Admiral Smith's briefing on the current and future status of the Association
of Naval Aviation (ANA) gave us all a very important heads-up on what we the
members must do to make the ANA again strong enough to accomplish its mission.
We have been briefed on our mission and now is the time to act.  What is the
mission of each member? Here it is, a primary target;

• Do a recon flight around the your neighborhood, church and other clubs, where
  you are a member, and seek out people to recruit and bring to one of our
  Squadron meetings.
• Try to have them join at the first meeting.
• Failing that, bring them to the next meeting and try again to sign them up.

I realize this is a tough mission. You'll fly through a lot of flak looking
for new members. You may get shot down at the critical join-up point. You have
to re-fly this mission until you hit your target - one new member.

Here is another mission that is also a primary target:

Make every effort to attend the ANA San Diego convention on 1-4 June. I
attended the last one in San Diego and I found it to be a wonderful experience.
My wife enjoyed the convention as much as I did! You will find out so much
interesting information that's new in naval aviation. When you support the ANA
San Diego convention, you will show the active Navy Air leadership and its
industrial suppliers that ANA is active and wants to be a partner in maintaining
a strong naval air force

Here is more specific information on the convention that I just received:

ANA Convention in San Diego.  1-4 June 2005, at the Mission Valley Marriott.
Hear what the leaders of Naval Aviation have to say about today's Navy and
aircraft, and what's coming.  See "up close and personal" today's aircraft and
the men and women who fly and maintain them.  Get an informative glimpse at what
the defense industry has coming along.  Attend a 63'rd anniversary event
commemorating the Battle of Midway aboard the aircraft carrier USS Midway.  And
have some fun and camaraderie.  The ANA staff has already negotiated a great
room rate in the pricey San Diego market of only $125 per night at the Marriott
(single or double), which adds to the opportunity to enjoy several days of the
convention and all it's activities.  The GPS Staff will keep all GPS members
cut-in as the convention agenda forms up, and is exploring a way to "make the
driving easy" for our members attending the convention.  More information will
be forthcoming. See Bud Krestsinger's article in this OP-Plan for more info.
  So, do come to the ANA Convention and enjoy!  Mark your caendar now!

Our March speaker will be Colonel James R. Braden who recently headed up a
Marine Corps tactical helicopter unit(HMLA 169) in Kuwait and Iraq. Col. Braden
is currently Chief of Staff of the Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command
of the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms. HMLA 169 had
both Huey's(UH-1N) and Cobra's(AH-1W). At the start of the war, HMLA 169 was
based in Kuwait but quickly set up semi-permanent forward operating locations in
Talil, Al Kut, and Hilah, Iraq. Our XO Mel Locke recently heard Col. Braden's
talk to the Palm Springs ANA Squadron and promises that we are in for a real
treat.

I am working on a spring field trip to the Seal Beach Weapons Station. In
addition to touring the base and hearing briefings on the base functions, we
hope to schedule the event while a ship is being loaded with weapons and
possibly get a tour of the ship. I am hoping on getting the field trip in the
April or May time period.

Guest Speaker - Admiral P.D. Smith, President of the Association of Naval Aviation

By Dr. Dick Fields, Public Affairs Officer

December Luncheon Program

The speaker for the January meeting was Admiral P.D Smith, President of the
Association of Naval Aviation.  His main topic was the state of ANA. 

The loss of a large amount of money as a result of the last ANA convention
raised the question of whether ANA should continue or be abandoned.  The loss
was the result of an extremely poor attendance at that convention, costing the
association is guarantee fees to the hotel.  The resounding response from the
component squadrons, including Australia and France, was that we must continue. 

ADM. Smith related that ANA, founded by Admiral Thomas Moorer, is a legend in
the minds of the active members of the naval aviation community.  As a result,
the Board of ANA has reformulated the organization's mission statement to the
effect that, " the main purpose of ANA is to be a primary advocate for carrying
out the goals of the uniformed Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard leadership to
maintain their services' aviation readiness to protect our country."  He
outlined three steps to be taken to accomplish this goal:

1. The national HQ will be reorganized to provide more "punch" to the
   organization.
2. The new staff structure will develop new and improved methods of getting our
   advocacy issues out to our national leadership as well as to our component
   squadrons.
3. The policy concerning the national convention was reviewed and it was
   decided to go ahead with this year's convention in San Diego.  It is critical
   that we members support this convention!

He mentioned the newest CV-21 all electric carrier, the excellent
re-enlistment rate for the Navy and CNO's mandate to make the Navy lean and
mean.  An important issue that ANA and others need to pursue is the reduction in
the number of active carriers in service to a level that is well below what is
deemed by the best minds to be essential for our national security.   It was a
pleasure to have RADM Smith at our meeting again.

Upcoming ANA San Diego Convention
by Bud Kretsinger, ANA Trustee

June 1st through the 4th, the Association of Naval Aviation will be holding
our annual convention.  The location is San Diego, at the Mission Valley
Marriott. Plans are being formulated as you read this, but some of the ideas
being "considered", are a trip to the USS Midway Museum, celebrating the Battle
of Midway during World War II.  Other field trips are in the planning stages,
but, as the expression goes, "nothing in concrete yet."

What is fairly certain is the rooms costs.  Rumor had it that the rooms would
be over $200 apiece, per night.  NOTHING could be further from the truth!  Bob
Olds, Ray LeCompte and I traveled to San Diego to meet with the ANA folks
putting the event together. What is fairly certain are the reasonable room
costs. Rooms will be $125.00 plus the usual taxes, making it $137.50 per night,
single or double occupancy. 

What is needed is your attendance.  ANA Headquarters and the San Diego
Squadron are going to a great deal of work, planning to put on a fantastic
convention.  One thing is certain.  Hotel reservations.  The price quoted above
is on a limited, first come   first served, basis.  That weekend, there is a
marathon race in town, with world renowned runners competing.  The marathoners
are snapping up rooms at the Marriott.  ANA folks have blocked out a number of
rooms for ANA members, but as stated, you snooze, you loose!

Not many of us care to make that drive down the coast to San Diego.  Traffic
in the Carlsbad area, and at the 5 / 805 "Y", is almost always bad.  A
suggestion for those of us who prefer leisure.  AMTRAK trains run right into
downtown San Diego.

OK, how much, you say?  From Fullerton, the most northerly Orange County
station round-trip to San Diego, Coach Class, $34.00, Business Class, (I think
this is the way to go), $56.00.  This is round trip!  All the amenities in the
world with Business Class!  Well, almost all. AMTRAK Stations closer, i.e.:
Anaheim, Santa Ana, El Toro, etc., will be a cheaper fare.  Now, that makes it
pretty darn neat, I think.  Sit on the train, have a brew, a sandwich, whatever,
and watch the vehicle traffic fight their way southbound.

Now, you're in San Diego.  How to get out to the hotel?  The San Diego Trolley
picks up passengers right at the AMTRAK Station.  The trolley will take you out
to Mission Valley, and stops right at the Marriott.  The fare?  $4.50 for a
round trip ticket.  What possibly could be easier?

Make your plans to attend.  It should be both interesting and fun, and you'll
be supporting our Association of Naval Aviation.


IN MEMORIAM

Gramps member Colonel Frank Heins, USMC Ret died December 27, 2004 after an
extended war  with cancer.

Frank left upstate New York and entered the Marine Corps at Parris Island  in
1949.  He achieved the rank of Staff Sergeant before being selected for flight
school.  He received his wings in 1956 and spent the remainder of his career as
a helicopter pilot. Frank had a tour in HMX-1 and was a  designated aircraft
commander for the President of the United States.

He  was the CO of HMH-363, a CH-53 squadron, CO of HMLA-367, a Huey/Cobra
squadron, and later CO of Marine Air Training support Group and NAS  Memphis.
After retirement, Frank was instrumental in the development of the Marine  Air
Historical Museum at El Toro. When the museum moved to Miramar, Frank remained
on the Board of Directors.

Frank, a graduate of Georgetown University, had the largest collection of
Marine Corps emblems known to be in existence.  He was a regular attendee  at
Grampaw Pettibone meetings.   Submitted by Denny Bowen

Gramps member Lt. Robert E. Washbon USMC(Ret) passed away over the Christmas
holiday season. He suffered a stroke several years ago and slowly went downhill
after that.

He was a carrier based Marine tighter pilot during WWII and covered the
landings on Iwo Jima. He  was forced to ditch his F4U twice during this tour. He
returned to EL Toro and instructed in an F4U Squadron prior to joining a carrier
based F6F squadron. This Squadron was about to be deployed overseas when the war
ended.

Bob became a very successful Orthodontist in Newport Beach before he was
disabled.

He left behind a wife, Suzi, one son and two daughters. Submitted by D. 0.
Morriss

Gramps member MGYSGT Pat Wurthman USMC(Ret) passed away prior to the Christmas
holiday. Pat attended Gramps' Luncheon for many years an will be greatly missed.

TOP NAVY OFFICER OUTLINES PLAN TO MAKE DEPLOYMENTS FASTER, CAREERS MORE FLEXIBLE
By William H. McMichael
Navy Times 17/01/05

Vern Clark is shooting for the moon.

The chief of naval operations wants smarter recruits who behave themselves,
take responsibility for their actions and are eager to compete to stay in the
Navy and advance. He wants big changes in the way sailors are evaluated and
paid. And in the face of potentially significant budget cuts, he wants a lean
yet powerful Navy in which every plan and process is directed toward putting
forces into action

Clark's vision for the next 12 months is outlined in his "CNO Guidance for
2005," essentially a blueprint that continues the far-reaching changes he's
launched during his first four years as the Navy's top officer. It was published
Jan. 4. The CNO Guidance is produced annually.

He wants a lot. And he wants it fast.

"We must do all that we can to increase the speed and agility of our great
institution," he wrote. "We seek not to keep pace with change, but to lead it."

Clark wants an efficient Navy with an unparalleled war-fighting capabiity. And
he acknowledges that changing the Navy in the midst of conflict is a tremendous
challenge.

"We are at war," Clark told reporters during a Jan. 4 news conference in his
Pentagon office. "No apologies. To pretend that it's anything else is to grossly
miss the message that I'm sending to our people. ... This is about a hard-fought
campaign that we're in, and were going to be in it for a long time."
At the same time, Clark said his vision "isn't some passing fancy." This is
about what the future is about. And so we have to win the fight while we are
creating and shaping a new Navy And that's what this guidance is about. Our
sailors have to getup every morning and figure out how to produce the best
combat capability they can produce with the tools that they have today. All the
while, we're working to create the Navy of tomorrow. That's hard work."

While the guidance contains dozens of initiatives, it boils down to four
essential areas:

A personnel system that gets "the people with the right skills to the right
place at the right time."

New concepts of operation that support rapid deployabihty.

A stronger operational and business integration with the Marines, Army and Air
Force.

New incentives and efficiencies in the workplace.

The evolving system of acquiring, training and assigning personnel falls under
the moniker of "Human Capital Strategy," which Clark called a "primary focus
area" for 2005. The aim is to get more sailors who are bright, trainable and
self-motivated into the Navy and to develop them in a more systematic manner.
For instance,

Clark wants 95 percent of all new recruits to have a high school degree, wants
more recruits with college experience and is "on a campaign to get rid of non
rated people in the Navy."

The effort to shape the strategy, however, will be "community-driven," and Clark
said the leaders of the Navy, surface, air and submarine communities have
visited with him three times to spell out the sort of sailors they want on
board, with smaller communities such as intelligence also visiting or planning
to visit.

In terms of advancing the most deserving, Clark also wants by June the results
of his pilot program for "360-degree evaluations," a concept that incorporates
comments from peers and subordinates into annual evaluations by reporting
seniors.

Clark also underlined a commitment to change the way Navy civilians are hired
and developed. "Our civilians are vital to our Navy." Clark said. "I talk about
growth and development of our
people, and everybody automatically thinks about sailors. But what about the
civilian sector? The fact is that it's woefully underdeveloped. I don't mean the
people, I mean the programs. And
we're going to change it."

Clark also would like to change the way his work force is compensated and said
he'd like to have a variable and optional pay and allowance structure to let
one-time hires take specific jobs, or to allow sailors with fewer than 20 years'
service to leave with some sort of accrued financial benefits. Signing up for
life, he said, "is not the real world." But those sorts of changes
would require legislation, he said.

"We're going to be more and more high-tech. That means that you've got to look
at flexible career patterns," Clark said. "Who's got the power of choice in such
a system? I believe we've got to put the power of choice in the hands of Our
people and give them more say-so in the way they shape their lives, their pay
and benefits and their career paths."

'6-plus-2'

Clark said the Navy's "6-plus-2" operational construct that was largely.
demonstrated last summer with seven carriers getting underway simultaneously is
now a continuous reality. The "6-plus-2" concept means the ability to
simultaneously deploy six carrier strike groups in less than 30 days to support
contingency operations around the world and have two more CSGs ready to support
or relieve elements of the initial responding forces within three months.

"We can do this every day," Clark said. "And, you know, five years ago, we
couldn't do this."
Clark said his job is to give sailors "the tools" to ensure they can meet this
new expectation.

"A key word in our future is 'surge' and if a resource doesn't have surge
capability, we are not going to own it," Clark wrote in the guidance. "Every
part of the fleet will be organized around this surge operational concept and
its associated training, maintenance and logistics processes."

Clark said he wants in late 2005 to do a sea swap, or a crew rotation on a
deployed ship, for an entire expeditionary strike group "as quickly as we can
pull it off." He said the experiment would likely be preceded by a computer
modeling Simulation and would depend on the availability of Marine Corps forces.
Clark said he did not know which ships would be involved.
In addition, Clark plans to consider creating a Consolidated Navy Security Force
that could be led by a professional master-at-arms officer community.

Clark's guidance also strives for intangible improvements in the force and
reflects a concern expressed by senior leaders in 2004 over behavioral problems,
some of which led to the firing of commanding officers.

Clark's guidance also strives for intangible improvements in the force and
reflects a concern expressed by senior leaders in 2004 over behavioral problems,
some of which led to the firing of commanding officers.

"To accelerate positive change within our Navy, our behavior must also reflect
our organizational values of honor, courage and commitment," Clark wrote.

"Leadership must drive this alignment of values and behavior; the sailors who
serve our great nation deserve nothing less." He called on the Navy to "raise
the bar of personal behavior, foster esprit de corps and cultivate an
environment of personal responsibility for the collective excellence of each
unit, each command and the entire Navy" He cited particular concern over alcohol
abuse, violent crime, spouse and child abuse and "blue-on-blue" incidents, or
crimes, by sailors against sailors.

Clark called the guidance, which he's issued annually since 2001, "a tool to
keep my Navy focused. I wanted everybody in our Navy to know where we were
going. And I don't expect Seaman Jones to read this document. But I sent a
message to his CO yesterday. And I expect that CO to know where we're going. And
I expect his command to be reflective of where we're going.".

See the CNO's Guidance for 2005 at www.chinfo.ncwy.mil /navpalib/cno/.

USN or USAF?
by Bob Norris

Bob Norris is a former Naval aviator who also did a 3-year exchange tour
flying the USAF F-15 Eagle. He is now an accomplished author of entertaining
books about US Naval Aviation including "Check Six" and "Fly-Off". Check out his
web site at < http://www.bobnorris.com/ .

In response to a letter from an aspiring fighter pilot on which military
academy to attend, Bob replied with the following.

12 Feb 04

Young Man,

Congratulations on your selection to both the Naval and Air Force Academies.
Your goal of becoming a fighter pilot is impressive and a fine way to serve your
country. As you requested, I'd be happy to share some insight into which service
would be the best choice. Each service has a distinctly different culture. You
need to ask yourself "Which one am I more likely to thrive in?"

USAF Snapshot: The USAF is exceptionally well organized and well run. Their
training programs are terrific. All pilots are groomed to meet high standards
for knowledge and professionalism. Their aircraft are top-notch and extremely
well maintained. Their facilities are excellent. Their enlisted personnel are
the brightest and the best trained. The USAF is homogenous and macro. No matter
where you go, you'll know what to expect, what is expected of you, and you'll be
given the training & tools you need to meet those expectations. You will never
be put in a situation over your head. Over a 20-year career, you will be home
for most important family events. Your Mom would want you to be an Air Force
pilot...so would your wife. Your Dad would want your sister to marry one.

Navy Snapshot: Aviators are part of the Navy, but so are Black Shoes (surface
warfare) and Bubble Heads (submariners). Furthermore, the Navy is split into two
distinctly different Fleets (West and East Coast). The Navy is heterogeneous and
micro. Your squadron is your home; it may be great, average, or awful. A
squadron can go from one extreme to the other before you know it. You will spend
months preparing for cruise and months on cruise. The quality of the aircraft
varies directly with the availability of parts. Senior Navy enlisted are salt of
the earth; you'll be proud if you earn their respect. Junior enlisted vary from
terrific to the troubled kid the judge made join the service. You will be given
the opportunity to lead these people during your career; you will be humbled and
get your hands dirty. The quality of your training will vary and sometimes you
will be over your head. You will miss many important family events. There will
be long stretches of tedious duty aboard ship. You will fly in very bad weather
and/or at night and you will be scared many times. You will fly with legends in
the Navy and they will kick your ass until you become a lethal force. And some
days - when the scheduling gods have smiled upon you - your jet will catapult
into a glorious morning over a far-away sea and you will be drop-jawed that
someone would pay you to do it.

The hottest girl in the bar wants to meet the Naval Aviator. That bar is in
Singapore.

Bottom line, son, if you gotta ask...pack warm & good luck in Colorado.

Banzai

PS - Air Force pilots wear scarves and iron their flight suits.

PPS - Marine pilots are Naval Aviators.


FROM YOUR MEMBERSHIP OFFICER
FRAN PIERI

I'm sure all of you at the January 13th luncheon got the message about signing
up new members from RADM P. D. Smith. He also mentioned that our Grampaw
Pettibone and the Virginia Squadrons are the largest and the most active in the
country. Man, that's something to be proud of. But; that doesn't mean that we
can just sit back and be stagnant or dormant. We must grow. My assistant, Tim
Brown and I cant do it all. We need your help. I'm sure that most of you know
someone in your church group or golf club etc, that might be looking to join an
organization like the Gramps' Squadron. If each of you could bring a guest to
the luncheon and get them to join ANA, tell them how friendly everyone is at
these luncheons. Also about the camaraderie, food and the speakers. Remember,
when you sign up five (5) new members, you become an ACE  and also get a free
membership in ANA for one year. The Ray Pett "let me buy you a drink" contest is
in full swing again this year. Anyone signing up the most new members into the
Gramps' Sqdn. will earn a monetary reward. Last year's was $300.00 won by Mel
Locke. The contest ends at the luncheon in November of this year. They don't
have to have had any previous service. However, we would like to get some active
service people into the squadron. If you ever need an extra Op-Plan log book or
application; please call me and I will mail you one ASAP.

Every Saturday you can find me at the Planes of Fame Museum at the Chino
Airport. I help restore the WWII aircraft that some of you flew off carriers
back in the old days. Many are flyable today. On Saturday, February 7th we
feature Motion Picture Flying. Hope to see you there. Keep the blue side up