At 5 yr.s old I remember my mother woke us 4 kids to watch my father USAF Col Ted Dorris (ret) take off at dawn from Eglin AFB heading for Vietnam. Should have been in 1966. He ended up at Ubon. He said flying was the most fun you could have with your clothes on! I am beyond proud of him and ALL others who served and those serving now...........
Great video! I remember the F-4 Phantoms doing TOLs at Holloman AFB in Alamogordo NM when I was stationed there in 1976. I was assigned to the 6049th Combat Support Group, hospital division, and half of the floor in my barracks were housed by aviation maintenance troops...Great guys to hang with!
I don't believe there is such a thing as a RF-4D. For the USAF there was only a RF-4C and they were never assigned to Clark AB. They were however assigned to Kadena Air Base to the 67th.
We had RF4's from 1979- 1983 that I know of. I worked on them every day along with F4E's, F-5E's, C130's, C5's, C141's and many other transient aircraft from several different countries. Our RF4's flew every day.
We used to say: if you put enough power behind a brick, you can make it fly. But truly, I also flew RF 4c, best hot rod I ever drove! It flew very well.
I remember these sounds as a kid, grew up next to Dobbins AFB in marietta GA. I can think back to when they had F-105s then went to F-4Ds then F-15s. During the summer when all the other kids were at the video arcades and on vacations this little guy and his other aviation "nerd" friends were at the perimeter gate spotting ALL day. When my dad would come out we could use the big bulky camcorder. The late 70s into the 80s was a great time to be an aviation kid, GREAT memories!!
I did the same thing when I was a kid. Lived near Andrews AFB in Maryland. Hang out by the perimeter fence and watch the F-4D Phantoms and C-141B Starlifters take off and land. Great times in the 80s.
I'm an old geezer now, but in the early '70's I was a AF security policeman. When I was stationed at Mt. Home AFB in Idaho I had to walk around these F4's and was able to get up close and personal with them. Still my favorite plane! When I was in Thailand at Ubon RTAFB, I used to love watching them take off for their bombing runs in Viet Nam. The only downside was the noise from the engines! A beautiful plane, and also the C130 gun ships that wiped out a lot of enemy supply trucks on the Ho Chi Min trail. Memories are what I have left, and value the most!
I crewed the F-4C and D models and I'm in love with the Old Bird. Phantom crew chiefs are the best. My hats off to this great video. How many times did I spend hooking up a -60, buttoning up panels, and communicating with the pilot on flight control checks - too many to count. Go Blue!
I trained on E models at George AFB Victorville 1970 and then I Crewed D's at Kunsan Korea, Da Nang Vietnam and Korat Thailand 71-72 I can still hear that sound ... I got sent to Lubbock Tx T-38's to complete my enlistment. By 1974 .. they said they did not need F4 Crew Chiefs anymore :(
no back seater on this flight. Was engineer in active duty USAF from 1979-1985 working on repairs for these things. Corrosion, field repairs, cracks, birdstrikes, wing drops...all fun for an engineer. (Hill AFB, UT and McClellan AFB, CA)
Steve, my sentiments exactly! I worked building these wonderful birds at McDonnell Aircraft in St. Louis from 1963 to 1967. If you could see all the fabricated pieces and miles of wiring inside them, you would wonder how they got off the ground. But after they fired those J-79 engines and went to burner straight up and out of sight, they left no doubt in anyone’s minds! The F-4, nothing like it!!
I was an avionics instrument tech on C, D, E, and German f models. I also worked on F 105g models at George AFB 1974 to 1978. Best time of my life. 35th AMS
While stationed at Kadena AFB we had a plane that Captain Ritchie flew over Vietnam , I think he was our only AF Ace , anyway that was way back in 1976 . We sent to the plane to depot maintenance , it came back a month later with no stars on the intake . I miss phixin Phantoms .
@@trespire thankx for your reply dude. I was still a "jeep" when my crew chief trainer told me it was Capt. Ritchie's F4-D. Yellow squadron Kadena 1976.
@@KenSmith-bv4si We had F4-E's and RF's in the IAF. I didn't see any kill rondells on the squadron Phantoms I used to work on, probably because the 69th are ground attack specialists. I did see quite a few in other Phantom squadrons on another base. 201st had quite a few. They always got repainted.
@@trespire I just miss working on a "two engine flat belly bent wing bug sucker". I got a few scars on my back from running under an F4. Then there was that time engine shop towed a plane with the engine bay doors open. We made them hold up door while being towed by a tug driving up and down the flight line, as we tried to start door bolts.
@@KenSmith-bv4si That sounds like a sure way to cross thread the panel screws. I was a structural technician on Phantoms, so I've extracted many stripped bolts & replaced loads of anchornuts. Some of the heavier panels were hard enough to close with the jet sitting still ! I got bitten a few times but never scared for life !! My job didn't require we run around like headless chickens ! As a new guy, I got sent off to seal dripping fuel tanks, must have spent hours sitting on a stool under a leaky Phantom pumping in the blue goo. The flat underbelly seemed like acers of realestate.
Worked F4 radar for 20 years C,D,E and the G a little. A H is an E with the gun removed and a digital computer, synchronizer, display system and ECM gear in the place the gun went.
I remember these babies breaking the sound barrier when i was at camp in Nashville Indiana. I think they were stationed at Camp Atterbury in Edinburg Indiana
They got the -60 on the wrong side for launch. The flux valve for the HSI is in the left wing fold that is why we ALWAYS put the -60 on the right side of the aircraft to launch.
Yes. A Big Start cart under the wing will look a lot like North to an AN/AJB-7 FDS during alignment. WSO will have to select STBY NAV and slew to correct heading. INS won't care. Mag compass/STBY/Bombing mode will.
I was only an E-2 crew chief sent to Udorn Oct 68 to Oct 69. We had F-4D's. I worked on the flight line for the 13th TFS but 555 TFS was there at the same time. Am I not recalling that correctly? I do remember they had been at Ubon at one time. You video brings back a lot of memories and stories. Enjoyed it.
I was at Udorn the same time loading bombs for 13th and triple nickel We practiced in Germany before Thailand on brand new F-4 s. We had one bird from the 555 TFS with stars on it. It was supposed to be flown by Robin Olds.Loaded that plane several times in the year. Good memories on the flight line
Oct. 2, 2018---Dad retired after doing 20 in the Air Force. At one time we were stationed there when I was a kid (I'm 65) where he became line chief working on F-100's back in the 60's, just before the Cuban Missile Crisis. He & his wife, my youngest brother and later, his wife moved to Homestead and lived in Leisure City until Hurricane Andrew came thru. Helped Dad move and later on, while in the A.F. (communications) shot (photographed) a lot of the F-4C's, D's & E's that were there, including several with MiG kills and some E's that had been sold to Egypt with Egyptian markings painted on them in water based paint. Was into trading military aircraft slides with people all over the world at the time. One of the D's(?) had been put on a pylon with Dad saying it took a hurricane to bring it down, something the North Vietnamese couldn't do. If I remember right, the F-100D on a pylon made it thru the hurricane okay.
If you hop around the airplane after engine start, it makes you look like you really know what your doing, especially if you rub it on top of the wing as you walk by. I was convinced.
If you move around under the jet with your snoopy in your hand, closing the doors and buttoning up after hydraulic bleeds and closing the jet start door, keeping contact with the jet prevents you from bumping into something hard like an opening aux air door. Things move on the jet. I like to touchy feely my way. Safer paths around under it.
CCed Ritchie at HAFB several times prepping for demo at Nellis for 50th. Two German F-4E's of 20th TTW period camo/teeth/badges/kill stars for occasion. DeBellevue GIB with 20th pilot. Ferrying included. Photos videos out there... 503 demoed slick, AIM-7/9s inert, immaculate as an F-4 could be. Landed (IFE'd😉) Collings C at HAFB a few years later. Hip pocket maintenance done with GAF material/manpower by Dyncorp employees..on own time. No jobs lost but boat rocked.
Loved the Phantom supported it at Udorn and Ubon had F-4Es at MacDill and was converting to F-16s when I went to Moody with F-4Es and they also were converting to F-16s when I went to Kadena.
I Really LOVE ❤️ the Big F-4D Phantom II Jet Fighter Now the Collings Foundation Has One ☝️ Still FLYING a F-4D Model in Col. Robin Olds Marking 37680 Like in Operation BOLO 🛩✈️🛩
Olds' main Vietnam plane was an F-4C, the first Air Force model. It survived the Vietnam War. It was probably retired in by the mid-1980s. I think the Charlie models were mostly out of service by the early 1980s with the exception of the RF-4Cs with which stayed in service through at least 1992... They served as late as the first Gulf War. Olds' F-4, Scat XXVII, happens to be preserved in Dayton, Ohio at the Air Force Museum. It was brought there in the 1980s or 1990s. Originally, he wanted it preserved as it sat in the desert with all the wear and tear and battle damage on it. Unfortunately, they eventually DID repaint the aircraft but it's marked up in the same paint scheme with the four battle stars on the right side of the fuselage by the intakes I think. Funny -- some of the photos of THAT particular Phantom show it painted blue with brown camouflage but the Museum "restored" it to a nearly typical green and camou brown paint scheme. I honestly don't know which is correct, or if the plane carried different paint jobs while he flew it... I've been to the museum 2 or 3 times. Can't say I remember seeing that particular Phantom. The museum has at least 3 or 4 Phantoms (typical squadron planes -- C, D, E, G, and an experimental fly-by-wire plane with canards) in its collection and there are more around Wright-Patt as gateguards with retired F-15s and F-16s added in the last 20 years. I'm amazed they have F-15 and F-16 gateguards but that's the way of it.
AvengerII : YES Both the F-4C Phantom II Jetfighters Col. Robin Olds Got MIG Kills in Were the F-4C Phantom II Jetfighters Model Two Kills in F-4C 37680 Tail Number One ☝️ MIG-21 in January 2, 1967 and the Other in May 4, 1967 🛫🛫🛫 The Other Two MIG-17 On May 20, 1967 Were in SCAT XXVII 🛫🛫🛫
So he flew two Charlie models? The one at the USAF, his main plane, has all the MiG kills painted by the intake. They did operate D-model Phantoms in his wing. You read in his autobiography that the D-models gave them a bit of a problem because the USAF wanted the D-model Phantoms to use a godawful missile (AIM-4 Falcon) because it was Air Force hardware, "NOT a damn Navy missile like the Sidewinder!" He had to fight that kind mentality all the time. It was all politics, not about what was good for the men in the field! The jerks making the decisions in the Pentagon and White House didn't have to fight the war in Vietnam with bad equipment! They were using Navy hardware (the F-4, Sidewinder) because it was the best equipment available. All the Phantoms in Olds' combat wing were rewired to fire Sidewinders.
Watched it at Udorn, Thailand 1969, at Homestead 1/70-6/70 and at DaNang, S. Vietnam from 7/70-4/71. At Udorn, I used to love it when the pilots would come back from their 100th mission and put on a show over the base.
Proud to have helped the most elite Air Force Base in US history outside the hook line, NV where I was proud to help defend Airway Heights, WA (US Air Force Base)! Out on Saturday dead Zags! Go Federal-Mogul! RIP once feared clandestine former employer where verbal words of FISA Court Assignment were often heard by those soon to be dead, at the young age of 32.
I was always told that their tail hook on the Navy airplanes was retractable, which it was, but the Air Force version was not. Once down it had to be raised and stowed manually. Does that mean this is actually a Navy F-4J is disguise?
Nur Amerika kann ein so aufregend klingendes Kampfflugzeug mit seinen gewaltigen Doppel Turbinen bauen, das die ware Freude ist sobald es in seinem Element ist.
Good point. When I was plane captain at Pax river in 1960-63 ear protection wasn't mandatory, so now at 81 I can't hear anything that is in the high-pitched range!
@@alanw2019 Awesome. This has to be the same F-4 and crew that I saw at an airshow in Rhode Island ( Quanset Field ) years ago. I was very close right at the fence saw the entire routine close up when they did the whole startup. Awesomeness👍
Mean machine during Vietnam War, however it was a crew chief nightmare to work on and major repairers. Work as a chief and in crash recover during Vietnam War overseas. Viet Nam Veteran and Twenty years of Military Services. (Veteran Spoken my opinions and only my opinions based on my first amendment rights.7674) Until the first amendment rights taking away from me from the democratic party. The party, I no longer trust, that refuse to fight for America people constitutional rights.