F-4 PHANTOM JET COCKPIT PHOTOS I had the pleasure of meeting David Garbe and his son at the Geneseo Air Show last weekend standing with pride in front of their restored F-4 Phantom jet which flew on many missions in VIETNAM. The father and son purchased the nose of an F-4 Phantom jet 8 years ago from a scrapyard outside of The Bone Yard, an aerospace maintenance and regeneration center in Arizona where old military jets are stored. There are over 4,000 planes in storage, most now from the VIETNAM era. Davids F-4 was missing panels and had lots of holes in it from her past war missions of which there were many. She was part of the 432nd TRW and 555th Fighter Wing squadrons. The first mission was in 1966 and the last was in 1989. Brig. General Robin Olds was a combat leader and fighter ace pilot in WWII and also flew in the 55th Fighter Wing Squadron in VIETNAM. Every pilot I have ever talked to wants to visit but never does. Its kind of like an elephant graveyard, mysterious, exciting, a place where all kids dreams go. I think thats why not many of the pilots Ive talked to have ever really tried to visit. I saw a documentary on the aircraft graveyard. They showed a part where they cut up the B-52s, all my pilot buddies were silent, I think if each of them were alone, they would have been crying. ~ observation by a visitor to The Bone Yard David spent years stripping the paint, patching the holes and reconditioning the jet with new paint. He also had a custom built trailer designed to transport the F-4 Phantom for display and taking photographs at air shows throughout the country. Davids father served in the Army Chemical Center with the Army in the 1950s for special top secret testing. He was based in Fort Meade, Maryland where the C.I.A. now resides. There were many stories shared with his son over the years of special stateside testing back in the day. David is working on a website and creating an F-4 PHANTOM COCKPIT PHOTOS Facebook page. As soon as this is up and running, we will invite you to visit and like his page. Comes A Soldiers Whisper, remembering our history and the men and women who served. ComesASoldiersWhisper https://twitter/Jennylas Quote Source: thepepper/tucson_airplane_graveyard.html
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 15:58:06 +0000