How Bout Some "Camo"

[Sasquatch]

Actually--crazy as it sounds--it was well after it! And after Desert Storm too. Gotta love the Marines! Screw PC!!

--Tom

[airnutz]

Cool that you saw them in person, Airnutz...especially if you have shots of them on the hangar deck!

--Tom

That's actually hopeful thinking on my part as far as hangar deck shots..after 30 years, I hope they're
there, but no tellin. Given the "new" F-14 on deck at the time and the F-4's in the 1-off paint
I was actually more fascinated with the Vought RF-8A and spent time crawling around snapping shots of 145623, nose# 611...loved me some F8U since kid days..

[Sasquatch]

We used to see RF-8's at NAS Oceana in the late '70's...E models, I think they were, but not sure. Even had one crash at the end of the runway when it lost power on approach (pilot ejected okay). You could always tell when an F-8 was taking off....you heard that sharp, cracking boom as the pilot advanced the throttle into afterburner...never heard any other jet with an afterburner sound like that!

--Tom

[Robbie Stuart]

Saw Ken's request for SEA "Camo" info, & thought I just might give this one a bump back up. I love the thoughts behind "Camo" schemes.

[L2Driver]

Still one of my favorites -- JAWS scheme. As if the A-10 didn't have enough bad press back then.

[Robbie Stuart]

Been some interest in "camo" lately, thought I would give this old post of mine a bump.

[RATPACK]

USFG
Two McDonnell Douglas F-4J Phantoms of fighter squadron VF-194 Red Lightnings intercept a soviet Tu-95 Bear reconnaissance plane on 10 March 1977. VF-194 was assigned to Carrier Air Wing Fifeteen (CVW-15) aboard the aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea (CV-43). Note the experimental camouflage scheme of the Phantoms.

Ahh..the "Ferris paint scheme". I was TDY on Coral Sea Dec/76, Jan/77 and have a few photos of a coupla F-4's in this scheme
in my photo album. I would hope I have some negatives of these birds below decks with their BuNo's in my stash somewhere...

airnutz, I know this is an old topic but I am trying to find out more info regarding which 3 Phantoms of VF-194 got this paint scheme. I know that 212 & 213 did, but what was the third aircraft? Did the CO's aircraft 201 get that scheme? The CO at this time was Cdr. J.S. Bertrand. Any input is much appreciated.........RATPACK........

[airnutz]

Hello RATPACK! I've never understood folks who admonish us for resurrecting old discussions or "zombie" threads. Given history is about old stuff and one can never know everthing about a subject it seems an oxymoron to be shy about bringing up an old chat in order to flesh out a topic. In fact, scattering the info around in as few places possible should be preferred to a new thread everytime. But I digress, sorry...

Nope nothing new to report, but about 6mos ago I did a fresh google on my photos and ran across some articles which discussed the photo you posted with the pilots names revealed and a few other articles. I'll have to look thru my notes to see if there's anything there pertinent to your query. I don't even know the nose numbers of the a/c I got snaps of. That's why I'm hoping to find my original sleeves with the negs or possible cast-off images. I'm clearing out several storages presently, so fingers crossed.

[airnutz]

airnutz, I know this is an old topic but I am trying to find out more info regarding which 3 Phantoms of VF-194 got this paint scheme. I know that 212 & 213 did, but what was the third aircraft? Did the CO's aircraft 201 get that scheme? The CO at this time was Cdr. J.S. Bertrand. Any input is much appreciated.........RATPACK........

Well RATPACK, after a day and a half of this subject sucking-up my curiosity, I'm certain of one thing. Ship #212 has gotten entirely too much attention and the other 2 birds, entirely too little! The search tho, eventually revealed a satisfactory conclusion I think.

F-4J #201, BuNo 153878 can be seen about 1/3 the way down in the following link from the Coral Sea preparing to be catapulted during the '77 WestPac in the standard hi-viz scheme of the day
http://usscoralsea.net/pics1970s6.php
BTW...she was lost at sea in '79 after an air collision with a TA-4J

Just in case you were dyslexic like myself, I then searched for #210, BuNo 155580 + Ferris and found photos of her in the VF-194 Reunion book...also not in Ferris Camou.
http://vf-194.synthasite.com/1977-coral-sea.php
BTW...she was converted to an F-4S and then later a QF-4S Drone, SOC 21 April 2000

To make a long story short, I eventually found a aircraft roster of CVW-15(NL), composed of VF-191 and VF-194 for the 1977 cruise.Aircraft and a/c# and BuNo's for VF-191 were 100-107 and 110-114. VF-194's a/c#'s were 200-207 and 210-214(no BuNo for #214). I started at the top of the list and began googling the aircraft number/BuNo of each aircraft starting with #200. As luck would have it and in of all places, in Wikimedia Commons, the first search returned a photo of the third VF-194 Ferris bird...#211. Yippee! Photographed at NAS Miramar on 25 November 1976 just before they transferred aboard Coral Sea. Just behind #211, BuNo 153879, you can see the noses of the other two Ferris birds. This is a zoomable link..
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File ... r_1976.jpg
BTW...this bird still survives and Baugher has #211 in storage at Naval Air Depot, North Island for Resto to the USS Midway Museum. Back in 2009, it was on display at the USS Hornet Museum, Alameda, Calif. link to follow..
http://www.midwaysaircraft.org/acft/F4_2.htm

As is well reported, the VF-194 aircraft in the photo you posted intercepting the Bear are #212, BuNo 153798 piloted by Don Duffington/ with RIO Wayne Cheatum nearest the Bear. The 2nd F-4J, nearest the camera is #213, 153871 flown by William Dvorak with RIO J.T. Wailor. Early in my search, I ran across a post by Dvorak to a IPMS modeler of #213 confirming this and I spent a lot of time looking for his contact info in order to find the ID of the 3rd bird, to no avail...tho that led me to the VF-194 Reunion page to attempt to contact him. Then, I lucked into the squadron/aircraft roster. That was FUN! Hope this helps!

EDIT-Repaired Miramar link and added Midway ink.

[Richard W.]

Fantastic!

The shot of the Ferris F-4s makes me want to get me back into scale modeling after all these years.