Bumping my original response....
ASW Patrol, SAR, Key West NAS flying a JRF-5 "Grumman Goose."
Debrief at "Sloppy Joe's."
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Of course not, silly, NAS Key West was a blimp base back then. Don't get fooled by the publicity shot with the imported Goose and her chicks. When I was there in the 70s, the hurricane-proof blimp hangars were still there. They kept VF101's and VX1's hangar queens high and dry when Agnes dropped in to say hi.
Do you one better. When they were based at NAS Boca Chica (Key West), VX1 (Air Test and Evalution Squadron One) used to fly an almost daily commuter run to all the East Coast ASW air stations, known in the vernacular as "Conch Airways" in an elderly P3B with a conch shell painted on its side. Boca Chica, JAX, Norfolk, (sometimes, PAX), NADC Warminster, (occasionally, South Weymouth), (and always) Brunswick, ME. Any serving or retired service member who wanted to go for the ride was welcome, as they would relieve a squadron member at one of the required midships observer stations, allowing said squadron person to get caught up on their other work. All you had to do was report any unusual occurrences regarding the wing and engines, as the old tired airframe was particularly prone to liquid leaks of all kinds. Warminster was always an interesting stop, as that was where a lot of R&D work on new ASW equipment occurred, and there was lots of back and forth with the test and evaluation squadron. Lots of black boxes and classified documents back and forth. Some pretty amazing stuff they were working on, even back then. I went along for the ride from time to time, a fascinating opportunity for a geographer like me.
Sometimes there would be a "lobster exchange", tropical spiny "goosters" for Maine Atlantic lobsters. They had sealable waterproof cylindrical containers that would fit in sonobuoy launch tubes and could hold enough seawater to keep several lobsters alive for the duration. There were several launch tubes aboard, IIRC they could hide 20-30 lobsters in the tubes.
...which you'll find when you groundloop it on landing and bang your head on that infernal canopy.I would just LOVE to fly a 109.
It's sleek, rakish
And sitting (slightly hunched) it just makes me feel like a hunter - a bad boy - just out looking for trouble
I think I posted this before but can't remember but, I ran into an F-86 jock many years ago and going from memory, at one time he was stationed I think at Barksdale. He and three others did some TDY up to Maine or Vermont in F-86Ds. Did the similar thing, they weren't carrying rockets in the under nose tray so each Sabre Dog got as many lobsters as they could stuff in the rocket tubes when they left. As memory served most of them were still alive when they got home, I guess they hauled ass to altitude to keep them chilled or something, damn, now I wish I could remember the whole story.
And I could be shot down and die in a flaming comet coming up against all those "better" British and American planes.
Go Grumman!
Sorry, I'm just a kid with a BB gun in a world full of party balloons.
I like the cut of your jib, Mister!
