Famous B-17 arrives

The Liberty Belle arrived earlier in the week at Gillespie Field in El Cajon, CA. for a short tour by the Liberty group. Now the reason why this plan is famous is that it's currently called the "Memphis Belle" and portrayed the Original Memphis Belle for the Movie by the same name.

The plane is on tour and allowing the public several opportunities to fly for a fee. When I went to see the plane, unfortunately they were working on it and the ladder and other crap was in the way.

USS Ronald Reagan comes home

Well she's finally home. The USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) came back to San Diego today, after being up in Washington for the last 14 months undergoing some overhauls and maintenance.

This is a special ship to me. She is my ship, and I'm so proud of her. First, she was named after one of the greatest men and President of these United States of America. If we would only listen to his wise words of wisdom from back in the 60's now, maybe we wouldn't be in the situation we are now.

 

But she (the Ship) is special in other ways. When I was in the Marines, my first duty station was at 8th & I St. Marine Barracks in Washington D.C., and I was assigned to the Presidential Guard. The first time I met the President, I thought I was going to pee my pants. I was only 19, and he was the President, but he was so kind and his voice just came out like he had known you forever.

 

 

President Reagan was also my father's favorite President, and my father spent his entire life defending this great Country. he served in the Navy and Air Force for a total of 37 1/2 years (active duty and reserves) and work for the Defense Department for 20 years serving the Navy and Marine Corps. When my father passed away in July of 2011, he requested to be buried at sea from the USS Ronald Reagan, and the Navy came through and did as requested. Therefore, the USS Ronald Reagan will always be my special ship. The best carrier in the United States Navy!

 

 

 

 

The 2013 El Centro Air Show

This may have been the only opportunity for the public to view the US Navy Blue Angels, Congress still can't get their act together and fix the budget. I certainly feel for the Air Show director "Michelle Dee" as it seemed that her show's performers kept pulling a disappearing act from her schedule this year. But the Show went on.

Now I only went to the show this year (as Non-Media) so I could shoot the British Army's AH-64 Apache helicopters and they did not disappoint. I had originally planned on attending the Luke Air Force base's show, but it was one of the first shows cancelled due to budget cuts.The pilot of the Apache put on a great show of the helicopters abilities, and it is one impressive ship. One of the reason's I did not stay for the Blue Angels and the rest of the performers was I have seen many of the performers often and I personally just can't take the heat of the Imperial Valley without some sort of shade. As I was leaving, the crowd attendance seemed to be much lower than last years, but maybe people started showing up after I left.

The Commerative Air Force comes to San Diego

For the last three days, the CAF, came to Brown Field with several of their planes including "FiFi", the last Boeing B-29 Bomber still flying. She was accompanied by a P-51 Mustang called "Man O War", a C-45 Commando named "Bucket of Bolts", and a T-6 Trainer.

The CAF changed their name recently from Confederate Air Force to the Commerative for Political Correctness. The group has several chapters throughout the Country including "Air Group One", stationed at Gillespi Field in El Cajon.

I spent a small part of all 3 days, shooting these planes, with Monday's arrivals, later back towards evening for a softer light photo shoot, back on Tuesday for the Mustang flying customers around, and then back on Wednesday for more shots of "FiFi" taking off and landing.

If your unfamiliar with History, it was a B-29 that dropped both of the Atomic bombs on Japan, bringing a quicker end to that bloody war. By dropping the bombs, while sadly thousands were killed, millions were saved by ending the war, when Japan realized they would be wiped out with this new weapon of mass destruction.

RED FLAG 13-3

Well, I just got back from Las Vegas and Nellis AFB, where they conducted Red Flag 13-3, and now with mandatory Budget Cuts, this may be the last Red Flag exercise for awhile.

First let me state that I want to thank the United States Air Force for opening it's doors to the Media to cover these exercises, as they do not have to, and it's almost always a pleasure to deal with the Air Force personnel.

Now why do I say this......because in the last two exercises, there has really been a lot of miscommunication and a lack of coordination between the different commands when it has come to getting the media up in the air.

At the last Red Flag (13-2), I was scheduled to fly on a RC-135 Tanker to shoot some air2air images, and after driving the 5 hours from San Diego to Las Vegas, I'm sitting with a few other media types in the Operation' Room, and watch as the two pilots walk by, get into the plane and start the engines. The PAO starts running around trying to figure out what's going on, and after awhile, it's found out that the pilots knew we were suppose to fly, but they claimed they had no flight manifest for us, and the PAO said that they gave it to the flight crew already. Well, the plane left without us onboard, and it was a long and angry trip back to San Diego, with me thinking about the wasted time and expenses of driving back and forth.

At this Red Flag (13-3), I was not getting half of the E-mails, that were being sent out by the PAO, and when I finally got ahold, of someone, my name was not on the list to fly, but that was taken care of quickly. When it came my day to fly, again siting in the Op's, our group is told by a Major in charge of the tankers, that we can not take any images while flying (OUR ENTIRE PURPOSE OF GOING). The PAO explains that we (the media) are all cleared to take photos, and if anything sensitive is found (as all of our images will be inspected), they will be deleted.

So the debate begins and we wait for a decision to be made. The Major has his orders from his Commanding Officer, and we have paperwork signed off by the Base General and his staff. After sitting on the plane for about 20 minutes, we are kicked off, and again no flight. Now I have wasted 2 more days in Vegas, plus more expenses. The lack of communication and coordination is astounding.

The Air Force graciously allowed the Media (both real and fake), onto the flight line and it was extremely enjoyable to be able to take images of the planes close up. Why do I say "fake media", because there are a lot of people who claim to be media and they put up blogs and other websites, and somehow manage to get on the base. This is a real problem, because they take up room from the real media and professional freelance photographer who should be there. Maybe if the "fake" media types were not there, the PAO would have less work to do and things wouldn't get so messed up in the future.

So the exercise started in the early afternoon, and then it's non-stop action for 3-4 hours., as planes took off and recovered. Planes and helicopters from the Air Force, Army, Navy and Marines were present, as were planes from Great Britain, Australia, and the United Arab Emirates (Green Flag participants) .

One of the nice things about Nellis Air Force Base, is that when your not on base, you can get great images from outside of the base, and this is where most of the photographers spend most of their time when shooting the exercise.

Well it's another Red Flag in the books, lets hope there will be another one soon. Again, thank you to the Air Force for the successful parts for the exercise, but this whole Tanker Flight thing needs to be address. Again, thank you to the US Air Force for the opportunity to be on their base.