Passing Gas with the A’Rabs of VA-115

This weekend, I’ve had the distinct pleasure of being on a great email thread of ‘One-Up-manship’.  I thought I’d share with our fellow Tailhookers.

The boys of VA-115 Arabs, pronounced “A-Rabs” (class of ‘70-‘72) have been encouraged at the behest of Dave “Snako” Kelly to tell some of their best Tanker (KA-6D) episodes, or at least whatever they could remember…

This invite has borne some great “There we were… upside down, with the number one flamed out!… no moon, and my BN read’n a girly mag by flashlight!”  tales!  The remembrances have also pointed to the fantastic camaraderie shared by that great squadron during their trials over Vietnam.

Squadron mates the likes of: Jack Keegan, Rob '”Toon” Ponton, Dave “Snako” Kelly, Jim Horsley, Thom Watson, John Koch, Paul Barrish, Mike Nettles, and “Hoagy” Carmichael all chimed in with their memories of flying the “Gas Giving Drumbstick!”

At risk of losing my clearance, I will share a few of these tales… Hell, I did receive the permission from the Skipper and the instigator though, so my butt is partially covered!

It all began with Dave Kelly--

All:  There has been a dialog going on about tanker missions, and some of the associated sea stories.  I really enjoy these, because they really speak to professionalism in Naval Aviation, i.e., whatever the mission you do it the best possible way that it can be done.  There may have been a lot of things about the Navy that I thought were done in a less than optimal way, but the crews in 115 seemed to be particularly adept at completing the mission in the best way possible.  (I think this says a great deal about leadership, because it couldn’t be attributed to all us loose-cannon JOs!)

Skipper Hoagy wrote the following email describing a tanker mission  he and Roger flew where ADJ1 Wells ‘pre-started’ the aircraft for him.  This particularly struck a chord with me, because Wells was one of my guys as Power Plants Branch Officer during the first cruise.  During the second cruise Pat Wells became the Power Plants Flight Deck Trouble-Shooter.  (I imagine this was where he started the Skipper’s plane.)

From Hoagy Carmichael…

Sorta funny how a subject like tanker mission could get so many of us to go look in our log books to see when we flew a tanker mission. Well, I did the same and I did fly a few… believe me I did.

I can only remember one flight that will always be with me. I was the ready tanker pilot one night when we… I think Roger was my BN… were both sitting Ready 5, in full flight gear of course, when we got the call to launch the Ready Tanker. 

Roger and I hightailed to the flight deck. Yep there it was behind the island, tail over the edge and Air Boss telling us to “Hurry Up!!! (are there any other words in an Air Boss’s vocabulary?)

As we approached the plane, we were met by 1st class Wells, he said, “Skipper I have already checked the plane over and started the starboard engine!”

I have to admit, I was a little surprised, but Wells was so good in my eyes, that I didn't think twice and climbed in. As I remember we launched, gave fuel to the Phantoms and recovered on that recovery cycle.  All thanks to the initiative of Pat Wells.

Back to Snake…

I had an experience with Wells on the flight deck that was rather interesting.  I think it was the one and only plane I downed on the Cat.  (And I think, like most of us, if Maintenance said it could fly, then we flew it.)

WARNING - SEA STORY TO FOLLOW (“this is no shit”):  John Koch and I were scheduled for a day Alpha.  We manned-up, taxied to the Cat, and ran up our engines.  We heard a muffled explosion of some kind, and we went to suspend.  Once we were secure Wells came up my ladder, and Bud Wilson came up John’s.  Bud was giving me a violent thumbs up.  I turned to Wells and shouted for his opinion.  Wells gave me a thumbs down.  I turned to Bud and he was glaring at Wells and still violently indicating thumbs up.  At that point I think my Irish temper got the best of me.  I invited Bud to climb into the right seat in John’s place, if he really felt that plane was ready to go. 

…We were then shut down and towed off the Cat.

Petty Officer Wells was really an exceptional sailor.  I never heard from him after I left active duty.  I did write a recommendation for him to go to the Warrant Officer Program, and I know he was accepted into that program.  (If anyone has any contact with him, I would like to touch base.)

Thom Wilson added one from there…

This exchange has caused me to recall various tanker missions, and one stands out – It had nothing to do with the amount of gas passed, however. Bob Wilson and I had gassed up the F-4’s and had the rest of the cycle to kill. Bored, we decided to test the KA-6 service ceiling, and began a slow orbit over the ship gradually increasing altitude – as I recall, we got to about 60,000 feet before positive pressure breathing started –…

Just before we reached 63K or so, we were shocked to see a contrail over our heads – way over our heads, at least another 15-20K above us! The contrail was headed north, and approaching Hainan Island –

We reported what we were observing to the ship – concerned that whatever it was we saw would soon enter Chinese airspace – A few minutes later “Jehovah” came up on the radio, and told us that we had not seen anything and to forget it. We decided it was a SR-71 mission (what else could make that altitude and with complete deniability?)

Then Jack Keegan made the scene with a great tale of how well a cross-decked Air Force exchange puke fared with the A-Rabs!

I'll relate the most interesting tanker hop that I had.  It was during the second cruise and I had an Air Force puke in the right seat (standard drill to get them a cat shot and trap).  We were Barcap and the F4 guys were Mugs and Mike Rabb (LSO) from 161.  As you all know, at that point in the war, the F4 guys were always painting MIGs over the north, but the guys in control would never let them engage.  I can still hear one of the F4 guys telling the control guys (whoever they were) that they had bogeys and wanted permission to engage.  The response was always quick and was always "Negative".  This time, the control guys said "Standby"..I about jumped out of my skin.  You probably remember that they engaged and that Mugs shot down both MIGs.  What you might not know is that he shot the second MIG off Mike's tail and that Mike was freaked because he was out of gas and still over the North. 

This is the good part.  I called Mike and asked him where he was and where he was headed.  I told him that I would rendezvous with him and headed west toward feet dry.  The AF puke went nuts and told me that I couldn't do this because we had no ECM, etc.  Not that I was a smart ass in those days, but I think that I said to him "Watch me!".  We never went feet dry, but were probably in the SAM envelope when he plugged.  The AF puke was ghost white as I remember.  Rob made it back and the ship was actually cooperative as we were cleared straight in from many miles north.

I don't think that many of you knew this story.  Didn't want the old guys (senior officers) to lose any more hair than they already had, so I kept it to myself...

Don't know what happen to the AF puke.

This was not the only yarn to include the infamous Mugs McKuen, as Snake recalls…

I was taking a midi up in the right seat of a KA-6D somewhere in the summer of the 2^nd cruise.  We were suppose to tank the F-4s in the Alpha on their way to the beach.  A whole covey of Charger  F-4s (VF-161) pulled up on my left wing, and there was something very unusual about Charger Lead.  (I would find out later that it was Mugs McKuen).  He gave me a hand-sign to take fuel, and I extended the drogue as he slid in behind me. 

After taking several thousand pounds of fuel, Mugs disengaged, and Charger Two slid into position.  Mugs pulled up on my right wing to wait for the rest of the tanking.  It was at that point I asked the midi to get the side number on the F-4 on our right wing.  The midi turned in his seat, and then he stammered something loudly into the ICS, turned to me, and started waving his arms.  It turns out during this whole evolution, Mugs had his helmet off, and he had donned a full monkey head Halloween mask.  When the midi turned to look at the F-4 all he could see in the front cockpit was a gorilla flying the aircraft.  I guess that sort of blew him away.

Jack Keegan confirms…

I can validate the Mugs Monkey story.  He did the same thing with me and a Middie.  I told the Middie that the fighter losses were heavy and they were training anybody/anything they could...

The legendary Jim Horsley then called out…

TOON—I’d love to hear your rendition of our day overhead tanker flight when directed to give everything we had to boltering Phantoms. You mentioned something about a low fuel light before we ever started down...never saw the ship on the 1^st pass. And the rest of the story??....Toon, over to you!  -JIM

Rob “Toon” Ponton obliged…

Horse et al,

My youngest son says he worries about my wife and me because one of us forgets and the other makes it up.

Couple thoughts:

1. Over the years, I suppose “naïve confidence” or “clueless confidence” may have been applied to my general outlook. But I gotta tell ya, Horse, being crewed with Snake and then you turned a bunch of that confidence into “informed confidence.” Truth to tell, failure simply wasn’t an option for any of us Arabs.

2. I remember saying/thinking something along the lines of “1460 pounds of fuel plus 200/minus 100; the stand pipe’s in the back of the service tank; so being in a descent we got 1660 pounds remaining instead of 1360”.

3. I remember you saying something about “tighten your lap belt and check your face curtain just in case”.

4. As I recall, MIDWAY had the best damned CATCC in the fleet. Didn’t we have to fly case 2 or case 3 all the time following loss of the E-2 at the end of the first deployment? Our controllers were damned good and would set us up well. A “short turn in” was no problem for them or for us.

5. You stayed on the instruments and my eyes were outside.

6. Fuzz was on the platform. His “roger ball” call would calm any “wobbly knees”.

7. Finally, as you well know, I was blessed with a short memory, so “interesting flights” were quickly forgotten, but only after completing Spook’s award folder notes.

For whatever reason, I’ve come to realize the VA-115 Arabs were something special. For all of our individual failings, be it a forgotten MR switch; forgotten external light switch at night, “feet dry” or selecting “nose” vice “tail” on the ACU panel resulting in 12 snake eye retards vice slick, we made us some quality history.

Toon

Well, there you have a taste, many more tales were exchanged and I may be inclined to add a few in the future...  I would like to thank all of the Arabs for sharing pieces of our Naval Aviation History!

I also extend the invite to any other squadron to share your tales here on our pages, especially as we approach the Centennial of Naval Aviation in 2011, we will then all be called on to help share our heritage!

If you have any tales you would like to share, please feel free to email me directly {here} -- JC

Note:  Many of the images used to help tell these tales are from Buzz Nau’s great USS Midway Historical Site CV41.org a wonderfully nostalgic visit for all you former USS Midway and Airwing 5 guys.

Comments

[F4Jock]

Many a time I tanked behind on of the famous "A Rabs" to get me where I needed to go and return to ship! Thanks for making it all happen!

[John Chesire]

Thanks for the memories and some great stories, A-Rabs.

And thanks for all the gas you passed to this lead-footed, smoking "Switchbox." It was always appreciated. You guys were the best!