|
The Mig 17 photos were among the most passed around slides of the 1958 Iwakuni Deployment. They were taken on one of our first TAC's of the
deployment by "Barney" Bernard. He was along with crew Ten operating the then secret prototypes of the Jezabel/Julie gear. Very few people in the squadron were even cleared to know what it was. The
MIG out of Vladivostok buzzed us from every angle including broadside. I think he was doing camera runs to see if we had anything new as we had just recently arrived in Iwakuni. On future TAC's they just
came out several thousand feet above to see if it was really us and then went back. (I remember listening to the steady stream of code in one ear and base radio and the intercom with the other in anticipation of a
warning that the MIG was on the way.)
The photos were taken aft from the round windows/ports just below and ahead of the horizontal stabilizer. P2V's were fitted with a plastic bubble which was
generally removed on the patrols. The ordnanceman/photographer took official photos of shipping with a large camera from the open "port". Later P2V's had a square port there. The horizontal stabilizer is
visible in the foreground of the first photo. Also the yellow to the right in the second photo is the hand/knuckles of the ordnanceman holding the official Navy camera and sharing the port with Bernard.
- Bob Dell
|
