A cool Phantom picture

Can't quite read the Tailcode.
According to the USS Forrestal deployment history page, the Zippo didn't host the Diamondbacks with F-4Bs.
VF-102 AE = '65-'66 USS America(CV/CVA-66), Mediterranean Cruise, but, the Island just doesn't fit.
The picture's page suggest the Independence(CV-62) circa '62. The Island looks like it from a few comparison shots. It could be the correct AG as the tailcode in that shot, just can't tell...Don
 
That's a nice pic, betcha those F-4's still have that "new plane" smell. :icon_lol: Probably a CQ (Carrier Qual) det aboard Independence (CVA-62) if the can-type antenna aft of the island is an ID feature. Tail code looks to me like AF which was Air Wing 6 (Enterprise) back then.
 
TARPSBird said:
That's a nice pic, betcha those F-4's still have that "new plane" smell. :icon_lol: Probably a CQ (Carrier Qual) det aboard Independence (CVA-62) if the can-type antenna aft of the island is an ID feature. Tail code looks to me like AF which was Air Wing 6 (Enterprise) back then.
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Am sure you are right about the Carqual part, for sure. Seems like I remember they would try to reduce the amount of aircraft on deck for quals, didn't they? And I agree, I believe it is the Indy. NC
 
While stationed at NAS Lemoore, we would get visits by F-4 from various outfits, both Navy and Air Force, and they would often spend some time doing touch-n-goes on the 13,500 foot runways in the middle of the San Joaquin Valley. All the navy planes based there, when doing pattern work, would go from takeoff to downwind in a sort of normal fashion, meaning they would take off, get to pattern altitude, then make the 180 degree turn to downwind. You know, normal. F-4s, it seemed, always did it “their way”... They would combine the climb to pattern altitude with the 180 degree turn to downwind into one fluid high powered maneuver, which was always fun to watch. Imagine a “laterally offset Immelman Turn” where instead of just pulling vertical, you first roll 45 degrees, then pull, and when you're pointing the other way, you roll out, and are now on your down wind leg, at pattern altitude. How awesome is that? They always did this, darned show-off! Plus those Phantoms make such a distinctive “mournful moan”, and with all the black smoke! Dang, that was good stuff!
 
Navy Chief said:
Am sure you are right about the Carqual part, for sure. Seems like I remember they would try to reduce the amount of aircraft on deck for quals, didn't they? And I agree, I believe it is the Indy. NC
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On the CQ dets I made we were usually close to either Oceana or Miramar so we didn't keep too many aircraft onboard, the idea being to run the deck, get your cats and traps and go back to the base. I liked the mixed bag of planes you'd see when it wasn't just your air wing CQ'ing.


PRB said:
...Plus those Phantoms make such a distinctive “mournful moan”, and with all the black smoke! Dang, that was good stuff!
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That "mournful moan" was how the bar girls in Olongapo City (Philippines) would know there was a carrier coming in, when the air wing would fly in to NAS Cubi Point. Time to get dressed up and head downtown!
 
It was a fool proof early warning system, to be sure, for if the ladies missed the moan of the F-4s overhead, they surely could not fail to miss the hoards of sailors storming the Bridge Over the Aromatic River ... :icon_lol:
 
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