Well, with all these goings on about the imminent retirement of the aluminum overcast (not to mention the UK Sea Harrier) you’d think that the current generation of fighter pilots had invented this whole “farewell to all that” meme.
But it’s not just flog-em-into-the-21st century fighter jocks moaning in their beer, what with their beetled brows, low cunning, be-draggled knuckles, imperviously robust self-regard and criminally austere social skills: The S-3 guys are saying good-bye to their bird, as in the not-too-distant past, the flying drumstick and sewer pipe drivers did as well.
But back before the lot of ‘em, the phearless Phantom phlyers said pharewell to their phormer phighter. And they did it in right good style too.
Read on:
I refer, of course, to the F-4 Phantom II. Over the last several years, the grand old gal has taken her leave. With the F-4 goes the notion of variable intakes, radar intercept officers, and 2.2 showing on the machmeter. And with the F-4 also goes a big part of what made my life noteworthy, dare I say the stuff of novels.
The Phantom had an amazing run: nearly forty years…. the Vietnam War, dozens of brushfires and contingencies. Few airplanes in the history of aviation have adapted as well to the tactical landscape over their years in the inventory. The F-4 was designed by McDonnell Aircraft Company as an interceptor aircraft around the radar missile system, a long-range air superiority fighter that pushed out the boundaries of fleet defense.
The early portion of my flying career was about launching on the Alert 5 and escorting Soviet bombers and transports. Those were the days of the 1+45 cycle, the days when the Phantom was the fuel-critical jet in the air wing. The thought of dropping bombs was anathema to us then. But the threat changed as the Vietnam War dragged on, and other mission requirements meant the steely-eyed fighter pilots had to load Mk-82s on the wings and prove they were capable of beating up the dirt almost as good as any fully trained attack puke. Suddenly, the Phantom, with its two-man crew and newly received upgraded radar, was the platform of choice for air superiority in high threat areas.
But now the F-4’s time is over. Emotions stir in the face of this reality.Thousands of hours of my adult life were spent strapped into the front seat of the Big Ugly Fighter. It was there that challenges were met, friendships were forged, and the nation’s will was carried out. From that lofty perch I looked up at the heavens and down on hostile lands. I didn’t always realize it then. Youth, of course, is lost on the young; but each sortie was a gift.
So, too, was the time spent in the company of greats. I think back on chain-laden plane captains who loved the airplanes as much as we did, those like Sam Summa, who kept the aviators going with their enthusiasm in the face of long days that promised nothing but more hard work. I remember the maintenance master chiefs who taught me not just how the Phantom works but how to be an officer and a man. And for their caring they asked for nothing in return. In their countenances I saw my responsibilities.
Anyone familiar with Naval Aviation has a de facto doctorate in pilot personality types. Any RIO with 1,000 hours or more in the airplane possesses a similar degree. And as I flip through the pages of my weathered logbooks and read the names Smith, Crenshaw, Southgate, Driscoll, Ensch, Roy, Bouck and hundreds more, I think of their skill, skill that boggles the mind even now, and the teamwork between cockpits that made flying the F-4 so rewarding. I know few things as surely as I know that U.S. Navy carrier-based pilots are the best in the world.
And what of the down times between sorties? In my mind’s eye I conjure up a gathering in the eight-man stateroom where problems are broached, dissected, and solved. This is where I learned about trust. This is where I realized I could survive the trial that was life at sea….hell, life period.
Now I close my eyes and hear the clack, clack, clack of the shuttle as it moves aft for the next launch. The exhaust from the powerful and reliable J79 engines fills my nostrils until we drop the canopies and bring our jet to life. Air roars through the ECS. Systems power up. Soon we’re parked behind the cat, waiting our turn. I roger the weight board …. 56,000 pounds, buddy, 56,000 pounds. Grasp that, if you can. The jet blast deflector comes down, and we taxi into place, deftly splitting the cat track with the twin nose tires. And then, even after decades of doing the same thing, the adrenaline starts to flow as we go through the deck dance unique to the Phantom: The nose strut extends, giving the fighter the look of a beast ready to leap into the air by itself; the director moves you into the holdback. Wings spread. Flaps lower. Our hands go up as the ordies arm the missiles and bombs.
There’s the signal from the catapult officer. I put the throttles to military power and wipe out the controls ….stick forward, aft, left, and right; rudder left and right.
“You ready, C-ball?”, I ask.
I run the fingers of my right hand across the top of the lower ejection handle (for orientation purposes) and hear from the back, “Ready, Queenie, I’m right behind you.”
I salute. We both put our heads back slightly. (forget once and you get your bell rung by the head rest). A couple of potatoes later we’re off. Airborne.
And for the next hours we stand ready to bring this machine, this manifestation of American know-how, to bear, however it might be required. Or maybe today isn’t our day to save the world, so we accommodate one of the small boys’ requests for a fly-by or break the sound barrier — just because we can (and we’re far enough above our fuel ladder to get away with it). We’re flying a Phantom. And we’re getting paid to do it.
>Alas, I speak of days gone by. What remains of what once gave my working life purpose is now only found in front of main gates, aviation museums, and VFW halls around the country. In the blink of an eye I have become the white haired guy with the ill-fitting ball cap and the weathered flight jacket who bores young ensigns (and anyone else who happens to make eye contact) with his tales of derring-do. VF, dang it! I rail. Those were real fighter squadrons. And they were. Fighting Falcons, Jolly Rogers, Swordsmen, Pukin’ Dogs, Grim Reapers, Diamondbacks, mascots of an adventure. At the center of it all was the airplane itself; and when an airplane has so much heart, personality, and character, it ceases to be inanimate to those who climb into it on a regular basis.
So it’s goodbye, dear friend. Forgive my depression. I’ve heard the promises of a brighter future, but my time in the arena was with you. I watch you launch into the sunset and wonder how it all could have passed so quickly. It doesn’t seem like that long ago when we were together, inextricably linked, one defining the other. Ours was a world of unlimited possibilities and missions accomplished. Ours was a world of victory.
So goodbye, Big Fighter, blessed protector of the American way and our hides. We who knew you well will miss your class, your swagger, your raw power. Even in the face of technological advances you bowed to no other.
(ed. – received through an old service friend, author unknown…)
I was an enlisted man when the Grey Ghosts transitioned from the F-4 to the F-18.
I will never forget the sheer power of those twin J-79’s. I watched the takeoffs often enough at MCAS El Toro on the , what, 15th tee?
I was jackrabbit hunting near 29 Palms. I never heard a thing. One second I was focused on wabbit, the next….
Two F-4’s flew over my head at under twenty feet altitude, and well in excess of the speed limit.
I do remember the smell of burning kerosene, and a thick black pall…
It smelled like…victory.
Heh.
DLM
I can still remember the instructor at P’Cola describing the aerodynamics of the F-4 as “Even a brick will fly if you put a big enough engine in it.”
Light blue text on dark blue background? I wonder what the post said.
Left click and highlight. The text is then white and becomes readible.
It’s worth reading. I love this stuff.
Problems reading? It’s showing up fine on IE and did so on Firefox last night as well.
Sometimes an HTML tag goes astray…
I think it was the stuff that you cut-n-pasted. Replacing all those div’s with p’s oughta do the trick.
I think it’s a matter upload time. This blog has been taking longer to update lately than usual… and until it is fully updated, the entire background is dark blue. Maybe that’s waht happened…
You could be snorkling off of the end of Cubi Point, and an F-4 would take off while you were at 20 feet (making friends with the octopi), and that bass rumble would still shake your chest…
I was a lad, then, a mere 9 years old, and the memories are still fresh…
Sgt- I think this happened at Cubi but I may be wrong:
http://www.ejectionsite.com/eslib/phantommishap.wmv
I don’t understand – what are they going to replace the S-3s with?
They say “Time heals all wounds”, and that is true for this former Phantom Phixer.The more years that go by, the fonder the memories.MacAir was not “maintenance friendly” in those days.The Hornet and Eagle are light-years ahead of the “bent-wing bug smasher” in that regard.Yet I had the privelage to work the absolute ACME of the Phantom line, the Echo.Yeah, I know the Nav had a slatted-wing “Sierra” model, but WE had an internal Vulcan.We also knew how to judge the severety of a fuel or hyd leak…….”Can you step over it?”.Hi-Torque bits?Want a couple?Wanna know the sheer horror of hearing a Dash 60 horn go off when you are working on a RAT?What a gal….She will be missed.
Chris,
Plain-talk express:
The S-3B Viking is being “replaced” (poor choice of word) by the F/A-18E/F SuperHornet as was the F-14.
Originally, circa 2002, when these type of decisions were being made the Viking was too go away based on 3 criterion (“pre-cursors”) being met:
1- More AIP P-3 aircraft being put on line
2- SH-60R procurements
3- F/A-18E/F procurements and F-14 retirement.
In 2002 items 1 & 2 were considered key because the Sea Control mission (SSC/ASuW stuff) done by the Viking would be assumed by these aircraft. As we all know this part of the plan has fallen apart due to P-3 service life issues and significant program delay of the SH-60R…
Item 3 was a “train that would not be stopped”, come hell or high water of course, and as a result the S-3B is in the middle of it’s Sundown plan to be complete in 2009. It ain’t rocket science to figure out what suffers…
Let me also say that the Viking’s cost to operate has actually gone down or stayed the same while at the same time it has been determined through fatigue testing that the S-3 has nearly 100% service life yet to come based on present flying models. LM got lucky with the aluminum I reckon. Crazy, ain’t it?
You will not see this synopsis in many places but some of us know.
B2
Sgt B,
I concur, having spent four years as a dependent in said Liberty Port as a high schooler (‘69-72). Oh my!
Bad Bob,
The terrain doesn’t look right for Cubi, but thanks for the vid.
Lex,
As a phormer maintainer, I have to tell you that we once, “launched the Wing.” 65 aircraft out of Nellis for a fly by over the Strip. Both runways were busy with 2-ship, short interval take offs and the whole base was shaking. It was quite a display of noise, and as they formed up, smoke! There was a black cloud in the Vegas valley for hours afterward.
Why would you replace an ASW aircraft with a fighter plane. I thought that ASW requires low, slow and long time on station. How is slow a virture for a figher pilot?
Sgt B- I agree, not Cubi Point. Change to somewhere in Westpac. Before my time.
Hippy-dippy- In didn’t want to air the dirty laundry by getting into the tanker aspect of the Viking “Sundown”, but yes, the S-3 IFR/tanking capability has been replaced/taken over by the F/A-18E/F SuperHornet.
The result- a fine mission (key word) tanker (go fast) but a waste (taxpayers money), IMVHO, as a recovery or overhead tanker for many reasons. But that is another story and there are many “realities” out there….
And, AOBTW- IMO, we haven’t done effective air asw from the carrier in almost a decade now. The Viking ASW was removed several years ago. See globalsecurity.org.
B2
Badbob,
I am anything but current, but, isn’t the current threat to the carrier diesel subs? There is no bluewater threat, nor is there an air force able to make it past CAP, yet, there are lots of quiet old soviet boats all around the world.
In the ’70s the only surface ASA that worked were the lines of sonabouys dropped from the air. ‘Copters are as slow, but run out of gas real quick and there was never one ready to go on the deck where you needed it. Without a Viking ASW how do you do ASW?
I thought the S-3 was one of the best buys the US Navy ever made – then they removed the ASW capability and are replacing them with much more expensive platforms which in many ways are less capable?
Perhaps there’s something I’m not getting – but it helps explain this;
http://www.gibstuff.net/warships/images/rp98periscopevinsona.jpg
I love F-4’s more than is proper for an Army type. My reserve unit drilled across from NAS Dallas. Various aircraft took off to little notice from us. When an F-4 lined up, however, someone would announce, “F-4!” Then all of our tasks would cease as we frantically put in our hearing protection, covered our ears, encased our heads in concrete, anything. None of it made much difference; it STILL hurt. A lot.
I had severe anxiety in the run-up to Desert Storm. The media was all full of predictions of our “untested” new planes falling out of the sky, and I was still too young to know any better. Then I saw footage of the F-4’s, which were performing the Wild Weasel role. Then I relaxed.
My anxiety returned later when the Phantoms were withdrawn in favor of F-16s for SEAD. I guess the Falcons could suppress enemy air defenses by crashing on them.
(runs and hides from the Air Force)
Hippy & Chris,
All valid points- all compelling questions. We always fight yesterday’s war and capitalize what is considered a priority.
b2
Doing more with less! Seriously though, the best ASW platform is a friendly fast attack submarine. The guy operates in the same water column and thinks like the enemy. For long range search and dwell, we’ve got the P-3C. For inner zone defense, we’ve ASW helicopters and ASW ships that work together in teams.
The S-3 just tried to be everywhere, and as the technology fell further behind during the post-Cold War period, from an ASW perspective the ROI just became harder to justify. Especially as the Navy tries to become more efficient by “necking down” type/model/series aircraft to get our arms around a burgeoning logistic tail.
Lex- you speaketh the accepted “reality” but I must comment
re- “the best ASW platform is a friendly fast attack submarine.”
Yep. But it’s hard to reposit to another sector very fast. Our SSN will take care of the problem but all the blue surface ships could be sunk by the time they get on it…
re- “…we?
Lex- you speaketh the accepted “reality” but I must comment
re- “the best ASW platform is a friendly fast attack submarine.”
Yep. But it’s hard to reposit to another sector very fast. Our SSN will take care of the problem but all the blue surface ships could be sunk by the time they get on it…
re- “…we’ve got the P-3C.”
You sure do and less of them to boot (count ‘em up). And those are feet-dry doing ‘other’ things…
No comment on helos/ASW ships but those helos are getting pretty old systems wise.
re- S-3 ASW removal. As I understand it the community offered it up (ASW systems and SENSO seat) as a cost saving measure so we could buy more/faster SuperHornets.
My only other point I would submit is that while an efficient and cost effective logistics tail is always “admirable”, ignoring or mitigating an entire operational mission set always seems to come back to haunt one’s plans, even in the best of times..
Lex, I sincerely hope I am wrong on that analysis.
B2
Well, there’s more we could say on this I suppose. We just can’t say it: Here.
I believe the article about the farewell is adapted from Ward Carroll’s article about the Tomcat.
The problem with the fast attack was always lack of communication, I?
The problem with the fast attack was always lack of communication, I’ve keep up with my reading and there is still no way for them to communicated without disclosing their location.
ASW helicopters have short legs and little bellies. ASW ships? In my time the best ships rarely were effective and the older ones never found a target. Somebody needs to be talking about this stuff. Soviet diesels have always given us trouble and they are all over the world. Carrier striking distance is clearly within range of a slow diesel, and the China seems to be ramping up a blue water Navy.
I can remember seeing a lot of Wild Weasel Phantoms at George AFB in Victorville, CA.
Only wood burning aircraft I ever saw!
My late uncle ended his career in the F4B….he started as an enlisted pilot in biplanes!