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.

Aviation cadets in the mid-1950’s get a taste of Air Force life: Proudly posing in and around a Convair T-29, being bellowed at to get moving, and then of course, the time-honored “hurry up and wait.” (In my Air Force days, we referred to this as the “Mill Around Aimlessly Checklist.”) Photos taken at long-gone Palm Beach AFB.

Pretty much every Boeing product flown by the USAF in the 1950s is represented here: KC-97’s, B-29’s, B-47’s, B-50’s…you name it. And lets not forget the new kid on the block: The YB-52.

Back in the 1950’s, the USAF shot a recruiting film to attract nurses. They found a pretty actress to play the recruit, and this is the result.Other than the actress, everyone else were USAF personnel. Here, our “recruit” shows her skill in boarding a life raft.Then its off to the altitude chamber with her fellow nurses. The board games are still used today. From my own experience in the chamber, the board game was beyond my set of skills at sea level, much less at 43,000 feet.

Sporting the insignia of the 325th Fighter Wing (Air Defense), 464 was photographed at McChord AFB on 19 Oct 1963. F-100’s of the USAF Thunderbirds lurk in the background. 56-0464 crashed 6 Aug ’64, the pilot ejected safely. The wreckage is still scattered in the woods today.

57-2510 is pictured here early in its life wearing the markings of the Air Research and Development Command. It had a long career before going to the boneyard in 1984.

Men of the 40th Bomb Wing race to their aircraft. Someone else gets to move the station wagon.

Captain Vivian M. Gersema at Offutt AFB with her flying hospital, a C-54. 44-9077 was dubbed an “MC-54M” due to its medical role. Gersema started her military service as a flight nurse in WWII. She eventually attained the rank of colonel.

Having flown a medevac missions myself, there is always room for flight nurses in the cockpit.

Civilian nurses are briefed on the finer points of aeromedical care.

 

On November 26 1962, Kennedy visited Homestead for an inspection and to award citations to the units that had participated during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Chief among these was the 363rd Tactical Reconnaissance Wing whose RF-101’s can be seen in the distant right background. Closer to view, F-102’s of the 325th and 326th Fighter Interceptor Squadron get the once over by Kennedy. Note the pilot wearing his full pressure suit.

This aircraft (44-92015) was the first B-36 delivered to an operational unit, in this case the 7th Bomb Wing of Carswell AFB. Given that the Convair factory was right across the runway, the aircraft was taxied to its new home where it was soon christened “The City of Fort Worth.”

So, it’s June of ’48, and the USAF is about nine months old. This explains the army uniforms. It would be another year or so before the Air Force unveiled its own uniform design.

Took these myself way back when. Only had a cheap camera, but I took it in to work almost every day. Looking at the first photo of 65-0707 and 674, I am struck by the amount of stenciling they carried. The last Phantom (65-0794) is from the 13th TFTS. Their squadron tail stripe was white, but they changed that to black when the Wing added the white borders on the fin.