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MARCH EVENTS:
- 4 March GPS
Staff Lunch
- 11 March
GPS Luncheon
- 17 March
St. Patrick's Day
- 19 March
St. Joseph Day Swallows Return to San Juan Capistrano
- 20 March
Spring Begins
FOR MIDWAY,
A NEW LIFE AS MUSEUM
By Gidget Fuentes
TIMES STAFF WRITER
Silhouetted
against city lights, the historic carrier Midway glided across San
Diego Bay just after sunset Jan. 5 to a temporary berth at North
Island Naval Air Station in Coronado, Calif., the next-to-last move
before becoming one of this Navy town's premier historic attractions.
The sight of
the nearly 60-year-old ship back in southern California -- it decommissioned
here on April 11, 1992 -- was sweetly nostalgic to John De Blanc,
a former airman and retired General Dynamics executive who, as a
young boy in 1945, saw the Midway when it was brand new. His late
father, retired Cmdr. Ernest De Blanc, was one of the famed carrier
s "plank-owners," or members of the commissioning crew.
In recent years,
his mother often asked, "When are you going to get the Midway
here?" DeBlanc recalled as he stood at the edge of Broadway
Pier in downtown San Diego. "My job was to get the ship,"
said De Blanc, director of the San Diego Aircraft Carrier Museum,
a group that spent a decade working to bring a flattop here for
the museum. His dreams were realized in July when the Navy approved
the transfer of the Midway to the group. Ermenie De Blanc, his mother,
died Aug. 28. But the warship's arrival was a cause for celebration.
"This is a wonderful thing for the community and the Navy",
De Blanc said.
After taking
on five vintage jet aircraft -- an A-7 Corsair, E-2C Hawkeye, F-14
Tomcat, A-6 Intruder and F-4 Phantom II -- the Midway was to be
towed across the bay Jan. 10 to its
permanent home along the Navy Pier. The museum is scheduled to open
to the public in early June. Exhibits will include popular state-of-the-art
displays, simulators and galleries showcasing the carrier's history
and the sailors and officers who served its crew . "We've got
ideas from all over," said Reint Reinders, San Diego Convention
and Visitors' Bureau president and chief executive officer.
Organizers refer
to the museum as "Midway Magic," the phrase coined by
the crew when the carrier sailed the seas. They say it's a fitting
tribute to the sailors and families who gave life to the ship and
air wing.
"What ‘Magic'
really was, was damn hard work," said retired Rear Adm. Riley
Mixson, who commanded the Midway from 1985 to 1987. Mixson, the
group's executive officer, watched the Midway near its berth at
North Island. "It's very personal," he said, his eyes
brimming. "When you're the CO of an aircraft carrier, it's
a tremendous experience."
CONNIE STRICKEN
From Navy Times 2/2/04
The carrier
Constellation, when it was decommissioned Aug. 6, was supposed to
be placed in an inactive reserve status meaning that if needed,
the ship could be brought back into action.
Not anymore.
Chief of Naval
Operations Adm. Vern Clark made a decision in September that the
ship should instead be stricken and disposed of. The ship was officially
stricken from the Naval Vessel Registry on Dec. 2.
The costs associated
with maintaining the Connie in Mobilization Category B outweighed
the benefits, said Capt. L.M. Jones, program manager for inactive
ships. The Constellation is to go through inactivation work through
2005.
The former carriers
Ranger and Independence also will be stricken. Ranger has been designated
for potential donation for museum or memorial use. What happens
to Connie and Indy is yet to be determined, Jones said.
BOB AND TED S
AMAZING ADVENTURE
By GPS Staff member Dr Bob Helton
For over a
year Bob Helton and Ted Heineman had been planning a great adventure
to travel to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, for the Centennial of Flight
Celebration on December 17, 2003, one hundred years after the Wright
Brothers first controlled powered flight. Both of them had always
been fascinated by flight, and the Wright Brothers story.
Ted has lectured
on the Wright Brothers for years. The Centennial Celebration had
been
planned for months ahead, and Bob got email newsletters and obtained
tickets when they became available, in August.
Events were
planned starting December 12, and culminating on December 17 with
a planned flight of an exact replica of the original Wright Flyer,
which hangs in the Museum Space and Flight in Washington, D.C. Events
were planned for each day— one day 100 airplanes of various
vintages flew over, another day 100 parachutists were dropped.
Bob and Ted
flew from John Wayne Airport on December 12, to Las Vegas, then
to Norfolk, driving to the Outer Banks the next day in fog and hard
rain, getting lost twice, thanks to poor signs on Virginia freeways.
We had cold weather and rain gear, as it could snow in December
in Kitty Hawk. Bob had maps and brochures and had planned the adventure
but surprises abound! We found our way to a schoolyard next to the
Monument, and took a shuttle to the back entrance to the Memorial.
Ted was incensed
to learn that his small pocket knife would not pass the Security
check, so he buried it! (to be later retrieved) But the adventure
continued. Ted got lost almost immediately! Actually, Ted knew where
was, but Bob and the Security staff looked for him all day! Bob
had climbed to the top of the Memorial to meet his son, thinking
Ted would wait, but Ted moved on, enjoying the exhibits, seeing
and hearing the exhibits and lectures. Ted was returned to the Visitors
tent before closing.
Both enjoyed
the NASA tent, where NASA accomplishments joined the Flyer simulator.
Bob crashed while flying the Wright simulator because he didn t
move his hips quickly enough to counter a right bank! The wings
had to be warped. Other simulators included a Ford Trimotor, a DC-3,
and a Piper Cub, all of which Bob flew. Both had their picture taken
in a Flight Suit- also a sim! Other exhibits showed the Wrights
trials at Kitty Hawk- now Kill Devil Hill. The Visitors Center had
another replica of the Flyer, and lectures on the Wrights. There
were many good books and pictures also, and cachets or date stamps
for stamping souvenirs.
There were 35,000
tickets sold for the 17th, when the replica Flyer was to fly; however,
at the scheduled time, it was raining, and no wind- so it was delayed.
The President spoke at 11- and the rain stopped! Bob was happy to
meet his son who is a pilot for America West. After a delay, the
flight was attempted, but it needed 20 miles an hour wind and only
5 was present.It only got 4 inches off the ground, but we all cheered
the effort! After all, being part of History was the main point
of our Amazing Adventure!
THE GUARDIAN ANGEL
by GPS Member Shelby M. Forrest
On a cool, crisp
day in early May
in Nineteen Fifty One,
from a carrier deck Corsairs were launched
on a routine recon run.
The pilots looked
for ammo trucks
on that clear late afternoon.
but they would hit those targets which
became most opportune.
I flew one of
the planes that day
in the North Korean sky.
On many missions such as this
these planes would often fly.
Then suddenly
I heard a cough
in the engine of my plane,
and a shuddering slightly shook the craft
as though it were in pain.
The intermittent
sputtering
and coughs the engine made
forced me to then decide upon
the options to be weighed.
I could bail
out, but enemy troops
might hasten my demise.
I did not want to take that chance.
They were not friendly guys.
I headed for
the ocean then,
with plans to ditch the plane.
To land like this is difficult.
For this we do not train.
The sputtering
continued, but
the engine did not die.
It had to be a miracle
that the plane still chose to fly.
Closer and closer
the Iron Bird flew,
and I began to think
I may be able to reach the ship
and not go in the drink.
I tried to maintain
altitude as
the plane began to tire.
Then the engine froze and finally died
as the tail hook caught the wire.
A Guardian Angel,
I admit,
I did not touch or see,
but I've believed all of my life
one flew that flight with me!
Monograph excerpted from the book "Eternally at War" by
Captain R.G. Lathrop
USMCR made available to the public through the Vietnam Archive at
Texas Tech University. Submitted by Former GPS CO, Danny Bowen
EXCERPTS FROM
CHAPTER 13
OVERHAUL AND REPAIR TRIP.
(During August 1968 Captain Lathrop was flying with VMA-311 at Chu
Lal.
The flight
schedule showed something I could not believe. I was scheduled to
be number four of a forty plane flight that would join another forty
plane flight and would be number forty four in the gaggle, going
to North Vietnam for an Alpha strike.
I went to our
O'club, our only source of activity. I had a couple of beers before
going back and reading, and wondering what it was going to be like
flying in the middle of an eighty plane flight, forty coming from
Chu Lai and forty from Danang. Some would be A-4s, but most F-4s
and A-6s. I hoped it would not be IFR. We had not had many instrument
missions, except at night.
We briefed in
the dark. It was 0400 when we sat down to brief. It was raining
a light drizzle, and it was too early to tell if the base was under
instrument conditions or not. We did not have weather forecast like
we had in the United States, and it was often the reports of the
pilots that determined whether we knew exactly what flight conditions
were in the small area of 160 x 70 miles that we flew in.
I manned my
aircraft in the rainy predawn. It was dry, but I was wet and went
through the
zapping on my moustache and fingertips going over the switches in
the cockpit. It was starting to get light, and when I checked in,
I found that I was going to be number four on an instrument takeoff,
flying wing to Major Korman, with whom I would be going to Japan
at this time the following day.
We taxied out,
and I could see that the base was overcast and the overcast was
not above six or seven hundred feet. We would have to takeoff and
join on top, making a TACAN (the main navigation instrument in tactical
fighter-bomber aircraft - gives bearing and distance to a station)
rendezvous on top of the clouds. We had briefed on how we would
do this, in case it was necessary, but it was going to be like a
beehive if we had to do it, because there were going to be forty
aircraft doing it in the same space because we were taking off with
normal interval. If we took off at a 1 minute interval, the A-4
aircraft, which carried much less fuel than the others, were taking
to the air first, would run out of fuel before the mission got to
the target area.
We taxied behind
two Phantoms from MAG-1 3, who took off with a thirty-second interval,
or less, and disappeared into the clouds. Bob was in the takeoff
position before the second aircraft had gotten airborne and I followed,
running up my engine as soon as I was in position. He reported to
departure that he was on the roll, and I gave him twenty seconds
and followed, noticing that two A-6 Intruders were already in position
to roll when I rolled.
I had my landing
gear in the well and was turning when I went into the clouds at
400 feet, a low overcast to be flying into and recovering, even
with radar controlled approach.
I was flying
north, the world outside as white as the inside of a milk bottle,
and dark for the
time of day, even in the overcast. I was climbing through eight
thousand feet, and had heard no one call on top, and should have.
I was none to sure what I should be expecting. The target information
and the rendezvous information was not given to any wingman, so
I had no idea where we were rendezvousing the two flights or where
we were going or at what altitude. While I was flying at reduced
throttle and 300 knots, the following radio transmissions came over
departure frequency.
"Vice Squad,
this is Lovebug 501, out of Chu Lai, over"? "Go ahead,
Lovebug 501."
"Roger, Vice Squad, this is 501 at 32,000 feet and we have
no tops in sight."
"All aircraft in the Chu Lai vicinity, be advised that the
Chu Lai radar is down. This is Chu Lai tower on guard."
"All aircraft airborne in the Chu Lai and Danang areas this
is Vice Squad on Guard, hold within forty nautical miles of your
base."
One flight of eighty had just become eighty flights of one.
It was a good
thing that the radar controller did not have a radar scan for the
next hour. The appearance would have been of a hive of bees having
all of their bees orbiting around the hive, all blind, all carrying
loads of explosives, and all coming back to the same hole at the
same time.
I didn't hear
a sound on the radio for a full fifteen minutes as I flew five miles
off the coast,
maintaining my position by TACAN radials and distance. I stayed
low so that I would stay away from the Phantoms and A-6s who would
be orbiting higher with their more powerful engines and greater
fuel load.
After perhaps
fifteen minutes, an F-4 came up. "Chu Lal departure, this is
Lovebug 532, request clearance to the ordnance dump area, over."
"This is
Chu Lai departure, 531, be advised the ordnance dump area is closed
due to friendly vessels in the area."
There was another
fifteen minute pause while all eighty aircraft found some place
they felt safe, and all 40,000 pounds of bombs dropped randomly
into the South China Sea.
I knew about
where I was, set my ordnance to drop and unarmed and salvoed
the entire load into the ocean fifteen miles NE of Chu Lai and hoped
I didn t hit anything. I
had plenty of fuel for an A-4, but not compared to the other types
of aircraft. In addition, I
was one of the first planes airborne and decided to be one of the
first ones back.
I did not wish to be in the same airspace as all of the other aircraft,
some of which, like the A-6, could shoot an approach on their
radar.
I decided to
come in from the east, shoot an approach as yet to be concocted
by me, then arc into the base.
When I got down
to 4000 pounds of fuel, well over what I felt I would need, I called
out in the blind that I was coming down the 100 degree radial, starting
at fifteen miles. I opened my speed brakes, slowed to 220 knots,
and put them back in and started a gentle guide to visual conditions
or five hundred feet, which ever came first.
It was a thick
overcast and had to watch my instruments carefully as was descending
into
unknown conditions.
At two thousand
feet, the soup was just as dense as before. I eased my descent to
500 feet per minute and slowly passed one thousand feet at seven
miles and started my turn onto the five mile arc when I broke out
at less than seven hundred feet over a wild gray ocean, whipping
up with whitecaps. I stayed on the five mile arc, unable to see
land until I was a mile away from the beach near the American Division
Headquarters, northeast of the runway. I then moved into a three
mile arc from the base TACAN and approached runway heading and turned
to my final landing heading, still not seeing the runway over the
intervening trees.
I was now down
to 300 feet under a lowering overcast, but had the field in sight
when I looked up and saw the wheels of an A-6 above me, just dropping
out to the cloud cover over me.
I turned immediately,
right over the trees, and went into a 360 degree turn while the
A-6 landed. When I got back on runway heading, I saw that a Phantom
was in the first arresting gear, and I decided to take the second.
The A-6 had disappeared, apparently making another approach. I flew
low over the Phantom and took the second arresting gear, the midfield
morest, and while in the morest, a third aircraft, another Phantom,
took the one beyond me.
I was able to
get clear of the runway before the big run on it started. I was
the first plane back at our line. By now, planes were landing one
after another, all coming in out of the soup with no ground control
to separate them.
It says something
of the experience of the pilots at the time. A crisis situation
was handled with no more difficulty than a change in combat mission
because they were so conditioned to make decisions rapidly, and
successfully, that each made a decision on how to recover, did so
without major consequences, and did so because of a confidence level
developed by the constant challenges of daily flying.
FROM YOUR MEMBERSHIP OFFICER
FRAN PIERI
In my column
every month, I stress signing up new members. Membership recruiting
is
everyone's job. I need your help. Where are the new members? Are
you doing your part to help? I hope so. Most of our members are
over 70, including me. But age is not a factor here. We need new
members at any age. For those of you who have signed new members;
I thank you. The Ray Pett "Let Me Buy You a Drink" contest
is moving along nicely. As of now, $150.00 is in the pot, so far,
from some anonymous donors. Since the contest began, eleven new
people have joined the GRAMPS' squadron. In February, three men
have signed up. They are: Mr. Robert Moyer, Mr. Rudy Loftin and
MajGen Hal Vincent USMC (RET). "Welcome aboard" gents
and kudos to their sponsors Hal Simons, Tony Testa and Andy Gilcrest.
When you bring a guest, be sure they get an
OP-Plan. Later on, make a follow-up call and let them know we need
them in our squadron. Hope to see you at the March 11th luncheon.
Keep the blue side up. GPS
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