ASW and ‘other’ missions have a long history, going back prior to WWII…
These guys were the original lowriders…
Not a lot of fun there, probably somewhere in the South Pacific, WWII era. I ‘believe’ there is a raft just off the nose they are making for. I can’t find it now, but I remember something about one TAXIING almost 200 miles! Proud to have met some of these intrepid heroes!
Edit- I blew this one! Al provided the correct information: The Catalina is in RAF colours with a type A1 roundel which was used between 1940 and 1942. RAF planes in the Pacific had the red centre of the roundel painted over with white so that it would not be mistaken for the Japanese “meatball” insignia.
I believe the black object in front of it is a mooring buoy. Coastal Command had a large seaplane base at Lough Erne in Northern Ireland with Catalina and Sunderland squadrons. Above the rudder there is a dark smudge that could be an island and there is a shoreline in the background so I’m guessing this photo was taken at Lough Erne.
The next generation was the high riders…. P5M Marlin, long days, noisy engines, better in rough water landings (didn’t tend to submerge itself). One of my sea daddies flew in these for a number of years, before transitioning.
I didn’t get in the community until the early 1970s, but ‘we’ didn’t have to worry about landing on water (routinely)… Moved to land based exclusively after the P-2 came into the fleet.
P-3B off Honolulu in the 1970s. I actually have time in my log book on this airplane!
Hard to believe that was 45 years ago…
And then I get up and look in the mirror… Not slim and trim anymore, but I wouldn’t trade my career for anything. Never made a lot of money, but we were the tip of the spear, and the only airplane that ever ‘practiced’ against our actual real world targets…
Sometimes we even let them know we were there! 🙂
Thank you for your service, sir!
I remember my JROTC instructor, FOR Lewis Dobbs, talk about flying P3’s on ASW patrol in the Pacific. I still remember his warning, “Never walk through the propeller arc,sometimes warm P3 engines kick over and spin the prop. You don’t want to be there when that happens!”
I hate auto correct! That should be CDR Lewis Dobbs.
The P3B in general, or that exact airframe?
Yes, brave men – sometimes I think we lost something by moving away from seaplanes so much. China and Japan are moving back into them for SAR; they have so much coast to cover, seaplanes are cheaper and longer ranged than helos.
I knew the status of the three ships I served on during my eight years of active duty, then I decided to look up the status of the ships that I served on during seventeen years of active reserves, then I looked up the status of all the ships that I worked on in thirteen years in the Philly shipyard.
They are almost all gone. Sigh.
I usually speak snipe, but if I use my aviation to english translation app, I find out that nowadays the word “water landing” translates as “crashing.”
And do you have to change the saying, “any landing you can walk away from is a good on,” to, “any landing you can walk away from, swim away from, or paddle an inflatable life raft away from is a good one.”
Good memories, thanks. Wouldn’t trade my Navy years for anything. AOCS 1971, SH-3 driver.
I had great respect for the P-3 pilots rotating through Adak, via Moffett Field. They spent more time over water than land, and much of the land was inhospitable. But enough about California…
How compressed is your spine after all those hours at low altitude in turbulence?
You had a career well executed, a life of value and service well lived. Now, a celebrated author and firearms enthusiast living in Texas. I mean, what’s not to love about that?
The only rides I got on P-3’s were as cargo.
My brother, Bill, was a crewmen on a Catalina PBY during Korea. I even got to set in one during a warm-up and maintenance at NAS Atlanta when it was at Peachtree-Dekalb Airport.
Great memories. Thanks for sharing. 45 years ago, weren’t you 10? Come on, now. I don’t believe that. You were one of those genius kids.
Any life you survive to write about is a good one.
Well, maybe it was the only *airplane* that practiced against real world targets, but it was definitely not the only ASW asset that did.
STS1(SS) USN – 1972-79
I’ve often wondered…..
The PBY, P5 Marlin and the P3 are/were good airplanes and their history is extensive and well documented. The P2 V Neptune, not so much. I was an aircrewman on the Neptune and got out of the Navy in ’63 and from then until about 1970 there were many TV documentaries covering The Cuban Missile Crisis and Castro’s tantrum and the asw aircraft featured in all of those was the Neptune. Then around 1970 suddenly you didn’t see them any more it was all the P3. My theory has been that as the P2 was phased out and the P3 came on line Lockheed themselves did not want to over tout their name on the same type aircraft back to back. So it was Lockheed themselves that pulled it back. Curious.
Near the end of my 4 years in the Navy, I was trying to get a good duty station (who isn’t?); I figured I’d ship over if I could go somewhere nice. I was trying to get into P-3s (Rota sounded nice, as did Hawaii, Sigonella, several places), but alas, I was a VASTard, & that billet wants men on carriers, keeping S-3s hoovering.
Pity–I kind of admired the big beasts.
After 28yrs I finally got my Patrol Squadron, P-3s out of Brunswick on a twilight tour as the MMCPO, thankfully I had some good Chiefs and a super MMCO to keep me straight. Lots of flight hours in the P2V-5 out of NAF Johnsville/NADC Warminster dropping sonobouys in the Panama jungle, long story. Nice to be able to bring up your blog again after too many years, the Windows XP is still purring along.
Saw you and a lot of other guys driving in/out of Warminster, grew up in the area. Lot of P-2s and P-3s, if you watched the sky right.
Thanks to all y’all. Takes a different set of skills and watchmen, when the walls are watery.
The Catalina is in RAF colours with a type A1 roundel which was used between 1940 and 1942. RAF planes in the Pacific had the red centre of the roundel painted over with white so that it would not be mistaken for the Japanese “meatball” insignia.
I believe the black object in front of it is a mooring buoy. Coastal Command had a large seaplane base at Lough Erne in Northern Ireland with Catalina and Sunderland squadrons. Above the rudder there is a dark smudge that could be an island and there is a shoreline in the background so I’m guessing this photo was taken at Lough Erne.
RC- Thanks!
Jon- THAT BUNO… I was in VP-4 at the time.
John- Good point! 🙂
Steve- You’re welcome! You guys clanked when you walked!
Rev- ROTF, true!!!
WSF- 70% disable is how good… sigh
LL- We all had ‘different’ ways to get where we are today… 🙂
CP- Noisy bastard wasn’t it? 🙂
Fargo- I wish… sigh… 😀
Ed- True!
Roy- This is true… And you guys made good ‘substitute’ targets 😛
Bob- The P-2 was a gap fill, and ended up mostly in the reserves starting in the mid 1960s. You’re right they never got much publicity, but some of them (VO-67) did some amazing things that remained classified until just a few years ago.
TB- They kept bringing us home, which was good. Most of the ones lost were not material failures.
Davey- Welcome back! And you can have Broomstick. Damn black flies… shudder…
PK- Appreciate it, I was in/out of NADC from 76-92 quite a bit. 🙂
Al- THANK YOU! I’ll fix the post! 🙂
I think the simulated motorboat incident you are referring to was the single engine version of a seaplane. Picked up too many to lift with, and couldn’t even get them all inside. Strapped them to the wings. I think the sea was too rough to attempt a takeoff, anyway.
Might have been sailors from the Indianapolis.
Or Iceland, or the Hebrides, or Orkneys or Faeroes, or east or west coast Canada and Greenland, Newfoundland, Labrador. Or way South Atlantic.
I miss the P-3’s flying out of Moffett Field, but Mountain View has changed so much I don’t miss it a bit anymore.
Now up in the sticks here I see more Blackhawks. Catalinas are just cool, love the gun-blisters.
Coffeepot, if you ever find yourself at Peachtree-Dekalb again, I can’t recommend the 57th Fighter Group restaurant too highly. It’s like you stepped back into time.
http://www.the57threstaurant.com
If you have your better half, there’s usually dancing there, with a packed dance floor.