Engine Stoner worked for Cadillac Gauge not Armalite he helped form Armalite. F
close enough.
Saratoga I asked you who served in the Tonkin Gulf. D-
I think you should go back and look again... all four of the Forrestals served in the Tonkin Gulf. I'm going to guess you meant, Persian Gulf, in Gulf War? I'll PM you an interesting story
The Forestal's your talking about were retrofits of the same aircraft carrier.
No, when I say the Forrestals, I refer to the four ships of the Forrestal-class of carriers. Forrestal was the name ship of that class. I've been aboard a couple of them. We used to call the Forrestal 'FID (First in Defense, ref'ing ship's namesake)
Sent you a PM and as you will see I had an unfair advantage on you when it came to these ships
and those aircraft. Yes they were the Forestal class carriers but I'm talking about the ships
themselves. The Saratoga was the first carrier to get the E2C Hawkeye and the F16.
VAW 123 was the E2 squadron and after her deployment in VN the Sara was sent back to Norfolk
to be retrofitted with the new aircraft. After that she did a shakedown off the coast of Cuba
meant to make Castro very nervious and to show off or newest weapons systems.
The Sara was chosen for this because she was known to have some very powerful cats. One of a
kind at the time is what they said. Well capible of tearing off the nose hook on an aircraft if the
yellow shirt wasnt carful. But well suited for the new aircraft especilly the F16.
My source was on the Sara during this transition and helped get the older F4s ready to be flown
to NAS China Lake California via Va. Beach. My source was an AO, so he was trained in the new
weapon systems on the F16 as well as having a knowledge of the small arms used in the VN war.
So he can say he is one of the few that had hands on experience with the F4 and the F16.
My point is back on topic, this is but one example of how or millitary used to spend its money
wisely. Send the VN war horse the USS Saratoga with a known reputation of being able to
launch very heavy payloads. Right down to Cuba and have her strut her stuff right under the
noses of the Soviet Union. The Sara at the time was not one to mess with her crew was battle
hardened looking for a fight. Its called a deterant, let your foes know what your now capible
of doing and how well you can do it. The new E2C Hawkeyes were well capable of watching Castro
takeing a shower and could call in the new F16s within minutes bringing him some soap on a rope.
It sure got the attention of the Soviets even Pravda was watching and reporting on this. I don't
mind one bit if our millitary spends its money like this, showing off like this might have stalled
off any Soviet aggression elsewhere during our pull out of VN. The Sara knew the waters and she
knew where the critical targets were just in case she had to go back over there. The Sara was never
a police action, when she rored she always had the last word. And John McCain was never really
welcome on her decks, my source said her crew always was grumbling about what really happened
on her sister ship the Forestal.