Maintenance men and pilots say “cheese” on the ramp of Truax AFB, Wisconsin in the late 1950’s. Of the F-102’s in the background, 56-1413 is now displayed at the Castle Air Museum in California. Beyond sits 1421 and she is no more.

These photos are from the estate of the 325th commander, Lt Col John Beck. Seen here briefing his men, Beck had served as boss of the 87th Fighter Squadron in WWII and was a highly decorated pilot with both the US and British DFC’s.

Beck in the cockpit of an F-102. Aircraft had changed a bit in the 15 years since he had flown the P-47.

56-1390 on roll-out at Truax AFB, 1958.

56-1412 speeding past what is now the ramp for the Wisconsin Air National Guard.

Beck and his fellow pilots enjoy a squadron “dining in” at the Truax “O” club. Note the F-102 model mounted above the red bull mascot of the 325th.

Basking in the warm (and humid) New Jersey sunshine, F-106A 57-2459 of the 539th Fighter Interceptor Squadron shares the ramp with an MC-131A and an F-105B. All of these aircraft were based at McGuire. Our F-106 had a long life, but she ultimately came to her end after being picked to pieces to keep other 106’s flying. Our MC-131 (52-5785) too had a long life but with a happier ending: After her USAF days she went to the Coast Guard, but is now on display at the Castle Air Museum in California. The F-105 (57-5784) spent most of her long career with the New Jersey Air National Guard (as seen here), but was saved and is now on display down Mexico way.

The crew chief and pilot of F-84E 50-1125, 474th Fighter Bomber Wing, standby for another trip “Up North.” Judging by the markings below the canopy, this will be its 24th mission.

T-33A 51-4113 gets a going over. Note the painted over “buzz number” on the nose.

F-84E 50-1157 of the 27th Fighter-Escort Group.

Another Kunsan-based unit was the 3rd Bomb Wing with its B-26 Invaders.

Originally a TF-80C and renamed (of course) the T-33A, 48-370 was in fact the 15th of these aircraft built. Truly, an early T-Bird. The photo says “Selfridge Field”, but the T-33 belonged to the 3525th Pilot Training Wing at Williams AFB, AZ (says so under the cockpit sill). However, the pilots wear the crest of the Selfridge’s 56th Fighter Interceptor Wing on their epaulets and the background does not look very Arizona-esque. Lt. Leonard Lilley, on the right, wears a US Army hat, so this is during the uniform transition period of the late-40’s to early 50’s. Note the stars denoting victory markings on the nose. Some of those markings may reflect the fact that the aforementioned Lilley shot down 7 MiGs during the then ongoing Korean War.

Cruising gracefully, a pair of F-101B’s of the 18th Fighter Interceptor Squadron show their sleek lines to admirers below. 58-0324 is now on display at Palmdale Airport, CA. 58-0339 was less fortunate and was chopped to pieces in the 1980s.

The Chinhae Air Base flightline is a flurry of activity as F-51’s of the 67th Fighter Bomber Squadron are refueled and rearmed for another strike on the attacking North Korean and Chinese forces. As pilots dash back and forth, maintenance men and armorers are swarming the aircraft. By the time this busy day was done, there were going to be quite a few less enemy troops than when it began.

There were worse places to be stationed in the 1950’s USAF. Home to a number of aircraft (including these KC-97’s of the 303rd Air Refueling Squadron), Kindley eventually lost its usefulness to the Air Force, but that was fine by the Navy who set up shop there and reamed the base NAS Bermuda.

When photographed by yours truly at Taegu Air Base in 1990, these were Republic of South Korea Air Force (ROKAF) birds. Ah, but in the days of the Korean War, they belonged, respectively, to the USAF’s 311th Fighter Bomber Squadron and 16th Fighter Interceptor Squadron. Of course, in 1990, these Sabres (52-4829 and 52-4526) were no longer front-line aircraft, but they were still lingering about the base. Camouflaged 526 was not going anywhere soon, but 829 was.

Story as follows: We USAF guys were tenants of Taegu. Both us and our ROKAF hosts flew variants of the F-4 Phantom and therefore shared certain facilities. One of them was the “trim pad” – the engine run-up area. We had an RF-4C that needed the use of said trim pad and, having been told it was in use by the ROK’s, I drove over to ascertain how long they would be. To my complete surprise, there sat this F-86, 829. As seen by 526, there were several rather sorry looking Sabres scattered about the base, but I had no idea they also had a flyable one. And flyable it was; the next day I saw it streaking over the base. I learned from a ROKAF friend that when their general needed to get his hours he didn’t do it in some new fancy jet like the F-4 or F-16. No, he strapped on the bird that he had cut his teeth on, the F-86 Sabre.

A Boeing bomber 4-ship consisting of the B-52, B-47, B-29, and B-17. This B-52C (54-2676) crashed in 1957, the B-47E (52-0165) of the 9th Bomb Wing was scrapped. Now the two oldtimers up top, B-29 44-62022 and B-17 44-83684, survive to this day in museums.

Little do the men working on these factory-fresh Fortresses realize that over half a century will pass and these planes will still be flying. The four tail numbers I can make out (60-0004, 0038, 0041, and 0043) are in service today. Location is the flightline at Wichita, Kansas.