Category Archives: USAF

Kindle Liberty 83 Time Machine

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How about a great 18-minute full color clip from the AP Archives, recently published, from Operation Kindle Liberty 83 in the Panama Canal Zone from February 1983?

The clip opens aboard the circa 1956 Ingalls-built Thomaston-class dock landing ship USS Spiegel Grove (LSD-32), a hard-working gator of old that continued in U.S. service until 1989 and was later turned into a reef in the Florida Keys. It includes a close-up of her twin 3″/50 Mark 22 and an LCU in her well deck (some things never change). Her bluejackets are clad in the old denim working uniform, complete with bellbottoms. There is also a short clip of a pair of 1950s Bluebird class 144-foot coastal minesweepers (MSC) tied up.

Then you get a visit to the old Howard AFB (note the naming convention used as standard for American bases, while overseas bases were Air Stations).

Aboard Howard, which was carved out of the jungle by the USAAF back in 1942, are visiting F-16As of the Hill AFB-based “Black Widows” of the 421st Fighter Squadron, which operated increasingly advanced Viper models until switching to the F-35A in 2017. You also see the old C-141 Starlifter in its full-color MATS livery and visiting woodland camouflaged Air National Guard A-7s. Turned back over to Panama in 1999, today, Howard is the Panamá Pacífico International Airport.

A short C-47 ride puts you in the jungle with U.S. Army and OD-clad PDF forces, including both the M-151 MUTT and the Jeep CJ at play in the same convoy.

At 11:27, you get a neat cameo by the RN’s West Indies guardship at the time, the Leander class frigate HMS Diomede (F 16), a veteran of two Cod Wars with the Icelanders and the recent scuffle over the Falklands. Still young and beautiful in the news footage, with just 12 years on her hull, she would be sold to Pakistan in 1988 and serve as PNS Shamsheer until 2003.

By 11:48, you get the treat of the Canal Zone’s mighty green protectors, the Harbor Patrol Unit’s 32-foot Mark II PBR (Patrol Boat, River) boats, a force that later became SBU-26 in 1987. A holdover from the old Vietnam PBR days, complete with twin .50s up front, they proved really useful in 1989’s Operation Just Cause before the unit was disestablished in 1999. All you are missing are “Clean,” Lance, Chief Philips, and Chef Hicks.

You also get a few close-ups of the Swift-built aluminum-hulled PDF patrol boats Comandante Torrijos and Ponte Porras (both of which I believe were sunk in Just Cause), as well as a 50-foot PCF Swift boat of the HPU out of Rodman NS, another Vietnam leftover. The PCF even sports a piggyback 81mm mortar/.50 cal M2 on the stern.

Drink it in!

‘They told me you’d never load 8 missiles on an F-15E’

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The USAF recently released an amazing 36-minute doc, “Dangerous Game” about the 13 April 2024 overnight air-to-air swirling fight involving a squadron of F-16Cs (D.C. Air National Guard’s 113th Wing) and two of F-15Es (335th and 494th FS) vs 185 Shahed loitering munitions, followed by at least 30 cruise missiles, and 120 ballistic missiles.

“I can’t emphasize how dangerous this mission set is. At times, I’m 1,000 feet above the ground. Minsafe altitude was 4,000 feet. I am 3,000 feet below the altitude that is going to keep me alive because I can’t see the ground. There’s not enough ambient light.”

They even tried to get a hole-in-one shot on a moving drone with a LJDAM, as they were out of missiles, with the concept of hitting the ground ahead/around the low-flying UAV and knocking it out with the blossom.

Screaming across the desert to get back to base with all their ordnance expended, they wound up flying through a 360-degree hailstorm of Iranian ballistic missiles being launched ahead of them while IDF ABMs were reaching out and intercepting them in flight above them, leaving green flaming shrapnel to rain down on the F-15Es.

Then came 32-minute Integrated Combat Turnarounds (ICT) to get refueled and rearmed aircraft back in the fight– as Iranian missiles were inbound to their base.

It is well worth your time.

One part of Louisiana is always Chennault’s

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The University of Louisiana Monroe has released an updated Brand Guide, which focuses on realigning the ULM brand with the story of the P-40 Warhawk aircraft, and in particular, those flown by the AVG and its later 23rd Fighter Group in WWII.

Of note, the U.S. military has granted ULM special permission to use a variation of the circa 1941 “meatball” roundel in ULM colors in perpetuity.

As noted by the school:

The new edition of the ULM Brand Guide introduces several new visual assets inspired by the P-40 Warhawk, the plane flown by General Claire Lee Chennault’s Flying Tigers of the American Volunteer Group in the Second Sino-Japanese War in China prior to WWII. Chennault is a Northeast Louisiana native whose connection to the area was a contributing factor to ULM selecting “Warhawks” as its new mascot in 2006.

Suitably, the Tigers of the AVG, though they flew for Chiang Kai-shek’s KMT, which lost its mainland China privileges in 1949, are still celebrated there, where the Liuzhou Military Museum has on exhibition more than 1,000 artifacts, from flight suits and arm patches to letters and diaries, honoring those men.

Fitting that Chennault said later in life:

It is my fondest hope that the sign of the Flying Tiger will remain aloft just as long as it is needed and that it will always be remembered on both shores of the Pacific as the symbol of two great peoples working toward a common goal in war and peace.

Claire Chennault, “Flying Tiger” P-40B Warhawk, Artist: Darrell Lum. USAF DF-SC-84-04112

WWII echoes

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I love passing by the Trent Lott Gulfport Combat Readiness Center, which houses various Guard and Air Guard units, just outside the municipal airport from which I often fly out.

It is a historic base, with the Guard’s AVCRAD unit having a great display of an AH-1S Cobra, OH-58A, and OH-58D Kiowa Warrior on pedestals. That part of the base, besides lots of use in the recent sandbox wars, was a training area for the helicopter crews of Eagle Claw back in 1979.

Moving past the Guard area to the Air Guard portion, the old 200×80-foot circa 1942 Army Air Corps hangar, which has recently been restored, features an early WWII U.S. “meatball” roundel.

Back during WWII, Gulfport Army Airfield trained ground crews on B-17s, B-24s, B-26s, and B-29s.

It became a primer of sorts for units headed to the South Pacific. If they could endure the 95-degree/95-percent humidity/95-percent chance of rain/Hurricane inbound days that is the Mississippi Gulf South summer, odds were they would do Okay in New Guinea or the Solomon Islands.

It lived on into the Cold War as the Gulfport Air Force Base until 1957, continuing as a Guard base.

And, true to form, the hangar had a group of visiting F-35s aboard, likely from Eglin.

The DOD’s 1981 Handgun Holdings

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According to the House Subcommittee on Investigations at the time, in July 1981, there were 412,339 .45 caliber pistols and 127,745 .38 caliber revolvers in the inventories of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps.

The last procurement of the .45 caliber pistol occurred in 1945. Since that time, the existing inventory has been maintained by rebuilding and reconditioning the worn weapons. Department of Defense witnesses testified that $1.5 million is currently budgeted for the procurement of replacement components for those handguns. They also testified that “field reports indicate that it is reaching the end of its maintainable life.”

The NYT, the previous month, gave the figure as a slightly different 418,000 .45s and 136,000 .38s, which may include guns in USCG inventory not otherwise captured by Navy figures.

As you can see in the article, even then, the Army speculated on selling the surplus guns to the public via the CMP (at the time run by the Army directly under DCM).

Of course, it would take four years before Beretta 92F became the M9 and 37 years before CMP sold the first batch of surplus 1911s to the public in 2018, but I digress.

Pretty Ponies

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80 years ago. Official wartime caption: “After a strafing mission, North American P-51 Mustangs snuggle under the wing of a Boeing B-29 Superfortress for the trip back to Iwo Jima, Bonin islands. July 1945.”

U.S. Air Force Number B67967AC. National Archives Identifier. 204834881 (B&W). Similar images in the series include 59049AC/204834866, 67967AC/204834875, and A67967AC/204834878, all of the same four-plane stack through what looks to be the same window, that of the B-29’s portside remote gunner.

The tail number of the closest fighter, 44-72864, indicates that it is a North American P-51D-25-NA and is almost surely from the 7th Fighter Command’s “Sunsetters.”

The Very Long Range escort missions flown by Iwo Jima’s P-51s– note the twin drop tanks under each of the fighters– were grueling 1,500-mile round trips escorting B-29s over Japan. They were extremely dangerous, and under arguably worse flying conditions than the 8th AF had over Germany, all things considered.

Of note:

One of the greatest limiting factors of fighter escorts from Iwo was the human factor. The B-29 was heated and pressurized. Compared to the unheated, unpressurized P-51, the bomber crews sat in secure comfort. The punishment on the fighter pilots’ bodies was compounded by the extremely high altitudes they flew to escort the bombers, usually more than 30,000 feet. This was several thousand feet higher than fighter pilots flew in Europe, escorting B-17 and B-24 bombers. The round trip from Iwo to Japan and back was nine hours, spent in a physically battered state.

While 44-72864’s service history is unknown, it probably didn’t end well.

Take a gander at the 18 closest known P-51 serials to that frame, via Baugher:

72848 (530th FS, 311th FG, 14th AF) crashed after takeoff in China while on an administration mission from Sian to Peishiyi on Sep 12, 1945. MACR 14929. Pilot killed.

72851 (457th FS, 506th FG) in a landing accident at North Field, Iwo Jima Aug 2, 1945. The pilot survived, but the aircraft was destroyed.

72860 (457th FS, 506th FG) crashed from unknown cause at North Field, Iwo Jima Aug 5, 1945. The pilot was killed and the aircraft was destroyed.

72863 (72nd FS, 21st FG) shot down by AAA N of Koriyama, Japan Aug 1, 1945. MACR 14842. The pilot bailed out but was killed.

72865 (46th FS, 21st FG) crashed on takeoff at Central Field, Iwo Jima Jul 2, 1945. The pilot survived, but the aircraft was destroyed.

72866 (78th FS, 15th FG, 7th AF) in a landing accident at South Field, Iwo Jima Jun 7, 1944. The pilot survived, the aircraft was badly damaged, and it is unknown if repaired.

72867 w/o? 16 Sep 1947. Landing accident at Johnson AB, Japan 5FG-4FS

72869 (46th FS, 21st FG) in a landing accident at Central Field, Iwo Jima Jun 26, 1945. The pilot survived, the aircraft was badly damaged, and it is unknown if repaired.

72870 w/o? 16 Sep 1946 Landing accident at Johnson AB, Japan 314CW-8PRS

72871 (46th FS, 21st FG) crashed from unknown cause 19 mi N of Iwo Jima on Jun 7, 1945. The pilot bailed out and was rescued.

72872 (45th FS, 15th FG, 7th AF) crashed 150 mi from S of Osaka, Japan due to turbulent weather on Jun 1, 1945. MACR 14641. Pilot killed.

72873 (46th FS, 21st FG) hit by AAA over Hanshin Airfield, Osaka, Japan, and crashed in Osaka Bay, Japan Aug 8, 1945. MACR 14837. Believe that he was captured and killed.

72879 (21st FG, 72nd FS) crashed into the sea during a strafing run over Arita-cho, Oki-gun, Wakayama Prefecture, Yuasa, Japan Aug 8, 1945. MACR 14841

72883 (458th FS, 506th FG) was shot down by AAA and crashed N of Mount Fujiyama, Japan Jul 8, 1945. MACR 14733. The pilot bailed out and was MIA, believed killed.

72885 (457th FS, 506th FG) crashed 360 mi from Iwo Jima in the Pacific Ocean due to turbulent weather on Jun 1, 1945. MACR 14634. Pilot killed.

72886 (72nd FS) 21st FG) collided in midair with P-51D 44-63969 and crashed 14 mi S of Kita Iwo Jima Jul 13, 1945. The pilot bailed out and survived, but the aircraft was destroyed.

72892 506th FG 462nd FS. Lost in a midair collision in the traffic pattern over North Field on Aug 28, 1945, with P-51D 44-72550

72893 w/o 5 Aug 1947 takeoff accident at Johnson AB, Japan 35FG-39FS

So long, Tiger

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Best known in the West as the Freedom Fighter or Tiger II in later models, the Northrop F-5 in Taiwan, the Republic of China, will always be remembered as the Tiger, a 60-year love affair that ended last week.

The first seven F-5As and two F-5Bs, shipped to Taipei under the U.S. Military Assistance Program in 1965, entered service with the RoCAF in 1965, serving as frontline air defense fighters.

This ultimately led to a force of 83 F-5A/Bs by the early 1970s (of which half were loaned to the South Vietnam Air Force and never returned, backfilled by aircraft from the USAF).

Local assembly of E and F-models began under the “Tiger Peace” Project in 1973, with Taiwan’s Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC) eventually assembling 308 aircraft domestically, making the country the world’s largest F‑5 operator with over 336 operational aircraft in 1986 when the AIDC assembly line closed.

It was the stuff of recruiting posters.

Relegated to secondary tasks after the mid-1990s as the RoCAF obtained F-16s, Mirage 2000s, and domestic AIDC F-CK-1 Ching-kuo fighters, the F-5 E/F endured as a trainer and reserve fighter while some were converted to RF-5E Tigergazer recon aircraft.

In late 2024, the training aircraft mission was taken over by the AIDC T-BE5A Brave Eagle (an updated Ching-kuo) while Tigergazers were replaced by dedicated AN/VDS-5 (later Phoenix Eye and MS-110) recon-pod carrying “Leo Gazer” RF-16As as the last 46 F-5/RF-5 frames were cued up to withdraw from service. This capped 40 straight years of F-5E/F service with the RoCAF alone.

To commemorate the occasion of the type’s retirement, last week on 4 July, five Tigers (F-5F: 5398 and 5413, RF-5E: 5504, 5505, and 5507) took to the skies from Hualien Air Base for a last flyby over and along Taiwan’s east coast, the end of an era.

As noted eloquently by the RocAF last week:

Some voices fade away with the curtain.
Some spirits live on through the years.
The F-5E/F and RF-5E are not just the names of aircraft models,
but also the epitome of a period of the Air Force.
They have accompanied us through the forefront of combat readiness and have also entered the deepest part of the memories of the Chinese people, and are deeply rooted in the hearts of every comrade who has driven, maintained, and guided them.
Pilots guard the nation. Iron wings defend the skies.
Generations rise to protect this land.
The spirit of steel endures.

While the F-5 continues to be flown by 15 other countries, most in Latin America and Asia, as the U.S. Navy has been big on keeping F-5s in an aggressor role, with the Marines recently acquiring 22 retired F-5E/Fs from the Swiss Air Force, we may see the final RoCAF F-5s in Stateside service.

Lighting it off, CBI style

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Official period caption: Independence Day celebration at a 10th Air Force Base “somewhere in India,” 4 July 1945. Lockheed P-38 Lightnings fire their 50 cal. machine guns and 20mm cannon.

These are possibly the “Twin Dragons” of the 80th FG’s 459th Fighter Squadron (459th FS), which at the time were based at Dudhkundi, supporting operations over Burma.

(U.S. Air Force Number 62693AC. National Archives Identifier 204961221)

Stay safe out there in your own little part of America this weekend, gents.

85 Pounds of Survival

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Original caption: “Early in the morning, the pilot of the North American P-51D Mustang ‘Tamra,’ heads for his plane. He carries approximately 85 pounds of personal equipment including a parachute, lifebelt, life raft, seat, survival vest, helmet, and goggles. Iwo Jima, Bonin Islands. July 1945.”

USAAF Photo 68067AC, National Archives Identifier 204982187

And from the back:

USAAF Photo 67959AC, National Archives Identifier 204982142

The pilot is identified as LT Ceil A. “Denny” Dennis of the 45th Fighter Squadron, 7th Fighter Command, 20th Air Force.

The above images were likely taken at Iwo’s South Field, where the 45th called home from March through November 1945, with most of that escorting B-29s over Japan on very long-range missions, a task that earned the squadron a Distinguished Unit Citation. These 7-8 hour flights were grueling in the cramped cockpit of the P-51, and so hard on the planes that ground crews had to change the engine’s spark plugs after every VLR to avoid fouling, as prolonged low-RPM cruising with giant drop tanks burned them out.

The history of the unit goes back to 22 November 1940, when the War Department authorized the 45th Pursuit Squadron (fighter), and it was stood up a week later as part of the new 15th Pursuit Group, Wheeler Field, Hawaii Territory.

Flying P-26 Peashooters– which they had during the attack on Pearl Harbor– the 45th remained in Hawaii on air defense tasking in P-39s and P-40s until October 1943 when, transferred to the front lines of the war in the Central Pacific, leapfrogging from Nanumea to Abermama to Makin Island. During this more offensive phase of their war, they transitioned to the P-47, and, by late 1944, had moved up to the Cadillac of the sky– the P-51.

Shuttered for six years post-war, they stood back up for Korea where they flew F-86 Sabres, then moved on to the F-100, F-84F, and F-4– which they flew in Vietnam– before downshifting to the COIN role in the A-37 Dragonfly and finally transitioned to the A-10 Warthog in 1981– which they still operate out of Davis–Monthan, at least for now.

As for Denny, born in September 1923, in Blackfoot, Idaho, he joined the Army Air Corps, aged 20, in early 1944. Completing flight training at Luke Field in Arizona, he was sent to the Pacific immediately upon graduation and joined the 45th for the duration. He survived the war, retired from the Air Force as a Lt. Colonel in 1983, and spent much time as a volunteer at the Warhawk Air Museum in Nampa, Idaho. Lt. Col. Dennis passed in 2013, age 89, leaving several children and grandchildren.

Echoes of OBOE 2 at 80

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This week marks the 80th Anniversary of the landing at Balikpapan, Borneo. The “Ploesti of the Pacific” was finally being liberated after weeks of systematic attack by the “Jungle Air Force” of the “Fighting” 13th AAF’s bombers and fighters operating out of New Guinea and the Solomons.

As we have covered in the past, it was the peak of the U.S. Navy’s WWII UDT operations.

Official period caption: “On July 1, 1945, Americans and Australians island-hopped right into the center of the rich, Japanese-held oil fields of Balikpapan, Borneo. Units of the Navy’s Seventh Fleet paved the way for the Australian landing. In the bombardment that preceded the landings at Balikpapan, Seventh Fleet units fired over 10,000 rockets. LCI(B) 338 opens up in the first of two rocket runs made by these craft on the beach. Rockets have proven to be very effective “persuaders” in the Navy’s amphibious landings. National Archives Identifier 153724649

Underwater demolition swimmer, SF1c John Regan gets a drink and smoke after setting charges off Balikpapan, circa early July 1945. Note his sheath knife 80-G-274698

Underwater demolition swimmer, SF1c John Regan gets a drink and smoke after setting charges off Balikpapan, circa early July 1945. Note his sheath knife 80-G-274698

Going further, Operation OBOE 2 comprised the Australian 7th Division, composed of the 18th, 21st, and 25th Infantry Brigades and the 1st Armoured Regiment AIF (RNSWL) ‘A’ and B’ Sqns, complete with their 50 or so Matilda II tanks.

Barring Gallipoli, this was the largest amphibious landing in Australia’s history.

USCG-manned USS LST 66 headed for a hot beach at Balikpapan. Note the oil tanks ashore. Commissioned on 12 April 1943, LST-66 was on her 12th series of landings after hitting the beach with Marines and soldiers at Cape Gloucester, Saidor, Hollandia, Toem-Wakde-Sarmi, Biak, Noemfoor, Cape Sansapor, Morotai, Leyte, Lingayen, and Mindanao, earning eight battle stars. NARA 26-G-4741

Australian landing craft reach the beach at Balikpapan to launch the invasion of Borneo’s greatest oil refining district. Beach installations and anti-aircraft positions inland still smoke from a pre-invasion pounding by bombers and fighters of the (U.S. Air Force Number 58861AC)

Original caption: This is the Balikpapan Invasion scene snapped by Coast Guard Combat Photographer James L. Lonergan as his own picture was taken by a fellow Coast Guard Photographer, Gerald C. Anker, from an adjoining LCVP. Note the identical posters in each photo of the Aussie wading ashore, the group behind the tractor, and the Coast Guardsmen bending over the bow of the vessel. A few moments later both photographers narrowly escaped death from Jap snipers when they sought a vantage point from which to “shoot” the entire invasion beach. NARA 26-G-4721

Patrols of 29 Bn, 18th Brigade (Australian) move cautiously into the village area of Penadjam, Balikpapan, Borneo, under sniper fire. 5 July, 1945. SC 374826 Photographer: Lt. Novak. U.S. National Archives. Digitized by Signal Corps Archive.

The 25-ton Matilda II carried a 40 mm QF 2-pounder main gun, a hull-mounted GPMG, and, while slow at 15 mph on its twin Leylan engines, may have been dead meat on a European battlefield in 1945 but was aces in the Pacific.

Balikpapan, Borneo, 30 July 1945. Matilda tanks of A squadron, 1st Armoured Regiment AIF (RNSWL), being overhauled in the unit’s open-air workshop. AWM 112525

Australian 1st Armoured Regt AIF (RNSW Lancers) Matilda II in action at Balikpapan, July 1945, shown clearing a former Japanese-held Royal Dutch Shell oil refinery complex.

Oil Refinery Balikpapan OBOE 2 Australian Matilda tank ‘B Sqn 1st Armoured Regiment AWM 110916

One of the Balikpapan Matildas, “Ace,” is preserved at the NSW Lancers Memorial Museum in Parramatta.

The Museum will be holding a display on Sunday, 6th July, in Lancer Barracks to commemorate the Balikpapan anniversary. All are welcome. If you are in the area…

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