What's New

Added a link to an old but excellent 1987 Texas Monthly article about "Frankie Smooth Talk" Frank Lorenzo on the Continental Airline page. It gives insight on how this reckless, devious, and malicious man soared, then crashed in the airline industry.... Finally being officially banned from the industry, but unfortunately, well after wrecking thousands of airline employees' lives. (For the complete TM article, email me.)

Added two F-14 images on the F-14 Tour page

Happy New Year! Just a few minor changes on a number of different pages, and a couple of new images too.

Added a link to San Diego Magazine's October article on the 40th anniversary (has it been that long?) of TOPGUN, located on my TOPGUN page under "links" - '09 TOPGUN Article II.

Added a corrected link to the History Channel's excellent video recreation on YouTube [apparently now recently taken off line] of fellow Top Gun classmate Bart's 1972 MiG kill on my TOPGUN page.

[A check of my logbook for that day indicates a flight code of 1W2 on May 18, which was a boringly safe, BARCAP mission - and for me it was the wrong place at the wrong time with MiGs airborne.

But I was most happy with Bart and Oran's success, in addition to Pat and "Taco's" success that day.... All great guys..... even if they were from our competition, "brand X", VF-161.... ]

Added a link to Bud "Thunder" Taylor's Collection of combat photos taken during our 1972 cruise. (Vietnam - 2nd Cruise page)

Although Thunder flew with our sister squadron, VF-161 ("Brand X"), his photos are representative of both CVW-5's F-4 squadrons aboard the USS Midway. Ironically, some years later Thunder became the Commanding Officer of his old Midway "brand X" and my old squadron, VF-151.

Karma, I suppose.

San Diego Tribune 4/9/2009 article on the establishment of TOPGUN 40 years ago, including comments from some of the six original NFWS innovators at a reunion aboard the USS Midway. Link provided on my Top Gun page

Added a photo, and a link to an Air & Space magazine article - The G Machine - about the famous (infamous?) NADC Centrifuge, (that I unfortunately rode far more than I should have) on the Naval Air Development Center page.

Thanks to all - old friends and new, world-wide - who have emailed me so many kind comments. Indeed any comments, questions, and recommendations are always welcome.

I have been busy the past two weeks adding text, images, and expanded images on over half of the pages. Look around and you will discover new things.

When I initiated this site, I tried to keep my limited images as few and as small as my website basic instruction books had indicated I should. And I didn't then know how to add expandable thumbnails (which I later learned is extremely simple).

In the past few weeks, I have expanded some of my earlier images on various pages. They are now viewable by clicking on the older specific image.

As I have time, I will continue to add future expanded images to my older smaller ones, as needed.

Added a VF-151 officers' group photo thumbnail on the Vietnam; Second Cruise page.

Added some images to the Pride Air page, and added thumbnails of an officers' VF-1 group photo, circa 1976 and a Wolfpack F-14A on the VF-1 page.

Added two F-4 patches, a SERE patch, and a VF-126 patch to the F-4 Tour RAG page.

Added a link to an interesting 1977 promotion Grumman video on the Ferry Flight to Iran page, describing the logistics of introducing the F-14 to Iran.

Added a Ray Kroc Sea Story.

Added a link on my F-4 Tour page to M. Waterloo's excellent website. He collects and restores old aircraft cockpit instrument panels, especially F-4 aircraft. His is an interestingly unique and excellent collection, especially with his very detailed pictures and associated descriptions of cockpit instruments and avionics.

Added a link to Vietnam War Resources. This is the most comprehensive and current collection of links regarding every aspect of the the Vietnam War. Again from Tom Pilsch. It is all here!

Added some FAC (Forward Air Controller) links on the War-1st Cruise page. Of special interest is former FAC Tom Pilsch's excellent website, Air Operations – Vietnam. Well worth a visit!

Added a link on the Operation Linebacker page to Tom ("Flipper") Terrlizzi's novel, Kilo Sierra, based in part on our USS Midway cruises to Southeast Asia in the early '70s. Although I have yet to read it, having just ordered it today, it does have some nice reviews and should be a fun read.

Added two new incredible links:

An Loc Battle - A number of truly amazing first person accounts of the Battle of An Loc; well worth a visit!

"12/72" Stories!!!
- Short but captivating personal accounts of Linebacker II and the "Christmas Raids" over Hanoi to end the war, as told by B-52 crews who flew those climatic nightly flights from 18 to 29 December, 1972.

Added a number of photos courtesy of Michel in the Netherlands, who has quite a collection. His F-4 gallery is here

Added a Chase Field link, and an F-9 photo to the NAS Beeville page.

Just some general housecleaning and link repair. This site has been dormant for a little while, but I am in the process of adding a new page or two... hopefully soon to follow.

Added 3 pictures of the USS Midway to the "War: Second Cruise" page, and a couple of F-14 pictures aboard the USS Enterprise on the "VF-1" page. Also, some minor house cleaning on other pages.

Added a link to my former squadron-mate and author, Art (Kim) Long's Book, Tail-End Charlie; which accurately chronicles our 1972 combat cruise aboard the USS Midway, from a uniquely personal and insightful perspective.

Kenny W. remembered - It would likely have been me.

Added a sea-story: "Rocket Attack At The Red Dog Saloon", and an F-4 section photo.

Added a short sea-story: "Sir, You're Never Going To Make It!"

Added F-4 cat shot image to VF-151 page. Added Russian Bear escort image to War page. Miscellaneous house cleaning.

De-bugging site. Fixing many typo's.

Not much, yet.

Remember, this is a brand new, squeaky website. Therefore, nothing has yet had any time to be changed. Nor has anyone had time to point out the mistakes, or quibble with any issue.

However rest assured, as significant changes are made, they will be documented here.