Launch at Sundown

Launch at Sundown
by
Philip West
The F-4 taxies forward to the block. Green shirts shackle the big jet fighter to the catapult. Crew check their dials and switches as the heart rate climbs. Pilot selects full afterburner and, with the holdback taking the strain, salutes the catapult officer and waits for the cat to fire. Within milliseconds the mighty Phantom is hurled into the air and on its way to North Vietnam.
Philip West's dramatic, colorful painting catches the moment as an
F-4B of VF-111 (Sundowners) launches from the deck of the
USS Coral Sea in the Gulf of Tonkin, in 1972.