My days at Mildenhall were behind me as I headed towards the East Coast of Suffolk. Take the train route down to Ipswich and back up another line to Woodbridge, an attractive town on the River Deben and its tide mill. Woodbridge was served by the Ipswich-Lowestoft Suffolk line. From there, I managed a taxi to the airbase at Bentwaters.
As revealed earlier, my cherished car was stolen, making life a little awkward in this rural area of East Anglia. I was dropped at the lane that leads up to St John's church, positioned South of the airbase and imparting the best view of taxiing aircraft and landing shots. There used to be an old Oak tree that was great for shade on a hot summer day (sadly, in later years, it was cut down).
Like Mildenhall, I would not pass this way again for a good few years. Lucky for me, the weather was good. After my day of photographing, I would walk and hitch (easy in those days) to the nearby village of Tunstall. I had a B&B booked for the night, with a pie and a pint at the Green Man public house. Some years later, I would sit in that same pub discussing Holloman and Bergstrom Phantoms parked below on Bentwaters visitor's ramp, one of those three visitors still wearing Vietnam mission marks. They were participating in 'Coronet' exercises in the Netherlands and Germany.
Back in 1978, some photographs could have been better, but they are history and memories. The Phantoms finally left the following year.
As revealed earlier, my cherished car was stolen, making life a little awkward in this rural area of East Anglia. I was dropped at the lane that leads up to St John's church, positioned South of the airbase and imparting the best view of taxiing aircraft and landing shots. There used to be an old Oak tree that was great for shade on a hot summer day (sadly, in later years, it was cut down).
Like Mildenhall, I would not pass this way again for a good few years. Lucky for me, the weather was good. After my day of photographing, I would walk and hitch (easy in those days) to the nearby village of Tunstall. I had a B&B booked for the night, with a pie and a pint at the Green Man public house. Some years later, I would sit in that same pub discussing Holloman and Bergstrom Phantoms parked below on Bentwaters visitor's ramp, one of those three visitors still wearing Vietnam mission marks. They were participating in 'Coronet' exercises in the Netherlands and Germany.
Back in 1978, some photographs could have been better, but they are history and memories. The Phantoms finally left the following year.
66-7694 F-4D-31-MC Phantom 81st TFW USAFE recovers to RAF Bentwaters. Status: to AMARC for storing.
66-7759 F-4D-31-MC Phantom 81st TFW USAFE, pre-flight checks at RAF Bentwaters, September 1978. Status: AMARC for storing.
66-7759 F-4D-31-MC Phantom 81st TFW USAFE taxis for taking off.
66-7759 F-4D Phantom final checks.
66-7759 F-4D-31-MC Phantom 81st TFW USAFE burners on.
133393/393 T-33 RCAF was seen landing at Bentwaters in September 1978 from its base at Solingen, West Germany. Status stored Mountainview AFB.
104634/634 F-104D RCAF lunch stopping at RAF Bentwaters. Status, to the Czech Republic, for a museum?
69-5820 MC-130P 67th ARRS USAFE carries out a low approach flying from Bentwaters sister base RAF Woodbridge.
D-8062 and D-6700 F-104Gs 312SQN Volkel RNethAF lunch stopping at Bentwaters.
D-6700 F-104G 312SQN Volkel RNethAF seen landing at Bentwaters. D-6700 passed to the Hellenic Air Force as 6700.
20+74 F-104G Jabog 33 WGAF flew for the Turkish Air Force as 62-2087 at Diyarbakir AB.
20+81 F-104G Jabog 33 WGAF This aircraft became 23+81 when preserved on a pole at Schleswig-Jagel Naval Airbase.
20+74 F-104G Jabog 33 WGAF sits in the heat haze of 20+81 F-104G of the same unit as it gives way in the take-off order.
24+28 F-104G WGM made a high-level approach at RAF Bentwaters in September 1978.
By the time of this visit, the Phantom's days here were numbered. August 1978 saw the arrival of the first three A-10s for familiarisation with the maintenance units. The following year in January would see the coming of fourteen A-10s at Bentwaters, with more to follow. Along with the demise of the Phantom, I think they also lost many of the NATO lunchtime visitors we had recorded through the years and witnessed here on that September day out.
PART THREE See part two here:-https://legendarymilavia.blogspot.com/2019/04/usaf-mildenhall-aircraft-enthusiasts.html
