E2 Hawkeye

Today's bird is the E-2, one special to me. I was in the original deployment of the first E-2 squadron on board the USS Kitty Hawk in 1966. I spent many, many  hours working inside and outside of the bird. My main job was maintenance of the communication and navigation systems. I also worked with the radar and computer techs. The original computers in the E-2 at that time still had individual transistors and miles of wiring, making them and the radar components heavy lifting. Even the communication gear still had miniature vacuum tubes and were 30-50 pounds a unit.

The bird pictured is actually an E-2C, the outside has not changed much in 48 years, but the inside has I'm sure changed tremendously.
This plane is used for fleet early warning, but more important vectoring air strikes against enemy positions. Aside the rescue helicopter, this was the first plane launched and the last to land in my days aboard. The plane can remain airborne for many hours.