1970s Mil Collection

[tomh]

Henkderidder, Wonderful portraits of the Hahn Phantoms. You had some excellent weather for that series of shots. I have a rather blurry shot of an "SG" coded Hercules below.

Basman, thanks for the spellcheck on "Skyknight"

Rob, Every now and then I have seen someone mention the EC-97 or RC-97 that USAFE had. Now I finally get to see an image of one! Just your normal Stratofreighter, comrade. Great stuff, all.

C-130A 55-00030 139TAS/109TAG NY ANG at Schenectady (Glenville) NY, August 1973

[tomh]

Here is a tailcode that I didn't get to photograph much as it didn't last long. It was lost in the great TAC/MAC Hercules shuffle of the mid-1970s.

C-130B 60-0299 337 TAS AFRES, Westover ARB, MA 1974


And another tail code that was short-lived
C-130A 56-0478 133d TAS NH ANG at Pease ANGB, NH 26 Jan 1974

[tomh]

B52G 57-6487 416BW at Griffis AFB, NY 11 August 1979

[andel]

Yes.
Was starting to miss this topic but it,s back whit serious heavy metal !!!.



Merry X-Mas all !!.

[tomh]

C-7A 61-2389 ANG-Unit unknown at Griffis AFB, NY 29 July 78
(note Genie and Falcon training missiles in the foreground, actually for adjacent F-106 display)

[tomh]

B-52G 59-2601 at Plattsburgh AFB, NY 28 June 1975. Large file for a large aircraft, this is Kodachrome (probably K64) at 1800 pix W

[henkderidder]

Here some F-4D's from Bentwaters UK. Sep 76

[tomh]

More great Phantom shots, thanks! Looks like they may have gone cross-country with the travel pods I see in those shots.

The 'Varks in my part of the USA were SAC's FB-111As. Here is a shot of 69-6505 of Plattsburgh's 380th BW taxying past the small crowd at the 7 September 1974 open house at home base. Thiis crew had just finished beating up the airfield in good shape with some superb high-speed passes.
Five months later, on 3 February 1975, this aircraft and 68-0280 were lost in a mid-air collision during a night air refueling mission with the wreckage landing on Grebe Mtn, in S. Londonderry, Vermont, not far from Magic Mountain Ski Resort.

[roel lodder]

Great F-4D pics, Henk!!
Well done!
If you have more feel free to post it!!
Grtz, Roel

[tomh]

Sharp troops here-all you need do is look at the toolbox and its artwork showing a twilight scene of Plattsburgh. These two guys were showing some dedication here. SAC troops, no question. This is FB-111A 68-0282 of the 380th BW at Plattsburgh AFB, NY on 11 July 1981. According to Joe Baugher, this 'Vark was later converted to F-111G. To RAAF as A8-282 Mar 1994 with 82 Wing RAAF Amberley.



Two years earlier at Plattsburgh, we see New York's other SAC base represented by B-52G 59-2595 of the 416th BW Griffis AFB. The Adirondak Mountains can be seen in the distance.

[tomh]

C-141A 65-9413 438th MAW at Plattsburgh AFB, NY 15 May 1979

[henkderidder]

Great pics from plattsburgh Tom!! Do you have some from the fence? Outside the airfield. I've been told it was a good place to picture the F-111's

[tomh]

Just a few. This one, from November 1973 isn't too good, I'll look for more in the collection.
At some point in time I believe the Air Force bought the property on which I was standing, (approach end of rwy #15) and AFAIK there were no more opportunities like this.

[tomh]

68-0288 moving fast.


And to prove I can waste grainy film in bad light, this one from 21 Novemer 1973. The difference in color between this one and the one two images above, taken on the same day and on the same type film (Kodachrome-X) is incredible. The biggest surprise is that the last one still exists, and I didn't throw it in the trash.

[tomh]

New York is a big state, and six weeks earlier, on the afternoon of 5 October 1973, I was shooting Kodachrome under more favorable circumstances off the approach end of runway 32 at Calverton, 420 km to the south on Long Island. As the factory number implies, this is the thirty-sixth F-14 Tomcat, and borrowing from Joe Baugher's research, we find it is F-14A-65-GR 158635 on final at the Grumman factory.



This was the first Tomcat I photographed, and remains one of my favorite shots of the type to this day. I had seen a few Tomcats prior to this, as they commonly made approaches to Westover AFB, in Massachusetts in the early 1970s. The large SAC base was nearly vacant then, before AFRES took it over, and it likely made a good cold weather destination for test flights, away from the congestion of the Big Apple and the cold North Atlantic.