15-7351 —

Superb. When was the photo taken?

This midnight blue scheme is more like it for Navy and Marines aircraft, not the bland gray of present.

Definitely a beautiful paint scheme!

Gavin, this was taken July 1990.

Thanks for that.

A night spy.

What a brute! It says "Marines" on its flank.

Superb F4 livery!!

VMFP-3 = Marine Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron 3 - Based in El Torro CA - McDonald Douglas RF4B

Marine Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron 3 Based in El Torro California

That Aircraft is an RF-4B 61-57351 (57,351st military acft taken in delivery by armed forces of the USA in 1961)As AFuller indicated it flew with USMC VMFP-3 Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron 3. The pic likely was taken over El Torro CA in the early'70s. Did not look up 15-7351, but it was built in 2015 and could not be an F4 of any kind since the last one built came off the Mitsubishi line in Japan in early 1981.

According to chalet on the picture of 15-7349 in the archive, VMFP-3 was deactivated on July 1, 1990. Maybe the last flight of last day!

El Toro, CA. I surely miss the F4's, A4's and the F18C's that used to fly out of MCAS El Toro and saw almost every Air show there until it was moved to MCAS Miramar. I drove by the approach last Saturday, the base is slowly being eaten up by development. Google Earth shows a dismal picture of what could have been. KNZJ is the correct IACO, it's just no longer used. The base closed in 1999 and the land was sold in 2005.

skylab72; Its BuNum is 157351 taken back in July 1990 on approach to MCAS El Toro. FA doesnt care for some info no matter how correct is is. It re-formats it in it's own way, which I'm not privy too.

This was a great airplane! I was in the squadron 4 years and 2 detachments. I had the privilege of flying every plane the squadron had. I was also at the decommissioning and believe this might have been taken in 89 or 90
Semper fi
“Rags”

Thanks aloot