My first ship was the cruiser Albany, based in Gaeta, Italy as flagship of 6th Fleet. One time the Vespucci anchored offshore. Unfortunately just then our snipes decided to blow tubes, blowing steam across the boiler tubes to remove accumulated soot, sending a black oily cloud right towards the Vespucci……
I spent about 20 minutes squatting under the wing of one of these back in the late 70's talking to the pilot while we waited out the rain squall at an air show. Ah memories !
The National Guard flew these for a few years near where I lived. Kinda cool sitting under the wing out of the rain talking to a guy who flew it. Can't remember if it was before or after they had these ; THEN they went to F16's for a few years. Now it's the C130J Hercules!