Archive for the ‘Cold War’ Category
Belgium Congo, C-130 Hercules, Cuban Missile Crisis, Incirlik Air Force Base, Loring Air Force Base, McDill Air Force Base
In Cold War, U.S. Air Force on March 27, 2013 at 2:38 am
This was the C-130 “Hercules” crew that flew part of the 500 Belgium paratroopers to the Belgium, Congo to quell a native uprising. Norman is the airman at the far left squatting. Photo provided
For most of his 24 years of service in the Air Force Sgt. Norman Page kept C-130 “Hercules,’ four-engine transport planes flying as a senior aviation mechanic and flight engineer or crew chief. After graduating from aviation mechanics training his first assignment, a Strategic Air Command mechanic at McDill Air Force Base in Tampa in the early 1950s. Before retiring from the service in 1975, Page had traveled the world in the Air Force while fixing airplanes and crewing in them.
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Cold War, Cuban Missile Crisis, P-2V "Neptune", P-5M "Flying Boat", Patrol Squadron 30
In Cold War, Cuban Missile Crisis, U.S. Navy on March 13, 2013 at 1:38 am
Wayne Mengel is pictured about the time he graduated from boot camp at Great Lakes Naval Processing Center outside Chicago in 1960. Photo provided
Radioman 3/C Wayne Mengel of Rotonda, Fla. played a small part in the history-making “Cuban Missile Crisis,” the high point in the “Cold War,” between the United States and the Soviet Union, in October 1962.
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1st Marine Air Wing, Composite Squadron 21, Foreign Service, Grumman "Avenger", North Island Naval Air Station
In Cold War, Korean War on January 23, 2013 at 4:38 am
Aviation Electrician’s Mate 1st Class Don Schilke of Englewood, Fla. stands at the rear of the World War II vintage “Avenger” torpedo bomber he flew in during the “Cold War” searching for Soviet submarines about the time of the Korean War. Photo provided
Don Schilke joined the Navy Reserves while still in high school in Oak Park, Ill. in 1947. After graduation he found himself in Composite Squadron 21 at North Island Naval Air Station in San Diego training for a job as an anti-submarine warfare crewman aboard a Grumman “Avenger” torpedo bomber. Read the rest of this entry »
Agent Orange, Atomic War Veterans, Department of Defense, Eniwetok, Marshall Islands
In Cold War, U. S. Army, Vietnam War on January 21, 2013 at 4:35 am
Andy Hawkinson was a teenage MP in this picture just before he was sent to Eniwetok Island in the Pacific in 1957 where dozens of atomic blasts were set off. Photo provided
Andy Hawkinson is the last of a dying breed. He is one of the last of an estimated 400,000 American soldiers who took part in atomic bomb testing during World War II and throughout the Cold War up to 1992. Read the rest of this entry »
1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, 6th Marine Regiment, Bay of Pigs, Cuba, Cuban Missle Crisis, Guantanamo Bay, John Kennedy, Nikita Kruschev
In Cold War, U.S. Marine Corps on December 5, 2012 at 4:38 am
Pfc. Bob Hemingway served as a light machine-gunner in the 2nd Marine Division during the 1960s. Here he’s horsing around with the .30-caliber gun for the camera. Photo provided
Bob Hemingway of Lake Suzy, near Port Charlotte, Fla. was a junior in high school in New Haven, Conn. when he dropped out of school and joined the Marine Corps. He ended up in the 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division stationed at Camp Lajeune, N.C. Read the rest of this entry »
A-4 Attack Squadron, Piraeus, Skyhawk, USS Independence, VMA-331
In Cold War, U.S. Marine Corps on November 28, 2012 at 4:38 am
Lt. Ken Heitel of Venice, Fla. picture in his A-4E “Skyhawk” jet fighter. He flew off the deck of the carrier Independence during the “Cold War” of the 1970s. Photo provided by Ken Heitel
Ken Heitel was a “Cold War Warrior.” He flew an A-4E “Skyhawk,” jet fighter off the USS Independence, a Forrestal Class carrier, as a Marine Corps aviator serving in the Mediterranean during the early 1970s. Read the rest of this entry »
Caribbean Mercy Hospital Ship, Cold War, Exxon San Francisco
In Cold War, Merchant Marines, U.S. Navy on November 21, 2012 at 4:38 am
This is Norm Meissner’s yearbook picture in 1961 as a Midshipman when he attended the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, NY. Photo provided by Norm Meissner
Norm Meissner attended the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, N.Y. in the 1960s.
The “Cuban Missile Crisis” was erupting about the time he left the academy. The U. S. was on the verge of going to war with Russia over missiles the Soviets snuck into the island nation that were aimed our way. Read the rest of this entry »
Berlin Wall, F-105B "Thunderchief, F-86H fighter jet, National Guard, ROTC
In Air National Guard, Cold War, U.S. Air Force on October 22, 2012 at 4:38 am
Lt. Bob Thompson is pictured in his graduation photo after he received his fighter pilot wings in 1957. Photo provided by Robert Thompson
Maj. Robert Thompson was a citizen soldier and a “week-end warrior” — a member of the 141st Tactical Fighter Squadron of the New Jersey Air National Guard based at McGuire Air Force Base in central New Jersey. Read the rest of this entry »
Big Brothers Big Sisters, Kadena Air Foce Base, Meals on Wheels, Mote Marine Laboratory, Okinawa, Segregation, Southeastern Guide Dogs
In Cold War, U.S. Army Air Force on October 3, 2012 at 4:38 am
Bob Werner is pictured as a 20-something U.S. airman who served in the Pacific on Okinawa as part of the occupational forces in 1947-48 after World War II was over. Photo provided
A Canadian resident with an American father who met his mother while living in the Montreal area, Bob Werner of Bay Indies Mobile Home Park was drafted into the U.S. Army Air Force in 1946. He ended up in Sheppard Field, near Wichita Falls, Texas for basic which was the beginning of a series of educational experiences for the 20-year-old. Read the rest of this entry »
Adak, Aleutian Islands, Cold War, Eisenhower, Fighting 69th, Fort Pendleton, Ground Pounder, PX Detachment
In Cold War, U. S. Army on June 20, 2012 at 4:38 am
Cpl. John Flower of Englewood, Fla. became the manager of the bowling alley on Adak in the Aleutian Islands during the “Cold War” in 1946 when he served for a year in the Army in the north country. Photo provided
John Flower of Oak Forrest subdivision Englewood, Fla. said facetiously, “I was a corporal in the U.S. Army’s ‘Fighting 69th, PX Detachment’ on Adak, in the Aleutian Islands in 1946″. He ran a bowling alley for the troops on the godforsaken atoll. Read the rest of this entry »
"Ferrets flights", B-17 Flying Fortress, B-29 Superfortress, Cold War, Iron Curtain, MacDill, SAC, Yokota Air Base
In Cold War, U.S. Air Force, World War II on May 4, 2012 at 4:38 am
The “Suella J” was 1st Lt. Smith’s B-29 “Super Fortress” he flew over the Soviet Union while spying on the Russians shortly after World War II. Photo provided
“Ferrets flights” are what they were called. They were aptly named because the super-secret missions in modified B-29 bombers immediately after World War II were made to ferret out information about the Soviet Union’s most sensitive military sites. Read the rest of this entry »
Control and Warning Battalion 932, DEW Line, Loran Navigation Station, Reykjavik, Soviet "Bear" Bombers
In Cold War, U.S. Air Force on March 28, 2012 at 4:38 am
Sgt. Earl Schworm is going to church in a school bus one Sunday in Iceland. He was serving with the 932nd Control and Warning Battalion near Rockville Air Force Base in the southwestern part of the barren, treeless country. His job was to help run a radar station that was part of the DEW Line early warning system. Photo provided.
Earl Schworm, who lives in Boca View condominiums in Placida, Fla., served as a member of U.S. Air Force’s Control and Warning Battalion 932 in what became known as the “Intercept Capital of the World” during the “Cold War” of the 1950s. His job: tracking Soviet strategic bombers trying to penetrate U.S. air space. Read the rest of this entry »
Airborne Early Warning Squadron, Argentia Naval Air Station, Great Lakes Naval Training Center, Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Super Constellation
In Cold War, U.S. Navy on February 22, 2012 at 4:38 am
George Burger (left) of Port Charlotte, Fla. wanted to be a Naval aviator, but ended up as a radar operator aboard a Super Constellation flying out of a base in Canada during the “Cold War.” He’s pictured with his buddy Don Fitzik shortly after they got out of boot camp at Great Lakes. Photo provided
George Burger of Rotonda, near Port Charlotte, Fla., was a radar operator aboard a four-engine Navy Super Constellation patrol plane flying out of Argentia Naval Air Station, Newfoundland in the mid 1950s during the “Cold War” searching for Soviet missiles and submarines as a member of Airborne Early Warning Squadron 13. Read the rest of this entry »
B-47 "Stratojet", SAC, Thailand, Thule Greenland
In Cold War, Strategic Air Command, U.S. Air Force, Vietnam War on July 4, 2011 at 4:38 am
Donald Gatrell had just arrived at SAC, Strategic Air Command, in 1960 to become a crew chief on a B-47 "Stratojet," six-engine jet bomber. He was 21-years old when the picture was taken. Photo provided
Donald Gatrell of Port Charlotte, Fla. was a crew chief on a B-47 “Stratojet” six- engine nuclear bomber during the early 1960s. One mission stands in his mind after more than half a century.
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82nd Airborne, Fort Bragg, Fort Dix, Fort Polk, G.I. Bill
In Cold War, U. S. Army on June 22, 2011 at 4:38 am
Pfc. James Johnson was a member of the U.S. Army Honor Guard shown marching through the front gate at the Fontainebleau, Napoleon's summer chateau, for a ceremony of some kind. Photo provided
When James Johnson joined the 82nd Airborne Division, an elite fighting force, in the fall of 1955 as a 20-year-old soldier he took part in one of the largest ground maneuvers the Army ever staged in the United States.
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'Mach Buster Club.', Chuck Yeager, Cold War, Fail-Safe, George Air Force Base, KC-135 tankers, NORAD, SAC
In Cold War, U.S. Air Force on May 16, 2011 at 4:38 am
Maj. Gen. Jim Andrews is pictured at the controls of a KC-135 tanker. He had just completed a flight from Bosnia to Italy as part of a Strategic Air Command exercise. Photo provided
Maj. Gen. James Andrews of Punta Gorda, Fla. graduated from the United States Air Force Academy in 1970. He spent most of his 30-plus years in the service flying Strategic Air Command tankers, commanding air wings and serving in various capacities from Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense to Air Mobility Commander and Inspector General. Read the rest of this entry »
325th Regiment, 82nd Airborne, Fort Bragg, Gulf of Tonkin, Panama, USS Ranger
In Cold War, U. S. Army on April 27, 2011 at 4:38 am
Lou Drendel of Venice, Fla. became a member of the 82nd Airborne at age 18 in 1955. He made 41 jumps but never left Fort Bragg. Photo provided
Long before he joined the 82nd Airborne Division as a peacetime warrior in the mid-1950s, Lou Drendel of Venice was fascinated with things military. It began when he was a kid and his father built balsa wood airplane models for him. Read the rest of this entry »
Bootneck, Chatham, HMS Victorious, Portsmouth, Royal Marines, Suez Canal Crisis
In Cold War on March 9, 2011 at 4:38 am
Ken Armstrong was a Command Sergeant Major in the British Royal Marines who first went to sea shortly after World War II aboard the HMS Victorious. He took part in the 1956 Suez Crisis and spent the last two decades in the service teaching drafting and engineering at the navy’s drafting headquarters in Portsmouth, England. Sun photo by Don Moore
Ken Armstrong was a command sergeant major in the British Royal Marines when he retired from Her Majesty’s service after 22 years. He joined the “Bootnecks”–Marines– in Glasgow, Scotland shortly after graduating from high school in 1947.
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Aleutian Islands, Korea, LST, Princeton
In Cold War, Korean War, Marines on January 28, 2011 at 4:38 am
Marine 1st Lt. Fred Holzweiss of Englewood, Fla. stands in front of a tracked vehicle while training during the Cold War in the 1950s. Photo provided
Fred Holzweiss of Englewood, Fla. was a first lieutenant in the 1st Engineering Battalion attached to the 1st Marine Division in Korea in 1953.
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Amphibious School, Cold War, Cuba, FALN Communist, Havana Harbor, Hydrofoils, Key West, USS Black, USS Farragut, USS Radford, USS Salmon, USS SKate, USS Wimble
In Bronze Star, Cold War, U.S. Navy, World War II on January 26, 2011 at 4:38 am
Retired Navy Captain Jim McKinney holds a picture of the hydrofoil guided missile boats he commanded in Key West in the 1980s. On he shelf beside him are pictures of his son, Brad in the foreground who is also a Navy captain; himself and his father, Eugene McKinney who was an Admiral who served in the submarines service in World War II. Photo provided
Jim McKinney is a Navy man. So was his father and so is his son.
Jim was a career naval officer who served during the Cold War as a commodore of a squadron of hydrofoil boats in Key West equipped with Harpoon, ship-to-ship guided missiles. His father, Adm. Eugene McKinney, was skipper of two World War II submarines: the USS Salmon and the USS Skate. He received three Navy Crosses and a Silver Star for Valor for the combat missions he made. Brad, Jim’s oldest son, is the commander of the Explosive Ordinance Department at the Navy’s facility at Panama Beach.
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Military Intelligence, Noriega, Operation Lazar Strike, Operation Safe Haven, Vatican Embassy
In Cold War, Iraq, U.S. Army Airborne on January 24, 2011 at 4:38 am
Sgt. Ken Drew is first out the door of a transport plane while serving with the 7th Special Forces Group Airborne based in Fort Bragg, N.C. with the jump master watching at the right side of the airplane's door. Photo provided
Former 1st Sgt. Ken Drew was a “Cold War” warrior. He spent most of his 23 years in the Army as a Spanish-speaking, military intelligence expert who served 14 of those years fighting South and Central American dictators and drug lords. Toward the end of his service he did a hitch in Iraq during the height of “The Surge,” interrogating high profile Iraqi detainees. Read the rest of this entry »
Astronaut, CVS-33, Hickam Air Force Base, Sigma 7, Tonkin Gulf, USS Kearsarge, USS Maddox, USS TUrner Joy, Walter Schirra
In Cold War, Navy, Vietnam War on December 31, 2010 at 4:38 am
Lt. Bruce Owens of Burnt Store Marine south of Punta Gorda, Fla. is pictured flying a Sikorsky H-3 helicopter in combat in 1964 somewhere over the Tonkin Gulf during the Vietnam War. Photo provided
Bruce Owens of Burnt Store Marina was a lieutenant j.g. serving aboard the aircraft carrier USS Kearsarge (CVS-33) that plucked Astronaut Wally Schirra from the Pacific on Oct. 3, 1962 during America’s fifth manned space flight.
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B-52, C-130, Cherry Blossom, Fumioki Asano, Japanese Naval Aviator, Kamikaze, Thailand, Tokyo, Vietnam, World War II
In Cold War, Korean War, U.S. Air Force, Vietnam War on December 3, 2010 at 4:38 am
Doug Gilchrist holds a dress dagger he was given by a World War II Kamikaze pilot as a token of the Japanese's pilot's admiration for the U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel's understanding of his former foe's feelings. Sun photo by Don Moore
U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Doug Gilchrist was waiting at the airport terminal in Tokyo in 1967 for a flight that would take him to the war in Vietnam when a chance encounter with a Japanese couple changed his life.
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34th Arvin Ranger Battalion, 376 Air Transport Wing, C-130 Hercules, General Vo Nguyen Giap, Hickam Field, Khe Sanh, Lang Vei, Special Forces, Tactical Air Command, Thailand, Vietnam
In Cold War, Korean War, U.S. Air Force, Vietnam War on December 1, 2010 at 4:38 am
Gilchrist is pictured as a young lieutenant learning to fly a trainer in Texas at the end of the Korean War in the 1950s. Photo provided
Lt. Col. Doug Gilchrist was flying a four-engine C-130 Hercules cargo plane, used as a command ship, from a base in Thailand over North Vietnam when he came as close to “buying the farm” as he did during any of his 102 combat missions over enemy territory during the Vietnam War.
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12th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Cold War, Distinguished Flying Cross, F-105, Korat Thailand, THUD, Vietnam
In Cold War, Distinguished Flying Cross, U.S. Air Force, Vietnam War on November 1, 2010 at 4:38 am
Lt. Chuck Hofelich is about to climb into the cockpit of a T-38 jet trainer. He flew 79 combat missions over North Vietnam from 1964 to 1967. Photo provided
Lt. Chuck Hofelich was a “Thud” driver and proud of it. He flew an F-105 “Thunderchief” supersonic fighter-bomber, he and his jet jockey buddies called “Thuds” on 79 combat missions over North Vietnam.
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Canberra, Captain William Ecker, Cinderella Liberty, Cuban Missle Crisis, Kennedy, USS Mole
In Cold War, Korean War, Navy on August 11, 2010 at 5:00 am
Joe Rex was a lifer. He served 25 years in the U.S. Navy from World War II into the Vietnam War. He lives in Englewood, Fla. Photo provided
Joe Rex joined the U.S. Navy at 17 in February 1945 near the end of World War II. In 1970, twenty-five years later, he retired as a Master Chief Petty Officer.
Although he was in the service during the Second World War, he served aboard the destroyer, USS Mole –DD-693—at the start of the Korean War and served as a Mobile Electronic Technician near then end of his quarter century in the Navy, Rex’s finest hour may have been during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
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B-36, Broken Arrow, Cold War, Eniwetok, Fairchild Air Force Base, General Curtis Le May, Kirtland Air Force Base, SAC
In Cold War on August 6, 2010 at 6:00 am
A couple of B-36 bombers are pictured on a practice bombing mission during the 1950s somewhere in the world as part of the U.S. Strategic Air Command’s deterrence. Photo provided
Harvey Rapp’s job was to keep the biggest bomber this nation ever built in the air. The B-36 was an eight-engine Goliath that could fly non-stop from anywhere in the United States to Europe drop its bombs and return without refueling.
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1936 Harley Davidson, C-47, CIA, Cold War, Diem regime, Drew Field, Korea, Saigon, Tampa, The Hump, Vietnam, WWII
In Cold War, Korean War, Vietnam War, World War II on June 30, 2010 at 6:00 am
Lt. Col. John Dyer stands in front of a “Gooney Bird,” a C47 transport plane, at Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam. These legendary transports first flew in the 1930s and saw service in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. They’re still being used in many countries around the world.
Lt. Col. John Dyer had no idea the planeload of .50-caliber machine-gun ammunition he flew to Tonsonnhute Airport in Saigon was part of a CIA plot to topple the Ngo Dinh Diem government in South Vietnam. Read the rest of this entry »
Cold War, Lapon, Presidential Unit Commendation, Rickover
In Cold War on April 30, 2010 at 6:00 am
This was Capt. Whitey Mack when he commanded the atomic attack submarine USS Lapon.
Chester M. “Whitey” Mack was skipper of the Lapon. It may have been the sharpest submarine in the U.S. Navy when he was at the helm. Read the rest of this entry »
Cuban Missle Crisis, F-8 Crusader, JFK, VFP-62
In Cold War on March 31, 2010 at 6:00 am
Capt. William Ecker of Punta Gorda spent 32 years in the service. He was a key player in the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962.
Capt. William Ecker who flew a secret low-level photo-reconnaissance mission over Cuba in 1962 to capture Soviet nuclear missiles on film during the Cuban Missile Crisis died last Thursday (Nov. 5, 2009) at his home in Punta Gorda, FL. He was 85.
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