You love a lot of things if you live around them. But here isn't any woman and there isn't any horse, not any before nor any after, that is a lovely as a great airplane. And men who love them are faithful to them even though they leave them for others. Man has one virginity to lose to fighters, and if it is a lovely airplane he loses it to, there is where his heart will forever be. -Ernest Hemingway
Pictures of the RF-4C
More pictures
And more pictures
And even more pictures and
stories.
Stories about
flying the RF-4C
More about the "Recce
Phantom" - the McDonnell
RF-4C (coming
soon)
If you are ever in
the Twin
Cities in the summer stop by
the Minnesota Air
Guard
Museum.
The 16th TRS, Shaw
and the High Flight to SEA
The 16th TRS at Tan Son
Nhut
and around Saigon
and the country
and operations
and Tan Son Nhut AB
and, of course, Sam's Inn
The RAF Alconbury, UK
Bergstrom AFB, Texas
even some old stuff from
Pilot Training
The Air Force is a great career!
I flew this airplane from 1964 to 1973 at Shaw AFB, SC, Tan Son Nhut AB, Vietnam, Mountain Home AFB ID, RAF Alconbury, UK, and Bergstrom AFB Austin TX. That is Bergstrom AFB in the background in the early 70's. I have been "Mach 2" sixty-five times in the RF-4C.
In pilot training I wanted fighters but was 14th in my class and there were only 13 fighter assignments. So I was assigned C-130's. At our graduation assembly a person from the AF personnel center was giving us a motivational speech and at the end of the speech he asked for me to see him after the assembly. He said they had just gotten some "PSO" slots for the (then) brand new RF-4C. I really did not know what it was but I recognized the "F" in the name as a fighter. Since I was number 14 in my class I could have the RF-4C. I took it!
I reported to Shaw AFB in Sumter SC in September of 1964 before any RF-4C's had been delivered to the Air Force. At the time Shaw AFB was the home of "tactical reconnaissance" with several squadrons of RF-101C and RB-66B/C/D aircraft. Both of these aircraft are single pilot aircraft. There were no two seat airplanes for training. Your first flight in one of these was 'solo, so anybody being assigned to these aircraft had to have at least 1,500 hours (five years) experience in other aircraft first.
I was the first "PSO" to arrive at the base. A PSO was the "Pilot Systems Operator" in the rear cockpit of the RF-4C. The Air Force had decided that both cockpits in its F-4's would be pilots with the idea that PSO's could move forward to the front cockpit sooner then pilots from other aircraft. So I was assigned to the 9th TRS to wait for the start of the first RF-4C class. On my first day at Shaw I reported to the 9th as I should. The squadron commander immediately took me on a tour of the base and we wound up at the headquarters of the 363th TRW. When we walked into the Stan Eval section (Stan Eval is the "flight examiner" section that gives all the check rides) and as I was being introduced one of the pilots (a Lt Col) said, "Wow, you don't seem many of those anymore!" My escort (the squadron commander) asked "Don't see many of what?". And I immediately replied before any one else could answer, "A Second Lieutenant pilot."
I went on to fly about two and a half years in the back seat and seven years in the front seat. My Air Force Form 5 shows 2,207 hours in the RF-4C. I logged 350 hours in combat in 120 missions over South Vietnam and 60 missions over North Vietnam - most of it at night taking pictures of roads using "photoflash" cartridges to light up the ground like big flash bulbs.
I was in the 9th TRS, the 4415th CCTS and the 16th TRS at Shaw AFB, SC. And also in the 16th TRS at TSN, Siagon, RVN. Then the 11th TRS at Mountain Home AFB, ID (for three weeks and one flight), the 32nd TRS and 30th TRS at RAF Alconbury, UK, then the 9th TRS, the 12th TRS and in the 67th TRW/LG/QC at Bergstrom AFB, Austin, TX.
After Bergstrom, I went to the Headquarters of Tactical Air Command, Langley AFB, Hampton, VA for four and a half years. I was in TAC/DOX - Instructional Systems Development. While at Langley, I flew the T/CT-39 Saberliner for proficiency, logging 265 hours. And for three years as an additional duty I was an Advance Agent for Air Force One. I made thirty-seven stops in that time making all the arrangements for arrival and departure of Air Force One.
After Langley, I was in Germany at the NATO Operations Support Cell, Kalkar (NOSC Kalkar) for six years. The first 15 months were "unaccompanied" as a remote tour because the unit was in Northern Germany, in the British zone of occupation, where there were no American facilities closer then 70 miles. I finished my Air Force career, always in tactical reconnaissance, at Kalkar.
After the Air Force, I had nineteen years in the computer industry, installing desktop computers, servers, hubs, switches, routers, firewalls, printers, etc for businesses all around the Twin Cities and in fifteen cities around the nation.