April 10, 2013 Update: The bombs carried on this mission are finally identified!

Tommy H. Thomason, author and owner / operator of the Tailhook Topics blog has worked with Jim

Rotramel and identified the weapons carried on this mission.

The following is an excerpt from Tailhook Topics: Things Under Wings: VA-25 A-1 Skyraider Toilet Bomber

and used with permission:



I was recently asked to identify one of the bombs carried on the mission that cannot be seen in the picture

taken from the side. I naturally turned to my go-to guy for things under wings, Jim Rotramel. He recognized

it at a glance, of course, as a 250-lb AN-M57A1. He also reported that the generally accepted identification

of the other stores is incorrect. The two big bombs on the outboard pylons are not M117s but the similar

looking, smaller, and somewhat lighter 500-lb AN-M64A1 with a conical tail. The store on the main wing pylon

is generally identified as a cluster bomb dispenser, specifically an SUU-30 of some sort; Jim was sure that it

wasn't but couldn't identify what it really was.



I looked more closely at the pictures available and did some analysis using Illustrator and the excellent

drawings of the stores that Jim provided and finally came to the conclusion that it was actually another

AN-M64A1 with the shape of the afterbody obscured by the red edge on the lower side of the inboard

main landing gear door. No wonder Jim couldn't match it up with any CBU that he was aware of.

U.S. Navy photo courtesy of Ed Barthelmes

Based on drawings provided by Jim Rotramel:

Note that the bombs in the illustration above have the fins in the + orientation;