The Great, Constantly Changing Picture Gallery, Troisième partie: la vengeance!

[HeyJoe]

Gypsy Tomcat raging low and fast over expansive Saudi beachfront on the Red Sea during Desert Shield...not a beach goer in sight....

 

[HAL Pilot]

View attachment 26371
With need to maintain combat package on CAP station during Desert Shield/Storm instead of hanging on the blades watching our fuel ladder (thanks to everotesent USAF tanker overhead the Red Sea) with ship in Flex Deck ops, we never knew when we’d be relieved so often times we had a lot of gas to get rid of when the signal to RTB was received.

Did you ever torch it ala Aussie F-111?

 

[HeyJoe]

Did you ever torch it ala Aussie F-111?

Unlike the Aussies (seen here), our NATOPS specifically prohibited use of burner with Dump selected so it did did not become a part of our stunts like it did down under.

However, there we were with a full bag of gas and on the flight schedule for FCLPs out of Oceana and faced with not enough time to burn it off even in burner. The jet wasn’t ready for our scheduled launch time so we were running out of time. We finally launched out of Oceana flying the Apollo Longshot Departure so we can get high enough to dump off excess gas and still get 10 passes before our period ends. We were also racing a setting sun...

As the fuel diminished on the departure that took us along the coastline, dump was secured and I cancelled the departure and asked for vector to Fentress. And we pointed the nose back towards land, Chris “Geyser” Andersen tapped burner to expedite our arrival. We immediately saw a huge orange explosion behind us. “Geyser” came out of burner and I asked if dump was secured. He said yes so double checking for fire warning lights as the orange flames dissipated, we surmised that the there must have been residual gas still streaming from the dump mast after he turned it off.

 

[HeyJoe]

VF-32 TARPS jet detaching from Raisin Tanker Track over the “Great Nothing” that permeates throughout central Saudi Arabia.

 

[HeyJoe]

HS-11 helos painted in Libyan markings just before it departed USS America for staging aboard small boy that was going to run up near coast during the El Doradoe Canyon strikes on Libya in April of 1986. It would be utilized as a CSAR asset with SEALs if any Navy, Mariners or USAF aircrews went down and needed recovery day or night. If it had to go feet dry, the markings were to make Libyans think it was one of theirs.

 

[HeyJoe]

View attachment 26380
HS-11 helos painted in Libyan markings just before it departed USS America for staging aboard small boy that was going to run up near coast during the El Doradoe Canyon strikes on Libya in April of 1986. It would be utilized as a asset with SEALs if any Navy, Mariners or USAF aircrews went down and needed recovery day or night. If it had to go feet dry, the markings were to make Libyans think it was one of theirs.

SH-3H aboard USS Peterson

 

[HeyJoe]

VF-32 Tomcat in late afternoon over the (not so) Red Sea.

 

[HeyJoe]

View from the office window could be pretty spectacular at times.

 

[HeyJoe]

Late afternoon return to JFK

 

[HeyJoe]

DBack 112 going upstairs

 

[HeyJoe]

Gone but not easily forgotten

 

[HeyJoe]

Brand X to me as a Gypsy and next door neighbor on the Oceana Flightline. I did find their markings to be a class act.

 

[HeyJoe]

Late afternoon so n makes for sumptuous backdrop.

 

[zipmartin]

CAG-20 Fallon Det, late '80's. Reserve adversary assets from VC-12, VC-13, & NAS Dallas OMD were all on site for this evolution.

 

[ea6bflyr]

CAG-20 Fallon Det, late '80's. Reserve adversary assets from VC-12, VC-13, & NAS Dallas OMD were all on site for this evolution.

Great photo, but I'm sad because there's an empty back seat....what a shame.