{"id":26,"date":"2013-05-28T12:51:11","date_gmt":"2013-05-28T18:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oldro.com\/?page_id=26"},"modified":"2014-03-15T16:09:12","modified_gmt":"2014-03-15T22:09:12","slug":"vf-121","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/oldro.com\/?page_id=26","title":{"rendered":"VF-121"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In June 1972, I reported to Fighter Squadron 121 (VF-121) at NAS Miramar, Calif., for training in the\u00a0 F-4 Phantom II.<\/p>\n<p>After several weeks of ground school, plus the obligatory survival school (SERE) and advanced water survival (DWEST), I began flying in the back seat and learning to operate the systems there, talk on the radio and do navagation.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_59\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/oldro.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/VF121_NJ180.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-59\" class=\"size-large wp-image-59\" alt=\"F-4j NJ 180\" src=\"http:\/\/oldro.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/VF121_NJ180-300x199.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"http:\/\/oldro.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/VF121_NJ180-300x199.jpg 300w, http:\/\/oldro.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/VF121_NJ180-624x414.jpg 624w, http:\/\/oldro.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/VF121_NJ180.jpg 720w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-59\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An F-4J Phantom II of VF-121, the West Coast F-4 training squadron in the 1960s and &#8217;70s.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Above is the actual aircraft in which I flew for the first time. During the 7 months it took to finish VF-121, I logged around 100 flight hours in missions that included air intercept, bombing, carrier qualifications and other miscellaneous missions.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_60\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/oldro.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/VF121_W291.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-60\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-60\" alt=\"F-4J NJ 177\" src=\"http:\/\/oldro.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/VF121_W291-300x209.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"209\" srcset=\"http:\/\/oldro.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/VF121_W291-300x209.jpg 300w, http:\/\/oldro.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/VF121_W291-624x435.jpg 624w, http:\/\/oldro.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/VF121_W291.jpg 720w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-60\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An F-4J of VF-121 over the Pacific Ocean returning to NAS Miramar, late 1972.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Most of the missions were conducted over the Pacific Ocean west of San Diego.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_61\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/oldro.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/VF121Nov72.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-61\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-61\" alt=\"F-4J NJ 155\" src=\"http:\/\/oldro.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/VF121Nov72-300x229.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"229\" srcset=\"http:\/\/oldro.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/VF121Nov72-300x229.jpg 300w, http:\/\/oldro.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/VF121Nov72.jpg 576w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-61\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">F-4J of VF-121 over the Imperial Valley and Salton Sea near El Centro, Calif., late 1972.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Some training flights were conducted over the Imperial Valley east of San Diego, near El Centro.<\/p>\n<p>After finishing up VF-121 in early February, I was sent overseas to join a fleet fighter squadron, VF-21, on board USS Ranger which was steaming in the Western Pacific and the Tonkin Gulf.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In June 1972, I reported to Fighter Squadron 121 (VF-121) at NAS Miramar, Calif., for training in the\u00a0 F-4 Phantom II. After several weeks of ground school, plus the obligatory survival school (SERE) and advanced water survival (DWEST), I began flying in the back seat and learning to operate the systems there, talk on the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":227,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-26","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P3vYaJ-q","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/oldro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/oldro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/oldro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oldro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oldro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/oldro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62,"href":"http:\/\/oldro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26\/revisions\/62"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oldro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/oldro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}