Subhunter1 wrote:
Rob J.
How much reading have you done about the Cold War after you got off active duty? You know that we were damn near ordered to start WWIII with the flyovers of Sakhalin during FLEETEX83 right? If you put things together our, flyovers were part of the reason that KAL007 was shot down by the Soviets with 269 civilians killed. I have not been able to shake that little tidbit of history even after all this time.
That aside..... damn what a boat! Right out of the yards, and factory fresh!
It wasn't until my wife got the Tamiya model that I started to notice all the coincidences on some things. I was born in 1960, the same year the Enterprise was launched. I earned a SENSO qualification with VS-37, and the ONLY time VS-37 flew off the Enterprise was on the 82-83 cruise. Lastly, if you look at the painting on the top of the box for the model, it is the black, white and yellow tail markings of VS-37 in the painting that you see. What are the odds of the artist selecting a photo to recreate with the tail markings of a squadron that only deployed once off that ship? Hell having a wife that would purchase such a gift for their husband is pretty rare too.
Best regards to you.
Subhunter1,
Sorry it took so long to reply. I definitely do read a lot about "the good ole' days"; I read somewhere that the Russians had been tipped off about FLEETEX 83' by "Johnny Walker" (it may have been from a Midway bio). If you remember when we were up there in October 82' the Ruskies went nuts; even scrambling Backfire Bombers for the first time. I've got quite a few shots of Bears and Badgers as well as the Kara Class Cruiser that was shadowing us. However when we returned the following spring... they really pretty much ignored us. I'm fairly sure Flight 007 had nothing to do w/ us.
The CO of AIMD had about a 5' X 3' framed painting on his wall same as the Tamiya box. When I first saw the box art I laughed cause "hey I've seen that picture before"!!! You're right VS-37 was there even though Bert Kinzey got it wrong in his book (He lists VS-21 for 9/82).
I've been working on my Enterprise's Island for more than a month now...LOL; hope your ready...there's a lot of scratch-building a head!!!!