ORIGINAL: hllywdb
That's the stuff you never see show up in a surplus store! There was a guy down here in FL a few years back that had an old river gun boat that he was using for a treasure/dive boat. He took the gas turbine water jet drives out and put in a couple of disels. Had a big metal plate bolted down where the gun turret was on the front. Said it was real stable offshore. Me, I'd just be happy with an old F4 Phantom. Don't even care what color, I can paint. To me they encompass what a fighter jet should look like. Plus I grew up on Quanssett Point watching the Blue Angels fly them in the 60's. Forget small and nimble fighters, watching those F4's put on a show was the original "Shock and Awe."
Awe crap, I hijacked my own thread again!
Do you know what kind of boat it was? Was it about 21' long with a fiberglass coated balsa hull? In the late 80's/early 90's the Navy was getting out of the PBR (patrol boat, riverine) game. We were overhauling our boat to give to Belize. At the time it had a pair of Detroit 250's. I was told that it was used in the Vietnam war and was outfitted with a pair of Chevy 427's back then. The engines each drove a Jacuzzi "jet" pump. It had a pair of M-2's up front. It was a fun boat, probably because of the great guys as much as the boat. It would be cool to know at least one came back to the U. S.
Bob