1

WELCOME

WELCOME

WELCOME TO THE THIRTIETH WEST COAST RENUION

IN 1973 several former Midshipmen met, quite by accident, on the streets of San Francisco.They thought a gathering would be appropriate and contacted those other former Midshipmenthey knew who lived on the West Coast. Don Day, Bill Rankin, Earl Rogers, Bill Busse, Al Weil,Stan Pederson, Don Fitzgerald, Vic Lopez, Leo Regan and yours truly arranged to meet at theOfficer’s Club at Treasure Island, then a Naval Station.

The meeting was such a success that we vowed to meet annually. We found more Midshipmenduring the following years, some on active duty and some returned to civilian life. Soon CaptainClyde Tuomela volunteered to take the helm and he arranged for a succession of reunions inMonterey at the Naval Post Graduate School during the School’s summer break. The course wasset. The camaraderie was nurtured. And so, as many of our group have traveled “on GoldenWings”, but are yet remembered, we find ourselves here today. Enjoy this booklet, contribute toit, and relive some good memories.

Hank Stanley

The idea for this compilation of Midshipmen biographies came from Bill Busse who experienced the joys of Pre-flightin Class 2-47 at Ottumwa, Iowa. He intends, if interest is sufficient, to expand it to include biographies submitted inthe future. This booklet is designed to compliment Lou Ives, “The Brown Shoes History”. You are encouraged to takeadvantage of the Pre-Publication Sale of Lou’s book. Brochures will be available at this Reunion. HS

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MESSAGE FROM FMA HEADQUARTERS

The Flying Midshipmen Association was started in Washington D.C. in 1969 by a few formerAviation Midshipmen who believed an inequity had occurred when the Comptroller Generalruled that time served as Aviation Midshipmen did not count for pay purposes. Through theirefforts and others who joined the cause, a bill was passed in Congress in 1974 (and signedinto law by President Ford on December 26, 1974) which corrected this inequity. The FMAthen became a Fraternal (some say “Drinking) organization to promote the camaraderie andremembrance of all Naval Aviation Midshipmen.

Just three years after the formation of the FMA, a small group of West Coast Flying Middiesgot together in San Francisco to ‘hoist a few’ and thereby started what became an annualoccasion. This year is the 30th anniversary of that historic event and Hank Stanley, the prime“instigator”, of that original gathering, is again in charge of running the West Coast Reunion.

“Best Wishes” to Hank and all attendees for a super reunion from “The Officers andBoard of Directors of the Flying Midshipmen Association”!

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21-47

BOB

ABELS

BOB

AbeABELS

Robert F. (Bob or Abe) Abels

Born 18 November 1926, in West Palm Beach,FL. And attended schools in West Palm Beachand Miami. Passed the Navy V-5 entrance ex-ams but did not get called for flight training soenlisted in the Naval Service in September 1944.Completed “boot Camp” at Bainbridge, MD.Then to radar training at the Cavalier Hotel inVirginia Beach, VA and volunteered for MotorTorpedo Boat (PT Boats) at Melville, RI. Re-ceived orders to Squadron 41, PT 601, at theBrooklyn Navy Yard, NY, and while on maneu-vers in Miami as 3rd Class Petty Officer, the warended.

Put in again for the V-5 Program and was ac-cepted as the PT squadron was being decom-missioned in January 1946. Ordered to the Uni-versity of South Carolina, Columbia, SC andstarted classes in March 1946, as an apprenticeseaman. In October 1947, appointed a midship-man at Pensacola and trained in SNJs and F8Fs.Commissioned and received wings 1 Novem-ber 1949, and assigned to VF-131, flying F8F-1s at NAS Jacksonville under CDR SidBottomly. Squadron redesignated as VF-64 andmoved to Ocean, VA. under CDR Robert Rynd.

Had 18 ensigns in the squadron and known as“Rynd’s Kindergarten”. Shifted to F4U-4s aboutApril 1950, but in late June, all V-5 ensigns weresent to separation centers for discharge. Koreanaggression started at this time and ADM FelixStump, CinCLant, got everyone who desired, athirty day extension on active duty, which changedto indefinite.

Squadron had been training to switch to F4U-5s but went back to the 4s and flew them to thewest coast, NAS Alameda, loaded aboard the USSBoxer and flew close support for the invasion atInchon, Korea on 15 September 1950. Boxer re-turned to Alameda in November but the Chineseentered the fray and the air group was redeployedaboard the USS Valley Forge to assist in the Ma-rines getting out of the Chosin Reservoir.

Switched carriers while in Korean waters to theUSS Philippine Sea and stayed on station severalmonths more. On return to the U.S... was acceptedfor LSO training in Pensacola, FL., then assignedto Air Group 102, with CDR Gorden Chase asCAG, at NAS Miramar and back to Korea aboardthe USS Oriskany. Ended up with seven stars onthe Korean ribbon.

In June 1953, transferred to Barin Field as anLSO instructor. Returned to the fleet at NASMiramar as senior LSO for Air Task Group Twounder CDR Gus Macri, and deployed on the USSHancock flying with the AD squadron. Biggestscare of naval career occurred during the Opera-tional Readiness Inspection off Hawaii, whenCDR Billy D. Holder, VA Squadron C.O. had anemergency after the cat shot. Weather was lightrain, about a 500 foot ceiling and after midnightas Holder made a very fast approach.

I could not find out what the nature of the emer-gency was so I cut him with the mirror lights andtold him on the radio that he was very fast. TheAD-6 passed over the ramp, down the angled deck,the power came back on and he stays airborne,never touching down, all with his wheels and flapsup. Seems he had disconnected his hydraulics

when the emergency (aileronsbinding) occurred but he reset thesystem and came aboard nextpass, a perfect “Roger”. I race up to the aircraftto apologize but he looks at me, laughs, and says,“Didn’t mean to shake you up Bob”, then runs tothe AD turning up on the cat to get back in theORI.

Selected for the TAR Program and reported toNAS Atlanta in 1957. Became VA Flight Train-ing Officer for two squadrons, with VA 672 win-ning both the 1959 CNO Aviation Safety Awardand the Noel Davis Trophy for most proficientOrganized Naval Air Reserve VA Squadron. VA673, the other squadron came in second. Acceptedfor USN on fifth application, transferred to LineSchool at Monterey, CA. Then to San Diego andthe USS Bennington as Flight Deck Officer fortwo years.

Back to Monterey to finish bachelors degree, thenorders to Vietnam for duty on Gen.Westmoreland’s staff as Deputy in the Air Plansand Ops Division and became an expert on B-52capabilities. Returned to the U.S. in late 1966 asDirector of the Officer Candidate School with theSchools Command (Old Pre-Flight School), Capt.John Haynie, commanding. Moved up to Execu-tive Officer, Schools Command, and retired 1November 1969.

On 29 February 1952, met Shirley M. Larsen anative of Elmhurst, IL., who was residing in SanDiego and owned a candy store with her mothercalled “Shirley Mae’s Fine Candies”. After theOriskany’s Korean tour, we married on 31 May1953, and now have three sons. A great navy wife,she handled nine major moves and thus was giventhe honor to select our retirement home which wasto be San Diego. Completed MBA in 1971 at U.of West Florida, moved to San Diego and becamea high school teacher in the Grossmont District,as well as an EA. Retired from teaching 1986,but still do income taxes. We now reside at 17933Valle de Lobo Drive, Poway, CA 92064-1021.

Some Old Timers...CabanissL to R Standing: Bob Abels...JohnWhite...Ronnie Caldwell...Ed HofstrtaKneeling:Lewellyn...The Instructor,Simon...Jack Cogdell & Ens, Hall

4

SEA STORIESWhile at the University of South Carolina,met a gentleman named Bill Hugo. Outstand-ing individual who really had a fine sense ofhumor. He was very adept at putting firecrackerfuses into cigarettes, lighting the cigarettes andputting them in the bushes along the sidewalkleading up to the dining hall. Then he and sev-eral other V-5 students would get their food, sitby a window facing the sidewalk and watch thestudents try to figure out what was going on asthe firecrackers went off.

He also had a good V-5 friend named DougPainter and they were always pulling stunts onone another. We had been put on retainer payand to we were intermixed with the civilians andWW II vets for room assignments. Painter wasliving in Prescott Hall with a WW II vet whohad a little dog that slept in the vet’s bed. Oneevening Bill Hugo set up a rocket aimed atPainter and the vet’s window where the two ofthem had their desks so they could look out overthe athletic field while studying. The rocket wasplaced perfectly as it went off just in front ofthe window. Doug and the vet went over back-wards in their chairs and the little dog yipped tohigh heaven and wet all over the vets bedding.Took a long time before the vet would speak toDoug.

Ed Hofstra was assigned to VF-131 at Oceana,VA and was scheduled for the tow on a highside gunnery hop over the Atlantic. Ed wasabout 6’4” with a scar along his cheek where amule had kicked him when he was about 10,while he was living on a farm in Kansas. If hewas looking at you and not smiling, he couldsure look mean and make one want to get out ofhis way in a hurry. I was the Gunnery Officerand was on the runway to watch the hook-upand learn something. The tow line was laid outup and down the runway and hooked to Ed’splane.

He two-blocked the throttle as soon as the F-8started to move and the aircraft leaped off the run-way in about 25 feet and Ed pointed it almoststraight up. There was a nice wind blowing andthe line started moving then stopped and lifted offthe runway with the tow also lifting off withoutdragging. If my eyesight had been good enough, Icould have read every instrument in the cockpit.The gunnery crew was ecstatic and cheering. Fromthat time on Ed became high man on all the gun-ner shoots. I never could catch the gunnery crewat it but most of us believed they were paintingEd’s colors on half of the rest of the flight’s bul-lets.

Don Sutherland arrived in our squadron as wewere returning to Korea to cover the Marines leav-ing the Chosin Reservoir. He and I were on a gun-fire spot and road recco around Wonsan. We hadfinished working with the destroyer and proceededto look for targets of opportunity. I noticed “Sut”was streaming fluid from his belly tank and calledto advise him that his fuel transfer pump in theF4U-4 was pumping fuel over the side. He claimedhis pump was off so I pulled up under him andnoticed he had a hole in the center of his belly tank.

Since most of our missions were about three plushours, we could not safely continue the mission atour power settings without running out of fuel. Weaborted the mission, returned to the Valley Forgeand orbited at fuel saving settings. Once on thedeck, “Sut” swore up and down that I put the holein his tank. This past year when we met, he stillswore I had to have put the hole in his tank.

When the Korean action started,two carriers were already on sta-tion, the Valley Forge and thePhilippine Sea, and the Boxer wasto be the third. As we left the States, many ofV-5 ensigns had not been on a large aircraft car-rier with full air group aboard. Consequently,many of us got acquainted with the 42 manbunkrooms. These bunkrooms were in the for-ward, center section of Officer Country and onthe same level as the deck that went out to thefo’castle. On either side of the bunkroom weresenior officers staterooms, primarily CDRs,LCDRs, LTs and even JGs and “Bull” Ensigns.

As the Boxer proceeded west, across the Pa-cific, most of the JO’s were very excited andvery nosey, especially as the ship seemed to bepitching from the waves. Several individualsopened the dogged door leading to the fo’castleto watch the bow dig into the waves. Unfortu-nately, every now and then a large wave wouldbreak into the fo’castle area and everyone wouldrace to get back inside Officer Country.

More frustrating was the fact that many timesthe JOs didn’t get the door closed in time andlarge amounts of seawater would get into theship. As the water swished around in the vari-ous staterooms, one could see slippers, papersand other items floating down the passageway.Very quickly the word spread that if any morewater appeared in officer’s country, there weregoing to a lot of 30 year ensigns. To my knowl-edge, no ensigns ever opened that door again.

BOB

ABELS

CONT.

Off Korea where deck runswere the norm. About April1951. Either the Happy Valleyor the Phil Sea.

5

Growing up during WW II developed a fascinationwith Naval Aviation. When the recruiters came to my highschool in early 1946, I jumped at the opportunity.

Attended Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI as onlyone of six entering freshmen in Engineering who were notreturning GIs in the fall of 1946. Orders to Pensacola in March1948 and Pre-flight class 9-48C was the beginning. Goodpre-flight memories include, Doris Day movies and her song“Sentimental Journey”, the “Dilbert Dunker”. “MightyMouse” and the trampoline, ice cream between and after study

hour and lights out.

Going to Whiting Field wasexciting. Finally got to fly.Playing football in the fallmeant we only flew in themornings and we got great foodon Fridays and Saturdays. Pro-gressing through Pensacola leftmany great memories, espe-cially Flight 126 at SaufleyField. Then several weeks ofleave in mid-1949, becausethere was no money for gaso-line, was an unexpected benefit.Finally to the ship, USS Cabot.

Off to Corpus and the PB4Y-2in September and wings in De-cember 1949. Highlight was

that my mother could pin them on. Then it was about onemonth leave before San Diego in January 1950.

After a change in orders from BuPers a group of Midship-men ended up in VR-32. We were not much use to the ferrysquadron at first, but we got checked out rapidly in many dif-ferent types. Ended my active duty in July 1952 after flying22 different types and returned home to finish college.

Graduated from the Univiversity of Minnesota in 1955 withan Aeronautical Engineering degree. Had several jobs:Convair San Diego, FluiDyne Engineering, Northwest Air-lines and Boeing, before retiring in 1994 as an Air Safety In-vestigator.

Stayed in the Reserve after active duty until I retired in 1978.Flew at NAS Glenview, NAS Minneapolis, NAS Los Alami-tos, NAS Seattle and NAS Whidbey Island.

Transitioned from VF, FG-1D & F9F, to helicopters in 1957at Ellyson Field. Most exciting event was an unintended waterlanding in an H-34 in Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis during the1966 Aquatennial festival. 3000 + people watching! Water tax-ied ashore with nothing more than a blown lower cylinder head.

Married Lois in Coronado, CA in 1951. We have two daughters and twograndsons. Activities include staying active in my yacht club where I wasCommodore in 1985, playing golf and tutoring at the local elementary school.Also, presently I am chairman of the City of Carnation Planning Board.

When we have time, travel is our preferred pastime, mostly on cruise ships.Lois prefers this type of travel as opposed to our boat because, “I don’t have tohandle the lines and the food is better”. We are looking forward to keepinghealthy and going to the FMA reunions as long as we can.

Frederick C. Bereswill4353 325th Avenue NECarnation, WA 98014-8741

9-48C

BERESWILL

BERESWILL

SAUFLEY FIELD...JULY...1949...FLT.126

Joe Brown...Myself...John Roche...Joe Preston Seated: Joe Miller

6

BILL

BUSSE

What led you to joinup?I was probably destined tobe in the Navy from thelooks of all the navy suitsmy mother dressed me in.Anyway, after flunking theNavy physical just out ofhigh school, I was re-signed to sitting out theBig War. I was nailing 2 x4s on a house my Dad wasbuilding, when JimHendrix came by with adeal I couldn’t pass up.We hitch hike to LA after

submitting applications for the V-5 program...get freeroom and board...visit my Aunt Kay and Uncle Carl...and live it up for a few days while Jim joins up and Iflunk the physical. Lo and behold, we were among thefive out of 50 applicants who made it. (I finally fig-ured out that my original turn down was because somecorpsman had left a thumb print on my chest x-ray.)

What was your V-5 college? What (andwho) stands out?We were sent to Arizona State College at Flagstaff,currently Northern Arizona University. As the firstV-5’s at ASU we were treated like third class citizensby the V-12 engineers. There was no love lost, eitherway. Incidentally, most of the V-5 and V-12 studentswere from California and had a hard time adjustingto life in the woods. When the word came down thatthe Naval Unit was being decommissioned, rumorswere rampant as to where we would go next.

It was one of the most emotional experiences of myyoung life when the Skipper crowded all of us in thelounge to announce the news...some good...some notso good. First, the V-12’s were to be transferred tothe University of New Mexico at Albuquerque....deadsilence. And the V-5s are to go to...drum roll...USC!Bedlam from the underclassmen! We’ll it changedmy life...as you’ll see!

One day, as I was studying at USC, my room-mate, Dave Cobb, suggested I go with him toDoheney Li-brary andmeet one ofhis EnglishCompositionclassmates.Fortunately,I was willingto tear myselfaway fromthe booksand was in-troduced to h i sclassmate...a cute blonde named BarbaraJohnson and, as they say, the rest is history.

Where did you attend SelectiveTraining? What fond memories and/or unusual events?From USC we were sent to N.A.S. Los Alamitosfor our 1O hours in Stearmans, where I almostflunked out. It wasn’t difficult to do as my goodfriends Bill Burlem and Les Berg found out.Anyway, I drew the C. O., CDR. Chamberlain,for my check ride and almost drove him into atree. Not good! Four more hours of trainingon how to avoid trees and a check ride withEns. Art Konas.

I had been a gym rat and, since Ens. Konaswas in charge of physical fitness, had devel-oped a good enough relationship that he lob-bied to be my check pilot and give me a finalchance. It was a very windy day and Art reluc-tantly got out of the Yellow Peril and sent meon my way. I survived the touch and go land-ings as he kneeled and assumed a prayful atti-tude. Thanks, Art. That took guts! As a foot-note, I never received another down checkthroughout my flying career.

P re - F l i g h t … . w h a tevent or occurrence willyou never forget?Arriving at Ottumwa, Iowa, inJanuary wearing a light weight Navy jacket.The snow was coming down horizontally andI couldn’t believe this was to be my homefor the next three months! But what fun wehad suffering together...swimming at 8 am...marching and sliding along the icy roads toclass...P.E. with Mighty Mouse ...having towrestle. (I’m drawing a blank on mypartner’s name. No, it was Ponds.) He was30 pounds heavier and six times stronger...and who will ever forget hearing PeggyLee every morning at 6 am belting out onthe local radio station “It’s a Good Day!”Yes, they did have radio in Iowa in 1947!

Describe your hairiest experienceat Corpus or Pensacola?Night flying. Always an adventure. We weremaking touch and go landings at CabinissField one pitch black night. I was landingon the right side of the runway when I wassurprised to see another SNJ parked off therunway to my right. I found out that LeoReagan had landed on the left side of therunway ahead of me, had ground looped andpassed right in front of me. Miraculously,we avoided a fiery confrontation. Stuff youhave nightmares about!

2-47

BILL

BUSSE

Dick Thompson..Charlie Robidart..Dave Cobb..Bill BussePhoto by Bob “Sport” Horton

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Where did you go for Advanced and inwhat aircraft? Describe the highlights.Went back to Corpus for training in PB4Y-2s.Not my first choice. Bill Rankin and RussBaum and I had been accelerated through car-rier quals and wanted to be fighter jocks in theworst way. Since no VF billets were given theclass ahead of us, at the last minute, we

Bud Smith...Bill Rankin...Bill Busse Russ Baum...Don Toby...Al.Weil

changed our requests to VA. As it happenedeveryone who applied was given VF and wewere the only ones picked for VP. Tragedy ofall tragedies! It changed, and perhaps short-ened, Russ’s life and turned Bill into a commer-cial pilot. As for me...read on.

On to the fleet….where did you go and whatwas it like being a Flying Midshipman?Went to VP-20 at Whidbey Island. Nomoney...not sunny...”what’s this midshipmandoing here?” Roomed with Alex Dunn.Learned to play squash.

How did your life progress… marriage…Korea…Viet Nam…civilian occupation...family… retirement …etc.Married Barbara in LA the day after I became anEns. USN. Three glorious days honeymooning inSanta Barbara then back to Whidbey only to findthat our squadron was to be decommissioned. Iwas ecstatic to find that I had been reassigned toVP-22 in Hawaii. But, hold the presses...VP-22was scheduled to deploy to Guam for sixmonths...without dependents. So, after being onGuam a short, while I was anxious to reconsti-tute my marriage. The first stateside school avail-able was Navy Justice School at Port Huenemejust 50 miles from LA where Barbara resided.Naturally I jumped at the opportunity. Henceforth, I was the Squadron Legal Officer, a job Ithoroughly enjoyed.

Was not selected for retention contrary to prom-ises of the Holloway Plan. We were offered sixmore months of active duty when no one knewwhat was happening in Korea. Said, “You hadyour chance!” and headed back to USC only tobe diverted once again. Visited Barbara’s sisterand brother-in-law in Palo Alto and Tom talkedme into going to Stanford. (They moved to South-ern California three months later, but living ourlives in Palo Alto has been a blessing. Muchasgracias, Thomas)

Flipped a coin between architecture and the lawand it came up heads! Graduated with honors...went to work as a flunky and wound up presidentof Spencer Associates, Architects and Planners.At Stanford a fellow student, Tito Seigel, talkedme into joining the Navy Reserve...it didn’t takemuch, we needed the cash. Flew SNJ’s, F4U’s,TV-1s, F2H’s, S2F’s and wound up as the skipperof P2V Squadron VP 874 at Alameda...full circle.Left the Reserve in 1967after 20 years of service.The Navy was a great experience! Aviation Midshipmen included: Top R to L Rod

Williams, Bud Hower, John Mulcahy, Bill Mallingerand John “Hootch” Grauer. Bottom Rt. Bill Busse

2-47

BILL

BUSSE

CONT.

All the while we had threechildren...Curt who studied baboonsin Africa for three years and is cur-rently a computer guru in Puerto Rico...Jan whostudied art at UCLA and is currently a graphic de-signer in San Francisco ...and Matt who is a soilmicrobiologist in Redding, California. If you arecurious about the details, visit our family web siteat www.bbusse.com

Had a great career in architecture and retired in1988. Since then Barbara and I have been livingthe good life. Lots of traveling...baby sitting withassorted granddaughters...building furniture...gardening...attending reunions ...making video mov-ies and doing computer graphics...all the while work-ing with other volunteers to save the world.

We look forward to doing more of the same.

One of my favorite songs was popular when we wereat Los Alamitos...Johnny Long’s rendition of “AShanty in Old Shanty Town!” Not too romantic, butgreat lyrics!

8

5-47

DON

DAY

DON

DAY

Dear Bill:

I know this is late but I just saw Don Day to-day and got a little info out of him. I’m sure youknow he is in a convalescent home in RanchoBernado Ca. He’s in good spirits, but it was hardto get exact info and dates out of him. Since hewas one of the instigators of the First Reunionat Treasure Island I thought he should be in-cluded in your booklet.

Stan Pederson

I’m Donavan D. Day. Seattle, Washing-

ton was my home, and in July 1945 I reportedto Whittman College for my first semester ofV-5 training. After one semester the unit wasclosed and we were transferred to the Univer-sity of California for two more semesters.

I completed my two years of college at theUniv. of Washington. Reported to NAS LosAlamitos in Sept 1946 for Selective Flight Train-ing as a Aviation Cadet. After five months offun and games soloed in an N2S and was sentoff to Pre flight at Ottumwa Iowa.

Promoted to Aviation Midshipmen and taughtto march, swim and navigate. Graduated in May1947 and was off to Basic Training in SNJ’s atCabaniss Field, Corpus Christi Tex. Upon solo-ing the “ J” we were sent to Pensacola. We trainedin instruments and formation at Corry Field. Nextit was gunnery and field carrier landing practiceat Saufley Field. After six landings on the USSWright I was sent to NAS Corpus Christi for Ad-vanced Training along with Rick Cotton andStan Pederson. There we flew SNB’s and PBM’s.

Graduation was on Oct. 12 1948 with Rick,Stan, Earl Rogers, Rocky Rockwell, and D.Williams. Stan and I were ordered to report toCOM AIR PAC where we were taught ASW ba-sics at FAETUPAC. In Jan 1949 climbed thegangway of the USS Pine Island in Tsingtao Chinato report to VP-41. Next it was VP-46 in Saipanwhere I became an Ensign .

Returned to San Diego in the fall and in Junehelped form OUT San Diego. Trained VP-892and VP-731 in the art of flying PBM’s. JoinedVP-47 in late ’51.

Married Suzanne in the spring of ’52 atAlameda Ca. In July ’52 I was attached to USNAAnnapolis flying Midshipmen in N3N’s onFloats. Final active duty base was NAS NiagraNY. On being separated in 1954, I returned toUSC and obtained a BS degree in transporta-tion. While at SC signed on with VP-773 at NASLos Alamitos.

After graduation transferred to VP-775 at NASOakland. Later Commanded the first Reserve P3squadron, VP-874. We were based at NAS Mof-fett and there I finished my 27 happy years inthe US Navy. During all this time Sue and Iraised our son, Chris. I worked at Kaiser Alu-minum and was President of the Pacific West-bound Conference. I am now retired in RanchoBernardo, Ca. Sorry we can’t make this year’sReunion. All my best to everyone!

9

Perhaps at one time or another we all have won-dered why we were singled out. Why hadDave and Russ and Jesse and Bud, and manyothers, died such an early death, while we hadbeen blessed with some seventy-five years of ex-istence. Now we are planning to attend the Thir-tieth West Coast Reunion of the Flying Midship-men Association and, obviously and sadly, theywill not be among us. When you consider thealmost bizarre events that put our friends inharms way, you wonder how the cards are dealt.Why were WE given the gift of such a long lifeand they were not?

DAVE COBB was very special in my life.During the late thirties and early forties we hadbeen friends in the small mountain town ofPrescott, Arizona. Dave’s dad was a doctor atFort Whipple, the veterans’ hospital on the WestSide of town. Dr. Cobb had a strange sense ofhumor when you consider the way he had nick-named his sons. Dave was “Nubbins” Cobb tohis buddies in Prescott. I didn’t find out untilmuch later that a nubbin was a runt ear of corn,as in “corn on the Cobb”. His younger brotherswere “Shuckie” and “Kernel”. We should haveguessed that Nubbins was pilot material the dayhe was riding horseback with roller skates on,was thrown off and broke a leg.

The Cobb family moved when Dr. Cobb wastransferred to Saugus Veterans’ Hospital in LosAngeles during Dave’s sophomore year in highSchool.

The first day Jim Hendrix, who was also fromPrescott, and I arrived at our V-5 unit, ArizonaState College in Flagstaff, we were ushered intothe auditorium for the indoctrination lectureby the Commanding Officer. We were a bitlate and took the first empty seats next to a tallred headed future classmate. What a surpriseto see none other than Nubbins Cobb!

What made Dave special in my life occurredwhen we were roommates in Elizabeth vonKleinschmidt Hall at USC, the next stop onour V-5 tour. Dave had told me about the cuteblond he had met in English Composition classand asked if I wanted to meet her. Being deepin the books I was a bit reluctant, but curiositygot the better of me, and off we went toDoheney Library on one of the most impor-tant journeys of my life. That meeting turnedinto a relationship that has lasted through 53years of marriage, three children and three and1/2 grandchildren. (We are deeply grateful,Dave. We wanted you to be best man at ourwedding, but it wasn’t to be.)

DAVE

COBB

2-47

DAVE

COBB

Sometime, not long after we had movedfrom Corpus Christi to Pensacola, Dave,Gene Mayer, Bob Jasinski, my roommateat the time, and another Aviation Midship-man whose name I don’t recall, decide tomake a return trip to Corpus Christi to visit“the girls left behind.” It was to be a fate-ful decision for all of them. I believe Genehad the private pilot’s license and was prob-ably at the controls. Their light plane wasfound in a Louisiana bayou. There wereno survivors. The desire to make it to Cor-pus under bad weather conditions and littleexperience with instrument flying had ledto their early deaths.

For their buddies it was the loss of somevery outstanding friends. (I’m reminded ofthe words above the assignment board atN.A.S. Los Alamitos, “Flying is not inher-ently dangerous, just unforgiving of hu-man carelessness.”)

I don’t know if Dave had originated theidea or if he was taking the place of some-one who couldn’t make it at the last minute,but it was a decision that ended his life andour special relationship. We miss you,Nubbins!

BY THE GRACE OF GOD

10

RUSS BAUM was one of the most un-usual people I had met in the Program. Hewas outgoing, brash and, above all, one ofthe guys. He was a lover of wide repute andconsidered himself to be, not only God’s giftto the fairer sex, but one of the world’s greataviators. (As I mentioned in my bio, Russand Bill Rankin and I aced field carrier land-ing practice and were added ahead of sched-ule to the list of those to qualify aboard thecarrier, U.S.S. Wright.

We were back at Main Side basking in ourcollective carrier landing success when thesubject of Advanced Training came up. As Irecall it was my suggestion that, since no onein the previous class had been assigned tofighters, we go over to the office and make alast minute change. Why not request attackaircraft? At least we would be flying singleengine planes and not those lumbering multiengine machines. And so we did!

The result was a disaster. Rankin and Baumwere assigned PBMs, patrol flying boats, andI went to Corpus to train in four engine pa-trol bombers, the PB4Y-2 Privateer. We weredevastated by the news, and were in totalenvy of our three Basic Training flight mates,Bud Smith, Don Toby and Al Weil. Suchwas fate, but we didn’t realize how our deci-sion was to affect the lives of all of us. 2-47

RUSS

BAUM

RUSS

BAUM

I believe that Russ finished his Navy ca-reer flying PBMs. He then went to workfor the Martin Marrieta Company. Some-time later he became their chief test pilotfor the P5M, the next generation of Navyflying boat.

I lost track of Russ until I read an ar-ticle in Time Magazine recounting his he-roic exploits while training a Braniff pilotto fly the Boeing 707. According to thearticle, Russ had described the “dutchroll”…kicking hard rudder which increasedlift dramatically on one wing and reducedlift on the other. As advertised, when at-tempted the 707 started a violent roll. Russassumed the controls and completed a bar-rel roll. In the process all four enginesparted company.

Again, according to the article, Russ wasable to glide the plane to a clearing…butnot quite. The three observers in the tail ofthe plane survived, but the Braniff pilot andRuss were killed instantly. Later when theofficial accident report came out, Russ losthis hero status, but to many of us he willalways be “some kind of hero.”

I know a great deal about how Russ Baumgot killed. It’s quite a sea story. I met anFAA Check Pilot in Tokyo who was aboardthe 707 and was the only survivor.

Russ was checking out a foreign pilot in anew 707 when the aircraft stalled and did asnap roll causing three engines to separatefrom the airplane. The FAA guy went backinto the cabin to check for damage. He re-ported back that the wing was on fire andbegged Russ to ditch in a lake below whichwas their only chance to survive. Russ saidthat there was an airfield over the next ridgeand he was going to land the airplane. TheFAA guy knew they couldn’t clear the ridgeon one engine so locked himself in a headin the back of the cabin. The aircraft hit theridge, exploded and the tail with the FAAguy rolled down the other side of the moun-tain.

I wrote about this some years ago and be-lieve I sent a copy to Ort. If you like, I willtry to find my old copy and send it to you ifyou will send me your Fax number or ad-dress.

Dick Davidson

PROBABLY A MORE ACCURATEVERSION OF THE ACCIDENT ASREPORTED BY DICK DAVIDSON

BY THE GRACE OF GOD

11

JESSE BROWN was a striking figure whenhe arrived at Ottumwa Pre-Flight. It occurredto all of us that we had seen no other negros inthe V-5 Program. (The terms, black and Afri-can-American, were not in use at the time.) Irecall being a bit surprised that the Navy wasbroadening the ranks. I think all of us werepleased to have him at Ottumwa, but didn’t re-alize that he was the very first black to aspire towear Navy wings.

We also didn’t realize that Jesse’s family wereshare croppers in Mississippi. Being fiveclasses after ours, I had no more than a speak-ing acquaintance with him, but sensed he was agentleman and a natural for the Program.

As we all moved through the flight trainingphases, I remember hearing that Jesse had somedifficulty in Basic Training. There had beentalk of unfair treatment on the part of his checkpilots. In any event, he had gone before a FlightReview Board and was given additional flighttime rather than being dismissed from the pro-gram. Jesse subsequently completed AdvancedTraining in single engine aircraft at N.A.S. Jack-sonville.

It wasn’t until recently, on reading TheodoreTaylor’s book, “The Flight of Jesse LeRoyBrown”, that I realized how mentally and emo-tionally difficult the Program had been for Jesse.Being black in a sea of white, all the while be-ing subjected to the discrimination prevalent in

those times, was an uncommon burden. Accord-ing to Taylor’s account, Jesse more than once ago-nized over the situation and considered giving itall up. But, to his credit, he stuck it out andbecame an outstanding Naval Aviator.

The details of Jesse’s death while flying in Ko-rea were sketchy to me. Then Theodore Taylor’sbook provided a vivid account of his life. Thesituation, as the Chinese entered the war, was aparticularly vivid reminder. I highly recommendhis book, but in the meantime would like to sharea few excerpts:

November 27th, 1950.

“The Marines were completely surrounded, fight-ing fiercely as they retreated; wounded ridingtrucks, walking wounded slogging and stumblingalong. More killed, more wounded. The Chosinretreat would go down as one of the most agoniz-ing yet most successful in military history. Brav-ery and heroism went with each painful step.Those who survived became known as “TheChosin Few.’

“Never in the long history of the Corps had therebeen such a brutal winter ordeal as was happen-ing now to the foot soldiers on the twisting moun-

tain road, the long columns of trucks and walk-ing wounded slowly making their way south,dying under enemy fire, freezing to death downthere. Fingers and toes turned purple and blackfrom frostbite, soon to be amputated. …Theironly help and salvation was from the air.

December 4th, 1950“The planes dropped to about to about 500 feetto search for targets after they’d crossed thedesolate coastline well north of Hungnam, thepoint of salvation for all the Americans grind-ing south through the Communist escape routegauntlet. They were flying along the west sideof the Chosin…

“Lacking heavy antiaircraft guns, the Chineseinfantrymen had their own technique of tryingto deal with low-flying enemy aircraft. They’dlie in the snow in their white uniforms and pointtheir rifles straight up, then fire simultaneously…

“Jesse replied calmly, ‘This is Iroquois 1-3, I’mlosing fuel pressue. I have to put it down.’ Oneof those unlucky rifle bullets had hit a gas or oilline. He was 10 to 15 miles behind enemy lines…

“Jesse spotted a snowy clearing about a quar-ter mile in diameter almost on the side of themountain, in an upgrade of about 20 degrees…

“It took a few minutes for the shock of the crash

7-47

JESSE

BROWN

BY THE GRACE OF GODJESSE

BROWN

12

landing, the fright, the slamming physical andmental punishment, the screech of metal shear-ing to wear off. He tried to move his legs butrealized the knee was jammed by the buckledfuselage against the control panel, straddledby his feet. He was trapped, deep in enemyterritory…

“Without hesitation (LTJG. Tom) Hudner madethe decision to crash land besideJesse…Hudner felt he was indestructible andwith the Corsair and its big engine and noseup there acting as a plow, he could put it downand walk away to save Jesse’s life…

“Jesse, bareheaded, was sitting in the cockpit,obviously in great pain, but spoke clearly andcalmly. ‘I’m pinned in here, Tom!’…

“Another few minutes passed and Jesse openedhis eyes again to say, ‘Tell Daisy how much Ilove her…’Soon he took a shallow breath andthen his head slumped down on his chest. Battlehardened Tom Hudner and (helicopter pilot)Charlie Ward wept.

“They wondered whether Hudner would get ametal or a court- martial for demolishing anaircraft, endangering a combat operation. Abugler played taps and Marines fired volleysover the stern in tribute to their shipmate.”

April 13th, 1951“PRESIDENT TRUMAN awarded the Medalof Honor to Hudner, ending all speculationabout the incident. Daisy attended the WhiteHouse ceremony, as well as members of theBrown family.”

PRESIDENT REAGAN on May 10th, 1987 ina speech at Tuskegee University said:“…I’d like to speak with you about a man whosename is not so well known…Ensign JesseBrown, the first black naval aviator.

“On December 4th, 1950, Ensign Brown’s air-craft was hit while making a strafing run

against the enemy. With tremendous skill, hemanaged to crash land on a rough, boulder strewnslope. He survived the crash, waving to his fiendsas they circled overhead. They knew he was introuble when he remained in the cockpit, even assmoke began to billow from the wreckage.

“Finally a fellow member of his squadron couldstand it no more. As others attacked and held offthe enemy troops, LTJG Thomas Hudner ignoredthe dangers of the mountains and enemy troopsand made a wheels up landing. He ran to EnsignBrown’s plane, now erupting in flames, and foundhis friend alive, badly injured, trapped in his cock-pit…

“Now, I would like to tell you that they both madeit and that, over the years, they have been the bestof friends, caring about one another. But that wasnot to be. Ensign Jesse Brown died on that slopein Korea. When he risked his life for those be-sieged Marines, Jesse did not think of the race ofthose he sought to protect. And when his fellowpilots saw him in danger, they did not think of thecolor of his skin. They only knew that Americanswere in trouble.”

:

JESSE

BROWN

Cont.

13

BUD SMITHOne of my best friends during Preflight and Ba-sic Training was LOREN D. “Bud” SMITH. Budwas from Oklahoma and had a laid back friendlyoutlook on life. Due perhaps to my appearanceand being from Arizona, his nickname for me was“Half-breed.”

One of Bud’s claims to fame was having wonthe Oklahoma City Tennis Championship whileon leave between Ottumwa and Corpus Christi. Ihad a chance to hit a few with him on a clay courthidden in the outer reaches of Ottumwa. He wasgood!

I didn’t see Bud again after we parted companyin Pensacola. The next I heard was that he com-plete Advanced Training in Jacksonville and wasbound for Korea. In the process of obtaining in-formation for this booklet, I asked if anyone knewthe details surrounding Bud’s death while flying

BUD

SMITH2-47

BUD

SMITH

Perhaps at one time or another we all have wondered why we were singled out.Why had Dave and Russ and Jesse and Bud, and many others, died such anearly death, while we had been blessed with some seventy-five years of exist-ence. Now we are planning to attend the Thirtieth West Coast Reunion of theFlying Midshipmen Association and, obviously and sadly, they will not be amongus. When you consider the almost bizarre events that put our friends in harmsway, you wonder how the cards are dealt. Why were WE given the gift of such along life and they were not?

off a carrier during the Korean War. I receivedthe following report from Lou Ives:

“Bud was in an AD pilot, with either VA-923or VC-35 on either the Bon Homme in 1951 orthe Oriskany during 1952-1953. Tours mergeafter 50 years.

“He was on a pre-dawn launch with muchoload, including a couple of 1,000 pound VT fuze.About 1,000 feet forward of the ship, the sky litup for miles. Later an arming wire was foundon the deck. The VT fuze has a 1,000 foot travelbefore arming.

“Bummer. Another bummer: Bud is not listedas Killed In Action, although he was on a com-bat hop.”

Bud, wish you were here at the 30th with us. Ican almost

BY THE GRACE OF GOD

14

Thank you for your reply call at 0943, advising to complete and send Q + photos via snailmail at this late date.Among others is the N2S over-water photo, V-5 Class Photos from Cornell, and me (as Midn) and my Aeroncawhile in flight training. Beyond that, my active duty career was short, but my life was deep and long. Have justcompleted, with great difficulty, 5 pages of info...some of which I previously could NOT remember !! There wasconsiderable emotional trauma for me when my flight career was chopped short, with much loss of memory, butI’ve been able to resurrect some of it...VERY slowly.

Even have my “Aviation Training Jacket” from Corpus. Will be bringing to reunion my leather flight jacket withMidn USN desigmation, as well as original V5 , USS Wright, NAS Glenview patches, as well as my original (thotattered) training jacket, cap and flight greens trousers, as worn by those in your questionnaire photo. Fun.

Thanks for your patience. Hank Frazer(8-47)

(Editor’s Note: Not being a typist, Hank’s five pages will be keyboarded later and included in the first addendum.)

The “Old” and “New”–Pictured above is theN2S bi-plane and the SNJ-5 low-wingmonoplane in which the Navy’s embryo pi-lots will now train. The N2S, commonlyreferred to as “Yellow Perils” will be re-placed by this new operational type aircraft.Many of the features of modern fighter air-craft are evident in the SNJ which is ex-pected to give the Navy a better aviator in ashorter period of time. The lower photo-graph shows the cockpit of the N2S whichhad but few instruments and controls to keepthe Aviation Midshipman occupied. In thelower right is the front cockpit of the SNJ“Texan” showing the instrument panelwhich has numerable more gadgets than theold trainer.Official U. S. Navy Photos,

GOSPORT August 1, 1947

Article contributed by Hank Frazer

HANK

FRAZER

HANK

FRAZER

8-47

15

HUMPHREY

HUMPHREY

JohnJohn

Enlisted in the Navy prior to finishing High School with the allow-ance to complete High School. V-5 opened up prior to finishing HighSchool and I qualified.

July 1945 reported to North Texas Agricultural College V-5 Unit inArlington TX. That fall we were transferred to the SMU V-12 Unit inDallas TX.

Sept. 1946 reported to NASLos Alamitos for SelectiveFlight Training. During the fewhours we got to fly the N2S Imanaged to ground loop follow-ing a landing, at which time Igot a lot of instruction and ad-vice through the gosport. TheInstructor took over control andproceeded to ground loop againat which time it became veryquiet over the gosport.

June 1947. Reported to Ottumwa, Iowa, for Pre-Flight Class 8-47 asAV CAD and later MIDN. Transferred to Pensacola for the remainderof Pre-Flight and Basic Training. Some of us were together throughmost of training. Some names that pop-up are Rex Vannoy, Mack“Red” Sellers, Jessie Brown, Sam Clausel and Eddie Boufard. Jessiewas the first Black to finish Flight Training and unbeknownst to thehigher ups he was married all the way through. Advanced Training wasin Jacksonville in F6F.

Wings came in Nov. 1948

Reported to VF-173 in Feb. 1949 thruMay 1952 in F4U-4 & F4U-5

Married on May 8, 1949, to EllenMc Spadden with Red Sellers as bestman. Red was killed soon after in a mid-air while operating with VF173 in the At-lantic.

1952 - 1954 Flight Instructor ATU-2 &ATU-100 in F8F & F6F.

1954 - Reported to USS Yorktown CV10 as Asst. Cat and Arresting GearOfficer.

1955-1957 Reported to USS Lexington CVA-16Pre-Commissioning Detail then as AsstCat & Arresting Gear Officer.

1957-1960 Reported to VA-146 in FJ4B Aircraft asMaintenance Officer and later Operations Officer.

1960 – 1962 Navy Post-Graduate School Monterey

1962 - 1964 OINC Guided Missile Unit 7 Point Magu, CA.

1964 – 1966 USS Hornet CVS-12 Asst Air Office

1966 – 1969 Office of CNO OP-43 Logistics-Military Construction

1969 – 1975 CINCPACFLT 442 Logistics Military Construction

Retired July 1975 with 30 years.

Became Insurance Agent for Lincoln National Life and was Manag-ing Agent of the Honolulu Office for 10 years. Now work only parttime.

Have been sailing since 1969 and racing for about 15 years. Sail-boats grew from 25 feet to 41 feet now. Started competitive running1975 and have been successful in several age groups.

VF 173 aboard the USS Coral Sea circa 1951

Bob NormanIke Jones Bill Orr

Jack Sargent John Humphrey

.

8-47

16

LOU

IVES

LOU

IVES

Ives’ selections from The Brown Shoes History© 1999, The Brown Shoes

Personal History

Lou was born on the Ives of March1928. He grew up, attended grammar and highschool in Alhambra, California, and matricu-lated at Southern Cal at age 16.

He joined the Navy V-5 Program inJune 1945 as Apprentice Seaman, fleeted upto Aviation Cadet in June 1946, Aviation Mid-shipman in December 1946, got his wings asAviation Midshipman, USN, in June 1948. InDecember 1948, during a tour in Hawaii withVA-213 flying TBMs, he received his commis-sion as Ensign, USN.

During a tour with VA-134 flyingF4Us, Harry Truman and Omar Bradley con-spired to give him $300 and kick him out inDecember 1949. Their timing was bad - theKorean Fracas started in June 1950. Recalledfrom flying F6Fs in the Reserve, Lou joinedVF-781 at San Diego flying F4Us and F9Fs.1950-1953, he made two tours with the squad-ron on the USS Bon Homme Richard (CV-31)and the USS Oriskany (CV-34) with Task Force77 in Korea.

He flew 129 combat hops over NorthKorea, mostly deep fighter reconnaissance, flaksuppression, and combat air patrol. Shot bothways - up 6, down 2; ditched twice - (gottastay current) - once in the Sea of Japan and theother in Wonsan Harbor.

Lou left active duty in July 31,1953,and stayed in the Reserve until 1959, flyingF2Hs, F9Fs, and HUPs at Los Alamitos andOakland. Had 2,000 flight hours, 189 carrierlandings, and 5 cargo ship landings (in HUPs).

He was one of the pioneers (1955-1965)in the commercial helicopter industry, flying Bell47s in Central California doing powerline patrol,fire fighting, construction sling-load, and agricul-ture. Got another 2,000 flight hours.

That was the fun part.

Lou received his only degree (MBA)from University of Virginia’s Graduate BusinessSchool in 1967 at age 39 (after six undergraduateschools - with no degree) - 23 years between ma-triculation and graduation.

Thereafter, followed 30 years mun-dane work in management and consulting -mostly in small companies. He has phased outhis consulting in small business in the VirginiaPiedmont area to put full time with colleaguePat Francis on The Brown Shoes History. 8-47

17

VIC

LOPEZ

VIC

LOPEZ

1-47

1t It was the spring of 1945 and I was a ram-bunctious 17 year old. In those years as soon asa lad turned 18 he was drafted, mostly into thewalking Army. I found out about the AircrewmanProgram and signed up. After passing all of therequirements, I waited to be called to active duty.Then I received a letter from the Navy asking if Iwanted to take the V-5 test, WOW!!!

I passed and was sent to Dubuque Universityin Dubuque, Iowa, on July 2, 1945, for one se-mester, then on to Marquette University in Mil-waukee, Wisconsin for two semesters and a sum-mer session prior to Selective Flight. One thingI will never forget is Hank Stanley and I climb-ing down an outside pipe on the dorm to sneakup to The Eagle Dance Hall to see Stan Kentonand His “Band of Renown.”.Selective Flight was at Los Alamitos in South-ern California. The weather was a treat for thisMidwest boy. The Stearman Trainers had notarrived nor our uniforms, so we were put onworking parties in our Apprentice Seaman gearbrought from college. We cleaned empty enlistedbarracks, worked in General Mess, policed upthe station and other choice assignments. Theaircraft and instructors finally arrived and whenI soloed I was exhilarated and terrified.

After Christmas leave, Ottumwa PreflightSchool was next. Arriving Jan 2,1947, we wereassigned to Class 1-47. I had more than my fairshare of problems in DR Navigation and spentmany a night in special study hour on the VarsityNavigation Team. I liked almost everything inPre-flight except the cold weather Survival Hike,(-14 degrees F) and Mighty Mouse.

Corpus was next, for Basic, Aerobatics and In-struments. No major problems, but I sure didstruggle with Instruments. Next was Pensacola,Saufley Field for Formation & Tactics, Gunneryand Carrier Qual. Everything went well excepton my sixth and final trap I held off and hit thebarrier on the venerable USS Wright. For somereason I was called Qualified and was sent on toJacksonville for Advanced.

At Jax the A/C was the F4U-4 and the syllabuswas Attack. I thoroughly enjoyed Advanced andout fired my instructor on every gunnery flight.The liberty in Jax was outstanding and it was areal pleasure to be allowed in the O‘Club. Thebiggest thrill was Carrier Qual with no barriers.I received my wings in Sept., 1948.

I was assigned to Airgroup 4, VA-45, The “BlackKnights.” We were flying the AD-1 Skyraider,what a wonderful aircraft. Being a Mid‘n was noproblem as there had been several in the Airgroupbefore me, the only drawback was the pay, whichdidn‘t go very far.

Later we transitioned to theAM-1 Martin Mauler. It was anexcellent dive bomber but notmuch good overall. It was so pooron the Carrier that we got our AD-1‘s back,but not before an AM engine ( R-4360, 28 cyl-

inder monster) quit on me and I put it in the St.Johns River.

We took our beloved AD‘s with us on a Medcruise and a good time was had by all. Wereturned Stateside in June, 1950, and decom-missioned the Airgroup and since I was notselected for USN I was getting out. I was inthe Separation Center when Korea hit and Istayed in as a USNR guy.

I was transferred to VC-12 at Quonset Pointwhere we flew the AD-4W Guppy. I becamean AEW Team Pilot and went on another Medcruise. We were night Qualified and I ran mytotals to 150 traps of which 50 were night, allstraight deck. Thus ended my Carrier career.MY shore duty was as a Basic Flight Instruc-tor at Corry and Saufley Fields in Pensacola.The duty was not my first choice, but I did en-joy working with the young Cadets. There wasgreat satisfaction teaching someone to do whatI had come to love.

VIC & ARLENE

18

LOPEZ

CONT.

THE CAPTION READS:24 May 1949N.A.S. Jacksonville Fla.Subj. Ditching: AM-1 Bu.#122394Pilot: Ens. V.C. Lopez Sqd. VA-45Location: 150 Ft. West of Pier #1Green cove Springs, Fla. Time: 1405Cause: Backfirre and engine failure

Hand written: The AM-1 Martin MaulerBeing hauled out of the Sy. John’s River

During this time I met and married my lovelywife Arlene who will be celebrating our 50thanniversary on Sept. 8, 2002. I opted for inac-tive duty in July 1953.

We moved to Pomona, California. After anunsucessful try at business I went to work forPomona Tile Mfg. Co. staying with them for 10years after which I resigned as Chief IndustrialEngineer for a better position. I changed to theOilfield Molded rubber business. I stayed withthe same Company for 23 more years, butthrough mergers, acquisitions, etc., there werethree names and three plant locations. I retiredas Plant Manager in Texas and returned to Up-land, Ca.. The main Company was Hughes ToolCompany.

During this time I was active in The Naval AirReserve. Flying in F4U, AD-5 and F9F Squad-rons at Los Alamitos and Olathe. After my eyesgot too bad for Group one Aviator, I migratedto the ASW OPCON end of the business. Istayed in it for the balance of my Reserve ca-reer. I wound up being CO of an OPCON unitand later was promoted to 0-6. An interestingpart of my career was that I was a LCDR for 10years, being kept in a pay billet on waivers.

Then I was selected for CDR and selected forCapt on the first try. Go figure. I retired in 1968with 8 years active and 25 in the Reserves.My good wife Arlene and I reared five children.We worked hard, but survived. We now live inUpland where Arlene has been teaching potteryand doing craft projects. She recently stoppedteaching pottery, which is a pretty lively craft,but is still active with her other crafts.

I try to play golf twice a week and do most ofthe home maintenance. I‘m in the process of sell-ing my motor home. I‘ve tired of messing withit. We travel some and I enjoy working with thisdamned computer.

By the time this is printed I will have had my75th birthday and the two main things I am look-ing forward to are to continue to look down atthe flowers and, if it doesn‘t hurt any more to-morrow than it did today, that‘s good.

One parting shot. The most wonderful and grati-fying part of my Naval career was the quality ofthe people I was privileged to work with and be-ing considered part of it.

Victor C. Lopez C496726

Ens. V.C. Lopez-47

19

The Early Years or

How I Entered the Navy and Salvaged aCareer in Naval Aviation

My motivation to enter a flying ca-reer was instilled at an early age in that avia-tion, both general and military, ran in the fam-ily. Both my father and stepfather were avia-tors. Following graduation from high schooland with an Army pre-induction physical draftnotice in hand, I enlisted in the U. S. Navy’sV-5 program as an Apprentice Seaman in De-cember 1945. Perhaps fortunately for me, theArmy Air Corps had temporarily suspendedflight training at the time, otherwise I mightvery well have followed my stepfather into theArmy and missed a grand opportunity to be-come a Naval Aviator!

The Navy ordered me to theNROTC Unit at the University of SouthernCalifornia in March 1946 where I attended thefirst semester in uniform. Other FMAers atUSC included Al Barr, Chuck O’Reilly, BobJohnson, Bill Daniel, Bruce Campbell, KentHugus, and Bob Ward, among others. Thatsummer our group was ordered to tarmac dutyat NAS North Island where we got a chance topre-flight, crank-up, and check out the engineson some of the airplanes (SNB’s and F6F’s,etc.) on the line. Big thrill for a young kid!

At summer’s end, we were ordered tothe Naval Training Center, San Diego, where wewere summarily discharged from the regular Navyand reassigned to inactive duty in the reserves aspart of the Naval Aviation College Program. Wereturned to USC to finish our remaining three se-mesters as “civilians”. Youngster that I was, I gotswept up into fraternity life and girls and the fastlife was almost my undoing as I came close towashing out of college even before learning tofly! I met one of my closest Navy buddies at USC,Jim McClure, and our careers followed each otherthrough flight training and our first squadron.

In March 1948, we reported in NASPensacola for Pre-Flight, Class 7-48, and com-missioning as an Aviation Midshipman. I initiallyroomed with Jim McClure, Jim Parker, BobMichele, and Tom McGivern (never could teachhim to swim). Fortunately, we encountered nodelays in our early training and by April 1949 Ihad carrier qualified in the SNJ with six landingson the U.S.S. Cabot. Time for advanced training.

Though we had the chance to make ourpreferences for advanced training known (VF, VA,VP (land), in that order,) they were completelyignored and our group at that stage of training wasordered, as a group, to VP (sea). This was moreto meet the needs of the Navy than to honor ourrequests. This was a low point for my buddiesand me at that stage, but I was given some friendlyadvice and encouragement by my stepfather. Hesaid that I had too much at stake to quit at thatjuncture and he reminded me that getting mywings was the most important goal. Other oppor-tunities would present themselves in the future.Good advice!

Following completion of training inPBM’s and “winging” as a Naval Aviator in Au-gust 1949, along with FMAer Roger Kirsch, anumber of our group were ordered to VP-46 atNAS North Island. Fellow FMAers already inthe squadron included Stan Pederson, Don Day,Dale Davis, Bill Wald, and Bill Rankin. Thosewho joined later included Jim McClure, GeorgeGregory, Gil Summers, John Jenista, LenCzernicki, Jerry Driscoll, Howard Hofmeister,

Jack Denning, Joe Gardner, andDick Palmquist. At least the lo-cation of the assignment waschoice. Or so we thought at thetime. We no sooner deployed tothe Philippines in June 1950 but what the KoreanWar broke out and our six month deployment be-came nine!

But I get a bit ahead of myself. Theone good thing to come out of all of this was thatI met my future wife while undergoing basic train-ing at Pensacola. My good friend and roommate,Jim Parker, introduced some of us to his girlfriend’s college classmates at Gulf Park girl’sschool in Gulfport, MS. Kathleen Gillis attractedme from the start. We became engaged andplanned our wedding just five days after I wascommissioned Ensign in March 1950.

In our first deployment with VP-46, Iwas assigned to navigate for the squadron C.O.,LCdr M. F. Weisner, (later Adm Weisner andVCNO). This was probably most fortunate be-cause at the time I had to make a decision as towhether or not to request retention in the regularNavy. Again, I was ready to hang it up! I saw nofuture in naval aviation. “Mickey” Weisner eas-ily sensed my frustration, convinced me to requestretention (things could only get better), and gaveme sound advice as to how to proceed with mycareer. Of course, timing is everything and theclass of 1950 had no trouble being retained, whatwith the war and all.

After a second deployment with VP-46to Japan and, following Mickey’s advice, I re-quested and was ordered to flight instructor dutyin Pensacola in 1952. After over 1,600 hours inthe back seat of the SNJ (soloed 34 studentsthrough A, B, and C stage), I guess the Navy fig-ured I really had learned to fly all over again andhad earned a crack at carrier aviation! Beforebeing ordered to jet transitional training in theadvanced training command, I did manage to cap-ture 6 more carrier landings in the SNJ onboardU.S.S. Monterey in August 1954.

ROY

MANTZ

ROY

MANTZ

7-48

20

MANTZ

CONT.

Following jet training in 1955, theNavy, in its infinite wisdom, decided the bestcourse for me was to combine my previouslyacquired multi-engine experience and my newlyacquired jet experience and order me to VC-6(later VAH-6) at NAS North Island to fly the AJ-2 (“two turning and one burning”). FellowFMAers in the Heavy Attack Squadron includedDon Hubbard, Dick Sample, Jack Reilly, BobBelter, Dave Wallace, and Jim Jenista. Two de-ployments to WestPac in AJ-2 detachments onU.S.S. Lexington and U.S.S. Yorktown were fol-lowed with orders to the Heavy Attack Replace-ment Squadron (VAH-123) flying P2Vs, F3D’s,F9Fs, and a later transition to the A3Ds.

In summary, my career in the Navy andNaval Aviation from that point included servingin a variety of aviation squadron, staff, ship, andshore duty assignments in the United States andoverseas, including a tour as squadron command-ing officer. I completed eleven unaccompanieddeployments to the Western Pacific—four on air-craft carriers Yorktown, Lexington, andTiconderoga. My last deployment was as AirOperations Officer on Ticonderoga at the time ofthe Tonkin Gulf debacle off the coast of NorthVietnam in August 1964. The family incurredeighteen separate moves throughout my career tothe four corners of the United States and to Ja-pan. In 1974, I retired from the Navy and an as-signment as an O-6 in the Office of Naval Opera-tions at the Pentagon.

Thus, you have the story of how I gotinto Navy flight training and made the transi-tion into carrier aviation. What is remarkableabout this story is how close I came, not onceor twice, but three times to foregoing whatturned out to a most enjoyable and fulfillingnaval career.

21

Jerome Edward Nicholson was born on March13, 1928 in Aurora, Nebraska.

I spent my early years on a small farm nearthe Platte River. After my father died, I wasraised by my widowed mother and grandmotherduring the Great Depression and the beginningof World War II. I spent my summer earningslearning to fly a Piper Cub, and soloed at a grassfield near Crete, Nebraska.

With a few classmates, I enlisted in the Navyat the end of high school. At the swearing-inceremony in Omaha, I was offered a chance forflight training. After passing the tests at KansasCity, I was ordered to report to the V-5 unit atArkansas A&M University. I reported in July1945 as an Apprentice Seaman. As the warended, the co-located V-12 unit was shut down.I was then sent to Southwestern University tofinish my college training.

In the fall of 1946, I was ordered to SelectiveFlight Training at NAS Grand Prairie, Texas.We were designated Aviation Cadets. At last -we were flying the Yellow Peril! And more thanfly. When the chief yelled “Roll out the yellowbirds”, we pushed the planes out of the hangar.We quickly learned how to use the externalprimer and manned the two-man starter crank.On an early flight, my instructor, Lt Arbaugh,made a major impression with a split-S to a land-ing. Soloed at an outlying field and proudly gaveup a shirt tail to be autographed.

I entered pre-flight school in class 1-47 atOttumwa, Iowa. While there, signed up for the Avia-tion Midshipman program, presuming that USNmeant regular career-oriented navy. A memorableouting was the survival training march where weslipped down the ice-covered back roads of Iowaand spent an overnight camp-out at six below zero.

Primary training began in the SNJ at CorpusChristi. This was followed by formation, gunneryand carrier quals in the Pensacola area. Actuallylanding on the carrier was much easier than thosefield practice landings! Instrument training inSNB’s. We found out that you had to scrape ice offthe wind screens in February - even in Florida.

Then, on to PBY flying at main base Pensacola.Two midshipmen went out to “solo” after a fewhours of instruction. I have often wondered whatthe enlisted crewmen who flew with us must havethought - or if they realized that they were reallyearning their hazardous duty pay. I flew with JohnShaw, who said he was going to loop the PBY, butI threatened to get out and walk. John did try a wing-over, got at the top and went white when the leftrudder pedal slipped out of its catch.

As we neared the end of our Pensacola trainingeffort, we were given the opportunity to pick thetype of airplane we wanted to fly in the fleet. Madethree choices; F6F, TBM and, just to make sure thatI got single-engine, OS2U. I got: PV-2 multi-en-gine in Corpus Christi!

On completion at Corpus Christi, received thewings of gold, and ordered to anti-submarine op-erations with Patrol Squadron One, at NASWhidbey Island.

We enjoyed learning to fly the P2V-2 airplane.The plane had six 20 mm cannon in the noseand we practiced strafing with the guns as wellas with wing-mounted rockets. On one occasion,one of the guys checked out an F8F and towed asleeve for ue to practice a little air-to-air. Afterseveral planes made runs, we counted 2 or 3 holesin the sleeve. Oh well, P2V’s weren’t really fight-ers. Commissioned Ensign upon completion oftwo years as midshipman. After a deployment atKodiak in 1949, I went on leave and returned amarried man. My new wife, Marilyn, was notmuch impressed with the quonset hut quartersat Whidbey Island.

At the onset of the Korean War, we took thesquadron to Naha, Okinawa. Our mission: pa-trol the Taiwan Straits against a mainland Chi-nese invasion of Taiwan. I was a designated Pa-trol Plane Commander but assigned as copilotto the skipper, John Honan. John flew few of theroutine patrols and gave me that assignment forhis airplane .I took one of the first patrols. Aswe flew down the Chinese coast, we spotted twoLST’s nosed into a small island. As we flew byto get photographs, we could see the ship’s guntubs tracking us Nobody pulled the trigger! Atdebriefing, we learned that the island just off theChinese coast was controlled by the Nationalistforces and the ships were “friendlies”. We wereglad they recognized US air insignia! Had anoccasional trip to Japan, Hong Kong and SangleyPoint.

NICHOLSON

NICHOLSON

8-47

22

Awarded two air medals as a result of this de-ployment.

Instructed in PB4Y-2 airplanes at CorpusChristi and Hutchinson, Kansas, then was or-dered to VR-5. Under the Naval Air TransportCommand, I flew R6D transports from Moffettto Hawaii, Japan and Alaska. Once, we took threeaircraft to Samoa to pick up native recruits forthe Navy. At the time, no routine flights werebeing made into American Samoa. The villag-ers had to scythe down the tall grass on thepacked coral runway so we could land. No fuel -we stopped at the small British island of Cantonand pumped fuel from 55-gallon drums whichhad been stored there since World War II.Strained the gas through a chamois to get outthe water.

In 1955, I went to the Postgraduate School atMonterey. Spent three years, took up golf, lostmy appendix and got a master’s degree in Elec-tronics Engineering.

During a tour with VP-7, NAS Brunswick,Maine, we developed and practiced anti-subma-rine operations. On one night exercise in theVirginia Capes op area, Hal Potter and I were ina pair of P2V-5F airplanes practicing against adiving submarine target.

We pushed over to our operating altitude (100feet), I got a MAD contact, then we both starteddropping sonobuoys around a two-mile circleabout datum. Periodically, one of us would flyacross the circle to try for a MAD contact. It waspitch black and bumpy. Hal and I spent much ofour effort trying hard not to fly into each other (orthe water), so our flight patterns were complicatedand confused, to say the least. Listening to thetactical radio between a couple of assisting de-stroyers - one asked “What are those guys do-ing?” The reply “Oh, I guess it is one of the newtactics VP-7 is developing.” We were later in-volved with the Icelandic barrier patrol againsttransiting Russian submarines. Flying fromKeflavik, we were able to get photos of the “new”Golf-type sub.

Shore duty with the Operational Test andEvaluation Force included testing of all sorts ofelectronic countermeasures for both ships and air-craft. Then I worked as Navy Engineering Officerat Lockheed’s Burbank plant, where we test-flewand accepted new P-3A airplanes for the Navy.After Armed Forces Staff College, I was assignedto the Second Fleet Special Projects Office.

NICHOLSON

CONT.

I set up a special test squadron for training Fleetforces with countermeasures and developing de-fensive tactics, then worked in Adm Dennison’swar room during the Cuban missile crisis.

I retired at the rank of CDR and went to workfor Lockheed as an electronic engineer. Spentseveral years with the Navy’s S-3A program, thenworked for Magnavox (and other companies) onthe Global Positioning System. During this time,I took GI bill flight training and became a (civil-ian) flight instructor in small airplanes. Part-timecollege earned an MBA at California State Uni-versity, Fullerton.

In 1994, I stopped work and moved with myfamily to Santa Maria, California to concentrateon golf, gardening and grandchildren.

It’s been a great and interesting career.

Nick

23

Having built and flown model airplanes all my teenage years want-ing to fly the real things was at the top of my list. When the Navy V-5program opened up I was first in line. I reported to Occidental College asan apprentice seaman on July 2, 1945. After one semester of college lifethe whole unit was transferred to Cal Tech Pasadena. Again, after onemore semester we transferred to Univ. Of So. Calif. After this semesterthe Navy couldn’t find any other place to transfer us so they decommis-sioned all V-5 units and we where on our own. A friend (Jack Shea) and Idecided to loaf through the summer so we went to Los Angeles City Col-lege.

After somehow squeaking thru that summer with nothing less than a“D” we ended up at NAS Los Alamitos in Sept. 1946 and were promotedto Aviation Cadet. Los Alamitos was fun when we weren’t cleaning thebarracks (ours), the enlisted barracks, doing KP , washing airplanes, andattending General Quarters in front of the Admin. On Sunday night, wecould sit and stare at the fog. It only took six months of this routine to get12 hours of flying and a UP for solo from my instructor.

Having soloed the Navy paid my way on the Super Chief to a lovelylittle town in Iowa named Ottumwa. When we arrived we told that anAdmiral Name of Holloway invited us to become Midshipmen USN andthat if we didn’t accept his kind invitation we could go home. So most ofus that weren’t home sick signed on the dotted line and we were Midship-men for two years. One young man known as Stubby Hines was a littleshort on stature so they allowed him to remain an AVCAD.

One of my fond memories of Pre-Flight was standing, up to my youknow where, in water patrolling the city streets and rousting drunks out ofthe bars during the flood of 1947.

Again as was becoming stand practice NAS Ottumwa was closed andwe finished Pre-Flight at Pensacola. Finally in June of 1947 I am to beginBasic Flight training at Corpus Christi, Tex. We lived at Mainside butflew out of Cabaniss Field. Upon soloing the SNJ, I decide to chase cattleon the King Ranch like everybody else. There was only one problem anInstructor caught me. I figured that was the end of my Naval career but Ionly got a good chewing out and a pink slip.

As usual they closed Corpus at the end of Basic and we finishedtraining in the Pensacola area. The fields were Corry (instruments)and Saufley for formation, gunnery, and Carrier Qual. Everythingwent pretty well until my day on the USS Wright. I was given sixwaveoffs in a row for fouled decks. It got so bad that a visiting Con-gressman on the bridge ask the Skipper if they were going to shootme down. I got the next six cuts.

Off to Corpus once again to Advance Training. Rick Cotton and Itook to the SNB like a duck takes to water. With one exception, Icame very close to getting a down on my check ride. The damn land-ing gear warning horn kept blowing when every time I reduced thethrottle on final approach. The only thing that would stop it wasadvancing the throttle. Luckily I finally came to before sliding on tothe runway.

Next we tried our luck at PBMs. What a funny machine, a boatwith wings. It sort of flew like a boat wallowed more than flew.Climbed at 90 knots, glided at 90 knots, and cruised at a mighty 135knots when you got the weight down. Our highlight was an overnightNavigation flight to Cuba and a return to Corpus with bombays fullof rum and other good things.

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF STAN PEDERSON

PEDERSON

PEDERSON

VP-892 A/C SE-4

26-47

26-47

StanStan

24

Five of us received our wings on October 12,1948.Rick Cotton, Don Day, Earl Rogers, Rocky Rockwell, D. Will-iams and yours truly.

Don Day and I received orders to FAETU PAC in San Diego tolearn how to be good ASW officers. At completion of that trainingwe further assigned to VP-41 based in Tsingtao China.

In 1948 there was a song playing that became my favorite. It was“On A Slow Boat To China” We flew via Mars to Hawaii, TroopCarrier Command C-54 to Shanghai and an Admirals R5D toTsingtao. When we boarded the Pine Island, a seaplane tender, theExec. didn’t know what to do with us. Finally a Warrant Officerdetermined we ranked below him, but we deserved to be berthedin Officers’ Country.

My introduction to squadron life was a buoy watch that lastedthree days due to bad weather. Man was I sick and it was reallycold as it was mid February.

As usually happened in my career, after a month the squadronwas scheduled back to the States and decommissioning. This wasgood this time, as my future bride, Audrey Morrison, had our wed-ding all planned for my return. However when we reached Saipanthe Skipper of VP-46 said he was short of junior officers. Our Skip-per swore Don and I in as Ensigns transferred us and I went backto Tsingtao. Boy, was Audrey Mad!

In August I finally got home and we were married on Aug. 19,1949. On June 24 1950 Don and I where separated from activeduty. The next morning we were asked to come back for the sum-mer to train called up Reservists. We helped Form an OUT andtrained two squadrons in the use of PBMs.

Three years later, after tours in VP-892 and ATU-10 at Corpus, Icame to my senses and left the Navy and joined American Air-lines. I flew copilot on CV-240s for six months and was furloughed.In need of money I joined the reserves and served in VR and VPfor the next ten years.

In the ensuing years Audrey and I raised a family of two girlsand a boy. We had thirty two happy years with American andwere based in Dallas and Los Angeles.

We currently live in Winchester Ca. On an airstrip off whichwe fly our Cessna 180. On days when we aren’t flying or mow-ing the South Forty we play golf. This along with a little trav-eling is what our future is about. Stan Pederson

Earl & Dixie Rogers with Stan & Audrey in Alaska

PEDERSON

Cont.

25

In 1945 if you wanted to fly for theNavy, forget it. The Navy had closed the doorto pilot training long ago. Besides, they couldpick and choose, and they only wanted thecream of the crop. But in April the Navy openedthe door a crack and put out the word to thehigh schools in the Los Angeles area that theywere recruiting for the Navy V5 college pro-gram. I could hardly believe it when my ordersarrived assigning me to Occidental College.The orders read “qualified for actual control ofaircraft.”

At Occidental and later at Cal Techwe wore sailor uniforms, marched to class, andlearned about navy discipline and navy regsfrom a grizzled bosn’s mate. I couldn’t wait tofly. On weekend liberty, I paid for my own fly-ing lessons.

The navy college program ended forus after two semesters on the USC Trojan cam-pus. We reported for Selective Flight Trainingat NAS Los Alamitos, turned in our sailor suits,and were issued the green winter uniforms ofnaval aviation cadets.

If we thought it strange when the Navytaught us to fly before Preflight School, no onecomplained. Selective Flight Training inStearmans separated the sheep from the goatsbefore too many tax dollars were spent on kidswho couldn’t learn the basic skills. After end-less hours of close-order drill and KP, we ad-vanced to the wash rack and finally to the flightline.

My instructor, a small, wiry, red-headed lieutenant named Battino, suspected I’ddone some flying. When he wrung a confes-sion out of me, I expected a reprimand, becausebuying your own flight time was strictly against

A Short Memoir of the Aviation Midshipman Program

6-47

EARL

ROGERS

EARL

ROGERS

the rules. The Navy didn’t care to undo a bunchof wrong ideas put in our heads by ex–air forcepilots turned into civilian flight instructors. Insteadof a reprimand, Battino took me up over Los An-geles, where we spent a lot of time sightseeing.After five hours he declared me safe for solo. Isaid thanks, but elected to finish the syllabus andlog the allotted flight time. Big mistake! Theweather turned bad; Battino got reassigned; andthe new guy, Lt. Patterson, started from scratch,graded me average, and piled on another eighthours in the air.

When time came for my solo we flewdown to Miles Square an auxiliary field sur-rounded by orange groves and bordered by rowsof eucalyptus trees. I climbed in the back seat andshot my three landings, proof to the Navy that atleast I could fly a Stearman.

Just getting to Navy Preflight School wasan adventure. I’d never traveled east of San Ber-nardino, nor had I been exposed to the hard, fro-zen winters of the Midwest.

It was a long, monotonous train ride fromL.A. to Kansas City, with a connection to Ot-tumwa, Iowa. Maybe all the good rolling stockhad been confiscated during the war, but this wasFebruary 1947 and the Chicago, Milwaukee, St.Paul, and Pacific RR was the only connectionbetween Kansas City and Ottumwa. They ran adonkey engine, a tender, and two rickety passen-ger cars with wood benches and a pot-bellied stovefor heating. And that wasn’t all. At midday westopped at a small Iowa town, where the trainwaited while we hiked down the frozen main streetto a boarding house and ate a meatloaf and pota-toes lunch.

At preflight school avia-tion cadets were issued dress blue uniforms withbrass buttons and gold anchors on the lapels.Within a short time we were given a choice: Signup for two years as aviation midshipmen or re-turn to civilian life. There would be no commis-sion until the end of the two years. It was thebeginning of a grand experiment to put futureaviation officers on the same footing as Annapo-lis graduates. It was called the Holloway Plan.

There were some serious discussionsin the barracks. The commanding officer, wasour last appeal. It was rumored he had run abattleship aground and would have midshipmenflogged for questioning authority. He turned outto be patient, but firm. “There are no otherchoices,” he said.

We marched to class ahead of a drum-mer who beat the cadence. We learned about air-craft, engines, weather, and theory of flight. Wecould strip down a fifty-caliber machine gun andreassemble it blindfolded. No one questionedhow this could be done in-flight while handlingthe controls of an airplane. We accepted that it

26

was something one needed to know. We swam,boxed, wrestled, and on Saturdays practiced themanual of arms with M1 rifles while marine drillinstructors barked orders. We studied navy cus-toms, learned to copy Morse code, and survivedtwo days in the woods on roots and bugs. OK.So we didn’t really eat roots and bugs, we justlearned which ones were edible. We actually ateK-Rations.

In the spring the Des Moines Riveroverflowed its banks and flooded the town ofOttumwa. The Midshipman Regiment was calledout of the barracks, issued rifles, and droppedoff at strategic points to guard against looting.Midshipmen were praised in the local paper fortaking rowboats into troubled waters and rescu-ing stranded flood victims. Many of us filledsandbags and plugging holes in the dikes. Onelocal boy, looking for a job, asked how muchwe were getting paid. He disappeared when wetold him forty-five cents an hour, the equivalentof $75 per month midshipman pay.

In July the Navy packed up its preflightschool and moved us south to Pensacola for threemore weeks of classes. After the graduation cer-emony we returned to our rooms, stripped downto our skivvies in the oppressive heat, and waitedfor orders to Corpus Christi. I lay on my bunk,while my roommates broke out a deck of cards.Sitting around in skivvies, laying on bunks, andplaying cards was an offense punishable by thepiercing shriek of a marine lieutenant. My lasthours of Navy Preflight School were spentmarching around the grinder with an M1 rifle.

At Corpusthe Navy forgot wehad ever soloedStearmans. Welearned to fly allover again in theSNJ. Flight gear is-sue was a specialevent. We lined up

at ship’s stores to receive a stack of clothing, akhaki flight suit, leather gloves, a summer flightjacket, goggles, and cloth helmet with radio ear-phones. The flight gear was ours to keep. We tookit back to the barracks and smelled its newness,tried it on, and postured in front of the mirror.Possession of one’s own flight gear was a rite ofpassage.

The Schedule Board, Cabaniss Field, CorpusChristy

Rows of silver airplanes lined the tarmacat Cabaniss Field, awaiting khaki-clad studentpilots wearing helmets and tinted goggles andcarrying parachutes tucked under one arm. As weworked our way through stages of basic flighttraining with the SNJ, the khaki flight suits be-came stained with oil and sweat. Dirty flight suitshung in lockers. The ready room smelled like agym. It was a contest to see who could go thelongest without laundering his flight suit.

Instructor personalities ran the gamutfrom mild-mannered to profane. I lucked out withLtjg. Voorhees. Maybe he was too soft-spoken.Instead of flogging me with a stream of profani-

ties the day I landed long and rolled off the end ofthe runway at one of the practice fields, he merelysaid quietly (as we stood there waiting for a towtruck to pull us out of the mud), “Rogers, youshould have added power and gone around.”

Painstakingly we improved our skills,learning wingovers, chandelles, parachute eights,and other precision maneuvers. The TrainingCommand had turned out a whole generation ofpilots during World War II. The system had beentested and it worked. Instructors graded everyflight. They were critical. They demanded perfec-tion. They seldom invoked praise. They madenotes in the air and scored each maneuver on aprinted form. Satisfactory flights were graded inone of three groups, the bottom twenty, the middlesixty, or the top twenty percent. Unsatisfactoryflights were stamped in large black, uppercaseletters across the scoring sheet, heaping big worryon the student’s shoulders.

Like stumbling around a haunted housein the dark, night flying offered a new thrill. Pitythe instructor who sits in the rear seat on a darknight with no forward visibility, hoping the ham-handed kid up front doesn’t get disoriented andpull up into stall on take-off.

A triple set of flare pots marked the ac-tive runway where a couple of instructors stoodwith a radio and flare pistol talking the studentsaround a touch-and-go pattern. One moonlessnight while the instructors waited for planes inthe high holding circle to exchange places withthose in the landing pattern, a figure dressed inhelmet, goggles, and parachute approached out ofthe darkness.

EARL

ROGERS

CONT.

27

One of the instructors, wondering if thisapparition might be some airhead who got lost inthe dark looking for his assigned airplane, begana lengthy ass chewing. The second instructor,more perceptive than the first, recognized Mid-shipman Sam, who insisted he had landed short.When the crash crew found his SNJ, no one couldargue the point. His plane was found short of therunway, short of the field boundary, outside thefence, and upside down. The crash crew also dis-covered where Sam, hanging in the shoulderstraps, had dug a hole to extricate himself fromthe cockpit, then wriggled out and climbed thefence, still wearing his chute and harness. What-ever he lacked in depth perception that night, Sammade up for in determination, but he got no sec-ond chance.

At Saufley Field near Pensacola, theNavy formed us into flights and lectured us onthe fundamentals of tactics and formation flying.Join-ups was the initial step in learning to fly for-mation. The first few join-ups with the studentflying and the instructor in the rear seat were agame of chicken for the instructor. The studentwas under the watchful eyes of an instructor inthe lead. After a while though, you stop worry-ing about accidental stalls, but the imaginary al-ligators never go away. I could look down through

the trees at sunlight reflected off the water andsee glinting alligator eyes and rows of snappingalligator teeth. They seemed to be saying “Youngboys. Fresh meat.”

On a fateful day eleven midshipmenwent aboard the USS Wright and sailed off intothe Gulf of Mexico. Five more flew the planesout from Pensacola. The SNJ 5C came equippedwith a tailhook, a jury-rigged affair that, in someplanes, was lowered with a rope wrapped aroundthe throttle quadrant. An improved device hadknob attached to a cable inside an aluminum tubethat lowered the hook. You pulled the knob out ofa detent and let go. Freed of restraint the knobslid down a slot in the tube and the tail hook ex-tended.

When the LSO swipes a paddle acrosshis throat it means “the cut.” And, oh yes, takeyour eyes off the LSO and level your wings. Firstlanding, still in a turn I hooked a wire and stoppedwith the port wing hanging over the catwalk. Af-ter that it was easy, five more roger passes, withtwo wave-offs due to a fouled deck. That day, six-teen of us midshipmen qualified with a total ofninety-six carrier landings, no accidents, and onlyfour wave-offs due to pilot technique.

After carrier qualification at Pensacola,midshipmen were offered the choice betweensingle-engine and multi-engine advanced flighttraining. I chose the latter, believing that twoengines or four engines would look good on aresume for a civilian flying job, if ever that be-came necessary. This was a decision I wouldregret. The orders came: Five midshipmen as-signed to multi-engine training went back toCorpus Christi. Frank Rockwell and I got pa-trol bombers. Stan Pederson, Rick Cotton, andDon Day went into flying boats. Everyone elsewent to Jacksonville to fly fighters.

EARL

ROGERS

CONT.

Happy Faces...All Qualified

Back row LtoR: Holgren, Rogers, Wilkerson,Soberski, Thomson, Pederson

Front row LtoR: Souders, Hindes, Morin

28

The thought of heaving four-enginePrivateers around the sky depressed me. Wepacked our helmet and goggles in mothballs andput on donut headsets and baseball caps. At thisstage of training, barracks life had been left be-hind. Midshipmen lived in the BachelorOfficer’s Quarters and joined the commissionedofficers’ mess. Evenings were often spent at theOfficer’s Club bar, where some midshipmen ranup huge liquor bills, which they later had to payfrom their meager salary.

Rockwell and I paired off with an in-structor to learn the rudiments of flying airplanespowered by multiple engines. After a few per-functory lessons in a twin engine Beechcraft,the instructor handed us the controls with theusual words of caution and walked away.

Thereafter, Rocky and I practicedtouch-and-go landings sweating profusely in thesultry climate of the Texas gulf coast. The slid-ing windows remained open for ventilation, andRocky soon discovered that his covert handreaching out the window and grabbing the wingleading edge, as I raced down the runway fortakeoff, could spoil the lift and prevent the air-plane from leaving the ground. Takeoffs soonbecame an unauthorized game of chicken.Would the co-pilot pull in his hand, before thepilot aborted the takeoff? When that game gotboring, we climbed to a cooler altitude and prac-ticed engine failures and other emergencies.

We left the SNB behind and began fly-ing the PB4Y-2. Summer dragged on whileRocky and I sweated those ponderous brutesaround the pattern, learning how to land withone, two, and sometimes three dead engines. Afavorite instructor trick was to pull back thepower on number two on the downwind leg.While the student ran through the engine-outchecklist and began his turn onto base leg theinstructor pulled number one, and the studentsuddenly found himself turning into two dead

EARL

ROGERS

CONT.

engines. Holding right rudder against the torqueof numbers three and four was a feat not many ofus could perform without the quadriceps of anOlympic weight lifter. Long over-water naviga-tion training flights gave us a clue about what amidshipman’s future would be like in a patrolsquadron.

Fall came, the weather turned mild, andsuddenly Rocky and I were finished. We woke upone morning to realize we had earned our goldwings. So had the group of seaplane pilots.

We purchased our wings at ships-serviceand spent the night before the ceremony givingthem an antique finish with soot from a candleflame. The next day the five of us, wearing dresswhites, lined up in the base commander’s officewhile he pinned the Wings of Gold over our leftbreast and pronounced us naval aviators. Stan,Don, and Rocky all got orders to San Diego. RickCotton and I were ordered to Norfolk, Virginia.The gold wings seemed to be a yard wide. In pub-lic they cast a hypnotic spell on young women,causing them to lose all inhibitions, or so we weretold. But in truth we became a scattered brother-hood sent into the working world of the U.S. Navyto earn a paycheck, which came to $117 per monthwith flight pay.

At the Norfolk Naval Station officer’sclub, we were invited to be the guests of a groupof British midshipmen aboard the heavy cruiserHMS Duke of York. A bos’n and sideboys pipedus up the gangplank and onto the quarter deckwith the honors due visiting officers. These guyswere a wild bunch, having their own spaces onthe ship, which were hung with no-parking signsand other relics acquired from unknown sources.In port aboard a British Navy ship liquor was anofficer privilege.

“What would you chaps like to drink?”We were asked.

Someone said, “Hot-buttered rum,”

thinking it was the national drinkof England.

“Sounds positivelysmashing, and by the way old boy, how do youmake hot-buttered rum?” A puzzled silence fol-lowed. “Never mind. We’ll improvise.”

Bottles of rum appeared, a pound ofbutter and a sack of sugar were retrieved fromthe galley, and all of it was mixed in a pot ofhot water. The results were predictable. We fi-nally gathered-up our own in the wee hours ofthe morning, leaving a few English lads lyingprone on the wardroom furniture, while westaggered back to our quarters, singing bawdysea songs.

The officer behind the Atlantic Fleetassignments desk at Norfolk taunted me, asthough a midshipman fresh out of the TrainingCommand had a choice. “Where would you liketo go?” he asked.

“A utility squadron, sir,” I answered,hoping for a back door entry into single-engineCorsairs or Bearcats, or even Turkeys

.His eyes narrowed. He studied me as

an entomologist might study a bug under a mi-croscope. “I have an opening in a patrol squad-ron at Quonset Point, Rhode Island. P2Vs. Con-sider yourself lucky.”

29

When I first arrived at QuonsetPoint, Patrol Squadron Seven was flying theP2V-2, the earliest production model, whichcarried a wide range of weaponry and wasequipped with the latest antisubmarine war-fare gadgetry, looking quite businesslike withsix cannon ports in the nose and a twin 20mmturret in the tail. Out on the flight line Iclimbed through the airplane and sat in thecockpit and thought with a twinge of excite-ment that I might enjoy flying this machine.Except for the enormous vertical stabilizer,it seemed rather handsome with its shark noseand long, thin midwing that mounted a pairof nacelles housing Wright 18 cylinder,R3350 engines.

Assigned to a flight crew as “thirdpilot,” a euphemism for navigator, I hopedfor a quick transition to the right seat. Thereality check came after spending a week atFleet Airborne Electronics Training Unit.FAETU taught me how to operate the latestelectronic wizardry and honed my skills as anavigator.

Cdr. George Bullard, skipper of VP-7, swore me in as an ensign in the U.S. Navyone sultry evening in March 1949 atGuantanamo Bay, when the squadron wasflying round the clock ASW patrols in sup-port of Caribbean fleet maneuvers.

EARL

ROGERS

CONT.

EARL

ROGERS

CONT.

At ten in the evening the intercom crack-led in the corner office of the hangar at LeewardPoint Field, where I was serving my turn as thesquadron duty officer and wondering if maybe theskipper had forgotten that my midshipman ap-pointment expired at midnight.

“Mr. Rogers, report to my office.”“Aye, aye, Cap’n.”I bounded up the stairs, slowing down

when I reached the top landing to catch my breath,stood tall, walked into his office, and waited po-litely. He looked up from a cluttered desk, flasheda brief smile, and groped around for the papers.“Raise your right hand,” he said. “Do you sol-emnly swear—”I took the oath.

“Congratulations, Mr. Rogers.” Heshook my hand.

That was all. No drum roll. No pennantssnapping smartly in the breeze. The skipper wasa workaholic.

Shortly after the suicide of JamesForrestal, the nation’s first Defense Secretary,President Harry Truman appointed Louis Johnsonas his replacement. Johnson squeezed the pursestrings so tight that sometimes our planes weregrounded for lack of fuel. His downsizing plancut billions from the defense budget. A lot ofyoung navy pilots were about to go out the door.

On Sunday, June 25, 1950, I was calledaway from dinner in the Officer’s Mess to an-swer a phone call from the squadron duty of-

ficer. “We’re loading your plane with ordnance.”“What for?”

As we all remember it was the beginning of thewar in Korea. Many former Aviation Midshipmenserved there with honor, but a week later othersof us were being separated from active naval ser-vice. I had spent a quarter of my life in the Navy.It didn’t make any sense to me that we should beinvoluntarily shoved into civilian life while a hotwar brewed in one hemisphere and a cold warhovered over the other, but top level decisionswere seldom rational. I joined the Naval Air Re-serve and flew on weekends, but my military fly-ing career had basically ended.

I went to college on the Holloway Planand spent a career as a civil engineer. Twenty yearsago I took up flying again, and I’m still at it as ahalf owner in a 1969 Piper Arrow. As the sayinggoes, you can take the boy out of the country, butyou can’t take the country out of the boy.

Earl Rogers Preflight Class 6-47

30

What led you to join up?

I thought I was going to be drafted in Sept.1945, so rather than being a grunt, I tookthe Navy up on theirflight training offer.

What was your V-5 college? What (andwho) stands out?

Denison Univ., Granville, OH then UnionCollege, Schenectady, NY and Kent State,Kent, OH...Got “Dear John” from steadygirl friend from home when I was atDenison.

Where did you attend Selective Training?What fond memories and/or unusualevents?

NAS Glenview, IL.....Guarded the TruculentTurtle after record setting flight from Aus-tralia to Ohio, USA. Got drunk with otherwork party detail while painting indoor poolat athletic facilities at Glenview....fumes de-prived us of oxygen.

Pre-Flight. What event or occurrence willyou never forget?

“Big Bill” Miller, who was later a profes-sional TV wrestler, advising__ late arrivalsfrom binging in town to “keep it down!” Andfollowing it up by pouncing out of his bunkand advancing on offending party!

Describe your hairiest experience at Corpusor Pensacola?

Mid’n. Frank (n) Jones, later a Blue Angel, try-ing to join-up/fly__ in Formation Training....hadto use flaps, violent maneuvers, whatever , hewas God-awful....very thankful he was put backto a later group.

Where did you go for Advanced and in whataircraft? Describe the highlights.

ATU-10....PBMs at Corpus......WHAT HIGH-LIGHTS?? IN BOATS ?? Splash & Go!

On to the fleet__.where did you go and whatwas it like being a Flying Midshipman?

VP-42 at San Diego.....Trying to pay bar bills onMiddie pay!

How did your life progress...marriage ...Korea...Viet Nam...civilian occu-pation... family...retirement, etc.?

To answer theforegoing question, here is my

STANDARD BIO

RICHARD ORTON RUDD Born Septem-ber 5, 1927, attended public schools and gradu-ated high school in Ravenna, Ohio. He enlistedin the Navy in early 1945 at age 17 and com-menced the Naval Aviator Training Program asa V-5 student at Denison University, Granville,Ohio. He continued the V-5 program at UnionCollege, Schenectady, New York and Kent StateUniversity, Kent, Ohio. He proceeded throughthe flight training program and converted toAviation Midshipman at Pre-flight school, Ot-tumwa, Iowa.

He received his wings on August 25, 1948, atCorpus Christi, Texas. His first duty was flyingMartin Mariner (PBM) seaplanes in PatrolSquadron 43 (which was decommissioned inearly 1949); then transferred to VP-42. He com-pleted a far-east tour as a 1st pilot in early 1950and was being processed for discharge whenthe Korean war began. He returned immedi-ately to VP-42 and ‘TransPac-ed’ to Iwakuni,Japan in July, 1950. He flew 50 combat mis-sions in Korea before returning with the squad-ron to San Diego in the spring of ’51.

ORT

RUDD

ORT

RUDD

Ort...Hank Stanley...Don Day...Bill RankinParty Time!

Don Day...Leo Regan...Al Weil...Ortwith Ort’s new wheels

1-47

31

Tours of duty fol-lowed at theSevern River Na-val Command, An-napolis, MD; theFerry command(VR-32), San Di-ego, CA; PacificMissile Rangestaff, Point Mugu,CA; Navigator ofUSS SalisburySound (AV-13)h o m e p o r t ,Alameda, CA; Op-erations Officer(P5M aircraft) Pa-trol Squadron 50based in Iwakuni,Japan; and Avia-

tion Branch head, Antisubmarine Warfare Di-vision, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations,Washington, D.C. He retired as a Commander,USN, in February, 1970.

In 1958, he received a Bachelor of Arts degreein Communications at Stanford University,California; with later advanced education at theNavy Post Graduate School, Monterey, Cali-fornia, and George Washington University,Washington, D.C.

He was awarded the Distinguished FlyingCross, 3 Air Medals and Letter of Commenda-tion in the Korean War. He has flown over 40different types of military and civilian aircraftand accumulated over 5,000 hours of flighttime. He then spent 20 years in industry as anAdvanced Programs Manager, Interstate Elec-tronics Corporation and then with the parentcompany as Government Relations Manager,Figgie International Corporation.

He retired from Figgie in February, 1990. He iscurrently the Executive Director of the FlyingMidshipmen Association and Secretary/Treasurerof the Aviation Midshipmen Foundation. He is aformer Vice President and charter /life memberof the Association of Naval Aviation; a Life Mem-ber of the Naval Aviation Museum Foundationand a charter member of the Tailhook Associa-tion. He is a member of the Moran Creek YachtClub and a non-resident member of the ArmyNavy Country Club in Arlington, Virginia. Heresides with his wife, Barbara, in rural Virginia atMerry Point.

END OF BIO

What was your favorite song....other thanPeggy Lee’s “It’s a Good Day”?

“Take This Job and Shove It”

What are your current interests?

Kayaking, Reading and Do It Handyman Projects

What are you looking forward to?

Living as long as “Mommie”.... she lasted to95.....AND continuing to ogle and flirt with youngladies!

With Hank Stanley in Iwakuni

The late J. D. Byron & Kathleen Byronwith Barbara & Ort Rudd

Ort with the Staff of The LOG

The Flying MidshipmanAssociation publication

ORT

RUDD

CONT.

32

1-47

HANK

STANLEY

HANK

STANLEY

Career Comments...H. M. Stanley

I joined the Navy at age seventeennear the end of World War II. I enlisted as aseaman second class in the aircrew program andwent through boot training at Memphis Tennes-see. After boots I remained in Memphis atradioman training school. During radio schoolI was sent to V-5 and entered South East Mis-souri State Teachers College in Cape Girardeau,Mo.

Following shifts to Oberlin Collegeand Marquette University, I was ordered to NASLos Alamitos, California for selective flighttraining. We soloed in the N2S after seven oreight flight hours.

Pre-flight followed at Ottumwa, Iowa,where we arrived on January 1, 1947. Iowa iscold in the winter. A lieutenant we called“Mighty Mouse” attempted to keep us in line.He was a dour man. I made liberty twice infour months due to various gaffs and many de-merits.

Primary training followed at NASCorpus Christi and surrounding airfields. NASPensacola and nearby airfields hosted basictraining. By then the SNJ was an old friend.Following carrier qualification (straight deck)it was back to Corpus for advanced training inPBMs; boats. After award of Navy Wings inAugust of 1948, I was sent as a Midshipman toNavy North Island, San Diego, to join VP-43, aPBM squadron.

My wife Evie and I were married inDecember 1948 in San Diego. My skipper gaveme Monday off. The honeymoon was short. Themarriage has lasted. I was commissioned Ensignon January 9, 1949. VP-43 was decommissionedshortly after and I was sent to VP-42, also boats.We went to WesPac in March. The deploymentlasted until January 1950. After returning, it be-came clear I would leave the service in June 1950.

Plans were changed due to circum-stances in Korea. We went to Japan in July 1950and spent ten or eleven months doing a numberof day and night patrols, shooting mines, carry-ing UDT teams here and there, etc. Upon gettingback to the States we received orders to NAASChincoteague in November 1951, where I wasassigned as Flight Control Officer. The air con-trol guys in the tower took many orders for oys-ters (code word “units”) and I passed the ordersto the shucking house in town. Unfortunately, Iwas not working on commission. The “units”were picked up by aviators (and others) gettingtheir monthly four hours of flight time. The linecrew delivered the “units” to the airplanes, pickedup the medium of exchange, passed it on to me,and I passed it to the lady who ran the shuckinghouse. This was capitalism at work, except themiddleman was a volunteer.

After two years in the oyster business,dodging hurricanes and participating in search andrescue, we returned to Coronado to join VR-32 atNavy North Island. VR-32 was a ferry squadronand we flew whatever the Navy had in the air-craft inventory wherever they wanted us to go.

Soon I was qualified in twenty-six airplanes.(See next page.) There were many similaritiesin certain classes of airplanes. We closely stud-ied the red pages in the manuals.

I was separated in May 1956. Istarted engineering school at San Diego Statein July. We found a house; I worked part timeand studied a lot. I received a BSEE in June1959 and found work involving guidance sys-tems in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo pro-grams. It was fast paced. In 1968, for variousreasons, I entered law school at Santa ClaraUniversity (my mid-life crises). I touched mylimits during the next three years.

Upon graduation in 1971, I passed theCalifornia and Patent bars and have worked asa patent attorney since, although not full timesince 1989. Evie and I have taken it easy since1989, spending several months traveling in Eu-rope and seeing the U.S. and Canada in ourmotor home. We intend to do more of the sameas long as our energies hold out. We try to sneakin a golf game now and again as well.

33

My original statement that Ihad 26 aircraft on my card wasin error—”The older the man, the higher the boyjumped”.

Several aircraft types had a number of differentdesignations; i.e.; FJ3, FJ4 or F9F5, F9F6,F9F8, etc. I must have had that sort of thing inmind.

Here they are:TBMADAFS2FF6FF8FF4UF9FTVF2HF7UFJPBMP5MP2VSNJSNBT28T34JDUFF3D

That does it. I was lucky to find my old qualcard. Best Regards, Hank Stanley.

STANLEY

Cont.

Hank

34

To: Bill Busse & Hank Stanley

From: Jack Thomas

I had the privilege of being qualified in a lot of Navy aircraft from 1946 to 1975.Probably more than the average guy.Here’s my list:

N2S Yellow Peril TV2SNJ Texan FJ2/3/4 FurySNB AJ-1 SavagePBM5/5A Mariner F9F2/5/6 PantherPBY Catalina F9F8/8T CougarJRF Widgeon F11F1 TigerTBM Avenger F2H2/3 Banshee/Big BansheeAD1/3/4/5/6 Skyraider F3H2 DemonF8F1/2 Bearcat F7U-3 CutlassP2V2/5/6/7 Neptune F8U-1 CrusaderT28B Trojan A3D1 SkywarriorF6F-5 Hellcat A4D1/2 SkyhawkF7F-3 Tigercat F4D-1 SkyrayJD-1 (B26) XP6M SeamasterF4U4/5 Corsair YP3V-1S2F1/2/3/4 Tracker P3A/C OrionC1A Trader C117/118 SkymasterP5M Mariner C1/C2 GreyhoundR4D FUBAR C130 HerculesAF-2 GuardianOE/OY BirddogHU16 AlbatrossX26B Test Pilot SchoolPowered Glider

JACK

THOMAS

JACK

THOMAS

“JACK, YOU WIN!”....H. M. STANLEY 2-47

35

TUOMELLA

TUOMELLA

Clyde Before

Clyde After

ClydeClyde

36

Good Morning Bill: I should not write mes-sages when the Dodgers are playing on TV asthey were last night. I was more focused on thegame than what I was writing (Dodgers won). Ijust reread the msg and decided to clean it up.

I joined the Navy in 1945 because I wanted tosee the world and didn’t like the idea of walk-ing to war but it was a friend of the family whosteered me into Naval Aviation. I’ve been asso-ciated with flying ever since and the result hasbeen a good life for me.

I was originally in the 4 year college V-12 pro-gram and scheduled to attend the University ofNew Mexico. My appendix burst a few weeksbefore I was to start college, requiring surgeryand an extended hospital stay. I recuperatedseveral months later but the V-12 program hadclosed and I was transferred to the V-5 program.Subsequently, I attended Los Angeles City Col-lege majoring in mathematics and engineering.

What stands out in my mind about Preflighthappened the first day in Pensacola. I left thetrain at 5 am in mid-August 1948 with five othercandidates. Being from California and havingno knowledge of the South’s humidity factor, Iwas clad in a new heavy wool suit for the occa-sion and by 8am I looked like a drenched cat. Itwasn’t until mid-afternoon that we received ourNavy clothing issue and I could have squeezeda quart of sweat from my dripping suit. I was somiserable that I would have signed myself outof the programwith a “quit chit” the first day, ifI could have found one.

Preflight and Basic Training went smooth andmy life’s goal was to be a commercial pilot so Irequested land based multi-engine training andreceived Advanced Training at Corpus Christi, TX.

The need for Navy pilots was diminishing in May1950 when I received my wings. I prepared for adischarge after graduation but the Korean War re-plenished the need for aviators and I was trans-ferred to a school at NAS San Diego for anti-sub-marine training and further assignment to VP-28.The squadron was based at NAS Barber’s Point,Hawaii where I spent three years enjoying the bestduty a young man could wish for and met somelife long friends.

Neither North Korea or Communist China op-erated submarines so VP-28’s chief contributionto the Korean War was night flare drops behindenemy lines. It was a successful tactic workingwith Marine Corsairs, but with a new twist. OurPB4Y-2 would arrive over North Korea soon af-ter dark and we would look for suspicious lightsor movements that the Navigator would plot onhis chart. Every 45 minutes or so, a Corsair nightfighter loaded with Napalm and rockets would joinus and follow us a few miles back.The Navigator would direct the airplane to the

position where we previously saw lights or groundmovement and we’d drop several parachute flaresat one time. The trailing Corsair driver wouldstart a decent to arrive under the flares just as analtitude sensitive timer ignited them, illuminat-ing the ground like it was daylight. If the Corsairpilot saw a worthy target, he would release ev-erything he had but if not, we’d go to the nexttarget position and repeat the tactic.

A Corsair’s fuel capacity limitedit’s ‘on station time’ to one hourbut the Privateer’s endurance al-lowed us to remain over North Korea all nightlooking for targets and waiting for the next Cor-sair. We saw a lot of incoming Communist firebut surprisingly never took a hit and if we sawthe enemy’s gun flash, it would become anothertarget for the Corsair.

In 1953 I received a letter from a Washingtondesk jockey asking where I’d like to be assignedfor “shore duty”. Darn nice fellow I thought andreplied with some choice duty assignments forhis consideration. For my final choice, I saidthat if I couldn’t have any of the above stations,send me anywhere but Pensacola. You can guesswhat happened and I instructed Basic and For-mation flying (1953-1955) before joining UnitedAir Lines.

I spent the remainder of 20 Navy years in thereserves at NAS Seattle in VP-892 (1956-1960),at NAS Los Alamitos in VP-771 (1961-1967),and finally one year on the Los Alamitos WingStaff where I flew the R5D. When Navy brasstold me I was too old to fly military airplanes, Iput in my quit chit. At the time, I was flying asCaptain on the B-727 and went on to fly the DC-8, DC-10 and B-747.

After retiring from United in 1988, I realizedI’d seen a lot of this planet from an airplane andwondered what the same territory looked like fromthe ground. Since then, I’ve been touring theworld by land and sea and writing about thoseexperiences. I’ve enjoyed seeing the world froma different level and at the same time, I’m gladthat I didn’t rely on writing skills to earn a living.

AL

VAN

LEUVEN

AL

VAN

LEUVEN

19-48

37

Hank and Bill:

I did get to last year’s reunion, but sorrythat a solid previous commitment precludes myattending this year. One of the great regrets inthis is that I won’t see my old buddy, Bill Busse,whom I haven’t seen since the ‘50’s.

I’ll sort of follow your guide-line for the career summary.

The join-up? The war was on and Iwas about to graduate from high school in 1945.A Navy aviation flight crew recruiter made a pre-sentation at school, and I thought it looked moredesirable to be riding in the turret of a TBM thangetting drafted into the Army. So I put my namein the pot.

Went to Chicago to get enlisted, andthe big honcho, (I still remember his name wasLt. Mosier) came out before the gathered recruitsto tell us that pilot training had just opened upand that we could take the test for that instead, ifwe wanted to, or come back later for aircrewsign-up. Most of us volunteered to take the writ-ten pilot test then and there and about one thirdof the group passed, myself included. Hencethe unexpected start to a Navy pilot career.

V-5 college was the University of theSouth at Sewanee, Tennessee, then the Univer-sity of Louisville. Selective at Los Alamitos andPre-flight at Ottumwa. My most memorableoccurrence at Pre-flight was when the judo in-structor used me to demonstrate a move designedto break the arm of an aggressor and he brokemy arm.

That put me back three weeks ingraduation, from the first choice group to the lastchoice, resulting in my not getting my desiredfighter training, but going to multi-engine PV-2’s.It took me a tour in utility and two years instruct-ing at Pensacola before I wangled myself into jetnight fighters. Stayed in fighters.

Met my wife-to-be, a Scottish nurse atthe British-American Hospital in Nice, while inthe Med on the Independence. That was 40 longyears ago.

Retired from the Navy at the end of1966 and immediately went to work for WorldAirways in Oakland. 21 great years with them,the last 10 as DC10 captain.

Got kicked out of that job when Ireached the mandatory retirement age of 60, soldcars for a while, moved to my present home inOlympia, Washington in 1991, and am fully re-tired now, with no notable activities other thanthe computer, yard work, and trying to keep inshape with workouts at the health club and bikeriding.

Oh, as to the picture of the six,bottom row Russ Baum (I think), DonToby, me. Standing: L.D. Smith, BillRankin, Bill Busse. As to the attendeesat the first reunion, I was one. A bit of aguess on the other two: Rankin andBusse?

You ask about favorite song. Who cares?How about, “When It’s Apple Blossom Time inOrange, New Jersey, We’ll Make A Peach Of APair”?

And Bill Busse, I’ll never forget thosegreat Argyle socks you knitted me at Saufley.

AL

WEIL

AL

WEIL

1-47

38

The reason I applied for and got intothe V-5 program was a buddy of mine (LeroyZack Taylor, (16-48, I think) in high school heardabout it and told me. It seemed like I had wantedto be a Navy Pilot ever since I saw a movie withJohn Wayne making dive-bombing runs at theJapanese ships during WW 2. Man, did that everlook exciting!

After Leroy talked me into going tocollege with him at the Municipal University inWichita, Kansas, he moved to California andwent to college out there. There were three otherV-5 ‘ers in school in Wichita, one of them didn’tpass the physical when we got to Pensacola, oneof them was killed in advanced training in an F8Faccident, two of us got our wings. The other FMAwas Charles I. Hickman 13-48. I have no ideawhat Hickman’s Navy duty was but I have heardthat he has passed on.

You may remember the Middie thatbroke his left arm in Pre-Flight and had it in acast for 12 weeks during the summer of ‘48. Thatwas me.

The one outstanding event in Pre-Flight that I remember was during routine squadpersonal inspection one morning. The MarineSergeant stopped in front of me: “Mister, did youshave this morning (pause) or last night?? I liedthrough my teeth and replied “This morning Ser-geant.” That was the morning we got the lecture“You guys know your engines, aerodynamics,aerology and stuff. but I know shaves and hair-cuts. I can look at you and tell when you lastshaved or got a haircut!” That was the last time,ever, I shaved at night without shaving the nextmorning.

The hairy ride I remember from ba-sic at Pensacola was after an instrument checkride in the SNJ. The instructor popped the hoodand we headed back to the field. He said “I gotit.” and did a few rolls and such. Then he said“Let’s do a snap roll.” And proceeded to do one.(Of course they were forbidden for students whensolo.) On one of them, he pulled it up a little toosteeply and I remember seeing the airspeed indi-cator going backwards past zero.

Then on the way down we made morethan two, maybe three or four, turns before pullout. I could see the Gulf coming up fast and Iwas SCARED. I put my hands on the canopyemergency release, prepared to jump and saidunder my breath “You got one more turn.” I’dhave jumped too but he stopped turning and startedto pull out. Just in time.

Do you remember the “gasoline leave”we had in summer of ‘49?

The hairy experience that I remembermost during advanced at Corpus was the time Iforgot to put down the divebrakes (the landinggear down, but not locked) in the F4U for a divebombing run. I made the pull-out at about 450 or500 feet. During recovery I remember seeing al-most 600 knots before I started to grayout. Thatto me was hairy.

The most fun I had at Corpus was af-ter an instrument flight in the F4U, the instructorchase pilot challenged me on the radio. “See ifyou can lose me!” After a couple rolls and a loop,he was still behind me. OKAY! I made a Split S,to a loop, to an Immelman, leveled off and he wasno where to be seen! The radio said “See youback at the field.”

During advancedCarQuals in Pensacola, there wasan Air Force officer in our groundschool classes. On one of the sev-eral cross-country flights he took in an SNJ, hedidn’t follow his flight plan. That event startedan investigation and it turned out he wasn’t evenin the Air Force. He was prosecuted but I heardhe didn’t serve any time.

‘Twas in June ’50 that I got my wings.During the 30-day leave before proceeding to SanDiego, the Korean conflict began. I was assignedto an ASW squadron, VS-23. Soon as I checkedin, somebody threw me a TBM handbook and saidyou’re flying tomorrow. They warned me “It’s soheavy on the controls, you’ll think somebody for-got to remove the battens. Truly, it wasn’t long‘til you learned to fly with the trim tabs.

Two years in the fleet included sixmonths in Japan. Our squadron made the trip toJapan on a personnel ship taking Marines to Ko-rea. Some of them lined the life rails for a coupledays out. It was the first time most of us hadcrossed the International Date Line. ‘Twas anexciting day! I still have my card signed by KingNeptune.

ROBERT

WILSON

ROBERT

WILSON

15-48

39

‘Course the Bad Guys didn’t useany submarines, but VS-23 spent a coupleweekends chasing whales.

A couple unforgettable things hap-pened to our Carrier (Bairoko, CVE 114). Itran into another ship while docking atYokuska. The Captain caught hell for that!Later there was an explosion below decks oneday that killed 6 of the ships crew. More hell!

It was interesting to be launchedfrom a carrier anchored in the bay at Yokuska.One of our pilots forgot to fasten his plottingboard into the instrument panel, it hit him inthe chest as soon as the catapult started.Twasn’t me.

During the carrier down times, oursquadron was based at Atsugi, an old Japa-nese Airfield west of Yokohama. One snowyday some of the other Ensigns and I exploreda few of the underground dugout facilities thatwere used by the Japanese during WW2.

After leaving active duty in June of’52, I went to work in an oil refinery; it wasn’tlong before that got pretty tiresome. It was onto college at the University of Kansas where Igraduated with a BS in Engineering in ’56 anda MS in Geotechnical Engineering in “86.

One bright sunshiny spring day betweenclasses, couple of F4U’s flew over. The nextweekend I was over to Olathe NAAS signing upfor the Reserve. Spent three years flying TBM’sin VS 883. The last three flights in the Navy werein an F4U, a TBM, and an SNB.

Got married in ’55 in Little Rock toBarbara Ann Kahler. Best thing that ever hap-pened to me. A boy, Scott, was born in August“57 and a girl, Monette, on April Fools day ’59.Scott and his wife Lori live in the Kansas Cityarea and have a daughter 15 years old. Monetteand her husband Bob live in San Jose, CA andhave a girl 2 years old.

Leonard Treichler (15-48) who passedaway last February 27, and I had kept in contactsince we were in Pre Flight together. He calledme 4 years ago and told me that he just discov-

ered there is a Flying Midshipman Associa-tion and they are having a reunion in VirginiaBeach. He gave me a ‘phone number to calland the rest just followed.

Barb and I went to the 50th Anni-versary of Naval Aviation in Pensacola. Thatwas in June of 1961, I have forgotten why wedidn’t go to the 75th one. I wish we had be-cause in all probability we would have dis-covered the FMA then instead of 12 years later.I’ve really enjoyed the reunions and gettingreacquainted with Middies 50 years later. Bythe way, we’re looking forward to the 100 thAnniversary and hope you are also.

ROBERT

WILSON

Cont.

40

List of those planning to attend the FLYING MIDSHIPMENS’

30th WEST COAST REUNION...Monterey...California...2002

Names Nicknames City/State Pre-flight Class

George Rothrock Rocky Pebble Beach CA 16-46Martha RothrockKen Horn Ken Carmel CA 13-46Mary HornCharles T. Phillips Livingston TX 1-48Florence PhillipsJohn Kropf Seattle WA 17-48Sue KropfDave Millpointer Dave Orinda CA 14-48Joy Millpointer JoyWindom Estes Pebble CA 18-48Eleanor EstesAlan Beck Orinda CA 9-46Janet WhiteheadBill Rankin Bill Queenstown MD 1-47Gail Rankin GailNeale Smith Del Mar CA 8-48Sheryl SmithRobert Bennett San Diego CA 15-47Jan Bennett JanRichard Sample Ormond Beach FL 4-48Patricia Sample PatDonald Sutherland Don DeLand FL 12-48Sandra SutherlandColeman Goatley Cole Melbourne FL 3-47Jane Goatley

ATTENDEES

PAGE 1For current street addresses, phone numbers and e-mailaddresses refer tothe latest edition of the Flying Midshipmen...Member Directory

41

Name Nickname City/State Pre-flight ClassFred Bereswill Fred Carnation WA 9 48Lois Bereswill LoisStan Pederson Stan Winchester CA 6 47Audrey Pederson AudreyRobert Wilson Roeland Park KS 15 48Barbara WilsonVictor Lopez Vic Upland CA 1-47Arline Lopez ArlieBrad Kowalski (not attending) 10-48Earl Rogers Earl Sacramento CA 6-47Dixie Rogers DixieR. O. Rudd Orten Merry Point VA 1-47Quinten RuddSmokey Tollgard Smokey La Mesa CA 2-48Shirley Tollgard ShirleyRoy T. Mantz Roy Coronado CA 7-48Kathleen MantzLawrence A. Schoelen Laguna Hills CA 19-48Maria A. SchoelenGregory E. Lawrence, Jr. Solano Beach CA 8-48Phyllis O. LawrenceJohn Vitcenda Englwood CO 7-48Lois VitcendaRobert F. Abels Poway CA 21-47Shirley AbelsWilliam Busse Bill Palo Alto 2-47Barbara Busse

List of those planning to attend the FLYING MIDSHIPMENS’

30th WEST COAST REUNION...Monterey...California...2002

PAGE 2

ATTENDEES

42

M. W. Rumble Red Colorado Springs CO 18-48Kathy Rumble KathyJoseph A. Reyes Potomac MD 4-48Frances M. ReyesJim McClure Jim Santa Ana CA 7-48Carol McClureJohn C. Humphrey Honolulu HI 8-47Ellen HumphreyE. V. Thomas Jack Ione CA 2-47Anna Smith AnnJerome Nicholson Santa Maria CA 1-47Marilyn Nicholson

Rick Cotton Rick Punta Gorda FL 6-47Betty Cotton BettyEugene Vanderbeck Newport OR 3-48Joyce Rochester WidowHenry Stanley Hank Boulder Creek CA 1-47Evelyn Stanley EvieLauris Boyer Coronado CA WidowJ. B. Melton GuestDonald Luallin Highlands Ranch CO 9-46Ione LuallinFoster Mahood Aptos CA 18-46Charlotte MahoodWilliam Campbell Bill Anderson SC 9-47Veleria Campbell VeeDaughter GuestSon in Law GuestTex Atkinson Tex Gulf Breeze FL 20-47

List of those planning to attend the FLYING MIDSHIPMENS’

30th WEST COAST REUNION...Monterey...California...2002

PAGE 3

ATTENDEES

43

Annie Atkinson AnnieEd Peterman Ed San Marcos CA 7-48Nita Peterman NitaRichard Kaufman Fair Oaks CA 17-48Norma KaufmanHenry Frazer Hank San Diego CA 8-47Michael Frazer (son) GuestFloyd S. Kunkle Stan Pottsboro TX 17-48Nancy KunkleDale Davis Punta Gorda FL 1-47Joan DavisJim Burton J. D. Long Beach 9-46Kathleen BurtonHenry Wylie Hank Chula Vista CA 9-48Frances Wylie FranShirley Fouchet Bobbie Bellvue WA Widow (16-48)Joe Sherin Joe Atlantic Beach FL 15-48Billie Sherin BillieMarvin Quaid Marv Monterey CA 14-48Margaret QuaidRussell McJunkin Russ San Diego CA 4-48Ginger McJunkinMel Davidow Miami FL 5-49

PAGE 4

ATTENDEES

List of those planning to attend the FLYING MIDSHIPMENS’

30th WEST COAST REUNION...Monterey...California...2002