Davis Monthan visitor's pass cruises, 1966-68

[C_roundy]

Had to share this link in case it hasn't been posted here before. 2 big pages of native wildlife hibernating at D.M. AFB mostly from 66'-68', some thru 74'.
I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who'll find these photos very, very poignant. Could even harvest some useful tail number spotting for some....

http://www.dhc-2.com/Monthan_Memories.html

Also, because the whole set of photo collections in this Scottish / U.K. archive is outstanding, here's a direct link to the main archive contents page: http://www.dhc-2.com/Aird_Aviation_Archives.html

Salute Mr. Neil Aird and com-padres, 50 years of damn fine plane spotting and archiving!

Thank you Sirs!
Chuck Roundy

[rampking]

Re: Davis Monthan visitor's pass cruises, 1966-68

GREAT link and historical photos !
Thanks !

[RAD2LTR]

Re: Davis Monthan visitor's pass cruises, 1966-68

Wow, cool find. I'd love to go visit DM some day. Its kinda sad that most of those were broken up and recycled.

Will

[V1670]

Re: Davis Monthan visitor's pass cruises, 1966-68

Thanks 'roundy that's a cool link. I drove by there in '91 and saw row upon row of F4's just waiting their fate. So sad.....

[deepsky]

Re: Davis Monthan visitor's pass cruises, 1966-68

Thanks for posting that site. Davis Monthan has always been on the top of my "some day" vacation sites.

[Lockheed Bob]

Re: Davis Monthan visitor's pass cruises, 1966-68

Thanks for showing. DM is where I got discharged from the AF in Nov.1955. I was a AC&W radar repairman. They were getting ready for the Radar site on top of Mt. Lemon.

[C_roundy]

Re: Davis Monthan visitor's pass cruises, 1966-68

Aw shucks guys, you all are supremely welcome!
When I was a kid, (flying in my dads 1962 Mooney), we only actually stopped there twice; once right before he went to Vietnam, and once right after he got back.
But later, through the early and mid 70's, while flying back home to Nut Tree / Travis AFB from Houston TX (etc.) after visiting family (etc.), he would detour to DM AFB, get clearance, line up the left wing onto one, specific airplane in the grand old bone yard that he had personally flown, and have me hold a precision orbit for a good long while from the right seat while he gandered at it, with and without binoculars. We did this on many trips, sometimes for two or three airplanes in one set of orbits.
I was only 9 thru 12 years old, but I damn well held precision orbits for him, because I understood the reverence of the mission we were flying. (Easier said than done. JEEZ! DM AFB summer air is bumpy!).

Dad wasn't lucid for many more years, but he was still a C-141A and C-5A check pilot at the time. In his earlier career years he had flown C-47's stationed at Stead AFB , then C-121C's out of Charleston (S.C.) AFB, then C-54E's out of Ramey AFB Puerto Rico (where I was born), C-118A's out of Sheppard AFB TX, and C-47's again in 'Nam.

We orbited them all at Davis Monthan AFB.

Cheers,
C.R.

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Davis Monthan visitor's pass cruises, 1966-68

In his earlier career years he had flown C-47's stationed at Stead AFB ,

Chuck, what years did he fly out of Stead? My first air show ever was at Stead, I was probably about 7-8, year would have been about '58-'59, I could have been younger, but I think that's about right. Stead was an "interceptor" base at the time (if memory serves) and along with whatever else was on the field at the time, I remember the jets were some sort of swept wing, very cool... they would even start them and taxi around "fans" walking through, well they taxied *away* from us.... no way you'd get that close today

[C_roundy]

Re: Davis Monthan visitor's pass cruises, 1966-68

Awesome Wayne! 'Guess our guv'ment's just to busy these days to instill 7-8 year olds with a sense of wonder by driving them deaf with close exposure to 150 decibel jets, or to endow them with the free opportunity to get sucked right through those holy mothers of mean vacuum action! Kids these days just don't get seminal, Darwinian rites of passage like that.

Not sure what years dad was stationed at Stead, but it had to be a little earlier than that. I'll ask Mom. I do know that fighters were stationed there back then though. In the 50's Stead had a S.A.C. "Air Defense" squadron.
At the time, Stead was mainly a survival training center though. The base's main job was to take perfectly good airmen, throw them out of perfectly good airplanes over the remote mountain ranges of Nevada (winter), the remote deserts (summer), make 'em eat whatever they could find for a couple weeks (bugs etc.), and avoid the enemy (superior officers clearly), before being allowed to hike out of the wilderness (long distance), upon pain of vicious torture (simulated) , if they failed to hide out long enough or got captured by the "enemy". Now there's a REAL seminal, Darwinian rite of passage for ya!....
Good Times!!!!
Come to think of it, thats prob'ly where dad picked up the phrase "boy, this hurts me more than it hurts you", I always knew I was in for a seriously bad time when he said that to me when I was little....
All kidding aside though, I understand it was not uncommon for airmen (officers included) to have complete breakdowns resulting in being busted of rank, and or being mustered out of the service, from the trauma of "survival training".
The mission my dad's squadron performed at Stead that I found really fascinating though, was to take over perfecting and practicing the dangerous "Fulton SkyHook" personnel retrieval system from the C.I.A. Although he did use it later in Vietnam, it was for equipment & supply retrieval mostly; Thank God (but especially Bell & Sikorsky), that long range heli's had come along by then!
Picture sitting on yer butt, clamping yer knees to yer chest, with a balloon on a rope strapped to yer back, fervently muttering the mantra:
"It sucks to be me, sucks to be me, sucks to be MEEEEEEE!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRu6ZxFAVU8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5GJ4cu311o

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulton_surface-to-air_recovery_system