Webmaster Introduction

For those who don't know me, I am Michael Benolkin - webmaster and caretaker for the www.f-100.org website. The Hun was still in ANG service when I was but a young AF analyst in the early 1970s and it left an impression in contrast on the Nellis AFB ramp amongst the ACEVAL/AIMVAL F-14s and F-15s parked nearby.

About ten years later, we shared our ramp space at D-M with the boneyard crews who were pulling Huns out of mothballs. They needed heavy-duty tie-down anchors in order to perform full-power engine run-ups prior to sending them off for drone duties. I have never before or since heard such a chilling sound as a J57 turbine stall out of full burner.

As the editor of the 1995 IPMS/USA National Convention Magazine, I decided to write a brief history of the New Mexico ANG in keeping with the convention location - Albuquerque, NM. Thanks to the Public Affairs folks, not only did I get some great info on the unit's history, I also found some great shots of their F-100s as well.

In 1998, I came across a wealth of old USAF B&W photos of the F-100 that were in a file left behind in an estate and obtained by a friend. With his permission, I scanned these and put them online with the first one-page F-100 site as I had not seen these published before. One-by-one, I have made friends with Hun pilots and crews that have also shared their stories and photos. This effort has grown into the site we have today with over 140 pages (and growing) and over 200 MB of photos.

In mid-2003, it quickly became apparent that the website was collapsing under its own weight as we had surpassed 1000 photos online. I was beginning to lose track of who had provided which photos while trying to identify unique characteristics of each photo such as when, where and which squadron the photo depicts. It was time to resort to a database that can help to automate site updates as new material arrives. Things improved for a while but by 2006, work got crazy and I was running out of disk space. Updates fell behind once again.

Welcome to the new and improved F-100.org. It took some time and patience, but the site has been overhauled, I've got new storage capabilties to keep track of terabytes of imagery, and improved tools to make it all come together. The next step for 2007 is to enlarge the online imagery from the 600 pixel standard to 1200 pixels, though many photos that were emailed several years ago were smaller and won't be upgradeable. If you sent in images that haven't been posted yet, please bear with me as that step will follow soon.

V/R

Michael Benolkin
tacair@earthlink.net
Webmaster