What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

20 Years Ago

BuckWynd

Well Known Member
17 January 1991:

Hard to believe, but today marks the 20th anniversary of the start of Operation Desert Storm. For everyone who served there, I salute you.

I was going through some old photos this evening, pondering it all. It feels like yesterday, right up until I see photos of that fresh-faced 25 year old First Lieutenant just after his first sortie. (He looks confident, but he was shaking like a leaf, I assure you.)

BuckHog-03.jpg


Just thought I'd share, mostly because I'd like to remind you that time flies, and that you shouldn't squander it. Listen up, all you twenty-somethings: 20 years goes by in a flash, so build something! :)

.
 
Thank you for serving, Buck. And you are right...my RV's first flight was ten years ago this September and it seems like fifteen minutes.
 
Man was I skinny then! And young!!!



2vbr4hu.jpg



I just had to.....me on the right...cooking the _____! Not as glamorous as busting tanks in an A10 but someone had to do it!!! Not sure why we had to do it but we did.

23wpbo7.jpg
 
Last edited:
By this time I'd spent over four months in Desert Shield with many sorties down range. My wife asked me the other day if I knew what we were doing 20 years ago. When my reserve unit was activated it was one of those "Oh S---, here we go" moments. He's right, those twenty years have gone by in the blink of an eye. My then seven year old son is now a twenty seven year old guardsman (with trips to the desert himself) trying to explain to his "bride to be" what it may mean to get a call from the squadron to saddle-up. His Mom remembers, better than I do.
 
How 'bout 40 years ago?

Soldierpierre.jpg

When I was a young whippersnapper Avionics instructor at Ft. Gordon, Ga. during the Viet Nam era...this photo around 1968/69, teaching ADF theory, VOR and ILS systems and ....TACAN!!

Since then built a Cassutt, RV-6A and most of a -4.

Best,
 
scan0019.jpg

Not only “where did the years go”, I want to know where the hair went!

Bob Markert
Littleton, CO
RV-8 Slow build wings, considering quick build fuselage

“Youth is wasted on the young. “
-George Bernard Shaw
 
Last edited:
Moderators - please move to general discussion area!

This thread will be good - I suspect there is a much larger percentage of veterans on this forum than in the general population. My sincerest thanks to all of you!

[ed. Moved as requested! dr]

34 years ago, I received a scholarship from the Air Force, to any university in the country! While I knew I couldn't fly for them (eyes), I was quite disappointed when my uncorrected vision wouldn't even allow me in at all. Things have worked out nicely anyway. Those 34 years have really sailed by!

The RV will be 10 this coming September, and that has also been a blink! I will have averaged about 130 hours per year during that time. 17 years since I started the project.

As others have said, get on with things!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
44 Years Ago

Bien Hoa, VN 1967, 12th ACS (Ranch Hands) Note the spray bars under the wing.

rp-1.jpg



Dan
 
Buck, you're right. 20 years flies by. Three kids and an RV-7 later, I can't believe how how fast it went and how young I looked. This was in Oman, Jan 91 when I was a LTjg during Desert Storm.

Marc-Navy.jpg
 
Carrier USS JFK CV 67

Last cruise was 1990 finished my time just a few months before the Storm started. It is really hard to Believe how long ago that was! Spent many hours standing on the fantail watching f-14's and A6's land over my head.

Great Thread!
 
20 Years ago....Flying 1 v. 1 against the "enemy" everyday (student pilots will kill you--at least try real hard to!)

SCAN0002.JPG



10 years ago...learning how the "real" Air Force works, as a Reservist

SCAN0005.JPG



5 Years ago...Kandahar "Terminal" & my C-17

AAAA0041.JPG



All seems like yesterday...
 
As one who didn't have the opportunity to serve, I would like to thank you for putting it all on the line for me, my family, and our country. For without your dedication and service, the rest of us wouldn't enjoy the freedoms we do.

THANK YOU!
 
January 17, 1991

Hmmm ... exactly 20 years ago today I was doing pretty much the same thing as I'm doing today ... except that the turbines were screaming at around 400,000 rpm and looked like this:

handpiece.jpg


... and today I use lasers. And I have MUCH less hair and MUCH more fat. :D

But I do still have my Operation Desert Storm sweatshirt with an F-15 on the front. Does that count?
 
20 Years goes by fast

I remember it well. I was in basic training when Iraq invaded Kuwait. We had no idea what was going on. I was between basic and tech school when the actual war kicked off. I couldn't get in touch with my sponser as he was in Spain supporting the war effort. Eventually I found myself in Riyahd, Saudi Arabia. This picture was taken just before graduating tech school at Chanute, AFB in Rantoul, IL.

 
Soldierpierre.jpg

When I was a young whippersnapper Avionics instructor at Ft. Gordon, Ga. during the Viet Nam era...this photo around 1968/69, teaching ADF theory, VOR and ILS systems and ....TACAN!!

Since then built a Cassutt, RV-6A and most of a -4.

Best,

Ahhh yes the ol' ARN-21 US Navy version of TACAN. took me two tries to pass that course at NATTC Memphis in 1959. Was that really 42 years ago?
 
Tempus Fugit

My oh My how time flies..

this was taken at Williams AFB, AZ in 1974, 37 big ones gone..


5365067329_e018cec9f9.jpg
[/url][/IMG]
 
Where Has 20 Years Gone!!

20 years ago I was an infantryman in the deserts of the Middle East. That was my first deployment, and I was 20 years old.

Fast forward 20 years and I find myself in a different desert, still on the ground, and 20 years older!

One of these days I'll finally get a flying tour. I'm about to buy my RV-7A tail kit when I return from this desert. So hopefully the build starts soon :)

Cheers All

Chris
 
Last edited:
I may have Directed Your Fire

Twenty years ago I was assigned to OP 7 along the Saudi - Kuwaiti border. On the night of 27 January my fellow ANGLICO Marines called in the first air strike on Iraqi mechanized forces moving in front of our position. This was the beginning of the battle of Al Khafji. My CO, Capt. Kleinsmith, called for fire while we coverd him during a firefight between three angry Marines and Iraqi reconnissance forces. He was busy controlling OV-10s, which I would later fly with the US Department of State, Intruders and Harriers. By late evening we were all hunkered down controlling three AC-130 gunships, two F-15s two F-16s and four A-10s. Iraqi artillery fire forced us to reengage from a differnt vector than planned (withdraw), but not before we controlled a single Marine Cobra on-target to a line of T-62s. I remember Capt. K telling us not to worry about the incoming fire because he knew that the circling Cobras would intimidate the enemy from overrunning us. Well, the Cobras eventually needed fuel and we were forced to use our E&E route that took us into downtown Al Khafji through a large salt marsh. Iraqi artillery pursuaded us to leave but not before we handed off the CAS calls to an OV-10 crew who immediately felt obliged to obliterate our former OP. I was put in charge of a six man team that consisted of four Marines and our Navy Corpsman. We joined up with 3rd Force Recon's Company A boys and proceeded to set up shop in a large building on the outskirts of Al Khafji. From there we worked the perimeter defenses with Harriers and Hornets. I remember sitting there in the cold dark night wishing I was a pilot. Twenty years ago... where did the time go?
 
Our Own

Tony "Sleepy" Spicer sent me this photo because we evidently look so much alike..back then. Studly Lieutenants with mustache's..

This was taken 48 years ago at Hickam AFB, Hawaii. Let's see, that would be 1963. In 63 I was just a little twerp :)

Anyway, Sleepy here's your photo. Hope you don't mind me posting it for you.

5366676579_449aaeb666.jpg
[/url][/IMG]


Brothers from another mother

5365067329_e018cec9f9_z.jpg
[/url][/IMG]
 
Last edited:
20 years ago... When the parents -finally- let me go up in a Twin Huey and Kiowa, and was rewarded by the pilot by being the only 7 year old in the co-pilot's seat, with the instructions of "don't -ever- push the button labelled "comms" (or something like that, it was on the left near the top of the stick) *grins*
 
20 years ago I was still dreaming of flying and about 1.5 years away from that first glider ride that changed my life. When I could finally start taking lessons I also started working in a bicycle repair shop after school, because my parents only let me fly under the condition that I paid myself. What a wise decision -- from their point of view! :D
 
20 years ago: sitting in a bunker at King Kalead Military City, Saudi Arabia as a 21 year old Military Policeman wishing I was flying one of those cool A-10's.

7 years ago: Patroling the streets of Baghdad, Iraq as a 35 year old MP.
 
Twenty years ago a group of pilots were sitting around the TWA ramp office here in St. Louis waiting to take a flight somewhere when the first news clips came across a lounge TV showing the fireworks had started. Desert Storm One was on and the general feeling was, here we go again. A number of our young F/O's were reserve or guard F-15 pilots and they were already gone.

Most of the guys hanging out in the ramp office that day had flown in SE Asia 20-25 years before that so we knew what was coming down for the pilots on active duty. Military guys spend a lot of time training and you think you're ready but when they ring the bell, it sill causes butterflies. Not everyone comes back and everyone knew it. And before that it was the Cuban missile crisis, man, were we cocked for that one. Many crews were on a one way trip and knew it also.

In retrospect, war is stupid (like there should have been a way to avoid it). But there are so many times throughout history when mad men can not be stopped any other way. It's been going on forever and probably will continue to be so. There's no evidence the current extremist enemy has thrown in the towel so we better keep the ammo ready and stay alert.
 
These was taken...

....24 years (and the same amount of kilos!) ago right after my very last flight in the Norwegain Airforce.

Yep; both the weight and haircolour has changed quite a bit since then! :D






PS: sorry for the low-quality photos. I scanned these from prints a few years ago, but the prints had already begin to loose colours and focus by then.
Oh well; so had the motiv on them too... ;)

By the way; note the "bright circle" on the nose just below the RWR-antenna. Here's a question for you ex AF-guys; anyone knows what it was used for? (A tip: as far as I know, the Norwegain F-16's where the only one with these things...)
 
I'll have a go...

....By the way; note the "bright circle" on the nose just below the RWR-antenna. Here's a question for you ex AF-guys; anyone knows what it was used for? (A tip: as far as I know, the Norwegain F-16's where the only one with these things...)

Looks like a spotlight - given the latitude you guys where flying at (long dark winters) I'd imagine it's some kind of intercept light to illuminate the target for visual recognition as you hung off their right wing.

Richard
 
From:
http://www.f-16.net/units_article354.html


"Another feature the Norwegians introduced on their vipers was an identification spotlight. This light serves to illuminate aircraft during interceptions at night. These tend to happen regularly over Norway, specially north of the arctic circle with its 4 months of complete darkness in wintertime. The search light is called a Russian light by the Norwegians."
 
Yep...

... quite right guys. :) And it was turned on and off by using the ldg/taxi-lgt switch: when the gear was up, there was a relay directing power to the ID-light instead.

It could be an interesting exercise to join up in the darkness on a totally dark and unknown aircraft, often in clouds...

When you where in the correct postiton on it's right wing, you turned on the ID-light and the light-beam hit the vertical stabilizer of the other plane. Then it was just a matter of recognizing the other plane...

By the way :another special feature which Norway was the only one having on their F-16 was the dragchute. You can just make it out beneath the VS as it looks like a "bulb".
Later on, I think other countries selected the dragchute as well.
But that's another story...
 
Last edited:
By the way; note the "bright circle" on the nose just below the RWR-antenna. Here's a question for you ex AF-guys; anyone knows what it was used for? (A tip: as far as I know, the Norwegain F-16's where the only one with these things...)

Block 15 ADF variants (flown primarily by ANG units) had them as well I think. I've seen the light on the noses of MN and TX ANG aircraft.
 
Back
Top