"Just a nice Picture...!"

With its nose wheel in height adjusted, North American FJ-3M Fury with BuNo 141379, is ready for take off from the aircraft carrier USS Kearsarge III (CVA-33) at the end of the fifties.

This particular Fury with code NC-102, flew with US Navy's Fighter Squadron (VF) 53 Blue Knights on board Kearsarge during a deployment to the Far East in 1957-1958.

USS Kearsarge III was stricken from the US Naval Vessel Register and decommissioned at Long Beach Naval Shipyard (CA) on 13 February 1970. Eventually, the Navy sold the Kearsarge for scrap on 1 March 1974.

Photo: James Smith, via San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive