I'm cataloging my father's photos from when he was in the USAF. He was pretty good about writing on the backs of them, but some only have a date. Which makes ID'ing some of them a little challenging. All this one says in "July 1971" Which means it was taken while he was stationed at Ubon RTAFB in Thailand.

Can anyone help ID what kind of plane this is? Fighters of this era aren't a problem for me, but for some reason planes like this seem to blur together for me.

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C17 Globemaster IIRC

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Uh, no. Sorry Pete. The C-17 has only been online for about a decade.

Near as I can tell it's a C-141 Starliner. I'll do some more research though to be sure. The 141 has been around since 1965, so I'm relatively certain that's it based on the time frame and the airframe configuration.

A "modern" C-141. They were decommissioned a few years back to make room for the C-17.


And an older one. This picture is almost identical to the one you posted.

Didn't check the date mentioned in the opening post - failed!

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Heh!

I have pics of that plane from 1985- when I was on a visit to the AFB in Dayton Ohio (with my Air Cadet Sqn). We got to see the cockpit of a B-52 as well!

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I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me! WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME!?!

KRONK is right, I have jumped out of these planes before.
never by choice mind you

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"What the hell are we gonna use man....harsh language"!!!

Exellent. Thanks guys.

Much appreciated.



My Godfather, who still lives in Limestone, ME, was stationed at Loring AFB for many years (he retired not long before the base was closed), and he got me on base when I was 15 (1985), and I got to sit in the cockpit of a B-52 as well. Damn those things are massive! Photos really don't seem to do them justice! Standing next to one all I could wonder is how they ever got airborne!

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Got my story a little mixed up- the B-52s were at Griffis AFB, but I can't remember the base in Dayton (I guess it was Wright/Patterson). Got to see F-4s there too.

Griffis still had F-106s (apparently it was the last year before they upgraded to F-15s).

Anyway- yeah those B-52s are ENORMOUS! Especially the tail! I've got pics of B-52s sitting in the hanger, with the tail having to sit outside as it was taller than the hanger itself!

Ahhh... memories.

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I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me! WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME!?!

That one picture looks like it could be in Fargo, ND.

Hey Doc of couse we had a choice. hehe We did "volunteer"
for Airborne school.

Why I ever decided to jump from prefectly good aircraft I will never know.

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SFC
Michael Larson
Minnesota-USA

A03/TQ1.0.92141E1

right on 101 ssgtburton your right.....wright-patt air base is only min. from my house.

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"What the hell are we gonna use man....harsh language"!!!

Me neither

AIRBORNE ALL THE WAY!

Mike

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There is nothing more impressive than a bloody big Alien wiggling on the end of a sharp stick!

God invented airplanes so that people could get their thrills jumping out of them!

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"The other Gareth"

Mmmm... F-4's *drool*

I envy you. I love F-4's (followed closely by the F-86), but I've never seen one in person. I used to pour over the photos of F-4's my dad took at Ubon. Actually, I still do.

The Phantom - one sweet piece of machinery!

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My father was a rescue helicopter crew chief in the USAF (HH-3 Jolly Green Giants) way back in the day. When we were stationed at Clark Air Base in the Philippines I was in the Civil Air Patrol and I remember a time my unit got to visit the 3rd Tactical Fighter Wing, who flew F-4E's at the time. We got to take turns sitting in the cockpit and even got some simulator time in although, back in those days, simulators weren't fancy 3D jobs.

The picture in the top post is definitely a C-141A Starlifter. The "B" model featured an extended fuselage forward of the wing root. It has been replaced by the C-17 since 2006.

I'm definitely a military aviation aficionado.

Mike, have you had the chance to watch "Dogfights" on the History Channel? They had a few episodes centered around Vietnam dogfights and there was a lot of F-4 loving.

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~Jay

Up here in fargo for years they flew the phantoms. Was kind od sad to see them replaced with the f-16's . There was just something about the roar of the phantom that screamed Bad Ass.

Kind of funny now they replaced the 16's with lear jets and it sounds like thoose are getting replaced by Unmanned Drones.

Hate seeing this hardware leave.

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SFC
Michael Larson
Minnesota-USA

A03/TQ1.0.92141E1

Um, no we didn't. The F-16 is still the primary dogfighter of our fleet until the JSF F-35 comes online.

Tell the 119th fighter unit that they didn't get their 16's replaced with learjets.

Might not be force wide but they are gone from here.

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SFC
Michael Larson
Minnesota-USA

A03/TQ1.0.92141E1

On that Cadet trip to Dayton back in 1985- we got to see a formation takeoff of 4 F-4s while we were standing about 200 feet from the runway.

The roar shook my lungs! It was awesome!

Back in the hanger we asked if we could take pictures. One of the F-4s had it's nose open exposing the radar dish. The USAF officer told us that we could take pictures but not of the one with the radar section exposed- he went on to say- "Although there probably isn't anything there the Russians don't know about already."

Being an Air Cadet- I am a bit of an air force enthusiast myself. We get a show up here on History Television called Flightline- similar to Dogfights. I love that stuff!

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I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me! WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME!?!

I think you guys would like this video.

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~Jay

That's because the 119th is an Air National Guard weather unit. They don't fly combat missions, so they have no need for a combat aircraft.

Amen brother, amen.

I love that show! I got the first season on DVD for Christmas. I was actually watching a couple of episodes this evening: "MIG Alley" and "Air Ambush" - the latter focusing on the 8th TFW out of Ubon (which was my father's wing. He was a line crew chief for the 408th MMS (Munitions Maintenance Squadron) so he was constantly up close and personal with F-4' s and AC-130's).

I love "Dogfights" for a couple of reasons: first and foremost it has some great aerial combat (I'm a sucker for that), it's well produced, and being that my father is a vet I'm always interested in anything relating to Vietnam - especially when in it comes to the USAF's involvement. But I also like the show because I'm a CG artist by trade and I really like the work in it... technically speaking there's some great stuff! And I've had the opportunity to speak with the lead animator on a couple of occasions.

So the show touches on many things that I have a personal interest in..

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Ahhh... the Randy Cunningham vs Col. Toon (sp?) battle- a classic dogfight and probably the most famous one out of the Vietnam War.

It's funny- when you first mentioned the show Chryse- that dogfight was the first thing to pop into my head, however it wasn't that particular video...

I first heard the Cunningham battle back in 1986 on a documentary about modern fighter aircraft (it was called something like Top Gun something something- obviously having to do with the popularity of the Cruise movie). Randy Cunningham described his battle with the Mig using his hands to show the movements of each plane!

It's funny- last night I did a bit of research on that battle- apparently "Col Toon" does not exist- there is no record of a North Vietnamese flying ace by that name. So no one really knows who Cunningham went up against- other than he flew like the devil himself!

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I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me! WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME!?!

There is some speculation that the pilot Cunningham flew against was actually a veteran Soviet or Chinese combat pilot and not a North Vietnamese pilot, but I guess we'll never know.

One of my favorite episodes of Dogfights was another show featuring the F-4 as flown by the Air Force ace Col. Robin Olds. He was state of the badass art, having been an ace in WWII, flying one of my favorite planes ever, the P-38 Lightning.

Wait till you get a load of this Dogfights segment. Olds and his wingman take on a German formation of about 50 Messerschmidt Bf-109's over Germany.

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~Jay

I'm drooling about watching that video- but it will have to wait until I get home from work.

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I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me! WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME!?!