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I do not post much here, since I do not have any large scale models in the works, but you guys do such wonderful work, I thought you might appreciate these photos, get a glimpse into the 68 and 69 Navy, from a member of VF-33s ground crew. My Dad was in the Navy from 1965 to 1969. He's been dead since 2000, so there is no asking him for info on this stuff, my mom is around but won't knot much about the Navy details so I am putting this together from memory and whats in the photos. The slides were not in great shape, and the first set of scans were rough, and then the scanner broke. So, since Amazon didn't have the same model anymore, I spent a little more money and got a much nice scanner, with a better "technology" for film scanning, and it fixes the flaws when it scans them. The results are remarkable. As far as I know these images were taken with a Minolta 35mm Camera, I guess an SLR, since he had a bunch of lenses for it. I learned photography with it, and have a few pictures of my GTO I took with his Camera. This was the type of camera you focuses, and set the light settings, and had to hand wind. Considering how much harder a camera was to work back then, I think my old man was a reasonably talented photographer. As far as I can remember he went to boot camp in San Diego, then he went to schools for Ejection Seat Maintenance and Air Condition systems on the F4J Phantom. He got assigned to VF-33, part of CVW-6, with VF-102, VA-82, VA-86, VA-85, RVAH-13, VAW-122, VAW-13 Det. 66, and VAH-10 Det. 66. CAG-6 was assigned to the USS America, who was about three years old and about to go on a world cruise, that would include the Ships only Vietnam deployment in 1968. When the ship got back, it was stationed on the east coast, and VF-33 went to CVW-7, and ended up on the Independence. My dad was with them for at least one work up cruise, since there are a set of photos from that ship. By mid 69 he was back in San Diego, working with VF-121, the west coast RAG, waiting to get out . I do not have any photos yet from San Diego, at least Navy stuff. (Thanks for the correction on the Carrier groups Ziggy) Here is a shot of the CVA-66 USS America, she displaced 61,174 tons empty, 83,500 full load. She was the second Kitty Hawk Class Carrier, she would spend the majority of her Career in the Med. (if the logo for the Sherman Tank Site seems like its in odd places, its usually covering a flaw the scanner could not fix) Here's a VF-33 Phantom. A VF-102 Phantom, an F-4J the same as VF-33. Here are some pretty cool shots from an underway replenishment. It could be anywhere on the World cruise in 68. I think this is also from an Unrep, maybe the same one. This photo is one of my favorite, you get an A-7 and Sea Night for the the price of one! A Vigilante about to get a cat shot. This was scanned on the old scanner and is just a place holder for a dupe. This shot is of the flight deck, by the cats on the angle deck looking forward. Not the kill mark on the intake of the F-4J, 212 sitting there, pretty cool. These last three shots are all from the USS Independence, in early 69, I assume off the East Coast on work ups for their upcoming Med Cruise. This is my old Man, Rick T, I'm pretty sure that's a Martin Baker Ejection seat right next to him. Several VF-33 Phantoms got shot down, and the seats always worked, so he had that going for him. This image was scanned on the original scanner, note how cruddy it looks, when I get to this slide again, I'll post the improved version. Compare the below image to the one above too. I'll posts more as I water mark them and host them. There was a crossing of the line ceremony, that my Dad took a ton of pics on, its pretty interesting. It was really nice to find these, I had thought hey got lost in a move.