Western Railroad Discussion > US Naval School of Photography

Anybody out there that went to the Naval School of Photogrphy in Pensacola, FL.?

I Finished School there on July 31, 1984.

Mad Dog
BNSF Railway 1978-2003 & counting
USS Nimitz (PH3)1984-1989

That's right. You were a squid weren't you Mike?

I did, I went there summer of 67 and then spent two years stationed with VAP-61 Agana Guam working Photo Line Maintenance on Douglas RA3B's Photo Whale Boats

Jim Wickham PH-2
Skonk
Zoomie
VAP-61 Dec 67 to Dec 69
6 months tad DaNang

Yes, I was. Darn proud of it too!

MD

No he was an Air Dale!!!!!

Thanks for the Help Jim. Yes US PH's were Air Dales, not brown shoes or snips!

Michael D. "Mad Dog" Sawyer
BNSF Railway-Locomotive Engineer-seattle

I worked at Douglas Torrance in spares planning 1966-72. We handled all the military production planning at that plant.We made a lot of spare parts for the A-3's in those years. The older guys who built them at El Segundo Plant before it closed in 1962 were very proud of that plane. I remeber the RA and EA had very interesting internal layouts with the pressurized center fuselage. I remember hunting down tools and re-planning to build a spare side escape door for these versions. It had vortex fingers to allow escape through slipstream.
I also worked on the A4 Skyhawks which were built at Long Beach and finished at Palmdale.
I was a snipe EN1 in Coast Guard Reserve.

a coworker of mine tells me you took some pretty stunning figure studies of metal trash cans up at Whidbey Island. . .

and what's that all about, the phrase "Three Squags on a Camel?" anything to do with Iraq?

posted at the request of John Wiegand:

~ ~ ~

I went to Pensacola Photo school also during the summer of '67 and in
the fall was stationed at FICPACFAC
(Fleet Intel Ctr, Pac Facility) in the PI, (long live Olongapo) and
for the rest of my tour, the photo squadron, VFP-63 at Miramar.
I later visited the Photo school in around '90. The old Photo
barracks 698 is gone, hardly recognized much of the base anymore.
The school looked the same, but enrollment was way down. A lot of
that same brass was still here that I polished as an E-3 23 years
before.

John Wiegand PH-3

Back around 1979, there was a Second Class (E5) Journalist in the Naval Reserve stationed at the Pentagon for a period of extended active duty. This enterprising sailor happend to be a private car owner. He arranged to have his PV parked on the Pentagon's power plant siding; why bother to rent an apartment or live in the barracks when you can live in style on your own private car a short walk from your office??

This enterprising young sailor would periodically entertain - on his private car - a former Naval Reserve officer and WWII veteran, who was also interested in railroading, and who worked across the parking lot in the Pentagon. Despite the difference in their age and their status in the Navy, the guest shared his host's interest in private cars, steam locomotives, and the Navy.

The guest was W. Graham Claytor Jr., Secretary of the Navy in President Carter's administration. The host is now a retired Chief Petty Officer who enjoys watching the countryside recede at speed while seated in a director's chair on the open platform of his Amtrak certified heavyweight business car.