My dad tells a story about when he was stationed on board the USS Constellation during the Vietnam war about 2 guys who did constantly either drag race or play chicken with tugs racing towards the end of the flight deck. One day, this guy wasn't going to lose the game of chicken - and drove the tug right over the side! Told the CO that the 'throttle stuck' and he couldn't stop, and was saving the planes!
A buddy of mine has a smaller version of an ex military tug and put a blown SBC in it with a built PG behind it. He goes to air shows all over the country doing ground supportfor varous aircraft. He's towed everything from ww2 bomers and fighters to race planes at Reno. I help him when he's in the area and the best ones are working with current military fighters and cargo planes, the inlisted guys can't believe somone would do that to a tug.
I heard a rumor that there is a HAMB decal on the back of that thing, but have yet to see pictures... Free shirts to the crew of that thing if I can get one.
I Like It Too. I'm glad to see that the ships commanders aren't a bunch of stuffed shirts. You guys are awesome and thanks for your service.
i just got off of work-ups on the stennis, and i dont recall seeing that tug. it is an old picture, (note the tomcat in the background, and the hummer with 4 blade props) i do wonder how long those "whitewalls" stayed white!
Tman, it's not me. I'm on a submarine. We don't have near enough room to have one of those. that is rad though. i will see if i can get in touch with someone on the stennis and see if they know about that tug. the problem is there's thousands of people stationed on that thing and anyone i know would be in the engineroom, not the flight deck.
Reminds me of the letters frome sevicemen in Korea that appeared in early Hot Rod Magazines, showing Jeeps with shaved heads and welded dual manifolds, or a pet piece of armor...
That picture should be put on the next HAMB calander... Hummm, now that I think about it, all these pictures of Hot rods and military aircraft why not do a new calander for this years HAMB calander photo sub-mission. I know a few people on here have posted pics. of their cars with vintage aircraft, I could easily take mine with a C-5 galaxy not vintage, but still kick ass.. Man that would be great.... Just a suggestion..
My brother is stationed on the Stennis right now in the Persian Gulf. I'll ask him if it's still around, or if he can find out anything about it.
I don't know if that pic is real or not, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was. Used to be lots of artwork inside the ships where the public wouldn't see it. Places like Ready room or Squadron Room doors, etc. Back in the 70's we had one of the pilots on the Kitty wrecked his hot rod. His crew chief for a short time painted a deuce roadster kill marker on his fighter. Complete with wide whites. Then there was "Vandy". An F4 from VX-4 painted in early radar absorbsion paint used for radar avoidance testing. Looked just like Hot Rod Black primer in the earlier versions and became more of a semi gloss black paint like todays hotrods in the later versions. Then they did an F-14 up in the paint and called it the "Black Bunny". Vandy started out with the hot rod look and I think even had wide whites painted on the tires at one point. Later they put the big playboy rabbit on the tail.
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