Pilots and planes

This photo shows a group of NATO testpilots at Edwards AFB in front of one of the early manufactured German F-104G Starfighter. The pilots are the members of the Joint Test Force Category II Flight Test Program on the F-104G. Pilots standing from left to right : Capt. Franco Bonazzi (Italian AF), Maj. Steve Cailleau (Belgium AF), Oblt. Erhard Gödert (Luftwaffe), FltLt. Bob Ayres (RCAF), Capt. Al Crews (USAF), Capt. Matje Janssen (RNeth AF). And kneeling from left to right are : Maj. Heinz Birkenbeil (Luftwaffe) and Maj. Norvin “Bud” Evans (USAF).

This photo was taken during the 1st Provisional F-104 Training Course at George AFB in Spring 1962. It was the first course done at George AFB with F-104D/C aircraft, by the 4443rd CCTS. Major Crenshaw was the CO at that moment. When the 434th TFS “Red Devils” of the 479th TFW George AFB, 831st Air Division disbanded on January 3, 1962 it became this initial F-104G training squadron designated as 4443rd CCTS. This unit conducted training for German type transition pilots in about 23 hours training in the F-104D from 1962 until May 22nd, 1964. Lateron this 4443rd CCTS moved to Luke AFB and came under control of the 4540th CCTG at Luke AFB, Arizona effective August 1, 1964 with F-104G/TF-104G as the initial MAP/NATO F-104G training unit. The 4443rd CCTS and the 4540th CCTG disbanded on September 30, 1966. People on the photo are (backrow left to right) FW Zülsdorf, ObLt Overhoff, ObLt Kabas, Hptm E. Menzel, FW Schickram, ObLt Pötter, Lt Strosetzki, Hptm Boehm, Major Jackson (USAF) and (front row left to right and all USAF instructor pilots) Capt Messerli, Capt Ghee, Capt Gunn, Maj Crenshaw, Capt Smith, Capt Durst, 1stLt Nelley. (Photo by late Ehrhardt Menzel)

This photo was taken of the 476TFS temporary on deployment to Key West, Florida during the Cuban crisis. It shows a lot of pilots. Aircraft seen during the deployment included 56-896, 56-933, 57-927 and 57-929. The Pilots on this photo are Top row, left to right : Woody Halsey, Albert Eels, Larry Knox, Dick Plummer, Karl Hoffman, Keith Davey, George Wooddy, Jim Folston, Bill Kaa, George Schustad, John Soler, Ray Holt, Bob Jones, Tom McInerney, and Norm Huff. Front row, left to right : David Groark, George Wells, Wayne Hauth, Lt. Col. Howard Dale (Sq. Commander), Joe Nevers, Bill Linihan and finally Tom Delashaw.

The group standing and seated in front of Starfighter 56-878 are the pilots of the 319th, probably taken in the summer of 1963 right after they became fully operational. They are:
Standing left to right: Dan Wise, Jim Whitted, Dan Klix, Ollie Chase, Dick Williams, Bob Con-don, Ott Evans, Bob Dundervill, Jan Stevens, John Taylor, Don Parsons, J D Dunn, Joe Fugate, Paul Shook, Gary Pearson, Jack Dale, John McCarthy, Bill Freeland, and Al Villaret (sadly half..).
Seated left to right: Ulad Marsh, Gerry Boe, Howard Kidwell, John Kimmerly, Chuck Loyd, Ted Stuart, Paul Mulhern, Charlie Neel, Charlie Jackson, Bernie Fisher, Bill Grenzebach, Ray Nyls, Ralph Carlock, Jim Allender, Jim Milner, Don Kelley. Several of the original pilots are missing from this picture.

Lots of NATO pilots got their F-104 conversion training early 60s at Norvenich using the F-104F trainers from WS10. On this photo we recognized Dick de Kolf (3rd from right), Hub Groeneveld (4th from right) and Major Bob van der Spek (12th from right). Who recognizes more? (Photo thanks to Dick de Kolf).

This photo taken at Twenthe Air Base on 19th of September 1963 shows instructor pilot Kees van Holstein in the backseat and Dick de Kolf in the front seat of Royal Netherlands Air Force TF-104G D-5802. (Photo : KLu)

First Dutch F-104 pilots at Twenthe Air Base late 1963. From left to right : Roel Vierdag, Hans Klijn, Ed Schuckman, Lex Adriaens, Bob van der Spek, Hupie Groeneveld, Steve Heyboer (background) , Gerrit Schuur, Jan de Jong, Flip Koot, Willem de Jong, Dick de Kolf, Melle Benneker and Paul van Leeuwen. (Thanks to Gerrit Boxem for giving this Dutch Air Force photo some colors.

When 9 Gruppo started their 104 operations from Grazzanise Air Base the aircraft were still bare metal with black serials. An example can be seen here with F-104G MM6568 code 4-38 in 1964. The pilot looking very proud to fly this Starfighter is Bruno Miotto. (AMI Photo thanks to Marisa Arcangeli)

This photo shows members and instructors of the Combat course in F104G at LUKE AFB, from nov 1964 to feb 1965.
In the center from left to right the Spanish pilots are Capt. Conejero, Major Baudot, and Capt. Almodóvar. The other 6 students are 5 members of Luftwaffe and 1 from the German Navy. First line are the USAF Instructors. Anyone recognize other persons in this group?
The aircraft is a MAP F-104G “FG-316” which was used for the training until it was delivered late 60s to Turkey.

This photo was taken in 1965 at the Baden Sollingen dispersal showing the pilot crew of 422squadron. In the background the famous CF104 model which was constructed by Gordon Price with wood and wire in his driveway in Lichtenau. It was originally used in at the Buelfest parade as Gordon remembers, covered with flowers and then in this picture it was covered with icing sugar dots and used for a Mess function. Persons on the photo from left to right (top) F/L Chops Viger, F/L Bob Delaney, S/L We Mc Ewen, F/L Pat Cunningham, F/L Des Peters, F/L Doug Fraser, F/L Bob Morgan, F/O Gordon Price, F/L Ernie Friout, F/L Neil Pringle, S/L Don Enman, Cpl Bill Hull, on the bottom row (left to right) F/L Rocky Paquette, S/L Fraser, W/C Bill Bliss, F/L Ron Beehler, F/L Bob Marion, F/L Bill Ross, F/L Dave Tinson and F/L Al Seitz. (Photo thanks to Gordon Price)

This photo is of the A Flight, 319 FIS, taken at Homestead AFB FL in 1966. In the front row you find Walt Bjorneby, Al Brown, Bill Lessard and Buddy Jones. Back row is Jim Casto, unknown pilot, Ted Stuart and Howard Turner. When this photo was taken, Walt Bjorneby was on 5-minute alert, since he is wearing his spurs, life vest and alert badge. Buddy Jones came to the 319th from the NATO F104G Stan-Eval team, so some of the European people may recognize him. Al Brown coached a USAFE A10 team from the UK that won the NATO Weapons Meet one year. The nice sharkmouth painted on this F-104B (99% sure the 57-1310) was done because the 14th AF Commander, B/Gen Bennie Putnam, was coining down for a ride in the airplane.
The 319FiS F-104B models were used in training and checks. Each pilot got an instrument check under the hood once a year within the squadron and since they had about 36 pilots, there was a continual flow of replacements as the men got reassigned. A normal tour was about 3 years in the squadron so they had 12 new guys per year. Also the B models got the J79-GE19 engine becoming the fastest two-seaters in the world. (Photo courtesy Walt Bjorneby)

This photo was taken at China Lake in June 1966 when 331st FIS was performing AIM-9 Sidewinder tests with three aircraft. Two of them were 56-824 and 56-858, the third one was a two-seater. Since 331st FiS had two two-seaters operational by that time, it must have been one of these (F-104B 57-1302 or 57-1304).
The photo shows the 4 pilots assigned to this project. Also 16 squadron men have been assigned to support the testing in different roles. From left to right you see Lt.Col Pat Green (Project Officer), Major Wesley Brown (Detachment Commander), Major Kenneth Read and Capt. William Malloy. The 104 in the background is 56-824. (Thanks to Gary Verver and article inside the Rocketeer dd 10 June 1966)

This nice groupsphoto was taken at Udorn Thailand of all the personnel of the 435th TFS. It is just too much to mention all these names. But historically this is a very interesting photo. Aircraft seen on the photo are the F-104Cs 56-936 loaded with people and behind the 56-891 and 56-892.

During the Cuban crisis the USAF ADC decided to deploy a squadron of Starfighters in Florida as MIG cap. This became the 319th FiS at Homestead AFB. Since the Russian and allies got information about the capabilities of the F-104A Starfighter the USAF decided to upgrade them with more powerful engines. This gave the “enemy” an attack uncertainty. They selected the J79-GE19 engine also in test with the F-104S version developed during that period. The F-104A 56-833 (See photo) was used to test this GE19 configuration and here it is seen takin g off from Edwards for a zoom testflight (see pilot with zoom helmet). It arrived at Lockheed in January 1967 for modifications. After the test project it was finally also delivered to 319 FiS, where it arrived in April 1968.
The F-104S version got bigger inlets to improve the volume of inlet air entering the engine. The F-104A was just keeping the normal inlets and so the question rose, wasn’t that a problem? Walt Bjorneby, ex 319FiS pilot, explained :
“Since the F-104A Starfighters were so light the need for extra air wasn’t a factor. Their takeoff roll with the -19 was about 2600 feet at 186KIAS. As soon as the bird was airborne it was getting all it needed. A fact is that the fuel control and the PT2 sensor at the compressor inlet go together to keep the fuel-air ratio where it is supposed to be. The intake size limitation on the ground at 100% rpm is going to result in pressure lower than ambient due to the choking effect. But once airborne the fuel flow rises as ram air comes down the intakes. Forex the fuel flow during run-up with the brakes locked on the runway at 80F and 100% is about 8500 pph; but once flying it rises until at 600KIAS at 500 AGL it’s up around 12,000-12,500. The fuel-air ratio for proper combustion and control of heat in the engine is a fixed ratio somewhere around 55-60 to 1. If it goes much above 60 the fire will go out; if it goes much below 55 the engine will overtemp. What that means is that the thrust developed is proportional to the fuel flow, so at 600KIAS the thrust has increased about 25%”. (Photo: couresy Lockheed Martin)

The famous “donut” photo which we received from Rodney Trimble. The pilots on the photo are from left to right (standing) Capt Bill Sedor, Col. Robert T McIntosh, Col. Vernon Sandrock and Maj. Karl Hoffman. Sitting from left to right are Lt. Tom Mahan, Lt Addison “Ace” Rawlins and Roger Wicker. “Ace” Rawlins once explained: We were flying really long missions and the seats were hard and a bit uncomfortable after 3 or 4 hrs. Our missions were averaging 5 hrs with some going as long as 8 to 9 hrs. The life support types told us the reason the cushion was hard was to reduce back injury upon ejection and of course it was not legal to use a soft cushion. Anyway, I got an inner-tube from a start unit tire and tried it out. Worked fine and caught on fast. I honestly don’t know where the donuts in the pictures came from – possibly the hospital. My first flight was a big learning curve and I figured out right away that you didn’t need much air in the tube cause it expanded as you went to altitude. I had too much air in it and had to release some. Lesson #2 was to place the valve stem in the front so you could get to it to release air and to have your survival knife handy in case you needed to puncture the donut. After a flight or two the air was set right and didn’t have to be changed any more. It made a big difference on the long flights and most of the pilots began to use them.

This is the group of who flew back a number of the F-104Cs from Udorn, Thailand to Muniz AFB, Puerto Rico. Back row (left to right) Lt. Arther K.Poe, Lt. Dennis R Magnum, Maj Hugh B Spencer, Maj Bobby D. Bedsworth, Maj Joseph (Joe) R. Nevers, Ben McAvoy (Lockheed representative technician), Maj William J. Caffery, Capt Rodney Trimble. Then front row (left to right) Capt James B. Trice, Maj James L. Foster (also known as “Diamond Jim”), LtCol Robert H. McIntosh, LtCol Robert A. Preciado (435TFS squadron commander) and Lt Travis E. Harrold. Rodney Trimble provided this great photo and stated: It was a long long flight half way around the world. Lots of air-refuelling and stops at Clark AFB, Guam, Hickham, England AFB, Miami Florida and finally Puerto Rico. The photo was taken just prior the departure from Udorn.

(Burbank, October 25th, 1967) This photo was taken because the F-104S prototype MM6658 (code 5-41) made its 100th flight that day. The photo shows the project team. The pilot on the picture is Lockheed testpilot Jack Woodman and to his right (5th from the left, standing) is the Italian Air Force representative at Lockheed for the F-104S program, Maj. or Lt. Col. Mario Borghino.
We are always interested in names if someone recognise more on this photo!

(Burbank, November 4th, 1967) This photo was taken because the F-104S prototype MM6658 (code 5-41) made its 400th flight that day. It also stated that Greenameyer should pay the beer….and this means likely that the pilot is Darryl Greenameyer. The photo shows the project team. Does anyone remember someone else on this photo? Please tell us!!

This photo was taken because the F-104S prototype MM6658 (code 5-41) during the official “9000th overall F-104 testflight” at the 104 “testflight” at Burbank, celebration that day. Sadly we do not know the exact date. The photo shows the project team. Does anyone remember someone on this photo? Please tell us!!

This photo shows the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) 430 Squadron taken at homebase Zweibrucken, West Germany, in support of NATO Strike/Attack forces in Europe. Left to right: Bob Currie, Glenn Heath, Ed Zaluski, Andy Anderson, Bob Sharpe, Ed Andrichuk, Glen Heaton, Bob Huxter, (Squadron Clerk, name unknown), Navy Exchange Officer Lieutenant Larry O’Brien, Tom Storey, Dave Bartram, Squadron Leader Ray Liukko, Chris Harvey-Clark, Wing Commander (and Squadron Commanding Officer) Fern Villeneuve, Ray Dunsdon, Squadron Leader Williamson, Dave Trotman, Bob Morris, Al French, Dave Watson, Gordy Hatch, Squadron Leader Rigby Stiamison. All names with no ranks given held the ranks of either Flying Officer (equivalent to current rank of Lieutenant) or Flight Lieutenant (equivalent to current rank of Captain). Squadron Leader rank was equivalent to current rank of Major, and Wing Commander was equivalent to current rank of Lieutenant Colonel. (Photo provided by Ed Zaluski)

German Air Force training class 70B (graduation), Backrow (from left to right) Major James L Foster, Major Norman R. Lockhard, Benton A. McAvoy (Lockheed), LtCol Jerome Grabowski, Major John H Gale Jr, Major Peter Treiber, LtCol Robert J. Massoni, Major Rodney L. Trimble, Major Robert G. Lanning, Major Claude A. Ward, Capt Harold Alston. Kneeling (from left to right) Olt Hans-Josef Niesen, Olt Hans-Adolf Schultz, Lt Jürgen Keuling, StUffz Christian Pfitzner, Olt Ernst Keilen, Olt Frank Ehrentheit, Olt Nikolaus Kölsch, Lt Peter Bündgen. (Luke AFB photo)