Hi, Marty, Your answer to my questions is about what I expected, but
didn't want to say until I heard from you. I took that shot early one
morning when I was on my way to do some "Then and Now" photos in June
1971, in response to a request from a local paper. I believe the paper
was the San Rafael Independent Journal. They wanted a series of photos
of what the base looked like in it's early days and what it looked like
at that time. Some of the old photos were dated in 1938 (the year I was
born!!), and out to 1943. That last one was my rationale for the photo
of the F-106 at the puddle. The 1943 photo was a shot of a pilot in
cloth helmet and goggles, pre-flighting a P-38. I was hoping for
something similar on the F-106 for real comparison. As it turned out,
my original photo was in color, and they wanted B/W for the paper, but
then didn't even use that one. Over the years, I've had my color copy
of the photo in a frame on whatever office wall I was in, and it got
lots of comments. Unfortunately, the picture got badly cracked and
faded over the years, and when I finally found my negatives, they were
in almost as bad shape. I was hoping that wherever you got the photo on
your site would have another duplicate copy of both the color photo and
the negative. I know that it was a common thing for Base Photo Labs to
make "extra proof copies" of favorite photos, and a lot of them got
passed out as favors. I suspect that may be where your copy originated.
I remember that when I came back by that spot about an hour later, the
puddle - and the aircraft - were gone. I wish the photo was a better
copy so I could send one in color, but bad as it is, I'm not sure you
would want to use it. I left Hamilton in September 1971 for Texas, and
the photos and negatives were in one of the boxes I mailed ahead, so I
didn't get it back out for some time, and didn't notice how bad it was
getting. Anyway, that's just a bit of the history of that particular
F-106 photo, and I was really tickled to death to see a copy on your
web site!! Thanks, D. F. "Doc" Ball
Hi all....if my memory is correct, I got the
photo in the AF/OI junque box in the 5 sided puzzle pallace in the
summer of 72. They were handing out tons of junque for the 25th
Birthday.