Location: Catalina Spa and RV Resort.Desert Hot Springs.CA
I need to think of a suitable reply .While you flyboys were juketing around the world ,my boat was chasing the Ruskies around the Black Sea and the Med. Got some great pics of the Moscva in Alexandria Harbour till the deck sentry saw our shadow at 80 feet. No fishes left alive after the 6 escorting Kievs depthcharged the whole harbour !!! Oh yes, we did get a half glass of 200 proof rum every day .It made it all worth while !! 12 week patrols on a diesel boat...no uniforms....hatches welded shut !!!
Jeremy & Jane Parrett 2000 Marquis Amethyst C12 455HP 2002 Jeep.
I need to think of a suitable reply .While you flyboys were juketing around the world ,my boat was chasing the Ruskies around the Black Sea and the Med. Got some great pics of the Moscva in Alexandria Harbour till the deck sentry saw our shadow at 80 feet. No fishes left alive after the 6 escorting Kievs depthcharged the whole harbour !!! Oh yes, we did get a half glass of 200 proof rum every day .It made it all worth while !! 12 week patrols on a diesel boat...no uniforms....hatches welded shut !!!
Vladivostok......nasy place......hate depth charges and no rum. Made Adak seem like paradise.
My dad was a pilot for the first VP squadron to make a full squadron deployment to Adak, I was a pilot for the last squadron to make a full squadron deployment to Adak. I always enjoyed seeing the "Caution - Low Flying Aircraft" sign at the perimeter road on the way to the BOQ - the top half was missing, taken off by the gear on a P-3 during approach.
Sounds like a great proud history! I had a few hours in the P-2 before getting into the VR-51, I was a plank owner like your Dad. I miss the Squadron we had a great group
Well I guess I will throw in my 20 year career. For a year I had planned to enter the Air Force for a 20 year carreer, honestly I did. Then after school was out and I had finished the 10 grade, I turned 17 on Saturday June 11, 1955 and was in Little Rock on Monday the 13th to enlist and on the 14th I was at Lackland AFB for Basic Training. I served on the C-124 Aircraft as a Mechanic/flight Mechanic for some 5 years at Kelly. 2 years at Lajes AB, Azores, 4 years as Maintenance Dock Chief and Flight Mechanic/Flight Examiner on C-47's and T-29s at Sheppard AFB until my Vietnam Assingment came up in mid-May, 1966.
I was Flight Mechanic on the 3rd or 4th EC-47 to arrive in Vietnam via the North Pacific route where I served at Nha Trang as Flight Examiner and was with the same Flight Crew for the entire year an accomplishment made only by me in the 3 squadrons that flew for 8 years. Because of the Aircraft, the Mission and the Crew, this was by far my best assignment of my career. I flew 114 of the 7 hour Airborne Radio Direction Finding and Intelligence Gathering Mission, was awarded the Air Medal 6 times and the Distinguished Flying Cross in November 1966 for an airborne Electrical Fire event during a mission.
I returned to Kelly again upon returning from Vietnam, a tour at McGuire and then to Little Rock AFB in Janurary, 1971 where I was Flight Engineer on the C-130E aircraft for about a year and a half. In mid-1972 I crosstrained into the Computer Field, Cobol Language and served as a Programmer/Alalyst and retired Sept. 1st, 1975 as MSgt with 20 years, my mission completed and it was all good to me.
In 1997, I began a Web-Site "The EC-47 History Site" to record the Highly Classified Mission of the EC-47 in Vietnam. You can visit it at: http://www.ec47.com/dir.htm Be Warned, it is Very Large.
Take Care, James C. "J.C." Wheeler Clarksville, Arkansas
Location: Catalina Spa and RV Resort.Desert Hot Springs.CA
Riga was the coldest place we ever visited........home of the Ruskie Northern Fleet. Also visited Evpatoria and Sevastapol in the Crimea ;by far the most 'interesting' part of the world in those days !! Needless to say few people knew where we were and aside from a few bumps and scrapes we did not bring any 'souveniers' back with us !!
Jeremy & Jane Parrett 2000 Marquis Amethyst C12 455HP 2002 Jeep.
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