dave
Registered User
Lodi, CA
This picture brings back some memories. It was taken in the mid 1980's at the family rice ranch in Colusa, CA. Back then we took our pheasant hunting a lot more seriously. There were times we had 30+ hunters chasing the Chinese ringneck and the annual event drew the attention of some very accomplished friends from San Diego. The common thread was the San Diego Air & Space museum which my father was connected to.
On the left is VADM James E. Service USN (retired). His distinguished career included:
Chairman of the Board Sturm Ruger & Co.
Vice Admiral of the United States Navy
Commander of the United States Naval Air Force, Pacific Fleet
Commander Carrier Group two - Sixth Fleet
(The battle group that shot down 2 of Quddafi's MIG's over the gulf of Sidra)
President - Naval War College
Past Director of Wood River Medical Center, Ketchum, Idaho.
One footnote on the 1/89 aerial battle over the gulf of Sidra. Two Lybyan MiG 23's took up an attack posture on a couple of our F-14's but they were quickly downed. The full story can be found at http://www.military-heat.com/64/gulf-sidra-incident-1989/. After the incident a cabinet member asked Ronald Regan "how far can our pilots could go in pursuit of enemy aircraft who attack them?" Regan answered "all the way back to the hangar".
Jim has generously arranged the annual Sturm Ruger donation we raffle at the Johnson Creek fly-in. He also hunted with us for years and twice arranged for my father and I to get "tail hooked" at sea, once aboard the Constellation and again aboard the Kitty Hawk. Obviously we had two "cat-shots" (unfortunately we had to go home the next day) aboard C-2 (cods)... an "E" ticket ride for sure. The Service family remain close friends and we communicate regularly. I stop to visit with them in Ketchum Idaho on the way to Johnson Creek each year.
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The second from the left is former State Senator Denny Carpenter. He was an effective legeslator representing Orange County, California and an avid hunter. The former Republican State Committee Chair and Senator passed away in 1998.
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In the center - Wally Schirra
Walter Marty Schirra, Jr. (March 12, 1923 – May 3, 2007) was one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts chosen for the Project Mercury, America's first effort to put humans in space. He was the only person to fly in all of America's first three space programs (Mercury, Gemini and Apollo). He logged a total of 295 hours and 15 minutes in space. Schirra was the fifth American and the ninth human to ride a rocket into space. He was the first person to go into space three times.
Wally hunted ducks and pheasants with us for many years at our ranch in Colusa and in January of 1992 was a guest speaker at our kids school.
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Second from right - Randall "Duke" Cunningham
Randall Harold Cunningham (born December 8, 1941), usually known as Randy or Duke, is a former Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from California's 50th Congressional District from 1991 to 2005. Cunningham flew the F-4 Phantom II during the Vietnam War.
Cunningham resigned from the House on November 28, 2005, after pleading guilty to accepting at least $2.4 million in bribes and under reporting his income for 2004. He pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud and tax evasion. On March 3, 2006, he received a sentence of eight years and four months in prison and an order to pay $1.8 million in restitution.[1]
Prior to his political career, he was an officer in the United States Navy for 20 years. Along with his Radar Intercept Officer, William P. "Irish" Driscoll became the only Navy flying ace from the Vietnam War for obtaining five confirmed aerial victories during that conflict. To date, Cunningham and Driscoll are the two last aircrew of the United States Navy to achieve "Ace" status. Following the war, Cunningham was later an instructor at the U.S. Navy's Fighter Weapons School, better known as "TOPGUN," and commanding officer of Fighter Squadron 126 (VF-126), a shore-based adversary squadron at NAS Miramar, California.[2]
This guy was a blast to hunt with... trained killer. He would crawl a mile to sneak up on a group of geese. He also told some great stories at the bar and what a chick magnet. He was an annual visitor at our ranch until he was elected to congress in 1991. We've never visited him in prison but hope to one day.
Here is his wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Cunningham
..............................
We also hunted with Lloyd Turner - Co Creator of Bullwinkle and Rocky (with Fritz Freiling), and Boyd Gibbons Fish and California Fish & Game Director in 1991 and former editor of National Geographic Magazine.
December 12, 1991 | From a Times Staff Writer
Gov. Pete Wilson on Wednesday appointed Boyd H. Gibbons, an attorney and a senior editor of National Geographic Magazine since 1976, to direct the Department of Fish and Game, succeeding Peter F. Bontadelli.
............................
Far right - Current organizer of the Johnson Creek Backcountry Supercub fly-in, and Co-founder of National Bushwheel Awareness Week with Ralph and Windy.
On the left is VADM James E. Service USN (retired). His distinguished career included:
Chairman of the Board Sturm Ruger & Co.
Vice Admiral of the United States Navy
Commander of the United States Naval Air Force, Pacific Fleet
Commander Carrier Group two - Sixth Fleet
(The battle group that shot down 2 of Quddafi's MIG's over the gulf of Sidra)
President - Naval War College
Past Director of Wood River Medical Center, Ketchum, Idaho.
One footnote on the 1/89 aerial battle over the gulf of Sidra. Two Lybyan MiG 23's took up an attack posture on a couple of our F-14's but they were quickly downed. The full story can be found at http://www.military-heat.com/64/gulf-sidra-incident-1989/. After the incident a cabinet member asked Ronald Regan "how far can our pilots could go in pursuit of enemy aircraft who attack them?" Regan answered "all the way back to the hangar".
Jim has generously arranged the annual Sturm Ruger donation we raffle at the Johnson Creek fly-in. He also hunted with us for years and twice arranged for my father and I to get "tail hooked" at sea, once aboard the Constellation and again aboard the Kitty Hawk. Obviously we had two "cat-shots" (unfortunately we had to go home the next day) aboard C-2 (cods)... an "E" ticket ride for sure. The Service family remain close friends and we communicate regularly. I stop to visit with them in Ketchum Idaho on the way to Johnson Creek each year.
...........................
The second from the left is former State Senator Denny Carpenter. He was an effective legeslator representing Orange County, California and an avid hunter. The former Republican State Committee Chair and Senator passed away in 1998.
...........................
In the center - Wally Schirra
Walter Marty Schirra, Jr. (March 12, 1923 – May 3, 2007) was one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts chosen for the Project Mercury, America's first effort to put humans in space. He was the only person to fly in all of America's first three space programs (Mercury, Gemini and Apollo). He logged a total of 295 hours and 15 minutes in space. Schirra was the fifth American and the ninth human to ride a rocket into space. He was the first person to go into space three times.
Wally hunted ducks and pheasants with us for many years at our ranch in Colusa and in January of 1992 was a guest speaker at our kids school.
..........................
Second from right - Randall "Duke" Cunningham
Randall Harold Cunningham (born December 8, 1941), usually known as Randy or Duke, is a former Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from California's 50th Congressional District from 1991 to 2005. Cunningham flew the F-4 Phantom II during the Vietnam War.
Cunningham resigned from the House on November 28, 2005, after pleading guilty to accepting at least $2.4 million in bribes and under reporting his income for 2004. He pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud and tax evasion. On March 3, 2006, he received a sentence of eight years and four months in prison and an order to pay $1.8 million in restitution.[1]
Prior to his political career, he was an officer in the United States Navy for 20 years. Along with his Radar Intercept Officer, William P. "Irish" Driscoll became the only Navy flying ace from the Vietnam War for obtaining five confirmed aerial victories during that conflict. To date, Cunningham and Driscoll are the two last aircrew of the United States Navy to achieve "Ace" status. Following the war, Cunningham was later an instructor at the U.S. Navy's Fighter Weapons School, better known as "TOPGUN," and commanding officer of Fighter Squadron 126 (VF-126), a shore-based adversary squadron at NAS Miramar, California.[2]
This guy was a blast to hunt with... trained killer. He would crawl a mile to sneak up on a group of geese. He also told some great stories at the bar and what a chick magnet. He was an annual visitor at our ranch until he was elected to congress in 1991. We've never visited him in prison but hope to one day.
Here is his wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Cunningham
..............................
We also hunted with Lloyd Turner - Co Creator of Bullwinkle and Rocky (with Fritz Freiling), and Boyd Gibbons Fish and California Fish & Game Director in 1991 and former editor of National Geographic Magazine.
December 12, 1991 | From a Times Staff Writer
Gov. Pete Wilson on Wednesday appointed Boyd H. Gibbons, an attorney and a senior editor of National Geographic Magazine since 1976, to direct the Department of Fish and Game, succeeding Peter F. Bontadelli.
............................
Far right - Current organizer of the Johnson Creek Backcountry Supercub fly-in, and Co-founder of National Bushwheel Awareness Week with Ralph and Windy.