Back in the Viet Nam war days I had a good friend who flew A4 Skyhawks off the Kitty Hawk. He was ground stationed at NAS Lemoore while the Kitty Hawk was based in Alameda (this is the same guy I posted about earlier that flew under the Golden Gate bridge.....inverted). As my wife and I lived less than two hours away we went down one weekend for a visit with he and his wife. There was a squadron party that night at the Exec's house and we were invited to go along. When we arrived my wife and her friend wandered off somewhere and my friend and I took up seats at a make-shift bar by the pool. When some of the other squadron pilots came by I was introduced and my friend told his buddies I was Air Force and flew F-104's out of Hamilton AFB. I spent the rest of the night talking with the women. 

9 hours ago, W2DR said:

I spent the rest of the night talking with the women. 

Was that not a win anyway? 🍻 Can't talk planes, but certainly easier on the eye I would have thought.. 

I do recall that those fighter jocks had latched onto some good looking babes.....🙂

5 hours ago, W2DR said:

I do recall that those fighter jocks had latched onto some good looking babes.....🙂

To quote Flight of the Intruder: 'fighter pukes make movies, bomber pilots make history'.

And here I thought this thread was going to be all about the guy who talks non stop about all the bugs in FS2020 at a party... and no one knows what he's talking about... and then they slowly move away...

F-104's, Doug?  Glad you are still with us! 

Hamilton AFB....just an airstrip in Marin/Sonoma county now.  I took a service call there once back in 1973 and had to wander around the base a while to find the piece of equipment I had to work on.

This brings back old memories!

 

F-104s were pretty short lived at Hamlton weren't they Doug?  1958 to 1960.  I was stationed at Hamilton for a year after my first wife died in Japan.  I had an infant daughter and got stationed at Hamilton so my parents who lived in Mill Valley cold care for her while I was on duty.  They had F-101 VooDoos when I was there in the early 60s.

Noel

Edited September 30, 20205 yr by birdguy

I have no idea Noel. I hope you don't think I really flew those based on the above post. I've never been in a single-seat fighter in my life. That's just a bunch of BS my friend made up for his buddies. I remember it as 104s but that's a long time ago and I guess it could be any numbers after the F. I gotta tell you though, I learned that night that carrier pilots don't think much of their ground-based Air Force counterpart

1 minute ago, W2DR said:

I've never been in a single-seat fighter in my life

Ah! A ruse. 🍻 The implication there is that had you been introduced as a civilian then the naval aviators would have kicked you out rather than shunning you due to inter-forces rivalry maybe? 

F-104's, Doug?  Glad you are still with us! 

Hamilton AFB....just an airstrip in Marin/Sonoma county now.  I took a service call there once back in 1973 and had to wander around the base a while to find the piece of equipment I had to work on.

This brings back old memories!

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Yep, I understand about the 104's. I, too, remember Hamilton very well. Back in '67-'70 I was at AT&T and did a lot of maintenance/reconfiguring work on the comms systems at both Hamilton and McClellan. The war had sucked up so many technical folks that the Air Force was really short-handed and turned to us for a little help.

Edited September 30, 20205 yr by W2DR

18 hours ago, W2DR said:

I learned that night that carrier pilots don't think much of their ground-based Air Force counterpart

I read once that an Air Force exchange pilot assigned to a carrier won the three wire pool on that cruise.

When I lived in Denver I had friend who lived up in Evergreen.  His next door neighbor was Stephen Coonts, author of Flight of the Intruder.  I met him several times and we exchanged war stories.  On one of my visits he presented me with a copy of the book.  In the fly leaf he wrote, "To Noel Sivertson.  Hope all your lands are OK - wire.  Best wishes, Stephen Coonts.

Noel

20 hours ago, W2DR said:

I was at AT&T and did a lot of maintenance/reconfiguring work on the comms systems at both Hamilton and McClellan.

Did you ever do work on the radar station on Mt. Tamalpais?

Noel

6 hours ago, birdguy said:

Did you ever do work on the radar station on Mt. Tamalpais?

No, I never did anything at the radar site per.se. I did, however, do some "work" on communications security at the nearby Nike missle site. For a short time I was part of an engineering team reviewing FTS (the old Federal Telephone System) security under contract with the Army. The thing I remember the most about working at those government facilities is the seven months it took to get the proper security clearances. I needed high-level clearances from both the Department of Defense and the Atomic Energy Commission. I've always wondered what my neighbors thought when folks kept knocking on their doors and asking a bunch of questions about me 🙂..............Doug

When I was a student at the Army's Command and General Staff College at Ft Leavenworth, I had my Airstream travel trailer parked in the post RV lot--right on top of the blast doors of a decommissioned Nike missile site that protected Kansas City and the Whiteman AFB Titan and Minuteman missile fields back in the day.

Ah, the good 'ol days!  😉

 

On 9/30/2020 at 4:30 PM, W2DR said:

I have no idea Noel. I hope you don't think I really flew those based on the above post. I've never been in a single-seat fighter in my life. That's just a bunch of BS my friend made up for his buddies. I remember it as 104s but that's a long time ago and I guess it could be any numbers after the F. I gotta tell you though, I learned that night that carrier pilots don't think much of their ground-based Air Force counterpart

You’re friend made up a lie for you to other pilots who actually flew in the Air Force. Then immediately, with out knowing that that was a lie, they snubbed you? This whole situation sounds fishy.

Edited October 2, 20205 yr by ahsmatt7