USS Oriskany air ops, 1970

MikeD

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Old skool USN carrier air off the USS Oriskany in 1970. Sadly, the Oriskany is now a reef off of Florida, sunk a few years ago.

Old School items:

1. Cool F-8 Crusader, A-7 corsair, SH-2 Seasprite, and little-seen HH-3A Sea King CSAR version ops. EA-3 Skywarrior ops....check out the wingtip clearance vs the deck area.

2. The days of bright colors on USN aircraft, in the gull grey over white scheme; something that disappeared in the mid to late 1980s when everything went subdued.

3. Soviet "fishing trawler" spy boats shadowing the fleet.

4. Smoky-ass turbojet engines.

5. Some of the A-7s landing, a few still have some ordnance remaining, and others if you look at the jet intake under the nose, you can see the heavy black soot around where the 20mm cannons have been getting fired.
 
It differs if VFR (Case 1), or IFR. What the specifics are, @///AMG or @Pilot Fighter or @bunk22 or @C-182 flyer would know more .
Routinely, Day Case 1, inside of a minute. Night Case 1, inside of 60-90 seconds.

@MikeD : Back to our earlier conversation, did you notice the VQ Whales were not wearing CAG 19 (NM) colors? I think VQ-1 always wore PR.

Interesting reading:
"Following a dry dock period at San Francisco Naval Shipyard over the winter, where the aircraft carrier was modified to support A-7 Corsair II aircraft, Oriskany embarked CVW-19 that spring for refresher operations. In contrast to previous deployments, she carried only four combat squadrons – VF-191 and VF-194 equipped with the familiar F8 Crusaders and VA-153 and VA-155 equipped with the new, snub-nosed Corsair II attack aircraft. Commencing her fifth Vietnam deployment on 14 May 1970, Oriskany inchopped on 1 June and began combat operations at Yankee Station on the 14th. Like her last deployment, Oriskany launched strikes against North Vietnamese logistics targets in eastern Laos, initially targeting storage areas, bunkers and lines of communication in conjunction with strikes by the Seventh Air Force. Equipped with better electronics gear, the Corsair II aircraft proved especially useful during night raids on the Ho Chi Minh trail. The missions remained dangerous, however, with a Corsair II from VA-155 lost in a failed catapult shot on 25 June and a VA-153 Corsair II crashing in Laos on 28 June. In the latter case, the aircraft – flown by Cdr. Donald D. Aldern, then Commander, Air Wing Nineteen -- exploded during a night attack run, presumably after taking flak damage. During this phase of the deployment, the aircraft carrier conducted three line periods -- 14-29 June, 13-21 July, 3-25 August and 18 September to 13 October – and launched over 5,300 sorties. During the latter line period, a VF-191 Crusader returning from a night combat air patrol on 6 October crashed the flight deck and exploded, killing Lt. John B. Martin. In November, as part of the Navy’s efforts to reduce costs, the number of aircraft carriers off Vietnam was reduced to one, meaning that Oriskany’s sole focus in her fourth line period 7-22 November was missions over Laos. In that effort, she joined the Seventh Air Force in strikes against four identified bottleneck points along the Ho Chi Minh trail. The carrier suffered another deadly accident on 14 November, when an RF-8G Crusader from VFP-63 skidded off the flight deck after a failed catapult launch, killing Lt. Joseph R. Klugg. Then, in an unusual assignment, Oriskany flew 14 diversionary sorties over North Vietnam early on 21 November in support of the Son Tay POW rescue mission and another 48 missions during retaliatory strikes later that day. The aircraft carrier turned for home the next day, arriving in Alameda on 10 December."

http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/o4/oriskany.htm
 
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Routinely, Day Case 1, inside of a minute. Night Case 1, inside of 60-90 seconds.

@MikeD : Back to our earlier conversation, did you notice the VQ Whales were not wearing CAG 19 (NM) colors? I think VQ-1 always wore PR.

I noticed they're pretty plain-Jane, in fact, not even the VQ-1 squadron marking; just stars/bars and tailcode pretty much. And operating by itself, seemingly not in the cycle of the rest of the Wing jets recovering.

Interesting too that the Wing had just transitioned from A-4s to A-7s.
 
You also need slightly more time to get some aircraft out of the landing area than others. At night, CATCC sort of owns the interval (and you push from the marshall stack in 1 minute intervals nominally), but during the day where the pilot sets it, I always give a little extra time if there is a Prowler or Hawkeye/COD in front of me. Part of that is just that the E2/C2 is slower (or the Rhino for that matter), but also, all those big hogs just take longer to fold their wings and get out of the LA. And the Prowlers seem to always lose nosewheel steering after the trap and thus foul the deck for an eternity.
 
"Somebody said that carrier pilots were the best in the world, and they must be or there wouldn't be any of them left alive."

— Ernie Pyle

Different war, but true enough still. Just watching them taxi gives me the heebie jeebies.
 
Watching the nose gear fluctuate is pretty wild.

What was the Russian ship signalling? Was that pretty typical back in those times?
 
For whatever reason, I've always liked the SH-2. It's a cool little helicopter. I'm actually a bit surprised the Navy has moved away from the smaller rotary-wing platforms, given that the decks on their smaller ships are a tight squeeze for a 60.
 
Watching the nose gear fluctuate is pretty wild.
What was the Russian ship signalling? Was that pretty typical back in those times?

Prob not a Soviet vessel in trail with the "big boat" ...more likely a plane guard destroyer ...ours, of course! :) They frequently took that position aft, and a bit to the side, to pick up pilots or flight deck crew blown over. Soviet ships, as a rule, were close to the 180 position ...perhaps more better to follow the action? Likely the DD exchanging info with the carrier ...maybe working out the signalmen?
 
or Rondebmar ...with three full cruises, many shorter ones, with several carriers/Air Wings/squadrons, AC types, etc. Netted 466 traps in less than four years.

Air Bosses/LSOs demanded, and our aim was, case 1 recovery ...30 seconds.
I guess things were faster when the LSO's waved paddles.
 
Prob not a Soviet vessel in trail with the "big boat" ...more likely a plane guard destroyer ...ours, of course! :) They frequently took that position aft, and a bit to the side, to pick up pilots or flight deck crew blown over. Soviet ships, as a rule, were close to the 180 position ...perhaps more better to follow the action? Likely the DD exchanging info with the carrier ...maybe working out the signalmen?

That makes more sense, I was thinking they might be a little close!

Sounds like you had an interesting career!
 
That makes more sense, I was thinking they might be a little close!

Close? Things got physical, with our destroyers bumping the trawlers as they tried to interfere with carrier ops. Things got so bad the US signed an agreement with the Soviets in '72 or '73 to avoid such encounters.

On a couple of occasions the CAG ordered KA-3's and EKA-3's to "accidently" dump fuel on the trawlers.

In this video, we see the plane guard (destroyer) and an UNREP trailer the carrier. I think the other ship is a Soviet trawler. Identifying Vietnam era AGI ships is tough as they were mostly conversions of commercial ships. Some of these AGIs were actually American-made ships provided to the USSR during WWII as part of Lend-Lease. The Soviets retained (stole) hundreds of US craft after WWII.
 
That was pretty awesome. Looking at the EA-3 Skywarrior, and the windows on the right side of the fuselage, were they able to carry pax in there for transport or something? Always been one of my favorite planes that used the boat.
 
That was pretty awesome. Looking at the EA-3 Skywarrior, and the windows on the right side of the fuselage, were they able to carry pax in there for transport or something? Always been one of my favorite planes that used the boat.
The EA-3 commonly had a crew of seven, three up front and four in the back.

There were a couple of VIP transport conversions. I think one was assigned to the CNO. My father led a tour of this plane for my Boy Scout troop in the early 70's. I remember the blue leather seats and wood table.

EDIT: According to Wikipedia, my recollections of my Cub Scout tour were accurate: VA-3B: Two EA-3B converted as VIP transports. Both aircraft were assigned to the Chief of Naval Operations flying from Andrews AFB in Washington, DC
 
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I was in Pensacola, Fl at ACA1 school when they sank the Oriskany.... Cray cray how time goes by. Little did I know what would become of my Naval career after receiving orders to NAS Meridian out of the schoolhouse.
 
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