell you how big an impression that Saratoga's visit had on me. I was 13-14 at the time, early years of my interest in aviation and modeling. Of course I was fascinated with all the US naval aviation and our primary resource was a magazine called Ucan Turk. I begged my dad for a pair of binoculars, which he bought. He and I went spotting around the air force base in Eskisehir. My heart almost stopped when I saw the Tomcats and the Intruders for the first time in real life. I remember the Slugger arrows on the Tomcats and the AA tailcode on the Intruders. But I have to admit, they were such a fantasy-laden years of my life that I cannot remember how much of it is real versus how much of it I have been making up in my mind. So strange. Part of my inquiry is to see if you can confirm that the Sluggers were in Eskisehir. If not, I need to see a doctor.

 

They also flew over my middle school several times in the few days or weeks they were there. I distinctly remember taking off my prescription glasses when they flew by to have absolutely nothing between my eyes and the Tomcats except for clear air. It's weird but it is the truth. 

 

Sorry for straying from the main topic. Just got over excited here.

Our port visits were this during the cruise;

 

Izmir Turkey 24-28 Sept 90

Istanbul Turkey 14-19 Oct 90

Antalya Turkey 12-17 Dec 90

Haifa Israel 21-27 Dec 90

Antalya Turkey 31Dec to 4 Jan 91

Jiddah Saudi Arabia 14-15 Feb 91 (16 hours to off load damaged aircraft)

 

I remember that we sent a few jets to the beach when we pulled into one of the liberty ports in Turkey but can't remember which port or when, but those were Slugger Tomcats you saw, VF-74 sent a few jets too, in fact, everyone from the Airwing sent at least one bird for an exercise we did with the Turkish Air Force.

[Andrew D. the Jolly Rogers guy]

By far my favorite Naval graffiti story isn't aircraft, it's a ship, the USS Brinkley Bass, named after a pilot commander who was KIA near the end of the war. Apparently it started when someone sneaked up to the fantail while they were in port with a pot of standard postwar ship gray, and painted over both "B's"....and the next day the ship proudly set sail as the USS Rinkley A**. 

Didn't stop there...word spread and soon sabotage attempts were common whenever and wherever they were in port; apparently the problem became so widespread that whenever they were docked the captain had to post a Marine guard at the fantail.