Previously Held NEC AD-0000-Aviation Machinist's Mate
AD-6416-J-52 Jet Turbojet Engine First Degree/IMA Mechanic
139X-Unrestricted Line Officer - Pilot (In Training)
131X-Unrestricted Line Officer - Pilot
163X-Special Duty Officer - Intelligence
Best Moment Our third child, another son, Geoffrey, was born while I was assigned to VT-23 the second time.
Got to ride in the back seat with another instructor when he took the students to land on the USS Lexington.
Worst Moment I was the instructor on a spin hop. The student froze on the controls and I could not get him off. We passed 8,000 feet. We were supposed to recover at about 15,000 feet. We were supposed to punch out above 10,000 if we were still in a spin. I don't know why, but I didn't punch out. I guess at the moment I unconsciously would have rather died than admit I couldn't handle the student. Anyway, about 8,000 feet I managed to wrestle the plane from him and we recovered at about 1,500 feet. I politely informed the operations officer that I would not fly any more spin hops with students.
When my two year tour as an instructor was up, I didn't make the cut. After the war, the Navy didn't need pilots, so many of us were shi--canned into billets they couldn't fill with other officers. One of my friends was assigned as permanent OOD at the post graduate school, several were sent to be OOD/BEQ/BOQ officers at various places, an Academy grad was even sent to the Panama Canal Zone as Small Boat Officer because he had experience with small boats. Not counting the few who got flying jobs, I was pretty lucky. Because when I was going to college as an enlisted man, the Navy had asked that I take Russian, so now I get a call from the Cryptologic detailer in Washington, CDR James Bond, no kidding, that was his name, asking me to come work for them. I asked him what were cryptologists and what did they do and he said he could not tell me. It was classified. Anyway, I asked some of the older fleet guys what they were and they told me. I talked it over with my wife and she said she didn't want me to go to some station just as a watch stander, so we took a chance and I called the detailer back and said I would do it. A couple of weeks later I got orders to the Defense Language Institute at the Presidio of Monterey to learn Russian. I already spoke Russian and officers didn't need to speak Russian, only the enlisted men. It was the only mistake the Navy ever made in my favor. It was like a year's paid vacation on the Monterey peninsula.
Chain of Command CDR Martin was CO at first.
Then CDR Troutman took over.
CDR Haley was CO when I left. He flew A-4s in Viet Nam. Had lots of good pictures. He is a member of TWS. Look him up.
Other Memories I was doing touch and go's with a student in the front seat when as we were climbing out after a touch a go, there was a loud bang and one of the engines started spooling down and we started losing power. I thought nothing of it since we had two engines and it would fly on one, so I just took control from the student and started to clean up the airplane and head for low key when BANG, there it is a second time and we are losing power again. Now I panic. We get only two bangs in a T-2, but we are still flying and training kicks in and I realize it was the same engine had spooled up and stalled again. Anyway, I am still shaking, and the student is freaking out thinking he is going to die, but when I keyed the mike to report the emergency I used my professional radio voice, very deep, and like you are bored stiff. So when I get back to the squadron everybody is coming up to me to tell me how brave I was. Even the student told the other students I was the bravest man he had ever seen. Truth was I wasn't brave. I was scared shi----less, but my training from an instructor known as Choo-Choo had paid off. See my comments about Choo-Choo in my first tour with VT-23 for more information about training for a radio voice.
Christmas was approaching and our CO let Tom Gray and I take a plane to his home and then mine for the holidays. We had to do mandatory cross country navigation training for each of us, but that was fun anyway. He lived in Oolagah, Oklahoma and we went there first. He is flying this leg and we are low-level when we cross over this hill and suddenly there is a beautiful, quiet little town under us. He then starts a zoom climb till we almost stall, he knew what he was doing, then begins a vertical dive right into the heart of the town. Then about a hundred feet above the town, he zooms back up again. We do this several times and I am screaming "Tom, they will report us and we will be dead!", but he does it over and over again. After the first time, you can see people stopping their cars and getting out to watch the show, buildings are emptying into the street with spectators, even the school turns out hundreds of students and teachers to watch. I'm thinking, well my career is over and I may even do some time in Leavenworth. Finally, he stops, does some wing waves and we go to the airport and land. I thought, Oh well, it's done. It's too late now, but the people loved it. Everywhere we went that day and that night people came up to us to tell us how much they enjoyed the show. Little kids wanted my autograph. It was crazy, but it was wonderful, too. Even in those dark days of anti-military feeling (my wife and kids and I were once kicked out of a Baskin and Robbins because "We don't serve your kind in here!") small town people in Oklahoma still loved the military and their home-town boy. God bless Tom Gray and Oolagah, Oklahoma.
