Historical Photos

[Jeff D. Welker]

A Convair 880 at Gate 10, Terminal 1, at PHX on a cold and stormy November day in 1961.  According to the FAA registration records, this is serial number 002.  This particular Convair was taking my uncle to his new USAF assignment in Germany.  He was a navigator on a B-29 and their group got sent to Germany while Dad had to stay in Arizona.  Dad was not happy about missing going overseas, but he wished his brother well.  I apologize for the dirty negative.  It will take some serious scrubbing to get all the dirt off the emulsion.  I'll post a clean version after I had time to wash and rescan.

[Jeff D. Welker]

November 1, 1961 - Gate 10, Terminal One, Sky Harbor Airport - Pre TSA.  The family gathered to bid farewell to my uncle as he departed to his new USAF assignment in Germany.  I'm the young fellow in the light-colored clothing.  Yes sir, you used to be able to walk-up that close to departing/arriving aircraft.  Our cars were parked less than 50 yards from this location.  The good old days  

[scottcolbath]

This is the best thread on AzAP.

S.C.

[Jeff D. Welker]

December 1964 - Dad did some A2A work for the Army Guard at Papago. Even though he was USAF, one of Dad's hunting buddies was the CO at Papago. According to Dad's notes, these boys had just returned from a tour in Vietnam and wanted a few shots for their album. That is Roosevelt Lake in the background. He was shooting Tri-X 320 in his Graflex XLRF. Not bad for a medium format rangefinder. I proud to say, Dad was a darn good shooter 

[Tower Guy]

Jeff, congrats to your father, great shot with that equipment. The composition with the lake as a background makes for a cool shot.

[Anna M. Wood]

December 1964 - Dad did some A2A work for the Army Guard at Papago. Even though he was USAF, one of Dad's hunting buddies was the CO at Papago. According to Dad's notes, these boys had just returned from a tour in Vietnam and wanted a few shots for their album. That is Roosevelt Lake in the background. He was shooting Tri-X 320 in his Graflex XLRF. Not bad for a medium format rangefinder. I proud to say, Dad was a darn good shooter 

WOW!!!   Is that a great image.   Your dad was a good shooter is an understatement.   

[Jeff D. Welker]

Jeff, congrats to your father, great shot with that equipment. The composition with the lake as a background makes for a cool shot.

WOW!!!   Is that a great image.   Your dad was a good shooter is an understatement.   

Thanks Harvey and Anna.  For those who may not know what a Graflex XLFR looks like, here is an example of what my Dad was using. It is a beast of a range finder camera, but once you got the hang of it, you could take some terrific photographs. Dad photographed most of my high school football games and track meets with one of these bad boys.

[Scott Youmans]

Jeff, Outstanding shot of the Bird Dog! I never realized just how high the pilot sits in the cockpit compared to other Cessnas. Suppose it makes sense for an observation aircraft. I was inspired by this to dig out a shot taken 20 years later at the Papago ANG base.  February 1984. 

[Jeff D. Welker]

Jeff, Outstanding shot of the Bird Dog! I never realized just how high the pilot sits in the cockpit compared to other Cessnas. Suppose it makes sense for an observation aircraft. I was inspired by this to dig out a shot taken 20 years later at the Papago ANG base.  February 1984. 

Thank you Scott.  Because of my father's relationship with the CO at Papago, I got to visit their ramp a few times.  Love your shot of the Cobras.  Nice touch with the Queen Air in the background.  I miss the fixed-wing aircraft that used to fly out of Papago on a regular basis.

[Joe Copalman]

Love that Cobra shot, Scott.  Around that same time I had visited Papago with my Indian Guides 'tribe' and remember my dad being very impressed with the fact that the film he was shooting and shutter speed he was using completely froze the rotors.  I should try and find some of those.

For captioning purposes, I'm pretty sure they were flying AH-1S model Cobras at that point, not Gs.  (Most S-models were converted from Gs and kept their original serials). 

[Jeff D. Welker]

I finally made time and went through some more of Dad's negatives & slides. I found a few from one of the squadron's trips to Idaho. Dad called these trips "maneuvers". I think today they are probably referred to as "training DET's". What I really like about these slides is they show the squadron's F-86's with the "Copperhead" paint scheme I remember from my youth. Especially the barrel cactus on the tail. At the time, I thought these were the coolest looking jets in the world. Of course, when they transitioned to 104's I found a new favorite. Excuse the color shifts in these scans. I tried to quickly "white balance" them, but they are slowing shifting at different rates. The transparency film is called "Anscochrome" that I believe was made by Ansco out of New York.

[Jeff D. Welker]

Dad used to tell me that Barry Goldwater was in their squadron.  I never remembered seeing him at the base, so I always thought Dad was telling me stories.  I never did confirm one way or another, but here is a photo of Barry getting out of an F-86 from Dad's squadron.  Who knows, maybe Dad was right.

[Anna M. Wood]

Jeff,

Hoping you will post some more historical photos from your father's collection soon...

[Jeff D. Welker]

Jeff,

Hoping you will post some more historical photos from your father's collection soon...

Anna:

I am glad you enjoy these elderly images.  I know my dad would be pleased.  Below is a photo of dad kneeling in front of a Bird Dog.  If memory serves me correctly, Dad set up this photo while on a sortie with the Papago ANG - circa 1964.  He told me that they would often land in the middle of nowhere and take a lunch break. The box I found this slide in said "somewhere near Sycamore Creek".  Dad is in the center kneeling.  Colonel Russ Hall is in the orange flight suit immediately in front of dad.  The white and orange Bird Dog was the Colonel's.  Dad was generally flying backseat to Colonel Hall.  I'm sure there are more of these types of photos in my cache of Dad's negatives/slides.

As an interesting side note, our mutual friend Scott Youmans has a photo on his Flickr page of the exact same Bird Dog - https://flic.kr/p/JW8xFa.  Small world...

[Jeff D. Welker]

This how you rescue your stranded old school dirt bike (i.e. "Blazer") when it breaks down far from any roads. You call your good friend who happens to be the CO of the AZANG at Papago.  Colonel Hall spools up one of his assets on the flight line, picks up dad at the house, (yes, he literally landed in the field behind our house) and helocasts him into the Sierra Ancha's to retrieve the stranded Blazer. Not a bad way to spend your Saturday.  Photo circa 1965...