I found my Dads old Navy Slides

[Jeeps_Guns_Tanks]

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 CAG-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 CAG-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. 

 

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!

 

Old shot with bad scanner as a place holder for a duplicate. 

 

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 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. 

 

 

 

[Jeeps_Guns_Tanks]

Few more shots. 

I have some new shots to put up. 

It's a little funny to think a pair of Officers, who are now in their 70s look young. 

More young men who are now in their 70s!

I found this great site that has all kinds of info on US Navy ships and has the Cruise book for the America World Cruise, a long with others for ships dating back to pre-WWII in some cases. 

https://www.navysite.de/cruisebooks/cv66-68/000.htm

Sadly, my dad must have somehow missed making it into the VF-33 personnel roster in the book. It's ok Lt Wiest above didn't make the cruise book either.  I've spent hours reading through various cruise books, in particular the WWII carrier and battleship ones. 

 

I find this image really fascinating, I've always wondered how they kept track of the birds, and now I know. I bet its all in a computer now. 

Back to aircraft. A nice VA-85 Intruder.  I'm curious what the weird looking spike looking things on the Island are. Some kind of sensor or ECM device maybe?

I think this one is from the world cruise, but you can't see any markings that tell us what ship for sure.  It's also weird, some slides are dated, others not. Maybe they were in batches at one point but nearly 50 years bouncing around in boxes has mixed them all up. 

This one is from the world cruise. 

A pair of shots of a VA-64 A-4 about to be started, I think that's what the red hose is for.  One thing I noticed, the planes are much cleaner in all the slides than I thought they would be. 

These are from east coast workups in 69. 

And old Vigilante about to get a cat shot. I read somewhere these planes were all G limited and really old by this point. Wish I could remember the book. 

A nice shot of a Phantom cat shot. 

These images all seem like they got taken on the same day, maybe within minutes of each other.  Maybe from up on the Island?

Skywarrior going for a flight. 

The Samuel N. Moore, DD-747 a Sumner class destroyer commissioned June of 44, and only had about a year of service with the US Navy left. I'm pretty sure this is from an UNREP on the world cruise, because DD-747 was struck on 24 October of 69 and given to the Taiwan Navy on 10 December 69. She served with them until 1995.  

[Beer]

11 hours ago, Jeeps_Guns_Tanks said:

And old Vigilante about to get a cat shot. I read somewhere these planes were all G limited and really old by this point. Wish I could remember the book. 

 

Sorry for the question but wasn't the Vigilante actually a pretty modern aircraft by 1969? I always thought it was a very hi-tech plane for its time with FBW controls and a lot of fancy electronic stuff onboard. 

[Jeeps_Guns_Tanks]

11 hours ago, Beer said:

 

Sorry for the question but wasn't the Vigilante actually a pretty modern aircraft by 1969? I always thought it was a very hi-tech plane for its time with FBW controls and a lot of fancy electronic stuff onboard. 

 

Yeah, I may be wrong, I'll have to dig around and see if I can find the book. With such a small production run, I can see them wearing out fast. 

[Jeeps_Guns_Tanks]

Th

Another shot of 632 about to get a cat shot. 

I wonder what the airplane profiles under the cockpit mean? Did it crash into an F4, A4 and A7 or something?

[Scolopax]

18 hours ago, Jeeps_Guns_Tanks said:

 

I wonder what the airplane profiles under the cockpit mean? Did it crash into an F4, A4 and A7 or something?

I'm curious as well. I don't have too much expertise here, but maybe it's to signify aircraft that it has flown missions with?

[Jeeps_Guns_Tanks]

11 minutes ago, Scolopax said:

I'm curious as well. I don't have too much expertise here, but maybe it's to signify aircraft that it has flown missions with?

 

I posted the same images over to Large Scale Planes, and a nice fella over there said they probably meant planes saved from crashing due to lack of fuel, since they were mostly being used for tanker duty at that point. 

 

 

On 1/27/2020 at 10:26 AM, Beer said:

 

Sorry for the question but wasn't the Vigilante actually a pretty modern aircraft by 1969? I always thought it was a very hi-tech plane for its time with FBW controls and a lot of fancy electronic stuff onboard. 

 

 

Well, on the G limit, from reading through the flight manual on Avi Logs, the airframe was limited to 4.5Gs max, and less than that if it was heavy.  Maybe it was just very fragile bird. 

[Jeeps_Guns_Tanks]

Here are some more pictures. 

I'm assuming this is a Martin Baker Ejection seat out of a Phantom, and that its at NAS Miramar or NAS Oceana because the walls look like they are cinder-block, so probably not a space on a ship? 

A nice A-6 Intruder,  kinda looks like it could be Subic Bay in the background. 

A blurry Phantom landing on the Independence. 

Nose on Phantom, taken while on an UNREP. 

Phantom Cat shot, with an A-7 and R-5 getting ready. 

A-7 about to get shot off one of the bow cats, off the Independence. 

Same UNREP the Phantom shot was taken on, looks like the same Cruiser in the background.

[Lord_James]

14 hours ago, Jeeps_Guns_Tanks said:

 

 

 

Same UNREP the Phantom shot was taken on, looks like the same Cruiser in the background.

strange to see an auxiliary ship, armed, during a time enemy aircraft or surface raiders (especially open ocean) were at a minimum. 
 

Also, those guns look like the older Mk. 22 / Mk.26, and not the automatic Mk.34. Kinda surprised they used anything on the auxiliaries, let alone hand loaded weapons. 

[Jeeps_Guns_Tanks]

Ok, Another batch. 

 

Another shot of DD-747

and another. 

That's CG-22 the USS English, and can't seem to find any info on K S 4. 

Pretty sure the CG-22.

Wonder what type of gun mount that is?

Full shot of  K S 4

You can just make out 66 on the Island. 

Interesting shot, near the port side elevator looking towards the bow?

Bow Cat being worked on. 

VF-33 NCO? There are several people in the Cruise book who could be this guy.  My dad brought home some nice stereo equipment from Japan... 

Looks like a squadron ready room.  

My mom flew to the east coast and met the ship when it returned from the 68 Cruise, she may be in this pic. 

 

Well, more to come. 

 

[Lord_James]

9 hours ago, Jeeps_Guns_Tanks said:

 

 

 

Wonder what type of gun mount that is?

 

Mk.33 twin Mount for the 3” L/50 RF Mk.22.
 

http://navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS_3-50_mk27-33-34.php

 

This gun appears to be on the oiler from the first set of pictures, based on the shape of the derrick and boom, though this particular picture may be further aft? 

 

On 1/26/2020 at 1:00 AM, Jeeps_Guns_Tanks said:

Here are some pretty cool shots from an underway replenishment. It could be anywhere on the World cruise in 68. 

 

 

 

 

 

the stack isn’t in any of these pictures, but I assume that this is the same ship, just a different angle. 

[Jeeps_Guns_Tanks]

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. 

[Jeeps_Guns_Tanks]

15 hours ago, Lord_James said:

Mk.33 twin Mount for the 3” L/50 RF Mk.22.
 

http://navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS_3-50_mk27-33-34.php

 

This gun appears to be on the oiler from the first set of pictures, based on the shape of the derrick and boom, though this particular picture may be further aft? 

 

the stack isn’t in any of these pictures, but I assume that this is the same ship, just a different angle. 

 

Cool, thanks, I figured it was the 40mm boffors that just missed the WWII. 

 

It may be a different oiler too, I just posted a pic of another one.  

[Lord_James]

9 hours ago, Jeeps_Guns_Tanks said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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?

yep, a low “square” bridge fletcher class. The majority of Fletchers completed were to that design, so narrowing it down is gonna take some effort. 

[Jeeps_Guns_Tanks]

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. 

 

This was the most interesting of the Hornet Videos. 

 

 

[Jeeps_Guns_Tanks]

a few more shots.   Been a  rough week, not much time to deal with them. Will post more later in the week. 

 

 

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

[Jeeps_Guns_Tanks]

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. 

 

[Meplat]

On 1/26/2020 at 12:00 AM, Jeeps_Guns_Tanks said:

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 CAG-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 CAG-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. 

 

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!

 

Old shot with bad scanner as a place holder for a duplicate. 

 

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 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. 

 

 

 

Holy Shit. These are fucking amazing.

Grabbed some as wallpaper.

 

Hopefully I'll be able to post some from relatives of this quality soon.  Got more than a few who served many tours in Vietnam.

[Jeeps_Guns_Tanks]

1 hour ago, Meplat said:

Holy Shit. These are fucking amazing.

Grabbed some as wallpaper.

 

Hopefully I'll be able to post some from relatives of this quality soon.  Got more than a few who served many tours in Vietnam.

 

Let me know what ones you liked and I'll email you over an un-watermarked version!  I have more, but most of the plane stuff is already up. Lots of shore leave stuff and shore leave photos. 

[Jeeps_Guns_Tanks]

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!

[Jeeps_Guns_Tanks]

[Jeeps_Guns_Tanks]

While packing today, for tomorows  move I came across a folder, and found a bunch of papers from when my Dad was in the Navy.   It also had this photo from VF-121. 121 was the pacific fleet RAG, or the squadron that taught Phantom Pilots how to fly the fleet way, pilots would spend 3 to 6 months in the RAG before getting sent to a VF in a Carriers Air Wing. 

 

The Computer and Scanner are still hooked up so I scanned it. 

 

My dad is the on in glasses right below the left lower star point, in the second row from the front. 

[sodiac]

This is Rio de Janeiro, and the image is from the Sugar Loaf teleferic.

 

 

[sodiac]

And ths is the Atlantic Ave. in Copacabana beach. But the picture is too old because it has long been duplicated.

 

 

Today's image of the same avenue.

 

 

Regards.