Restorations

I'll try to keep this post relatively short. I'm taking my retirement seriously, so I don't do a lot of what anyone would call work. I spend a lot of time at my computer - doing some writing, but mostly working with photographs. The way I take pictures, I had to learn something about salvaging them. That came in handy when I started scanning Mom's family photos so I could put them on DVDs for my brothers and sisters. Some of the older pictures were in a pretty poor condition, so I thought I'd see what I could do with them.

This first one, a Wernet family reunion photograph from around 1900, made me begin to think I could do just about anything. It's certainly not true, but I'm proud of it just the same. It's probably a good thing that no one in the photograph is around to complain about how I "fixed" it.




This is the original portrait (left) of William Wernet, my great great grandfather. The picture was in pretty good shape, actually. Restoration consisted of cleaning up a few minor dings and redoing the background. The portrait was taken about the same time as the reunion photograph (above) in which he is the central subject. He died in 1901 at age 82.


Periodically, I surf the 'Net looking for new photographs of my old ship. About 20 years after we parted company I started saving and collecting everything I could find from the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVA-42). I wish I'd started earlier, but I'm certainly glad that the Internet is around. The original above was taken on 17 November 1945 as the world's largest ship (at the time) cruised past Manhattan. She had just been launched at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and is sailing south down the East River.




Among the family photos I was scanning for Mom I found a color slide of an F4U-4 Corsair turning up on the ramp. The slide was old and beaten up, with no markings suggesting the date or location. With no visible squadron or air station markings and a very plain, flat background, I've decided that the picture was probably taken at the overhaul and repair (O&R) facility at the Marine Corps Air Station in Elizabeth City, NC in the mid-1940s. Dad was stationed there after flight training at Pensacola and he and Mom lived down the road in Edenton.

Dad told me about his first flight in a Corsair, there at Elizabeth City. When ordered to do a post-maintenance flight check on the bird, he asked if someone would give him a check-out in the airplane since he'd never flown that type before. The maintenance officer's only response was, "You're a Naval Aviator aren't you?" Following the flight check he was coming in to land and started drifting left. When he decided to go around for another approach he shoved the throttle forward. The torque on a Pratt & Whitney Double Wasp engine with a four bladed, 13 foot prop (2,450 hp) can easily ruin your whole day. In this case, Dad had an opportunity to check out the drainage ditch beside the runway before going around. One of the controllers in the tower remarked to him afterwards, "Captain, you're the first one we ever saw come out of that ditch."

Short in the groove

Do you remember the old days when you wondered whether or not you had film in the camera; what kind was it; did you have enough of it? Then, did you have the cash to buy film at Eckerd's; did you have the time - or the opportunity? This next bunch of pictures was taken with whatever film I had on hand. The first and last pictures were taken with a Nikon I considered buying. I suspect that's why it had black and white film. The others were taken with my Minolta, the second and third picture on infrared film I had carried in my camera bag since I was on Adak in 1970. I just figured it was time to shoot it and see what it did.


Having launched all those airplanes in the last post, I thought I'd better recover some in this one. The Phantom about touch down is "short in the groove" and you can see the next Phantom a mile or so in trail. I'm always surprised when I look at these pictures and remember how much smoke a Phantom left behind. Today's turbofan engines are virtually smokeless; not so the Phantom's J-79s. In a typical recovery we landed the Phantoms and Crusaders first because of their fuel states. They'd be followed by the A-7s, the A-6s, then whoever else was out there. Last aboard was always the Angel, which spent the recovery milling about smartly in a Delta pattern a mile or two aft and starboard of the ship and the landing aircraft. There was usually a plane guard destroyer a couple of miles aft of the carrier during flight ops that could assist with search and rescue duties if a plane went in the water or someone from the flight deck went overboard.


A carrier group is composed of the carrier and several support ships of various kinds. The lovely ship above was USS Luce (DLG-7), a guided missile frigate, and part of the carrier's ASW (antisubmarine warfare) screen. At any given time there might be a cruiser, an oiler, a supply ship, or almost anything else steaming with us within the screen. The Luce, like the Roosevelt, has since been "turned into razor blades" - scrapped. One of my adventures in Athens involved my waking up aboard Luce early one morning, and having to figure out where I was, how I had gotten there, where "there" was, and how to get back to Athens and my own ship - before muster at 0800. But that's another story. . .


Well, we've been at sea now for a while and it's time for a resupply operation, in this case referred to as a "vertrep" or vertical replenishment. That obviously refers to the fact that we're using helicopters to deliver some or all of the supplies. If helicopters were not used, the operation would be an "unrep" or underway replenishment. If it was a combination of the two, it would be referred to as a vertrep. The helo above is from one of the support ships. Where the ship's name usually appears, on the landing gear sponson, this bird has "Rapid Transit Auth."

As far as I can tell, the infrared film simply filtered out all the red from the light and perhaps blurred the horizon somewhat if it happens to register temperatures. I only had the one roll of film, so I don't need to worry about that anymore.


This vertrep shot may or may not have been taken the same day as the previous picture. This CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter, one of several involved in the vertrep, is from USS Sylvania (AFS-2). The ship steaming next to us, transferring stores via high lines as well as the helicopters, is USS Arcturus (AF-52). On the horizon to the right of the helo is an oiler, probably USS Caloosahatche (AO-98). When Arcturus is finished, she'll break away and Caloosahatche will slide into position, probably with a destroyer on her starboard side, and start transferring fuel oil to both ships. Much of the time while this is going on, the ship's band is playing music for the edification of our support ships. Usually they stick to John Philip Sousa and other marches or, if they're transferring personnel by highline and bosun's chair as portrayed in "The Bridges of Toko-ri", they'll play something like "The Magnificent Man on the Flying Trapeze".


In all the pictures I've shown so far, the weather has been terrific and the seas fair. This wasn't always the case. Shortly before I came aboard Roosevelt in 1972, she ran into some notably heavy weather in the Bay of Biscay, off the west coast of France. Returning to the States on my final cruise we encountered several days of rain, wind, and very heavy seas. The picture above is a poor "restoration" of one of several slides I took from Pri-Fly but it gives an idea of the heavy seas, if not the rain and wind. The flight deck, after all, is about 65 ft above the water line. It should be interesting to note the Phantoms on the port and starboard catapults with the JBDs (jet blast deflectors) raised behind them. Believe it or not, they are in "alert status" - in spite of the storm - because a Russian Bear-D had passed Iceland southbound. It was a "game" we played with the Russians all during the Cold War; they'd try to overfly our carriers with their bombers and we'd launch fighters to intercept and divert the bombers, the implication being that we'd splash their Bear if they pushed the routine confrontation too far.

Meanwhile, back to the storm: Before it was all over we lost several communications antennae and many feet of deck edge catwalks ripped off on both sides of the bow. We had chest-high salt water flooding in the ship's store and the catapult control room on the O-2 level, and cracks in the hull in Secondary Conn through which you could see the horizon. At some point Rosey turned south to launch one of the Angels into the storm to find the rescue and salvage ship USS Edenton (ATS-1) . The helo would successfully medevac one of their seamen with an appendicitis back to Roosevelt.

With the appendicitis on board we resumed our westerly course and on 11 March 1974, at the height of our trial, a panel of the forward hangar bay door (14 tons or so) was lifted out of its track by a wave. It "walked" inboard some distance into the hangar bay, smashing parked planes together as it went. By the time I saw it, damage control teams had welded it in place (to the overhead) using I-beams and angle iron, leaving the wrecked airplanes where they were. Three sailors, who had been checking tiedown chains on the airplanes in the hanger bay, had been seriously injured by airplanes mashed by the wandering hangar bay door. All three were treated in the ship's dispensary but ADRC Robert W. Rhodes of VAW-121, following several hours of surgery, died at sea of his injuries.


Not much to say about this handsome devil. The picture was taken by the guy who was trying to sell me the Nikon. The picture was okay but I declined the deal on the camera. I later loaned him $350, unaware that anyone transferring at the end of a cruise probably had his orders in hand by the time we tied up in Mayport. As you might have expected, he beat me out of the money. I didn't pursue it and considered it a lesson learned. "Neither a borrower nor a lender be. . ." said Polonius.

As cruisebook editor, when we arrived in port, I was sent to TAD to the publisher in Norfolk to finish up the book. When I returned to the ship I was sent to NATTC Glynco for AC"B" School, then on to dryer - though no less interesting - duty at NAS Lemoore.

Stand by to launch aircraft. . .

Well, back aboard the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVA-42). It's the last day of a two-week in-port period, and a very fine in-port period it was. . .

The liberty boat's headed for Faliron Delta to pick up the last of the shore patrol teams. The shore patrol officer and the last few members of the in-port period's advance party (who coordinate with the host government agencies ashore) will fly back to the ship on the helo. Sometime after dark we'll weigh anchor and steam through the night to our operating area in the eastern Med.


One last look. The Acropolis rises from the center of Athens and the ruins of the Parthenon overlook the surrounding city. This is to be our last visit to Athens for this cruise, though the schedule could change at any time for any number of reasons. If the schedule holds, I'll probably never be back. My tour aboard ship will be up shortly after we arrive stateside. But I'll remember Athens. I described it to someone once after my first hot, dusty, summer visit as "El Paso with a beach". But I also felt that the people in Greece were by far the friendliest in the Med. Oh! And the best pizza I ever had was from a shop about 5 miles down the coast in Glyfada.


This is a view of the aft flight deck from a catwalk near the entrance to Pri-Fly, the lair of the Air Boss. Primary is on the aft end of the island about four levels above the flight deck. The island is on the starboard side amidships. The planes you see along the port deck edge are six F-4B Phantoms, from the VF-41 Black Aces and VF-84 Jolly Rogers, and four A-6A Intruders, from the VA-176 Thunderbolts. The two A-7E Corsair IIs taxiing forward are from the VA-15 Valions. Ignoring the two remaining A-7 tails, the two planes in the foreground are a visiting A-3 Skywarrior (commonly referred to as the whale) from VAQ-135 and another Intruder.

I should mention the missing players. Besides the squadrons represented in the pictures, we had a second squadron of A-7s, the VA-87 Golden Warriors; a detachment of RF-8 Crusaders from VFP-63, the Eyes of the Fleet; a det of E-1 Tracers from the VAW-121 Griffins; and a det of SH-3 Sea Kings from the HC-2 Fleet Angels. Besides the squadrons and detachments of embarked Air Wing Six, Roosevelt was manned by her Ship's Company, which included my unit, CATCC-42.


The aft flight deck was clobbered with parked and taxiing aircraft because, on the business end - the bow - the launch was in progress. Above is a VA-15 Corsair and below is a VA-176 Intruder, each of them launched in turn from the port steam catapult. This was early in the launch, as more Corsairs can be seen behind the antenna, still parked on the starboard cat.




This last shot shows one of the Angels maneuvering off the port bow during a lull in the action (between the last launch and the next recovery). Recoveries during daylight were typically handled under visual flight rules. After dark or in bad weather, CATCC (Carrier Air Traffic Control Center) got involved and brought the planes home using radar. During a cycle - between the launch and recovery - the aircraft were worked by CIC (Combat Information Center), an airborne platform (an E-1 or an AWACS), or a designated shore-based control center.

I oughta be able to do something with that -

I've decided that trying to keep these posts in chronological order ain't gonna get it. I think it if I keep you guessing about what's coming up, it'll be more interesting for all of us. And, though I've lots of material to incorporate here, many of the transparency scans from my distant past need to be cleaned up. There're not enough hours in the day to do it in a timely fashion. So, to keep the posts coming, I'll have to inject some randomness here. Meanwhile, if anyone knows a good method of restoring slides (dust and mold? on some of them), let me know.

As much as I love Austin, I've spent so much of my life in and around the Smoky Mountains that I really miss them. When I lived in north Georgia I could grab my camera and make it to the North Carolina mountains in an hour and a half. Sometimes a picture cries out to be made into a poster. I took this shot from an overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Balsam Gap one Sunday afternoon after a weekend in Asheville. Views like this make me think, "What else could you call these mountains other than Blue Ridge?"

One of my favorite picture places in the mountains is the model homestead at the Oconaluftee Visitors Center of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I could - and probably will at some point - create a post with my many pictures of just this one, beautiful building. I like to experiment with the "effects" available in my photo editing program. Sometimes it works for a particular picture and sometimes it doesn't. Often, it can enhance a mediocre shot and even, occasionally, "save" an otherwise unusable picture.

At the end of August 2002, my friend Patrick and I headed for North Carolina's Outer Banks, checking out Kittyhawk, Cape Hatteras, and Ocracoke Island. Many of the cars we passed sported black on white oval stickers with the letters OBX, identifying the owners as residents - or resident wannabes - of the Outer Banks. I could certainly understand that, but I thought they needed a better symbol for their boosterism. A license plate - yeah, that's the ticket! This one incorporates the Cape Hatteras Light in the wild tangle of scrub brush found on the Banks.

I was thinking about the dearth of momentos I have of my "early years" and thought I might manufacture some after the fact. In the case of my military career, these new momentos took the form of bumper sticker shapes or "banners" for each of my main duty stations: NAS Kingsville, TX; NS Adak, AK; USS Roosevelt; and NAS Lemoore, CA. The one above, for my ship, is my favorite. CATCC stands for Carrier Air Traffic Control Center, and the 42 corresponds to the ship's hull number. The brass disk on the left is a real momento of the ship that dates from her commissioning in 1945. I was thrilled to find the picture online after someone thoughtfully photographed it before the ship was decommissioned in 1977 and scrapped shortly thereafter. Note the 30+ years of wear.

This old fellow is my great-great grandfather, who died in Ohio in 1901. I had scanned his portrait, which was worn but in pretty good shape. I cleaned up the scan, knowing there were lots of other family photos that ought somehow to be restored. I might as well practice on this one. In the course of my experimentation I worked out an editing technique for creating a "virtual drawing" from a photograph. Some photos lend themselves to the technique, some don't. I really like the "look" and, as with all the editing effects, some of the various defects of an original can be masked or overpowered, thus "saving" the picture.

This is a case in point. The portrait of my daughter started out as a low resolution screen grab from some video I'd shot years ago. I gave it the "drawing technique" and it was okay. But it really needed something more. Gillian's birthday coincides with the peak of the Georgia dogwood season and I never think of one without thinking of the other. I took the dogwood photo against the deep blue sky and intended to use it as an integral frame or matt for the "drawing". By the time I had finished, the drawing was light blue and I had allowed the dogwood frame to bleed into the field of the picture, indicating clearly the link in my mind between Gillian and dogwood blossoms.

This last one is a collaboration. When she graduated from high school, Gillian went with her mother to Japan. I had given her a good camera and told her to take lots of pictures. She didn't disappoint. One of her pictures was of a pair of geisha on a Tokyo sidewalk. Their exquisite beauty stood out from the extreme clutter of the city background. I isolated the younger of the two ladies and gave her "the treatment". I continued to play with it and eventually, after several versions, had a very simple background that contrasted so well with the elaborate kimono and fairly screamed "Japan". Gillian's picture - my treatment.