This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Paul Hughes (Camelbitch / Sheriff), MAC
to remember
Baker, Andrew Kenneth (Rambunctious), AWC.
If you knew or served with this Sailor and have additional information or photos to support this Page, please leave a message for the Page Administrator(s) HERE.
Contact Info
Date of Passing Mar 13, 1997
Location of Interment Middleburg Methodist Church Cemetery - Middleburg, Florida
Andy's callsign was Rambunctious and he lived up to his callsign. He always had a smile on his face and he never knew a stranger. That is what his shipmates fondly remember about Andy. Andy's legacy is the two sons he leaves behind. He love being a father and he spent his off time doing as many things with his boys as possible. A favorite story that we tell about Andy is the Baker Shuffle. It was a late night hop on the carrier and Andy crossed in front of a turning E2, Andy was spinning in his tracks trying to get across the flight deck. Thus the Baker Shuffle was named that night for the fancy footwork as Andy ran to beat the aircraft.
Died during Helicopter crash on USS Taylor March 13, 1997. He was assigned to the HS-3.The Seahawk, operating off the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy, crashed about 11:30 P.M. during a training exercise about 80 miles off North Carolina. It crashed while trying to refuel from a Navy frigate.
The U.S. Navy started the construction of the Weeksville Lighter Than Air (LTA) air station on August 6, 1941, and completed construction in 1942. Naval Air Station Weeksville was operational from 1941 to 1957. NAS Weeksville's airships played a vital role in German U-boat spotting during WW-II, helping to minimize losses to east coast shipping. The last Navy blimp departed Weeksville in 1946. In 1947, Weeksville became an operational blimp base again, with the arrival of four new blimps.
During the Korean War, Weeksville was used for extensive anti-submarine warfare (ASW) blimp operations, hosting a fixed-wing Carrier Air Group, and hosting ASW helicopter squadrons. Budget cuts to the Navy's LTA program in the mid-1950s resulted in the closure of NAS Weeksville as an active naval installation in 1957, when it was decommissioned. In 1959, the facility was used for design testing of communications satellites as part of NASA's Project Echo. In 1966, the decommissioned Weeksville facility was sold to Westinghouse, for use in their blimp operations. In 1989, Westinghouse transferred its blimp operations to TCOM, which subsequently built commercial airships at Weeksville which have operated as "Bud One," "Fuji," and "Met Life."
