I found my Dads old Navy Slides (CVA-66 USS America world Cruise 1968)

[MikeMaben]

Heck no , cassettes 

It's all just sitting in my garage collecting dust.

Might give it to a museum some day 

[Shawn M]

NOOOOO!!!

I love old Sansui's and have 2 my self.

They deserve to be used!!!!

[JeepsGunsTanks]

Ok, another big batch here, I think this is all the first batch of scans. I had scanned more, but then the scanner broke, and I saw how  much better the new one was, I just put all the scanned slides back in the un-scanned stacks and started over. So now I will start scanning again,  the fresh scans will be all the crossing the line stuff, and shots from some towns in I''m guessing Japan and the Philippines.  

 

An SH-2 Seasprite  of HC-2 on one of Americas Elevators in what looks like Subic to me, but I'm no expert. 

Another SH-2 from HC-2, this one down on the hanger deck. 

A nice shot of an RA-5C Vigilante with RVAH-13. These were such neat looking planes. That looks like jungle back there to me so maybe Subic? I wonder why the jet blast shields are up?

Another nice shot of 606, at sea, while on an UNREP it looks like. Nosecone is not fully in place I always wonder on things like this if it was up for normal preflight inspection or an easy fix or maybe it's waiting to go down to the flight deck for more extensive service and repair? It looks more worn in this pic too, the red on the front canopy from is almost gone.

The nose of an RVAH-13 RA-5C, with some line crossing action going on. I wonder what the guy up on the Island with no shirt on is doing!  Its very clean, but the warning stickers are worn. 

We have three A-7s, and a F-4J and a hill, with houses and a lot of jungle like trees! You can see the ship showing the ravages of the voyage in some of these shots. 

Well, this shot is looking aft, from just forward of the angle deck on the port side. No idea of the location here, having grown up on the west coast,  I imagine the east coast could look like this, I mean, that looks like parts of the San Francisco Bay area, where I'm from.  My dad and Mom both grew up in Hayward California. His Dad was a Navy Man, and was a Pearl Harbor Survivor.  Anyway, my thoughts here are it could be the east coast right as the world Cruise was starting or one of the spots along the way.  Those uniforms look pretty warm. 

This image looks like the temps might be a little hotter for the men on the flight deck.   Looks like he is standing near the angle deck looking towards the Island when it was taken.  I also wonder if that very boxy structure with the big windows and five lights or portals was an original part of the ships design or just put on later, it looks out of place. 

I like big Airplane Butts and I can not lie!  Er uh,  the tail end, of a VF-33 Phantom and VAQ-130 Sky warrior and the nose of another. 

Look aft at the arresting gear, it almost looks like there is a low spot in the deck if you follow the white like back from the two guys in red, Ordnance guys?

Looking aft, some of the same aircraft parked on the right. 

I nice shot, i'm going to guess in the US on the east coast cause there seem to be women on the barge and the Officers in Black uniforms that look a little hot for the Philippines?

another shot of my Dad working on a Martin Baker Ejection seat.  I remember him telling me a story about the scariest thing he ever had to do, while in the Navy. While with VMF-121, the west coast Replacement Squadron for the Pacific fleet.  Someone being given a right in the back seat of a Phantom, I don't remember exactly why,  but as the plane was taxing, the person the in back panicked and grabbed the ejection seat handles above his head and pulled them just enough to blow the canopy off the plane.   They called him out to put the safey pins  back in the seat to disarm it, and he had to do it with the guy witting there and the system partially fired.  It all worked out in the end since I'm around and it took place several years before I was born. 

Those look like some of the boxes in the earlier pics.  I really think these two were taken towards the end of this time in. 

 

I do have a question though. His rank seems to be Petty Officer Second Class, two chevrons and the eagle, why does he have a Petty Officer Third pin on his hat?

 

Just a random pic of a Sailor. 

This guys looks a lot older to me,  and looks annoyed.  I assume this is in a enlisted lounge of some sort. 

 

Ok and now another UNREP photo, and this one is really interesting, its another supply ship, and if you look, you can just make out a pair of SINGLE five in gun mounts on a Destroyer taking on supplies on the other side.  Is that a Fletcher Class Destroyer?

 

Not a super busy weekend so I should have lots of scan time, so more to come. 

 

 

 

 

 

[MikeMaben]

 

Wow nice , Your Dad coulda been a photographer.

 

 

18 hours ago, Shawn M said:

NOOOOO!!!

I love old Sansui's and have 2 my self.

They deserve to be used!!!!

 

I might if they could play MP3s 

 

 

[jenshb]

Great shots of the men and machines.  I agree it is interesting to see there is variation in the colour of the paint and some touchups for corrosion control, but none of that graphpaper-preshading or panel line washing.

 

Jens

[easixpedro]

Again, excellent pics! The ones with the foliage and buildings look exactly like Yokosuka...hasn't changed at all! USS Ron Reagan ties up to the same pier to this day.

I pulled the cruise data from the Navy History website:

 

USS AMERICA (CVA-66)

Deployment Dates: 10 April 1968 – 16 Dec 1968

Source: Cruise Report for America covering above dates.

In-port, Subic Bay                                                        21 May 1968 – 25 May 1968

In-port, Subic Bay                                                        29 Jun 1968 – 5 Jul 1968

In-port, Subic Bay                                                        4 Aug 1968 – 8 Aug 1968

In-port, Hong Kong                                                      10 Aug 1968 – 16 Aug 1968

In-port, Yokosuka, Japan                                             16 Sep  1968 – 23 Sep 1968

In-port, Subic Bay                                                        31 Oct 1968 – 4 Nov 1968

 

Before arriving in WestPac they did a port call in Rio. After combat ops, they pulled into Sydney,  then Wellington NZ. The port call with the Kiwis is the only one I can see with Sailors in Crackerjacks (dress blues).  I think that tracks with your pics--the planes are pretty faded after 7 months at sea. But after wrapping up the line periods,  they likely had time and water to wash the a/c. Fresh water was usually secured, as they needed it for steam for both the boilers and catapults. Hence the clean look, but not overly grimy-likely not flying a lot after all that and hitting ports. You can also look at the National Archives,  which has America's deck logs. (A quick Google search will lead you too it...I'm fascinated by them, as its usually pretty enlightening as to the antics of Sailors in port!)

 

Finally,  as to your dad wearing 2nd class but having 3rd on his hat. Maybe the pic was just after advancing/frocking? He pinned it on, but didn't have the correct insignia so a Shipmate snapped the pic as they teased him in the workcenter...that's my thought anyway.

 

Good stuff,  thanks again for sharing!

Peter 

[Oldbaldguy]

Hey.  Looks like you are on a real adventure here trying to noodle your way through photos of things and events outside your normal experience.  You'll find that this effort, although very rewarding in the end, is very much like trying to solve a very old murder mystery -- there are clues everywhere, but who knows what they mean?  My dad was in the Navy during the same time frame and I literally grew up with Vigilantes, so let me give you a hand with some of the stuff in your slides.

 

In the fourth slide of your latest batch, RA-5C #606 is undergoing heavy maintenance.  Note how the canoe and radome are open as well as the nosewheel well liner (that thing hanging down in front of the nose strut).  Also looks like one or both engines are out because the airplane is sitting high on its main gear.  Likely they had to stop working on the airplane while the UNREP was going on.  Actually, I think 606 is seriously broke, a not uncommon condition for some Viggies, because in the photo just before this one, you see 606 chained to the deck like it's going to be there for a while and you can see what looks like plywood sheet duct taped into the intakes to keep out FOD and such.  Might be waiting for long lead time parts but it's a safe bet that the only way it left the ship in that condition as hanging under a crane.

 

If you look at the flag on the stern of the boat in the photo with all the civilians on the elevator, you'll see that it is either Australian or New Zealander.  Local VIP family tours are common in certain ports of call and that's probably what this is.  Blues are spiffier than whites if you are trying to show off a little and don't forget that certain uniforms are worn at certain times of the year in the Navy even if the seasons are flipped Down Under.

 

The two shots of your dad with the seat were taken at the same time.  Your confusion about the rank on his cap versus his sleeve is an optical illusion.  In one photo the light bouncing off the shiny hat brass makes it look like third class brass, when it is actually second class rank.  It is much more clear in the second photo without the glare.  So your dad was not in jeopardy of running afoul of the master at arms guys for a uniform violation.

 

Not sure if there was such a thing as an enlisted man's lounge back in the day.  Day room, maybe?

 

And in the last photo, the big boat in the shot is not a supply ship like we see in some of your earlier posts, it is a fleet oiler passing JP-4 and probably fuel oil to the carrier.  If I remember correctly, America was supposed to be a nuclear powered vessel but was converted to petroleum fueled after the keel was laid due to budget cuts and this really screwed things up on the boat because there is only so much room in a hull for everything, including fuel bunkers, and on the America, those bunkers had to store not only fuel for the air wing, but fuel oil for the ship as well.  So UNREPs happened more often with it than some other carriers.

 

Please continue to post your slides -- I look forward to seeing each one because each one is a treasure trove of little facts and clues, however mundane.  I wish my dad had thought to take happy snaps around the boat on his many cruises.

 

Cheers

The Old Bald Guy

(and Son of a Sailor)

[JeepsGunsTanks]

2 hours ago, easixpedro said:

Again, excellent pics! The ones with the foliage and buildings look exactly like Yokosuka...hasn't changed at all! USS Ron Reagan ties up to the same pier to this day.

I pulled the cruise data from the Navy History website:

 

USS AMERICA (CVA-66)

Deployment Dates: 10 April 1968 – 16 Dec 1968

Source: Cruise Report for America covering above dates.

In-port, Subic Bay                                                        21 May 1968 – 25 May 1968

In-port, Subic Bay                                                        29 Jun 1968 – 5 Jul 1968

In-port, Subic Bay                                                        4 Aug 1968 – 8 Aug 1968

In-port, Hong Kong                                                      10 Aug 1968 – 16 Aug 1968

In-port, Yokosuka, Japan                                             16 Sep  1968 – 23 Sep 1968

In-port, Subic Bay                                                        31 Oct 1968 – 4 Nov 1968

 

Before arriving in WestPac they did a port call in Rio. After combat ops, they pulled into Sydney,  then Wellington NZ. The port call with the Kiwis is the only one I can see with Sailors in Crackerjacks (dress blues).  I think that tracks with your pics--the planes are pretty faded after 7 months at sea. But after wrapping up the line periods,  they likely had time and water to wash the a/c. Fresh water was usually secured, as they needed it for steam for both the boilers and catapults. Hence the clean look, but not overly grimy-likely not flying a lot after all that and hitting ports. You can also look at the National Archives,  which has America's deck logs. (A quick Google search will lead you too it...I'm fascinated by them, as its usually pretty enlightening as to the antics of Sailors in port!)

 

Finally,  as to your dad wearing 2nd class but having 3rd on his hat. Maybe the pic was just after advancing/frocking? He pinned it on, but didn't have the correct insignia so a Shipmate snapped the pic as they teased him in the workcenter...that's my thought anyway.

 

Good stuff,  thanks again for sharing!

Peter 

 

Peter, 

 Thank you for the fantastic info!  I'm going to be doing some googling while I scan stuff today.  You'd think will all the info I've gathered for the Sherman I would be better at finding more recent US Navy ships!

 

On the insignia stuff, that makes as much sense as anything I thought of.  I suppose its probably better to have the wrong insignia than none at all?

 

About Sailor antic, he got his nose broken by broken bottle in Japan, and was in several other bar fights that resulted in other broken noses. It ended up having a life long effect on his sinuses. 

 

Thank you for the info, this has been a great learning experience for me and has brought a lot of memories back.  

 

 

 

 

[Finn]

Very nice photos indeed, much better in details than "official" ones you usually find. If you want to compare deck scenes with the 1967 Med cruise of the America you can check here:

 

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/6d5fba5dead62f87.html

 

click under Related Images to scroll thru them. The USS Liberty incident happened during that cruise so there are several photos relating to that event. Keep on scanning.

 

Jari

[JeepsGunsTanks]

On 2/1/2020 at 11:22 AM, Oldbaldguy said:

Hey.  Looks like you are on a real adventure here trying to noodle your way through photos of things and events outside your normal experience.  You'll find that this effort, although very rewarding in the end, is very much like trying to solve a very old murder mystery -- there are clues everywhere, but who knows what they mean?  My dad was in the Navy during the same time frame and I literally grew up with Vigilantes, so let me give you a hand with some of the stuff in your slides.

 

In the fourth slide of your latest batch, RA-5C #606 is undergoing heavy maintenance.  Note how the canoe and radome are open as well as the nosewheel well liner (that thing hanging down in front of the nose strut).  Also looks like one or both engines are out because the airplane is sitting high on its main gear.  Likely they had to stop working on the airplane while the UNREP was going on.  Actually, I think 606 is seriously broke, a not uncommon condition for some Viggies, because in the photo just before this one, you see 606 chained to the deck like it's going to be there for a while and you can see what looks like plywood sheet duct taped into the intakes to keep out FOD and such.  Might be waiting for long lead time parts but it's a safe bet that the only way it left the ship in that condition as hanging under a crane.

 

If you look at the flag on the stern of the boat in the photo with all the civilians on the elevator, you'll see that it is either Australian or New Zealander.  Local VIP family tours are common in certain ports of call and that's probably what this is.  Blues are spiffier than whites if you are trying to show off a little and don't forget that certain uniforms are worn at certain times of the year in the Navy even if the seasons are flipped Down Under.

 

The two shots of your dad with the seat were taken at the same time.  Your confusion about the rank on his cap versus his sleeve is an optical illusion.  In one photo the light bouncing off the shiny hat brass makes it look like third class brass, when it is actually second class rank.  It is much more clear in the second photo without the glare.  So your dad was not in jeopardy of running afoul of the master at arms guys for a uniform violation.

 

Not sure if there was such a thing as an enlisted man's lounge back in the day.  Day room, maybe?

 

And in the last photo, the big boat in the shot is not a supply ship like we see in some of your earlier posts, it is a fleet oiler passing JP-4 and probably fuel oil to the carrier.  If I remember correctly, America was supposed to be a nuclear powered vessel but was converted to petroleum fueled after the keel was laid due to budget cuts and this really screwed things up on the boat because there is only so much room in a hull for everything, including fuel bunkers, and on the America, those bunkers had to store not only fuel for the air wing, but fuel oil for the ship as well.  So UNREPs happened more often with it than some other carriers.

 

Please continue to post your slides -- I look forward to seeing each one because each one is a treasure trove of little facts and clues, however mundane.  I wish my dad had thought to take happy snaps around the boat on his many cruises.

 

Cheers

The Old Bald Guy

(and Son of a Sailor)

 

Great post, thank you for the in-site on the Vigilante, and Navy life in general!

 

[JeepsGunsTanks]

Ok, I spent all day scanning and have a bunch of images, and still have more to scan. Downside, i'm finding few airplanes, more Shore Leave and stateside stuff. 

 

I'll start with this one. A close up of the Snoopy Dog fighting on the ready room whiteboard.  

 

Some more UNREP stuff. Does the Airwing participate in the UNREP?  KS 4 again, and more shots of CA-22. 

 

Another shot of our old Pal, DD-747 the Samuel N. Moore. 

 

Look here though, the Fletcher I spotted in an earlier shot turned up again, and a much nicer shot. DD-544 USS Boyd.  She was laid down in April of 1942, commissioned May of 43. Shed served all through WWII making many of the big battles. She took serious damage of Nauru Island from Shore batteries while she was rescuing downed pilots.  She spent a few years in mothballs before being reactivated for Korea, and then was in service until October of 69,  around a year of service left. It was not the breakers for the Boyd though, Turkey purchased her and she served into the 80s.  The Fletchers really were amazing ships. 

 

Ok, another change of pace.  America In port, Yokosuka Japan? Were looking from the angle deck forward.  If you look, you can see all the cover plates over the catapult tracks are up in the picture.  The more time I spend looking these over the more little details I find.  My wife took a nap and I went down a 7 hour rabbit-hole of Docent training videos for the USS Hornet Museum, found by watching and Navy video of the New Jersey of Korea. Hours all all the details the Docents should know about the Hornet, and a lot of their own stores about serving on the ship and ships like her.  Having never served at all the Navy has the hardest insider details to understand so I'm always looking.  The USS Hornet Museum is a wonderful place, I should know, I get married on her fantail!

 

Not much comment with this one, another time and place in history, but I chuckled... So Japan?

 

No idea where this place is. 

 

Ok and now for the line crossing stuff I hinted at,  part one! For anyone not clear on the line crossing, anytime a ship crosses the equator, they have one. During the ceremony, there are only two ranks, 'Shellbacks' those who have crossed,  and "Polly-wogs" those who have not.  This is not just a US Navy Tradition, and not always a military one.  There is a whole cast of characters made up of the Shellbacks, senior NCOs and Officers in the shellback ranks fill the bigger roles like King Neptune,  his queen and the royal baby.  You can find a cruise book dedicated to the 1936 Lexington crossing here.  Thinks like working electric chairs,  very nasty filled garbage troughs, gauntlets with clubs, and firehouses were all common fair.  Guys spending time in sickbay, even in some cases with broken bones was not unheard of up to WWII.  War does not stop these ceremonies, but overtime accidents, incidents, and serious injuries, in particular with women now in the fleet, they have really cut back on the antics.   You can watch a line crossing on the early 2000s on the Nimitz in the excellent PBS Carrier Miniseries. 

 

I do not know how they handle multiple crossings,  but I assume it's just the first time on a cruise since the vast majority of the people on the ship would be shellbacks coming back around the horn and heading home. 

I think the 'clubs' are dried up fire-hose. 

 

I believe this Wog is kissing the Royal Baby's Belly.  A very old tradition. 

There was a royal Court, Wogs are charged with crimes, an Officer with a habit people noted could be ordered to go stand a weird watch, in a weird uniform,  for however long the court decided. I read in one WWII case, a guy had to stand a lookout watch in arctic gear near the equator.  This is the type someone would have a stroke over now. 

 

That's all for tonight. Thank you guys for the feedback, and lessons on how the Navy works. It's a world all its own, and like OldBaldguys said, these are an amazing window back but also an impossible puzzle, that you guys have helped put together far further than I could have on my own and I very grateful for that. If you guys want any of these shots un-watermarked just send me a PM and I'll send you the raw TIF file. 

 

 

[ericg]

Excellent stuff.

 

Coincidentally, I am in talks with a pilot who flew A-7's for VFA-82 in 1968 and have directed his attention here, as I will be building one of his jets from this squadron.

 

Visible in these pics is `313' which is the A-7A that resides at the Hickory Aviation Museum. I have also directed their attention to this thread.

 

Cheers,

 

Eric.

[Oldbaldguy]

The last photo you posted of the Shellback ceremony ( I have my dad's certificate from when he joined the Loyal Order of Shellbacks many, many years ago on the Midway, BTW) shows a couple of RA-5Cs in the background.  Heavy Thirteen was the deployed Viggie squadron on this cruise, but there, in plain view, is a Viggie from RVAH-5 parked on deck among the airplanes from Heavy 13.  This is the kind of thing that makes modelers and historians nuts because, to the uninitiated, it can't be.  The simple truth is that Naval Aviation has always been an evolving thing in which there are no absolutes, so almost anything is possible.  When the RA-5C first hit the fleet, squadrons were equipped with six airplanes but Vigilantes were big, complex and complicated.  Maintenance requirements alone put a big dent in the number of airworthy airplanes available in a squadron at any one time.  Then the attrition rate from accidents and combat losses during Vietnam quickly decimated the number of airplanes available to equip the ten squadrons that flew them.  So cross-decking from one squadron to another became more and more common as the fleet got smaller.  Even when I was a teenager doing stupid teenager things, nothing got my dad's nose out of joint more than being forced to trade a real POS Viggie from another squadron for one he'd sweated blood over working off page after page of squawks only to have it come back later (if it ever did) a POS.  That's likely what happened in this photo.  Heavy 13 needed a minimum of X airplanes to meet mission requirements and had to borrow an airplane from another squadron to get the job done, in this case it came from Heavy Five.  Remember the boarded and shuttered #606 in your earlier photos?  That one likely was the culprit; it was just too broke to fix on a cruise so they brought in a replacement.   Or maybe they lost one of their planes at sea -- stuff happens in carrier aviation.   Of course, there may be a completely different and more plausible solution to this mystery, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

Cheers

The Old Bald Guy

[easixpedro]

The pic looking forward from the angle is indeed Yokusaka.  And the bar is from the bar district just outside the front gates, known as "The Honch." It's still alive and kicking! In fact, if you watch "Bridges at Toko Ri" you'll see Forney and his crewman walk out the front gate--that building is still there and is CNFJ (Commander Naval Forces Japan), and  it was the former IJN HQ, which was occupied post war. The bars have obviously changed, but the atmosphere is still the same...  Fortunate to never be shore patrol there, but have seen plenty of men and women poured into the shore patrol van to be hauled back to their prospective ships.

 

As for the Crossing the Line Ceremony, I knew it had tamed down when I crossed in the 90s. It still sucked, but not THAT bad. They wouldn't even get away with that level of stuff now...but I digress (and don't want to be Abe Simpson "Old Man Yells at Cloud").

 

For folks that do FB, I highly suggest looking up the Hampton Roads Naval Museum. They're running a page called the U.S.Navy in the Vietnam War, in conjunction with their new exhibit about Vietnam. Absolutely fascinating pics that are being shared--most aren't the typical PAO photos, but shots like this taken by Sailors during the war.  

 

Thanks again for sharing!

-Peter

[ringleheim]

Thank you for taking the time to scan and share these photographs! 

 

I just went through all of them slowly and carefully and really enjoyed it.