Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnews!military
From: ron@hpfcso.hp.com (Ron Miller)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Modern USN Aircraft Colors: Why White & Red?
Message-ID: <1990Jul26.015259.2528@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 26 Jul 90 01:52:59 GMT
References: <1990Jul5.020644.14675@cbnews.att.com>
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From: ron@hpfcso.hp.com (Ron Miller)

Re: Orange tails.... an associated orange thought


Flights suits for USN pilots in the 50's were international orange,
presumably in order to help with rescue location.

When squadrons were deployed to Viet Nam, orange flight suits were
all that the Federal Stock System had available. Not too smart for
avoiding capture.

I recall when I was very young (6 or 8) that my dad (pilot) went to the 
Marine base and purchased green fatigues. My mother installed
drawstrings in the legs and cuffs and these became my father's
flight suits until the government disposed of the orange ones. 
He also purchased a .38 special handgun and holster. I guess 
the USN wasn't issuing sidearms either. (I don't know where he
got the tracer ammo from) We weren't ready for a real war in 1965.


I guess the good news was that he was flying F-4s from the carrier.
If the war had come on about 3 years earlier, he could have been
flying the F-3H Demon. Now *that* was a piece of shit airplane!

I'm now older than he was when he went to war and I appreciate that
I never ended up a fatherless child. He knows/knew a lot of POW/MIAs :-(

Ron
(did my time underwater)