{"id":6980,"date":"2023-12-05T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-05T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/azadkinsiii.com\/blog\/?p=6980"},"modified":"2023-12-04T12:26:56","modified_gmt":"2023-12-04T17:26:56","slug":"158-my-favorite-navy-jets-70s-version","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/azadkinsiii.com\/blog\/158-my-favorite-navy-jets-70s-version\/","title":{"rendered":"#158\u2014My Favorite Navy Jets (70s version)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Trivia Questions (Answers @ end)<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Who said, \u201cChange the way you look at things and the things you look at change.\u201d<\/em>?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. In what movie did we hear (and who said it), \u201cAll we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.\u201d<\/em>?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. In what song (and who sang it), did we hear the following:
    I still don’t know what I was looking for<\/em>
    And my time was running wild<\/em>
    A million dead-end streets<\/em>
    Every time I thought I’d got it made<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n
    <\/div>
    Blog #158 (Audio)<\/div><\/div>
    <\/div>
    <\/div>
    Published: <\/span>December 4, 2023<\/span><\/div>
    <\/div>Audio by Andy Adkins<\/a><\/div><\/form><\/span>2<\/span> Downloads<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>
    <\/div>\n\n\n
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    Someone recently asked me what my favorite plane was when I was in the Navy. Not an unusual question for a Navy veteran, but it came from a young\u2019un, probably not yet a teen. She knew I\u2019d spent time on an aircraft carrier and she knew more about planes than I thought someone that age might know. I had to think about it for a while. Not just because it was almost fifty years ago, but because the aircraft have changed so much over the years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"USS
    USS Kitty Hawk CV-63 underway Western Pacific 29 November 1970.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    I spent four years (1973-1977) in the U.S. Navy, most of which was on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier, USS Kitty Hawk<\/em><\/strong> (CV-63). My job was initially Crash & Salvage<\/strong>\u2014basically, an aircraft firefighter. I also spent 15 months at NAS Agana, Guam<\/strong> in Crash & Rescue. I\u2019ve written several blogs about those years. After the Westpac \u201975<\/strong> cruise and after a year in Bremerton Shipyards<\/strong>, I became a Yellow Shirt<\/strong> director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I loved both jobs, primarily because I was in the middle of everything on the flight deck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Back in the 60s\u2026<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    I\u2019m a Baby Boomer<\/strong>, born in 1954. During my childhood years, my favorite hobby was assembling model airplane kits. J.M. Fields was a local department store \u201cup the hill\u201d from my house. I must\u2019ve bought and put together every model airplane they had when I was a teen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"P-38
    P-38 Lightning Model Airplane<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Jets were not common back then, but the planes I remember were the P-38 Lightning<\/strong>, the P-51 Mustang<\/strong>, the British Spitfire<\/strong>, F6F Hellcat<\/strong>, and the Sabre MK6<\/strong>. Most were World War II vintage, and most were fighter planes, but they all fascinated me. My two favorite model aircraft were the P-38 Lightning (because of its twin tail) and the P-51 Mustang, (because it was, in a word\u2026 badass<\/em>). After I put them together, I hung them around my bedroom, like mobiles. That worked well until I grew to six feet. Then it became an obstacle course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Such fond memories\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    NAS Agana, Guam Aircraft<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    The Crash Barn was located on the tarmac between the Aircraft Control Tower and the base squadrons. I was in Guam from November \u201973 through February \u201975. Back then, there were five aircraft squadrons at NAS. These included the RA-3B Skywarrior<\/strong>, the EC-121 Constellation<\/strong>, the C-130 Hercules<\/strong>, the P-3 Orion<\/strong>, and the HU-16 Albatross<\/strong>. Different aircraft\u2026 different missions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As a Crash firefighter, we needed to know about these aircraft\u2026 from a crash and rescue perspective. How many crew members might be aboard? How much fuel did each aircraft hold? The number of gear safety pins and where they were stored. Where to access the aircraft. And so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Each truck and crew members took turns at the aircraft \u201ccheck-outs.\u201d I\u2019d like to think we took these exercises seriously, but I remember a few times the squadron plane captains got a little too far off the subject. But we were there for a reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    My two favorites were the C-121 Constellation (it had a \u201cdome\u201d built into the top of the fuselage to navigate by the stars) and the P-3 Orion.<\/p>\n\n\n

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    \"\"
    A VP-17 (ZE 6) P-3B (BuNo 153455) in flight near NAS Barbers Point, Hawaii circa 1978.
    Photo from the Naval Historical Center.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

    Fortunately, during my 15 months on Guam, the only real \u201cdangers\u201d we encountered were from a P-3 Orion landing and blowing a tire<\/a>, an HU-16 Albatross that couldn\u2019t lock its landing gear<\/a>, and a few fuel spills from various aircraft on the base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    We were lucky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    On the Flight Deck<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    The flight deck was a little more crowded. After all, there were 50+ aircraft on the flight deck (another 20+ on the hangar deck), and the entire flight deck area was about 4\u00bd acres. It was not unusual to park $30 million (back in the 70s) aircraft within a few inches of each other\u2014yeah, tight spacing. But we knew what we were doing. The Plane Captains trusted us Yellow Shirts and vice versa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Carrier Air Wing Squadrons<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    During Westpac \u201975 (my one and only cruise), Kitty Hawk<\/em> carried 12 squadrons of aircraft, making up what is called the Carrier Air Wing<\/strong>\u2014CVW-11<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n