Friday, February 20, 2009

Believe it or not!

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B-52 on the USS Nimitz CVN-68
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True story...bet the bad guy's satellites went berserk looking at this one...! ( and it wasn't the Navy paying off a bet against AF!)

While this may look like a gag shot, it is actually a "transport of a transport" necessity. The B-52 was in Beirut, Lebanon undergoing routine fuel tank cleaning. Workmen accidentally damaged the bladder system and had to install the bladders from smaller C-130s temporarily.

The plane was flown to nearby McCollough air base where it was lifted upon a barge bound for Tyre on the Mediterranean. Once there it was off-loaded onto the carrier deck for transport to Crete where the appropriate tank bladders were installed. It was then flown back to Beirut! Military cooperation in action.

Great photo! How are they going to push that overboard during general quarters?

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10 comments:

Moko 2.0 said...

Awesome.

Pastor Larry said...

WOW I served on a carrier and that would have been something else.
Are you sure that was for real?

MickH said...

I really don't know Larry

Anonymous said...

Nah, that's the new sub-hunter plane. It's still just a bit too big, but they're working on it. lol

Big Bad Al said...

They haven't folded its wings and put it in the below decks hanger yet.

Havock21 said...

I rteally want to see a Cat shot of that one.

mr-stu said...

hmmm not sure about this one, how on earth did they find the crane to lift it?

Photoshop at it's bet I say and being the sad geek I am the US no longer uses F14's on their carriers anyway!

Dr Yobbo said...

Yeah... not sure about those shadows on the B52, look a bit too neat. Wish it was for real though, would make a good story.

yankeedog said...

Yes, I retract my question on the email I sent you. I'm pretty sure this is a fake. If it isn't, the story behind this picture is wrong.

The AF wouldn't land a B-52 in Beirut-almost certainly there are no bases, open or covert, in Lebanon. Were that the case, the BUFF's crew might as well land her in Tehran.

There is no McCollough AFB-McConnell AFB is in Kansas, which oddly enough the Navy has no major bases in, Kansas being landlocked.

As Stu pointed out, the F-14 is retired, so the picture isn't current.

USS Nimitz is currently part of the Pacific Fleet and hasn't deployed in the Med, at least not recently.

Now, back in the 1960s the Navy did experiment with launching a C-130 Hercules transport off the USS Enterprise (CVN-65-no bloody A, B, C, or D!) which would have been an interesting sight.

Still a cool pic, though.

jadedj said...

Not.