VBF=87 LINKS
This is a listing of web pages I have found which mentions elements of VBF-87.
As always time has taken it's toll, my father G.D. Wood is gone as are the others.
Yet the legacy they left behind remains. To that end, these pages are dedicated:
Their first Ship was the USS Randolph CV-15. The photos in dad's scrapbook list a later ship as the Randolph.
The ship shown is actually the Kearsarge from the Korean era. At any rate, here is a link to the Randolph.
It was on the Randolph that VBF-87 left Norfolk,Va and then to Trinidad and on through the Panama Canal
to the west coast. Training on shore and then onto service on the Ticonderoga. It is interesting that
the Ticonderoga web pages acknowledge the VB-87 group but seem to overlook the VBF-87 group.
Where they went and when on the BIG T the USS Ticonderoga .
Hellcat was produced by Grumman
This link is to a training video for the F6F, enjoy.
Second link to training film.
OK, so all training films are not always about your equipment. Some are generic but still to be endured.
Left to Right: LCDR Charles Ingalls; Grumman Tech Rep. Ralph Clark;
CDR Porter Maxwell, CO-VBF-87; CDR Everett L. Phadres, CAG-87
This is the machine that kept the men of the 87th alive and well, at least in most cases. As told in the Desert News story
GD returned alive and well with missing chunks and numerous holes.
Again all I can say is thank you to both the men and the machines.