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Classic Wings Magazine WWII Naval Aviation Research Pacific Luftwaffe Resource Center
When Hollywood Ruled The Skies - Volumes 1 through 4 by Bruce Oriss


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PostPosted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 7:55 am 
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Thanks for the pictures!

Played around with some very tired old F4 D Models while stationed in England from 1977-1980. These were on their way out and I was part of the "Creek Swing" to bring F-111F's to England. Not sure which plane I liked working on better. I still have scars on my back from being a Load Crew Member on the Phantoms. At least on the Aardvarks you really had to work hard to walk into something. But for looks, it's tough to beat an F4!

Chris


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PostPosted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 12:58 pm 
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Gentlemen,

In one of the two photos of F-4C 63-7490 appears the tail of a non-camouflaged C-130.

CRB had three such C-30s with no camouflage, parked far away on a taxiway near the ocean--the only 3 of 50 camouflaged C-130s on the base. Talk about being conspicuous.

I was later told they were ELINT C-130s. The external fuel tank is not a fuel tank but held electronic equipment. A book published in the late 1970s by a Swedish AF colonel details the serial numbers and the purpose of the aircraft's mission.

One day I saw one of these C-130 aircraft parked near the C-7 Caribou ramp and was tempted to take a picture. I then observed a Secruity Policeman remove a camera from an airman who had just taken a photo of the aircraft. I then knew there was something special about these three C-130s. It wasn't till late 1970s that a friend in North Dakota provided me with the above ELINT information.

The 12th TFW website guest book mentions Det. 2, of the 556 Electronic Recon. Squadron had uncamouflaged C-130s at CRB.

Yours very truly,
Norman Malayney


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PostPosted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 8:46 pm 
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why is f4c 496 taxining with its nose leg OLEO strut fully extended? never seen this before anywhere on a land phantom....


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PostPosted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 12:47 am 
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sabredriver wrote:
why is f4c 496 taxining with its nose leg OLEO strut fully extended? never seen this before anywhere on a land phantom....


A couple of the old(er) Phantom crew chiefs had a few stories about some of our unit's initial deliveries of F-4C's arriving at SPI with over-serviced nose struts like that.........but they never gave a reason for 'em to be that way. (that I recall)(we had F-4D's by the time I was in the unit)

I'm curious about the reason(s) they were that way as well.


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 Post subject: F-4s at refueling pit
PostPosted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 11:50 am 
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Gentlemen,

For those not familiar with Cam Ranh Bay, the photos of: 63-7490, 63-7524, 63-7528, 63-7609 and 63-4673 (lower photo) show the aircraft sitting at the refueling pit. When the F-4s returned from a mission, or visiting F-4s requiring fuel, they taxied to the refueling pit to fill up their tanks. The CRB squadron aircraft were then towed and parked in revetments to await further munitions application for future missions.

Beautiful pictures. It proved difficult taking photos of the aircraft parked in the revetments, especially with two or more occupying a bay. Not enough room, too cramped to fill the camera lens with the entire aircraft, therefore, more or less, front views or half views had to be taken showing the various ordnances on board.

Norman Malayney


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PostPosted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 12:08 pm 
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Thanks for supplying some context for this pictures, Norman. I never got a chance to ask Dick about them as I did not get to see them until after he passed away.

Are you able to shed any light on the kill marking on 63-7679? In my research I have not been able to find a kill credited to this aircraft. Could the kill perhaps have been scored by the crew in a previous aircraft, or by the unit generally? I notice that 679 appears to have some unusual green and white trim paint on the canopy framing, suggesting that it might have been painted up for some photo op or other special purpose.

August


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PostPosted: Sat Jan 27, 2007 3:39 pm 
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norman malayney wrote:
Gentlemen,

In one of the two photos of F-4C 63-7490 appears the tail of a non-camouflaged C-130.

CRB had three such C-30s with no camouflage, parked far away on a taxiway near the ocean--the only 3 of 50 camouflaged C-130s on the base. Talk about being conspicuous.

I was later told they were ELINT C-130s. The external fuel tank is not a fuel tank but held electronic equipment. A book published in the late 1970s by a Swedish AF colonel details the serial numbers and the purpose of the aircraft's mission.

One day I saw one of these C-130 aircraft parked near the C-7 Caribou ramp and was tempted to take a picture. I then observed a Secruity Policeman remove a camera from an airman who had just taken a photo of the aircraft. I then knew there was something special about these three C-130s. It wasn't till late 1970s that a friend in North Dakota provided me with the above ELINT information.

The 12th TFW website guest book mentions Det. 2, of the 556 Electronic Recon. Squadron had uncamouflaged C-130s at CRB.

Yours very truly,
Norman Malayney


Based on Dick's pictures, he was not able to get near these birds for a closeup either. But -- he had a long lens and sooner or later they had to fly them. So, from CRB in April 1968:

63-7806 taxiing, taken from across the base. I love all the stuff going on in this pic -- the F-4 waiting to take off, the grader in the foreground, the mountains in the background.

Image

Here is a detail of the picture above for a better look at the Herc.

Image

And here is a different one, 63-7844, on final:

Image

August


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 Post subject: New Pics!
PostPosted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 9:28 pm 
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Attached are some more of Dick Kamm's CRB F-4 pics. In this batch I am focusing on F-4s that either scored kills or were themselves later destroyed in combat. First, some Mig killers:

F-4C 64-739 shot down a MiG-17 on May 13, 1967:

Image

F-4C 64-838 shot down a MiG-21 on January 2, 1967. Today it is displayed in Huntsville, AL.

Image

I posted a shot last week of F-4C 64-699, which destroyed a MiG-17 on April 23, 1966, but in that picture the kill marking was difficult to discern. This shot has better lighting and it is clearly visible.

Image

Here is probably the most famous of all Air Force Phantoms, F-4C 64-829 in which Robin Olds destroyed two MiG-17s on May 20, 1967. This machine is now preserved in the NMUSAF at Dayton. While it was at CRB, however, it had a new paint job that bore no trace of its history, and was only later repainted for display in Col. Olds's markings.

Image

Image

Now, some lost-in-combat aircraft. F-4C 63-7708 exploded during an attack run on Oct. 2, 1969. One crew member ejected and was saved, the other KIA.

Image

Both crew were killed when F-4C 64-800 was hit by ground fire on Nov. 13, 1968.

Image

One of the two crew survived when F-4C 64-696 was hit by ground fire on Nov. 19, 1967.

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F-4C 64-774 was hit by ground fire on Dec. 13, 1967. Both crew ejected; one was recovered, the other remains MIA.

Image

On Oct. 25, 1968, a crew member of F-4C 63-7444 was killed in an accidental ejection. The aircraft remained in service but was hit on a mission on Dec. 15, 1969, with one of the two crew members surviving.

Image

August


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PostPosted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 12:31 pm 
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Another great serie of historical phantom photo's,
Take a moment to remember the crew of these aircraft who didn't make it back. :cry:


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 Post subject: F-4C aircraft shot down
PostPosted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 10:17 pm 
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Dear August,

I have some information on two of the aircraft displayed on this page, from the POW/MIA report.

F-4C serial 63-7444 On 5 December 1969, Capt. Benjamin P. Danielson and Woodrow J. Bergeron left CRB at 1000 hours for an interdiction mission in Laos. 444 was number two aircraft in a flight of two F-4Cs . The mission progressed as planned and the flight arrived in the assigned area without incident, where it came under the control of a FAC. After being cleared, the flight iniitated a dive and as 444 was pulling up from the dive, at about 1130 hours, the aircraft was hit by hostile ground fire. Shortly thereafter, two ejection seats wee observed leaving the aircraft, and the aircraft continued until it impacted the ground. Two fully deployed parachutes were visually acquired and beeper signals were received.

The aircaft had been hit by enemy ground fire and the crew ejected approximately 1200 meters southwest of the village of Ban Phanop, Khammouan Province, Laos, landing about 35 meters apart on opposite sides of a river. Both men established radio contact with each other.

Capt. Danielson contacted the other F-4C and advised he and Bergeron were both in good shape. Search efforts were immediately initiated. About 35 minutes later, search and recovery aircraft arrived and began a full-scale recovery effort. Attempts to extract the men from the hostile environment were made by six separate helicopters. Each time, the helicopter was hit by enemy ground fire and had to abandon the rescue effort. At 1848 the rescue efforts were suspended.

The first days S&R effort included 25 aircraft comprising O2AS, F-105S, HH53, A6S, A1S and F4C. In fact, this S & R effort eventually became the largest rescue effort ever launch by the USAF, some 331 sorties.

In brief, Capt. Danielson had to pop smoke for the first rescue helicopter to find him. This also revealed his positon to the Communists who waited quietly for the helicopter to attempt a recovery, then opened fire, driving the damaged helo away. In one of the ensuing helo attempts to reach the downed officer, an A1C crew member took a bullet in the forehead and immediately KIA. Capt. Bergeron reported he had seen Capt. Danielson on the west side of the river and had spoken with him on the radio.

On the morning of 6 December, enemy soldiers began searching the area where Danielson lay hiding. Small arms fire and a scream were heard and Bergeron lost radio contact with Capt. Danielson.

The USAF then launched another rescue assualt to retrieve Capt. Bergeron and successfully rescued him. Of ten helicopters dispatch during the two days, six were damaged by ground fire, and four of these were damaged beyond economical repair and scrapped.

Robert LaPointe has published a 179 page book on the Rescue of Boxer 22. It contains data on all 331 sorties, detailing aircraft with serial numbers and crew members involved, along with their recollections of the events, and that of Capt. Bergeron. It only cost US$22.00 and may be purchased by writing to:
Robert LaPointe
PSC 517 Box RCV
FPO AP 96517
USA

A book written by Tillman on S & R in SEA, revealed that USAF general officers questioned expending such a large effort to rescue one man, and jeopardizing both men and machine.

Norman Malayney


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PostPosted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 10:33 pm 
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Excellent pix ... thanks so much for sharing! :D

norman malayney wrote:
. . . USAF general officers questioned expending such a large effort to rescue one man, and jeopardizing both men and machine.


Heh heh ... from what I've read, that whole concept of Americans going all out, including losing more assets to rescue one or two men, baffled the heck out of the North Vietnamese communists, too!

They (and our own generals?) must have stayed awake night after night trying to figure out why we (the USAF) pulled a "maximum effort" during the unsuccessful rescue of Lance Sijan in November 1967. There's a LOT of USAF hardware, not to mention some American bones, all over those karsts and valley.

Wade

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 Post subject: Report on 774
PostPosted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 10:54 pm 
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Dear August,

F-4C 64-0774 On 13 December 1967, 1st Lt. Robert E. Bennett III and Capt. William T. Sakahara were crew members aboard an F-4C, Whiskey 72, in a flight of two aircraft to Tra Vinh province RSVN.

After delivering his ordnance on target, the aircraft commander was told by Whiskey 71 that he should drop his cannisters in the river and to watch out for navy ships. He acknowledged and almost immediately thereafter, both canopies blew and both pilots in Whiskey 71 ejected. Bart 92, FAC for the mission observed two good chutes land in the river, saw the aircraft commander deploy his life preserver and life raft, and stated that both chutes were quickly submerged.

Apparently, 774 was hit by ground fire and the crew forced to parachute from the aircraft. Both Bennett and Sakahara bailed out of their aircraft and landed approxmately 300 meters from each other in the Co Chien River, approximatley 800 meters from the nearest shore. Both parachutes opened fully and Capt. Sakahara was rescued eight minutes after landing in the river by a navy patrol boat. The crew aboard the patrol boat saw Lt. Bennett's parchute sink below the river surface, approximately 10 kilometers north/northwest of Phu Vinh (Tra Vinch) City.

An immediate , unsuccessful air, water and land serach for Lt. Bennett was conducted over a ten-mile area of both sides of the river from the loss location. No trace of Lt. Bennett was found.

Subsequent information indicates that Lt. Bennet may have been captured and executed by the Viet Cong.

Another section of the report states they landed in the Pang Tra River?

Norman Malayney


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 Post subject: MIA F-4C 63-7713
PostPosted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 11:38 pm 
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Dear August,

More from the MIA/POW reports.

F-4C 63-7713 Major Edward D. Silver, Aircraft Commander, and his pilot, Capt. (not known) comprised the crew of the lead aircraft in a flight of two F-4Cs which departed Cam Ranh Bay Air Base, RSVN at 0256 hours, 5 July 1968 on a night armed-reconnaissance mission over North Vietnam.

The flight arrived in the assigned area, however weather conditions precluded coverage of the entire area and an alternate target was chosen. Both aircraft turned and proceeded toward that target by different routes, seeking targets of opportunity en route.

The wingman reached the target, a ferry located about 10 miles south of Dong Hoi, and proceeded to orbit the area. Then Major Silver radioed that he had spotted some lights, flared the area and was rolling in with CBU-24s. Moments later, the wingman observed a large fireball over some hills, approximatley 13 miles southwest of the target. The fireball burned for about five seconds followed by a large mushroom of smoke. Immediate attempt to establish voice contact with the crew of the lead aircraft were unsuccessful.

The wingman then proceeded to the vicinity of the fireball and observed three small fires on the ground. Search units were alerted and the wingman circled the area until forced to depart due to fuel shortage. No parachutes were observed nor were any emergency beeper signals received which would reveal the whereabouts of the missing crew. Due to lack of contact and because of intense hostile fire within the area, organized search efforts were not initiated. Both men were listed MIA.

Norman Malayney


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 2:34 pm 
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Take a look here for the other crew member

http://www.pownetwork.org/bios/s/s029.htm

Ernest


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PostPosted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 3:44 pm 
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I am looking for photos of aircraft CO 806(?) 480 tfs 366tfw... CO was smaller inside a shamrock


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