Review: "Sea of Contention" The Sixth Fleet in the Med.circa mid 1960's. Periscope films.
It's clear that the movie Top Gun and even Final Countdown became recruiting films for the navy in he eighties, and that F-14 was the star of said films. Because of their claim to fame there are all kinds of quality videos of the F-14 and F/A-18,the current Top Gun film's star. You'd be hard pressed in finding good clear films of the Navy's F-4 Phantom except maybe The Great Santini movie.
That is why I was glad that I stumbled on to The Sea of Contention, an explanation of the Sixth Fleet's mission in the Med during the cold war, filmed in that time, it was produced by Grumman, well it does have A6's and Hawkeyes in it. Most of the carrier images are on the USS Independence. It also was narrated by Alex Scourby. You can find it at Periscope films.
As you can guess that this was my era, the threat of total nuclear annihilation looming over your head. As a an aviation structural mechanic I made three Med. cruises on three different carriers with two F-4 squadrons in four years. I was going to try to link the film to the you tube sight but I'm not going to push my luck. I'm currently having a hard time changing my avatar photo.
Thanks Stellan!@stellan
Awesome! I was an Indy sailor many years after this was filmed, but nonetheless she got in your blood. She was a good ship. Thanks for sharing this
There was nothing like a fossil fueled boat, clearing it's exhaust and all that shoot and particlles ends up on your aircraft. That's when the Line division breaks out the waterless cleaner.
Amazing movie, Robert! Thanks for sharing this info!
I will definitely give it a watch! Thanks for the post.
Where's the Kenny Loggins Soundtrack? And the beach volleyball?
Kidding. It's fascinating to watch the behind the scenes operations and the actual flying sequences. Some of those aircraft look... quite grungy which is interesting from a modeler's weathering perspective (how much is too much?) while others on deck look almost spotless.
How about Hendrix for soundtrack? As far as the condition of the aircraft, some may be newer to the squadron while others might have been used and abused for a while.@dbdlee