USN LTV A-7 Album - Slideshow |
160562 A-7E of VA-12 |
157586 A-7E of VA-15 |
159996 A-7E of VA-37 |
160714 A-7E of VA-81 |
160867 A-7E of VA-83 |
157492 A-7E of VA-86 |
159659 A-7E of VA-87 |
158673 A-7E of VA-105 |
153242 A-7A of VA-203 |
154481 A-7B of VA-46 |
160552 A-7E of VA-72 |
156745 A-7C of VA-82 |
154552 A-7B of VA-204 |
160721 A-7E of VA-22 |
156816 A-7E of VA-27 |
153248 A-7A of VA-56 |
153220 A-7A of VA-153 |
153190 A-7A of VA-303 |
154354 A-7A of VA-305 |
Album Notes & Links
Caz and the A-7 Problem
The Michel van Klaveren solution
Album Related Links
Caz and the A-7 Problem:
The Ling-Temco-Vought
A-7 Corsair II is my favourite Aircraft
(DIH Aside for
favourite read:
obsessed and enthralled)
and in addition I have great interest in United States Navy Air Squadrons.
What I didn't have were any good photographs of the A-7 and I knew that time was running out to get them.
The US Navy had been gradually retiring the Aircraft from Squadron Service since the mid-1980's and the
last operational Squadrons were due to retire the aircraft in 1991.
So through contacts I arranged a visit to the Naval Air Station at
Cecil Field
in the autumn of 1990.
But this was not to be,
Iraq invaded Kuwait
and US Forces began to ramp up operations and deployments as they cycled from peace to war.
So obviously my trip was postponed until after hostilities had ceased, and the deployed aircraft returned home.
The last two fully operational A-7E squadrons aboard the
USS John F. Kennedy
went to war. USN Corsair II's had first seen combat in Vietnam in
1967 and had been involved in various smaller scale operations ever since, now 23 years after the types first baptism of fire and in the
twilight of its career it was to take another generation of crews into harms way.
When Operation
Desert Shield
changed to
Desert Storm
the A-7E Corsair IIs of
VA-46
and
VA-72
flew the types last strike missions
and assisted other missions by providing in-flight refueling.
When the Aircraft did return home in May 1991, they were almost immediately retired. Although I did make the postponed visit to
Cecil Field in December 1991(and indeed a further two: September 1992 and August 1993), all Corsair's had been moved off to the
AMARC (Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center)
,
and had been replaced in service by FA-18 Hornets.
The pictures from these visits form two separate Albums:
Cecil Field Hornets Part 1
and
Cecil Field Hornets Part 2
Plus extensive combined
Album Notes for: Cecil Field Hornets Parts 1 & 2
Album Notes
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The Michel van Klaveren solution:
I still didn't have any really good pictures of the Corsair II! Fortunately I knew someone who did, enter my very good friend
Michel van Klaveren
a Dutchman with a very British sense of Humour, who probably has 35mm slides of every LTV A-7
Corsair II in his collection. He passed on a selection of these and the major gap in my collection
was filled.
When I was considering my first website, I decided that I would NOT use other photographers pictures,
but whilst this is still in general a rule, there are occasional exceptions in some of the themed albums.
But the Corsair is my favourite Aircraft and
I just had to have an Album dedicated to it,
preferably of those Aircraft that had served with the US Navy. To achieve this
I had to not just bend the No other Photographer rule, but break it completely and ask Michel to help (again).
Fortunately Michel's favourite Aircraft is the Phantom and he has a website dedicated to it, so with no
conflict of interest, He very kindly gave me permission to use some more of his excellent photographs from his
collection on my site and the result is this album.
Addenda
At the time of writing Michel is seriously ill and spent much time in Hospital and even when at home he
has been very much under Doctors Orders. But this has not dented his sense of Humour, or ability to wind me up.
So get well soon Mate!
Album Notes
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Links:
US Navy Air Squadron Links:
United States Navy squadrons - Wikipedia Entry
Tail codes that start with the letter 'A' are from the east coast units, while 'N' is for west coast units.
List of inactive United States Navy aircraft squadrons - Wikipedia Entry
Links about the LTV A-7 Corsair II:
Ling-Temco-Vought A-7 Corsair II - Wikipedia Entry
Ling-Temco-Vought A-7 Corsair II - Tribute Site
Ling-Temco-Vought A-7 Corsair II - Global Security Site
Ling-Temco-Vought A-7 Corsair II - MilitaryFactory Site
Links about Ling-Temco-Vought:
Vought Heritage - Vought Aircraft Industries Site
Ling-Temco-Vought - Wikipedia Entry
TEMCO Aircraft - Wikipedia Entry
Vought - Aerospace Companies - Wikipedia Entry
Vought Aircraft Industries Web Site - Heirs and Successors to LTV
Album Notes
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