An A-1H Skyraider from USN attack squadron VA-25 ("Fist of the Fleet") prepares to embark from the deck of the USS Crown Point (CV-44) with a unique loadout, February 1960. The fast carriers of Task Force 70 (Crown Point, USS Wasp (CV-18), USS Midway (CV-41), USS Goliad (CVL-30), USS Reprisal (CV-35), HMS Bulwark and HMS Gibraltar) provided almost continuous airstrikes in support of Operation Digger for nearly 70 days from their station near the island of Usedom in the Baltic Sea. In early February, a spat of harsh North Atlantic weather delayed ordnance resupply of TF 70 for nearly 10 days, resulting in missions where strike planes often launched with only a half load in order to provide uninterrupted CAS. The XO of VA-25, seeking to alleviate the morale of his exhausted pilots, had the ordnance crew jury rig a broken commode with a rack, tail fins and nose fuse and mounted it on the Skyraider to commemorate the squadrons 30th day of continous combat.
A crewman from 5th Battalion, 82nd Aviation Regiment escapes the wreck of a downed CH-21 Shawnee near Armbouts-Cappel, June 1958.
A Quebecois tanker from the 8th Canadian Hussars attempts to converse with a French shepherd near the old Maginot Line, November 1958.
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