Thanks for the note Johnathan, your dad had a remarkable experience with the Neptune. The P2V was also my favorite airplane, a real Cadillac of the sky👌

John, good to hear from you. The clips are from films I found at the National Archives site. I used them to make a short film of a typical patrol flight; "Patrol Squadron Two, Saigon 1966" Happy New Year!

In this video the gunner was firing at a smoke-light target dropped by the aircraft. A firing demo for the photographer.

@@fredmjr1 they make it look as if their out there target practicing on anything that moves

Southern end of Nam was a free fire zone . Any boats landing were considered hostile...

Spent 3 years as a P2 crew member out NAS JAX VP-30. Loved it

I also worked on and flew in the SP-2H at NAS Dallas as an AO2 from 1967-1970. I picked up AO1 after I transferred into VF-202 in 1970, also at NAS Dallas. Roger, the best P-2 Flight Engineer I ever flew with was AD2 Joe Burton. The best pilot was LCDR Doty. I have often wondered what ever happened to Joe Burton. I ended up serving 22 years 4 months and was fortunate to retire out of Naval Weapons Evaluation Facility, Albuquerque as an AOCM. If you recall flying with Joe Burton or any of the AO aircrewmen I would appreciate to hear from you.

@@cemarshall9275 When the station went to the squadron concept I was excess baggage basically. I was regular Navy on a TAR base so I couldn't do much except go to GSE. I planned on a career so as an ADR2 my life was worthless to the navy. I extended and went back the Millington for ASM "A" school. I changed rates to ASM2 and got orders to the USS Nimitz CVAN-68 under construction. A "wonderful" CO made me change my mind about a career though. When I got to the Nimitz they only had one ADR2 and asked me if I'd be on the COD crew flying the C-1a. I spent my last years on that crew and it was awesome duty. I don't recall those fellows you mentioned.

@@rogerhuber3133 Thanks, Shipmate, for the quick response. It sounds as though you had some good karma in getting back into flying status. I still think about the good years with the P-2V's. At one point they tried to talk me into being a Load Master in one of the VR squadrons. The hell with that. I'd much rather be shoving Sono Buoys and rigging Russian trawlers. Anyway, I stayed VF, VSF, VC and then on a 3 star's staff. I served my last 4 years and 4 months as the independent liaison for the Admiral at Naval Weapons Evaluation Facility (NWEF) Albuquerque, NM. I retired in 1983. After the Navy, I taught Junior and Senior high school students for 20 years. Now live in Arkansas. I've been truly blessed. I'll catch you again sometime.

The ordnance tech is exercising the M-60 to ensure functionality by firing at a "smoke light", a position marker dropped by the aircraft that emits smoke for daytime visibility. The aircraft makes a couple of passes to allow test firing of both port and starboard M-60's. P2V's were also deployed in observation and attack roles; the AP-2H for example could carry bombs, napalm, rockets and mini guns under its wings and twin 20mm cannon in the tail (and down firing grenade launchers in the bomb bay)..

@@fredmjr1f

Harry, Your dad was my C.O. during the 1966 deployment to Iwakuni; he was a great Commanding Officer and a very fine gentleman. He and I were reacquainted following our respective retirements from the Navy, meeting annually to reminisce and tell war stories. I considered him a good friend.

@@fredmjr1 thx you for that! My dad passed 9/1/18 just short of his 95th birthday! He was laid to rest in Arlington national Cemetery on 9/16/19, it was a great send off!

wow what an amazing and varied assortment of aircraft in one scene

That's correct, VP-2 and VP-4 were co-located in early '65 at Tan Son Nhut; my crew arrived March 31, 1965 and VP-4 arrived sometime later. We socialized with several VP-4 crews and I liked the shots and used them to fill out the '66 story board (don't have much film for '65.)

Did he say how it flew?

Jeff, since Don probably won't post here or know how could you summarize his thoughts in a few sentences from your best recollection (very curious and interested). I wonder if the speed or fuel efficiency or stability was the issue because the given reason of Rohr cancelling due to their own financial hardship would not really have happened (if one of those wasn't the problem even if Rohr was going totally bankrupt they could have sold the project to another company for hard cash) so there is a real reason not said. Thanks Jeff! - Michael Price

@@michaelprice3190 The project was not cancelled for technical issues, it was cancelled for internal financial and administrative reasons.

Can you make us aware of anything he said about it's flying capabilities please? I am considering building some, the advantages of being able to use a car engine at high rpms today are considerable. Part of it's design was to be able to do that back then, and car engine are greatly advanced now in every area, weight, power, fuel economy and reliability. I have a lot of info on it, even a basic CAD model, but nothing beats first hand information.

According to my knowledge, these planes failed due to the same reasons regular planes fail: ran out of funding, a prototype crashed, loss of market interest, economic crisis etc. The ducted fan probably played no part in them.

See the Edgley Optica