Pickett, Robert, CDR

Best Friends
Neal Sheaffer, Mike Marks, "Skid" Rowe, all later airline Captains, "Chick" Burlingame, the airline Captain killed in the Pentagon attack on 9/11, Mike Nanny, Rick Jameson, killed in a motorcyle accident, Mike James, Charlie Parker, Charlie Porter, Tim Keating, later Admiral Keating.

Best Moment
Our second child, daughter Brandy, was born while I was a student pilot in VT-22.

My last tactical formation, low-level, ordinance hop. The closest I ever got to being a real pilot. All four of us students were good pilots, the instructor was a Viet Nam Marine pilot and it was as real as it would ever get for me. It was great fun. Kick the tires, light the fires, first one in the air is lead, brief on guard. There were not enough ladders for all the A-4's, so the other guys were thinking they would beat me to marshal. The instructor had said that the last one to marshal had to buy cokes for everybody, but because I had been a plane captain for the A-4, I knew how to get up on the wing at the root and walk along the in-flight refueling probe to get in the cockpit. I was the second one to marshal.

Carrier landings on the USS Lexington. Two touch and go's and six traps. The only time I ever got to do that.

Worst Moment
After Nixon ended the war in 1972, the Navy didn't need pilots any more so we were all told we would be let go. Someone intervened and we got to get our wings, but many pilots lost their jobs and their careers in 1973. Some managed to get a flying job somewhere, but I wasn't one of them. They let me be an instructor in VT-23 for a couple of years, but then let me go. I just wasn't good enough to make the cut.

Other Memories
On my first low-level hop in the A-4, the instructor was flying at 450 knots over the flat Texas coastal plain. The radar altimeter said we were at 5 feet, and it looked like we had to climb to get over the barbed wire fences.

After Nixon ended the war, a large number of the men who had been "guests" of the North Vietnamese government were going through VT-21 and VT-22 at Kingsville for refresher training so they could start flying again. One Friday or Saturday evening, the O Club was full of people having a good time. There were several hundred student pilots and instructors from all the squadrons and wives and girl friends in attendance. It was an unusually large crowd. About 8 o'clock, the bell over the bar started ringing and ringing. In a Navy bar, when the bell rings it usually means some poor guy has broken some rule and has to buy the bar a round, but it usually rings only once or twice, and now it is still ringing. As we moved toward the bar to see what was going on, it was still ringing. As we got closer, we could see it was one of the senior pilots going through refresher training. It was the one who had spent the most time in prison, CDR Alvarez. He had gone down as an Ensign, and was now a Commander, and he was ringing the bell and smiling. When the commotion quieted down, he turned to the crowd and said, "I've been waiting eight years to do that!". Then he bought drinks for everyone there, several hundred. It must have cost him a month of wages, or more. Then as the cheering died down, the bell started ringing again. This time, it was another of the senior pilots going through refresher training and as soon as he stopped ringing, another stepped up to ring the bell. The cheering and the shouting were like a basketball game or something. My wife and I ended up with so many drinks on our table, we couldn't drink them all. It was the only time I left alcohol on the table. It was a magical evening. God bless those guys! They gave us so much.