My father was always a bit of a photo bug. He always had a camera with him, especially on family outings, vacations and business trips.
Business trips? Why would you take a camera (especially before the age of a camera that slips into your pocket easily) on a business Trip? I’ll tell you, he went to some interesting places on business.
He worked for an organization associated with the US Navy. he did operations research wherever the Navy was conducting operations. Often he was on Navy ships in the Pacific ocean. Having been flown in on jet, helicopter and a few times via a breeches buoy that he admitted scared the piss out of him.
Imagine being flown out to a ship in the middle of the Pacific ocean. There is no way to actually land the helicopter you are in on the ship. It’s just not possible. So they put you in a sling and lower you out the door of this hovering helicopter onto the deck of a ship in (often) rough seas. Go ahead watch some coast guard rescue video on Deadliest Catch, it’s like that.
So there were lots of pictures of ships and airplanes he was on or around (at least those that he was allowed to photograph). The man loved him some Navy ships and aircraft. He also took a lot of pictures of other destinations. And in the early 1960 those destinations centered around CINCPACFLT in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Not to mention destinations east of there like Japan and Vietnam.
Below I have chosen a number of pictures that I recently discovered of one of my father’s visits to Hawaii (Oahu) Japan and Vietnam in 1963.
Dad, Kailua (Oahu) beach, 1963
In 1963 Dulles airport had just opened. If you’ve flown into Dulles recently, you may have noticed that this original terminal has a lot of company.
The next six were taken at the “Command Task Element 79.3.3.6 compound”, flight line and vicinity (Operation SHUFLY) Likely Da Nang area Vietnam.
We saw a lot of these kinds of pictures (below), shots out an airplane window showing the escort plane, or ship he was destined for.
Below some photographs of his trip to Japan that took place during his trip to Vietnam along with some photos of Vietnam’s countryside and city life in or near Da nang.
