-James Murtha- W hoa, what trip down memory lane. Looking at the photo's of my fellow COM-NAVer's Jeff Matson and Jay Maroney sure brought back memories. Does anyone else remember the 'Photo Derby' at McClellan AFB in Sacramento where we stole that squadron's flag? Was in P-3 from 81-88 best 7 years of my life. ZAP-RF baby. -TONY L. MARLOW- For the time I spent there, Gave me some of the best memories, Stories, pictures, And friendships, One could never have imagined. And for this I'm very thankfull I served my time there... We were the newest Black Sheep of the airwingers...Zap RF's Forever..... -Ron "Recon" Russik- After TME-31 I was ordered to VMFP-3. I must admit, at first I was heartbroken because during my TME-31 training I had heard many stories about P-3 and that "you don't want to be assigned there. Well, I must say that after my initial taste of P-3 my fears were dashed away and I think I was able to acclimate fairly well. I remember the "pink bellies," the loose nose wheels rolling out from under the birds, the late nights, the long hours, pre-oiling -Damn I still rember pre-oiling!- And how I hated it. I remember the smell of JP4/5, hydraulic fluid, engine oil, rubber, and the sweat. I remember the long waits for the birds to get back from a mission, the hot fuel pits, hot brakes, grabbing the damn chute from behind the damned hot J79 exhaust. But most of all I remember all of you. -Dominic Rinaldi - P-3 for me was the best times I have had in my military career. I went from PFC to Sgt. in the S-4 Section, and thought I would take a couple of steps backward when I got in trouble, but I was fortunate. I remember Top James, Sgt. Balderez, LtC. Gering, Capt. Miller, Capt. Hess, Capt. Consagra, Lt. McSpadden, Maj. Brown and all the rest to numerous to mention who had a hand in developing me in my early years as a young marine within the unit. I consider myself extremely lucky to have know them all and to be a part of the mission. To this day, I still carry a part of them with me, if only in memory. As I now come close to ending my military career, I will always remember fondly the best of times and what VMFP-3 did for me. Semper Fidelis. -Bob Parker - Hollywood would NOT touch the VMFP-3 Story for fear that the US Justice Department may come after them, along with the governments of Japan, Phillipines, South Korea, Thailand, Guam, and some angry cook dude at Wake Island. Best F-4 Squadron of my Marine Corps career!!! And the Best Marines I ever served with !!! -Lou Porras - One of the better moments I can remember when with P-3, is Dean Ackerman and Rafael Rios falling asleep between two cows outside the "vill" at Chim Chan, Korea, because they couldn't get back through the gate. -Joe (From Jersey) Barry - Short story that best explains how being an 18 yr old checking into flightline occurs...First, you walk (no car)halfway across the base, hoping to catch a ride on the way, to the farthest hanger on the line. You enter a beat to crap shack that smells of a combination of booze from hungover mech's, and MIL-L-23699. This red eyed Indian named Ack signs your check in sheet and mumbles something about going to the barracks for lunch, Sgt Francis tells him to take me with him to check in at the barracks, (the old one near the px), there's about 10 other P-3'ers (mostly F/L P/P and gse)already in Ack's room when we get to the bks and the lunch consisted of beer, herb, and rock and roll...It was like I had stumbled upon a frat party in Hell, it was the GREATEST!!!!!, we had the highest safety record, and the worst p-tests record...those were the days....hey, if there's any old p-3ers that remember the good ole daze, e mail me, even if its just to say HIGH....There are too many of you out there to list that still live on in my frozen memories of my P-3 yesteryears......Semper Fi -Kevin W. Burdeshaw - I really enjoyed my time in this squadron. I served in the flight-line division, and really learned a lot about the upkeep on a very complex aircraft. I went on deployment to MCAS Iwakuni, and on the USS Midway. I enjoyed all of the Marines I served with, and I very much miss the willingness to get the job done, that the Marines in this squadron always had, no matter what the difficulties we faced. -Steve Garcia- The short time I had in P-3 really left a major impact (that expains some of my problems!), and I made some really good friends while working on some of the meanest machines out there. Going to other units after the deactivation was funny... we were forever labeled as "those P-3 guys". That was cool. ZAP to all my friends! -Paul Cason- I transfered from 2/7 to P-3 around 85. When I arrived at Millington for school, I was quite shocked. I will explain. Being in the grunts for a few years, you can imagine the culture shock transfering from an infantry division to the airwing. Unless you were prior infantry its really hard to understand the change. Anyway, upon arriving to my first school, the first and formost thing on my mind was checking out my M-16 to see what kind of shape it was in. I got the strangest look from people when I asked where the armory was at. Also seeing Marines in... well less than what I would consider proper haircuts and less than properly starched uniforms well it all seemed like a different world. Needless to say, I got used to it and really became attached to P-3 and the great Marines that I had the pleasure to work with -Kevin M. Davis- Top Roller once told me he wished I'd been a better Marine, because I was the best damn electrician he'd ever seen. Served Electric Shop, VMFP-3, Night Crew from '79 to '82. Then, well, I got in trouble. Tommy Lawson, Charlie Power (not Powers, he'd get red in the face) Kerry Yeager were a few of my running buddies. -TOM HOTCHKISS- We used to take a spare nose wheel tire and pull the ole "oops the wheel fell off the jet!!" on the rookie pilots...and the old "open the flaps after it rained" trick..and soak the newbies...we had such a blast....p.s. Marc...I remember you getting mad when iI sent you to the seat shop for cross training...will you ever forgive me??, -Marc Iseli- Still waiting to get even after 20 plus, Ha! Ha! Big Guy. - KEVIN HURTLE- Stories of Det.s how about stealing the group flag in Iwakuni in the middle of the day, or the infamous toga party that put everyone on base restriction or legal hold, or the barbequed ducks at Shaw Airforce Base or the stolen type writers for another det. to Shaw, they had no sense of humor. How about the powerplant Lcpl that passed out drunk on the base C.O.'s porch and got caught. There are so many stories.. - ROSS A. MOORE- I too reminisce about the old times I loved so much with P-3. I was one of nine enlisted who got to have a back-seat ride in the Phantom while on Det to Iwakuni in 1986. I guess you never really know how much you will miss anything until its gone! "Your brother, Semper Fidelis" -MARK "Noload" NOTHELFER- Man I remember my first day they wanted me to check a chute in a bird but sent me to maintenance control for the keys to the bird then mad dog McWen sent me to Flight Line Shack then I think every shop I got sent to got a call before I got there, some flight line some prop wash man by the time I got back to maintenance control they were on a roll,boy I couldn'twait to pull that on the next fool to check in. - BOB HANSON- The Airforce guys always get me going when they talk about how rough they had it, driving to the flight light in a maintenance van full of Snap on Tools,living in two man "dorms". When they are done with their sob stories, I tell them how we "Power Plants" guys had to steal a Von's shopping cart so we could haul our tools to the last bird on the flight line. Then when you tell them about "Open Sqaud bays" in Iwakuni, they think the Corps was barbaric. Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome, if you can fix F-4s you can fix anything. -BILL SCHIELD My entire adult life has been shaped by the things I learned while in the Corps and with P-3. I made long lasting friends and met and married my wife of 10 years there. "They were the best of times; they were the worst of times." The days were long, the nights longer and the work was hard but we endured and had a great time. Semper Fi!!!! -Brian Brindle Congradulations to former P-3 plane captain Rick Morning (88-90) on being selected as the flight engineer for the Blue Angels' "Fat Albert Airlines"! Way to go, "Leek"! -Roberto Reyna- I was with the squadron for the "Landshark" det to Iwakuni in 1987 I would like to hear from anyone who was there at the time I had such a great time working alongside many of you. -Eddie P Dominguez- I remember the days of good friends and life in the corps the good times and bad I WILL NEVER FORGET -Mike Kowalski- I used to see birds from VMFP-3 on Armed Forces day at what was then NAS Moffett Field in Mt. View, CA. I talkeed with the crews a number of times and swapped stories about "The olde days" in the Js. -Charles Deuel- Gonzo straight with Bingo Beck and Hoss,FOD and the Men of Det.C -MGySgt. Charles C. Vance- J oined VMFP-3 right at the turnover from VMCJ-3 at El Toro- went on 8 "6 month" Dets- was a SSgt and then GySgt with P-3 -Sgt. Drew Newman- I served in VMCJ-1 in 1967 & 68 -GySgt. Rick Morning- I was in P-3 from 1988-1990, last det overseas! -GySgt. Todd Schnakenberg- Recon Radar Shop/Photo Geek. I was one of the last FNG's to come to P-3. I have great memories and still stay in touch with a few Marines from P-3. Recommended Screen Resolution 1024 x 768 Enable pop-ups to fully enjoy this site. This website is not affiliated with the U.S. Government or the United States Marine Corps in any way. This website is a copyright and the property of the Phabulous Phantom Productions and the information and photos gathered for this website are intended for the purpose of providing un-official information and entertainment for those interested in the history of Marine Corps RF-4B Squadrons and the RF-4B Phantom II aircraft.