Random photo montage of enjoyment......

Elegant.

Where does this F-106 live? My hometown AFB has an F-102 Delta Dagger as the gate guard.

F-106B at the former Kelly AFB. A few hundred yards away is the B-58 that I posted here last year. There's an F-111 on a pylon next to the same parking lot that the Hustler is parked next to, but it's not a very good-looking "pose" compared to the F-106 so I've never photographed it.

Another couple hundred yards from those three is an F-15 which is parked on the same pad that used to have a B-29 when the base was active. I don't know what happened to it.

I can't get on any of the bases around here. Fucking 9/11.

Air Force bases have always been very locked down, but prior to 9/11 the majority of Army posts were wide open (Fort Knox being one of the only limited access ones I know of but, y'know...the gold is there).

You could literally drive across Fort Hood on public roads, even the training areas.

There used to be a pretty cool museum at Fairchild AFB, in Spokane. They used to let you on base no sweat! They even used to have tours of the back side of Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, so you could see everything in the mothball fleet. None of that, now, either!

Went back today.

I've never seen a B-58 in real life. What an absolutely fascinating aircraft! That 'Vark is pretty cool, too. I saw a bunch of those being readied for transfer to Australia when I was down at Davis-Monthan AFB in 2002.

By the way, is it sunny....AND warm, there?

I'm putting these pics up to make me feel better. I'm incredibly homesick, and don't really like where I currently live. Befuckinghold!

Panoramic view.

"The spires of my home."

Downtown in the mid 1960's.

The old Milwaukee Road train depot Downtown. That was demolished to make way for the EXPO '74 business.

The mighty Spokane River. You wanna die? Kayak here.

Used to be the best breakfast in town, stiff drinks too. Always at the same time, mind you.

Looking at downtown from what was shortly to become Riverfront Park. Prior to 1972, Downtown was dominated by a massive train depot complex on what was known as Havermale island, in the middle of the river. Milwaukee Road and Great Northern Railway had depots here. All that(well, most of it. There were remnants all over the place of the old depots all the way into the early 2000's) was demolished to make way for the EXPO '74 exhibits, and park.

This was all that remained of the Great Northern Railway Depot after the park was made. The clock tower can be seen to this day, even the discoloration from the building that used to be attached to it!

The old Armoury, Downtown. There used to be a pool hall here, where we'd smoke, drink and get into trouble at when we were high school kids.

Nice.

We used to call this place "the bum chalet".

Whole lot of grain elevators around.

Yep. It didn't get out of the 30s on Monday or Tuesday, but yesterday was nice and today was nicer.

It may get to 80 degrees tomorrow and over the weekend.

I hate you. I've been trying to convince the wife to move, well, ANYWHERE warm.

The best part?

My state is 100% Anc-free.

Now, I thought this was quite interesting.

I love me some fresh water lakes! This is a very rare "Birdcage" canopy model Vought F4u Corsair.

This lend/lease Bell P-39 Airacobra was recovered from a lake in Russia, pilot and all.

This Junkers JU-87 Stuka was recovered relatively intact.

This SB2C Helldiver dive bomber was recovered off the coast of San Diego somewhat recently.

This F6F5 Hellcat looks a bit worse for wear.

This SBD-3 Dauntless dive bomber was a Battle of Midway participant!

Same as above.

A Messerchmidt Bf-109 E fighter being recovered in Russia.

And, finally, a very nice Focke-Wulf Fw-190 A recovered in Norway. Fin!

I love this pic. This is the Turkish Battlecruiser TCG Yavuz, formerly the Imperial German Battlecruiser Goeben, completed in 1912. She was armed with 10 11in guns in twin turrets, and had a max speed of 28 knots. She was given to the Ottoman Empire by Germany to entice them to join the Triple Alliance. it worked. She remained Turkish property after the armistice was signed. This pic was taken from the deck of an American warship, probably the Battleship Missouri, on a US Navy port visit to Istanbul, Turkey, in 1947. This fine ship was tragically broken up for scrap in 1974.

The Italian Armoured Cruiser San Giorgio, after her scuttling in Tobruk harbour, 1941.

The German Heavy Cruiser Blucher, sinking in the Drobak Narrows, in Norwegian waters, 1940. She was struck by 2 11in projectiles fired from 2 Krupp shore batteries, and then torpedoed by a fixed torpedo launcher ashore. By the way, those torpedos were built in 1900.....by the Austro Hungarian navy, and aimed by guessing.

This is the hulk of the French Destroyer L'Adroit. She was evacuating troops off the beaches of Dunkirk, when she was struck by a bomb forward, which touched off the magazine, destroying the ship. It's interesting to see the ship like this, since she was so close to the beach she is fully visible after the tide rolls out.


This is the bow of the SMS Regensburg, aground in front of the U-Boat pens in Lorient, France. She was a German Light Cruiser, ceded to France after Germany's defeat after WWI, and served in their navy until 1936 as the Strasbourg. in 1944, the Germans scuttled the ship to block the U-Boat pens from torpedo attack.. She remains there to this day.

This is the Armoured Cruiser Iwate, formerly of the Imperial Japanese Navy, after being sunk by US carrier planes at the end of the war.
Fin!

F-94s, Blinding the pilot and stalling the engines with a single salvo!

A moment later, Reginald and Clive needed a change of pants.

Don't know if I ever posted this one - this is Dad getting in some flying time post-war while serving out his time on Okinawa. The P-47N is probably a random one signed out for the purpose. The markings suggest 34th Fighter Squadron, which was not Dad's unit (he was 318th FG, 333rd Sqd). Picture was probably snapped by his buddy and wingman Hal Barbrett



This one is probably also Dad, cruising in a 414th Fighter Group jug. Hard to make out his face, though.



Dad (right) and Hal with one of their matched pair of Harleys on Ie Shima.