Wow! Ray Wagner sure looks young -- also enantiomorphic
(backwards). The photo shows the refueling probe of the FJ-4B Fury on
the right wing. It was actually on the left wing. Also, the blue Numeral
One in the White Shooting Star (outlined in blue) on the fuselage side
is backwards. Takes the trained eye of a couple of aviation experts like
us to catch this. The number One stood for Air Task Group One -- the
Carrier Air Group. All four squadrons carried the One with different
color trim to identify the squadron. VF-111 Sundowners had red on their FJ-3M Furies; yellow on the F2H-4 Banshees of VF-52 Sealancers, orange on the AD-6 Skyraiders of VA-196 Yellowdevils and blue for the FJ-4B Furies of VA-151 Black Knights.
The Fury in the Pacer photo was from VA-151 -- my dad’s squadron. They
were doing last minute Carrier Qualifications before leaving, within for
a short cruise to Hawaii. On May 30,1958 Dad officially took over
command of VA-151 on the flight deck of Bennington off Hawaii. Dad was
an observer during the journalist’s visit to the CV-20 (Bennington).
Dennis Blackburn’62
Hey Dennis -- How about now? I flipped the photo, apparently to little
avail. Ray Wagner still looks young. Thanks for including me as an
"aviation expert". Unfortunately I thought we were looking at a
McDonnell Douglas F4J-B "Phantom II". Guess it's time for me to paste
that "Dyslexics of the World Untie" bumper sticker on my car -- JF