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Post by Mark O on Nov 21, 2013 11:31:24 GMT 9
Probably a post card. I'm guessing the 1960s to early 1970s. Need some help, but if anyone can guess the year of that station wagon that would narrow it down! Any guesses there guys? (Look familiar Jim Too?)
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Jim Scanlon (deceased)
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Post by Jim Scanlon (deceased) on Nov 21, 2013 13:52:33 GMT 9
Mark, that is the gate I drove through many times.
However, I don't remember the red signs from when I was there.
SAC did lots of PR work, to make people feel good about being there.
It looks like the guard is wearing the Summer Blue uniform.
The wagon looks like something Ford may have made in the late 60s, early 70s, but not enough of it for a real identification.
The fenders look like a Ford, as well as the tail lamps.
Not certain, so don't put any money on it.
That gate is long gone, and a new, modern gate and security system is in place, unlike when the picture was taken.
Talking to gate guards of that era, the "heater" in the "shack" didn't warm the place up, as the door was open so much, that it couldn't keep up.
So they wore their Winter Gear, even when inside.
Usually they would just wave you through if you had a base sticker showing, just to keep from opening the door.
That procedure depended on who was setting policy at the time.
Unlike now, there was no Visitor's Center, so anyone wanting to come on base got a temporary pass from the gate guard.
However, there is a new "Only the Best Go North" sign.
Jim Too
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Post by LBer1568 on Nov 22, 2013 2:51:04 GMT 9
As I get older I remember less, but weren't most Ford wagons of this era equipped with more of a vertical layout on taillights? I'm thinking GM early 70's like Cutless, Chevelle or Skylark.
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Post by Mark O on Nov 22, 2013 6:24:32 GMT 9
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Post by Jim Scanlon (deceased) on Nov 22, 2013 6:33:05 GMT 9
Mark, you may have found the answer.
Not positive, as can only see part of the tail lights, but the corner of the bumper, the left rear fender and the frame around the tailgate, all look about right.
Blowing it up gives lousy resolution, so too fuzzy to tell what it is.
My guess of a Ford product was based on the flow of the fenders, and forgot Chevy had that design in those years.
Jim Too
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Post by Mark O on Nov 22, 2013 6:50:24 GMT 9
For reference, this is what the Minot gate looks like these days. I'd wager the kids watching that gate have no idea what the APs of days gone by had to deal with!
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Post by Bullhunter on Nov 22, 2013 10:16:55 GMT 9
Much has changed. Main gates now look like war zone with all the security features. Such times we live in now because of muslim terrorists.
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Post by Mark O on Nov 22, 2013 12:13:18 GMT 9
Much has changed. Main gates now look like war zone with all the security features. Such times we live in now because of muslim terrorists. I think some of the SPs are getting a bit apathetic these days, but you are correct. It's the time we live in. Of course I remember right after 9/11/01 the Sky Cops at Rickenbacker ANG Base had an improvised bunker at the main gate with an M-60 machine gun! As I recall it was manned for a month, or so, but the "bunker" stayed up for some time. By the way, has anyone ever been stopped on the way OUT of a gate on any base to get your ID card checked? They love to do that at Dyess. The two times it happened to me were at the beginning of the lunch hour. Bigger crowd I suppose...
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Post by Jim Scanlon (deceased) on Nov 22, 2013 12:39:15 GMT 9
Much has changed. Main gates now look like war zone with all the security features. Such times we live in now because of muslim terrorists. I think some of the SPs are getting a bit apathetic these days, but you are correct. It's the time we live in. Of course I remember right after 9/11/01 the Sky Cops at Rickenbacker ANG Base had an improvised bunker at the main gate with an M-60 machine gun! As I recall it was manned for a month, or so, but the "bunker" stayed up for some time. By the way, has anyone ever been stopped on the way OUT of a gate on any base to get your ID card checked? They love to do that at Dyess. The two times it happened to me were at the beginning of the lunch hour. Bigger crowd I suppose... Nope, last time I got stopped at a stateside base, when exiting the base, was at Minot, during a blizzard.
I told the Skycop at the old gate that I lived in Minot and was headed home.
He said the road was closed.
I saw a snowplow heading toward Minot, waved goodbye to the guard and followed the plow until we got to where the road had already been cleared.
As I waved to him, he was shutting the door of the gate house.
That was in about 1964, when I was driving a 1959 Chrysler Windsor Two-Door Hardtop with a 383 and a push-button shifter.
Guess that isn't really being stopped.
Jim Too
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Post by tundra6kat on Jan 3, 2014 15:45:52 GMT 9
That old gate used Aux. gate best view of the Buffs and Darts landing.Closer to the run way lights and night birds black B-52 do look pretty scarey. Got stop on the way out few times dog looking for Hippie smokey treats or Contraban my guess SAC verses ADC fifth fighter SAC hated us.Best come north means a moose on the runway does delay flights.That ten degrees does feel warm and it is T-shirt weather with a no wind day when you used to thirty below or worse.To me it meant never knew snot could freeze in a mustache and break off pieces forwards.Never knew what snirt was (snow and dirt)till had to chiesel it out of the engine compartment to make room for the fan blade belts to move miss that old GTO.Learn how to plug in a car to keep the engine block from cracking.Learn what a REAL flood looks like pulling security on twelve hour shifts in my car in town and how to do sand bagging AKA photo opt public relations.Never forget the last look in my mirror at that sign Lionel Richey hit in Aug.of 77 was playing and the song was leaving like Sunday morning.So convinced that hell is not hot it cold very cold and you get frostbite and we been there buddies.It was the base that builds character kind like a John Wayne True Grit movie.So is is true "ONLY THE BEST COME NORTH"!
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Post by MOW on Jan 3, 2014 20:02:46 GMT 9
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Post by chiefeda on Mar 18, 2014 1:27:49 GMT 9
I PCS's from Iceland to Minot in summer of 1973. The gate had the sign then. I remember the saying that "Only the Best Come North" and only the lucky get to leave. You are right, SAC hated us. They used to have exercises for the SAC weenies and we didn't participate; made them really mad. Also remember the day that the FAA flew in, parked on the other side of our secure area, and some yo-yo thought he could stroll across our red security lines to base ops. SP's immediately put him on the frozen tarmac, face down and held him there until someone came to ID him. Summer and Fall were great but then a "SNIRT" storm during our first winter at Minot made me want to go back to Iceland, LOL. I worked a BOP assignment to Det 1, 87FIS, NASNOLA and only spent a year with the "Spittin Kittens". So, guess I was one of the lucky ones. Oh yes, there were snow flurries three days before we left in July of 1974.
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Post by oswald on Mar 18, 2014 3:18:58 GMT 9
Jim Too, Those old Chryslers had a high rear dif. in them and if you had about a mile of open road you could run the speed up around and up to 15mph the second time. My dad had a 59 Windsor. It was light gold in color. It also had front swivel seats.
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Post by Jim Scanlon (deceased) on Mar 18, 2014 5:10:16 GMT 9
Jim Too, Those old Chryslers had a high rear dif. in them and if you had about a mile of open road you could run the speed up around and up to 15mph the second time. My dad had a 59 Windsor. It was light gold in color. It also had front swivel seats. Oswald, my '59 Windsor was dark gold with a white top, had the 383 Red Lion Engine, with single 4 barrel, with, of course, the push button tranny. According to what I have read, and remember, it had 305 HP and 410 pound feet of torque. Maybe that is why they called the tranny TorqueFlight. Buttons were mounted on the left side of the dash, next to the vent window. I was on U.S. 83 one day, coming home from the base, and decided to see when it would shift from 2nd to 3rd. I punched it from a dead stop and it went out of 2nd somewhere over 80. That car was one of the best I ever owned. Power steering, but no A/C, or anything else that comes with the cheapest Kia. On several long trips, with the mammoth trunk full for 5 of us, including a 12 x 12 tent and sleeping bags, it got about 18 MPG. Stopped at Richfield stations in California and got 102 octane, and it purred. One evening, I was on 2nd Street in Minot, heading to pick up De from work, on a snowy, icy street, and all of a sudden I came to a stop, and was turned a bit to the right. Seems a young lady had opened the door of her mother's new Olds 98 convertable. The door caught my right rear bumper and dented the fender. It jammed her door in to the frame and bent the frame. The owner of the body shop looked at the bumper and it was not out of line, just needed the dent removed from the fender and some paint that had scraped. Went ahead and did a complete paint job, as it was getting a bit not so good. No clear coat in those days, so paint shops did lots of paint jobs on cars under 5 years old. I talked to the body man at the Olds dealer and he said they couldn't repair the frame that was bent on the car I hit. The young lady got a ticket for opening the door in traffic, as well as a chewing out, while I was standing there, from her mother. She was probably grounded until she was 35. Sold it the Chrysler to Carl Rodeffer, also in 5th, who I knew at The Goose, after we bought our 64 Ford F-100 with a cab-over camper, as we didn't need it. I think it had about 130,000 on the clock at that time, and never had the heads off. First thing Carl did was take a family vacation to Virginia and back. He said he got about the same mileage, and no problems. I know cars are made much better now, but that Big Iron was wonderful. Jim Too
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Post by chiefeda on Mar 18, 2014 9:27:16 GMT 9
The station wagon at the gate appears to be a 1963 Chevy. I had a 63 BelAir and the tail lights looked the same.
Chief Jim May
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