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

[JeepsGunsTanks]

4 hours ago, easixpedro said:

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

 

Great Into Peter!  I'm going to have to figure out how to do facebook... 

 

12 hours ago, Oldbaldguy said:

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

 

Really awesome info OBG!  I did not catch the squadron being different,  but the tail markings are clearly from another squadron.  If you read enough about this stuff, you do run into odd ball stories like that. The one that comes to mind for me is in the Solomons, in mid to late 43, with Marine Corsair squadrons, they sometimes pooled aircraft, and when the squadrons got rotated, the left their birds on the field as replacements. Rarely did anyone bother to repaint them. Sharing planes between squadrons wasn't unheard of either. 

 

A few more shots, then I'm off to bed. 

 

 

I guess he just zoomed in a bit here? That does look like the older guy he worked with. 

[Out2gtcha]

Hahaha, that's hilarious! The stuff they allowed. No way you could get away with that stuff today

[MikeMaben]

Thanks for the extra input Oldbaldguy 

 

 

[Oldbaldguy]

One last thing:  Ref the photo of the Whale with all the mission zaps about halfway thru this thread.  When the fixed wing nuclear mission began to drift  away from the Navy in the early 60s, Douglas came up with a tanker package that could be installed at the squadron level.  This allowed Heavy Attack squadrons to provide tanker support around the boat.  Airplanes with this mod still had a functioning bomb bay and still could deliver gravity weapons if needed, but they also were able to pass gas.  Not all A-3s in a squadron had this mod and they were still A-3Bs whether they had the tanker package or not.  Later Whales specifically modded to be tankers became KA-3Bs.  There was some discussion about the unique squadron markings on the Heavy 10 Whale in the photo.  It looks like a blood chit to me.  I think the airplane saw combat - either an actual combat mission over Vietnam where maybe it dropped a bomb or two or was part of a combat deployment - and so they bloodied their sword.  And that is why the squadron insignia is painted the way it is.  It's like heraldry; everything means something.  

 

Okay.  I'm done for now.

 

OBG

 

[JeepsGunsTanks]

9 hours ago, Oldbaldguy said:

One last thing:  Ref the photo of the Whale with all the mission zaps about halfway thru this thread.  When the fixed wing nuclear mission began to drift  away from the Navy in the early 60s, Douglas came up with a tanker package that could be installed at the squadron level.  This allowed Heavy Attack squadrons to provide tanker support around the boat.  Airplanes with this mod still had a functioning bomb bay and still could deliver gravity weapons if needed, but they also were able to pass gas.  Not all A-3s in a squadron had this mod and they were still A-3Bs whether they had the tanker package or not.  Later Whales specifically modded to be tankers became KA-3Bs.  There was some discussion about the unique squadron markings on the Heavy 10 Whale in the photo.  It looks like a blood chit to me.  I think the airplane saw combat - either an actual combat mission over Vietnam where maybe it dropped a bomb or two or was part of a combat deployment - and so they bloodied their sword.  And that is why the squadron insignia is painted the way it is.  It's like heraldry; everything means something.  

 

Okay.  I'm done for now.

 

OBG

 

 

OBG, 

 You answered a question with this before I had a chance to ask! 

 

 

I still have stuff to post, but the past couple of days have been. . . Less than fun, so I havn't had as much time to mess with them. I'll do a big batch Thursday or Friday. 

 

Thanks again guys!

[easixpedro]

Don’t know why I didn’t think of it, but reached out to a friend in the Skywarrior Association, concerning the Heavy 10 Whale and it’s markings. I Immediately got the following response: 

 

“My squadron , my detachment.  The three birds at the top are planes this bird saved by tanking them. The figures below are tanking missions. The blood sword is because we are Vikings!”

 

Peter

[JeepsGunsTanks]

1 hour ago, easixpedro said:

Don’t know why I didn’t think of it, but reached out to a friend in the Skywarrior Association, concerning the Heavy 10 Whale and it’s markings. I Immediately got the following response: 

 

“My squadron , my detachment.  The three birds at the top are planes this bird saved by tanking them. The figures below are tanking missions. The blood sword is because we are Vikings!”

 

Peter

 

 

Awesome! 

[Oldbaldguy]

AHA!  We have an answer from the horse's mouth about the bloody sword on the Heavy 10 Whale!  It should be noted, however, that not all Heavy 10 Whales carried bloodied swords -- all the other photos I've seen of VAH-10 airplanes show clean swords on their fuselages.  I did, however, find another, separate reference confirming bloodied swords on Heavy 10 airplanes.  So, we've solved this one; what's next?

 

OBG

[easixpedro]

43 minutes ago, Oldbaldguy said:

AHA!  We have an answer from the horse's mouth about the bloody sword on the Heavy 10 Whale!  It should be noted, however, that not all Heavy 10 Whales carried bloodied swords -- all the other photos I've seen of VAH-10 airplanes show clean swords on their fuselages.  I did, however, find another, separate reference confirming bloodied swords on Heavy 10 airplanes.  So, we've solved this one; what's next?

 

OBG

Had a follow on quote that said it only applied to this Det, and by October of 1968 all the VAH squadrons were combined into VAH-10, as VAQ squadrons were standing up in Alameda vice Whidbey Island where the Heavy squadrons were based. Pretty cool snapshot in time!

[easixpedro]

Not to continue piling on, but I keep getting anecdotes form these guys.  James Kennedy was a young pilot on this Det and I’ve known him for years, not knowing this till he piled on with a whole host of details.

 

This particular Whale is now on display on the Lex, painted a strange blue.  Shortly after this pic was taken, America returned to Yankee Station for the last month of Rolling Thunder (before Johnson cancelled it on the eve of the 68 election). During their first week on the line, this bird diverted to Da Nang as they were overweight and couldn’t dump fuel. While parked at Da Nang it was hit in a rocket attack. It was patched up and eventually sent to the NIPPI depot in Atsugi. All the BDR patches were painted as purple and yellow flowers! And it had a purple Phoenix on both sides of the nose i.e. from the flight of the Phoenix! Would love to see photos of that!

 

Peter

[JeepsGunsTanks]

On 2/7/2020 at 6:53 AM, easixpedro said:

Not to continue piling on, but I keep getting anecdotes form these guys.  James Kennedy was a young pilot on this Det and I’ve known him for years, not knowing this till he piled on with a whole host of details.

 

This particular Whale is now on display on the Lex, painted a strange blue.  Shortly after this pic was taken, America returned to Yankee Station for the last month of Rolling Thunder (before Johnson cancelled it on the eve of the 68 election). During their first week on the line, this bird diverted to Da Nang as they were overweight and couldn’t dump fuel. While parked at Da Nang it was hit in a rocket attack. It was patched up and eventually sent to the NIPPI depot in Atsugi. All the BDR patches were painted as purple and yellow flowers! And it had a purple Phoenix on both sides of the nose i.e. from the flight of the Phoenix! Would love to see photos of that!

 

Peter

 

That's an awesome story! 

 

I'll have another batch tonight. 

[JeepsGunsTanks]

Ok, some more picture, these a mix, I think of the line crossing, the Rio de Janeiro port call, and some ship pics including one from an UNREP. 

 

 

Some type of boat being lowered out of the Carrier, I assume. 

Hanger deck shot. 

An A-4 getting a Cat shot of the Independence.

 

This one is interesting, I thought it was the line crossing at first, but no one is dressed up like a pirate. 

This is clearly the line crossing, and it looks like an Officer walking around, keeping things somewhat under control?

 

more line crossing

 

 

More, this image makes it look like the ship has a bit of roll going on. 

 

 

So, do the ships crew bring things aboard for the line crossing if they know one is coming? Or is all the stuff for these ceremonies already aboard and just made with creative efforts?

 

More to come!

 

Edited February 9, 2020 by JeepsGunsTanks

[Oldbaldguy]

More cool stuff to look at!  Second photo of the latest batch:  Young sailors with cameras following half-dressed young women at a foreign port -- who ever would have thought it?  I mean, honestly.  Third photo of "some kind of boat":  That's the Captain's gig.  The Old Man is going ashore.  On carriers, the gig usually lived in the hangar deck when he wasn't using it for something.  Hangar deck photo:  I counted eight A-6s and a Hawkeye.  Note the bundle of drop tanks hanging from the overhead.  With deck space at such a premium, that is the most logical place to store them.  The UNREP is taking place in the Pacific.  The supply ship is USS Pollux AKS-4.   Pollux was commissioned at the very beginning of WWII and was mothballed after the war, only to be recalled, overhauled and upgraded at some point later and then homeported at Yokosuka, Japan, where she lived out her days never to return to the US.  Note the campaign ribbons from three wars painted on the side of the bridge and the three awards of the Navy E for Excellence.  There is also a sign on the bridge that says "Close Out Sale.  Last Chance".  Pollux was decommissioned at Yokosuka in 1968; this was likely her last cruise, hence the closeout sale sign, which is a bit poignant if you think about it.  You can Google all this, BTW.  In this shot, the carrier is on her port side and that guided missile cruiser we saw earlier is on her starboard side.  And then there are all those Pollywogs.....

 

Cheers

OBG

[JeepsGunsTanks]

 A few more. 

[JeepsGunsTanks]

I have another big batch to post.

 

Some more crossing the line stuff. 

 

This one seems to be some other event, not the line crossing. 

 

I think this one is from Yokohama.

 

This one looks like it too

 

A huge crane. 

 

More Yokohama?

 

Since it looks like one of those Sailors is carrying a Pioneer box, I'm guessing Yokohama again. 

 

Also Yokohama?

 

Our old Friend DD-747

 

I have more to come!