Tailhook Daily Briefing

CAPT John E. "Jack" Taylor, USN-Ret.

With the neck down in platforms, officer accession and student naval aviator (SNA) training pipelines, there is a certain homogenization characterizing Naval Aviation today. Not that that is all bad mind you, especially when one considers the reduction in mishap rates and capabilities today's anchor-winged warriors bring to the fight. Still, for those of us who had the opportunity to train, fly and fight with those who entered in the 40's - 60's we had the fortune of knowing some real characters and, occasionally, some real pioneers and pillars of the community. For that was a period of interesting, challenging and oft times, awkward growth as Naval Aviation moved past the breakout period of WWII and through the early days of the jet age to arrive at the version more recognizable today, repleat with super carriers and supersonic fighters. Getting to that point, however, required a distinct breed of aviator, formed in a time before NATOPS, honed on the small decks of 27C's and the early "supercarriers" of the Forrestal class CVA, with new missions and (then) leading edge technology to master and fight with.

One of the signature aircraft of that period was the A3D/A-3 Skywarrior, aka "Whale." Originally designed to be the Navy's contribution to long-range nuclear strikes, the Whale eventually morphed through a number of other platform variations and missions -- tanking, photo-recce, ELINT, electronic warfare, DV hauling, and the like. It was at once a typical life that the Whale led, compared to some of its contemporaries (viz., AD/A-1 Skyraider and F3D Skynight) - yet it outlived all those and many of the more modern and specialized aircraft that followed.

Like their aircraft, the men who worked on and flew the Whale were (are) of a particular bent and were central in establishing the tenor and tone of that era. Today, courtesy Andy Niemyer (A-3 Skywarrior Association) we learn of the passing of a true pioneer and pillar of the VQ community from that era - and Naval Aviation Pilot, CAPT John E. Taylor, USN-Ret:

Former VFP-62 CO and DFC Recipient, CAPT William Ecker, USN-Ret Passes Away

On Oct. 19, 1962, the Pentagon’s Bureau of Aeronautics contacted Koch while he and Ecker were fishing in Orange Park, Fla. The bureau had a top-security mission in mind. “They called up and said, ‘Can you really take pictures this good?’ ” Ecker recalled. “We said not only ‘yes’ but ‘hell yes.’ ” A few days later, Ecker got his assignment to fly over Cuba. Ecker and the pilot of a plane that flew just off his starboard wing were assigned to photograph a suspected missile site at San Cristobal. After the Havana skyline appeared, Ecker banked to the west, flying right over a fleet of Cuban trawlers.

Despite that warning, the jets proved too fast for Cuban air-defense gunners. The flight time over Cuba totaled only 4 minutes. “You could see the popcorn in your mirrors,” Ecker said, referring to the white puffs of smoke left by anti-aircraft fire. “But we never got hit.” One of the jet’s photos even captured a soldier scrambling from an outhouse. More importantly, the photos also showed soldiers conducting activities around missile bases.

“Then it got kind of hectic,” Ecker recalled. “We were flying right into the granddaddy of all thunderstorms. We’re talking a wall of clouds rising to 50,000, 60,000 feet. “Here I’ve got the pictures, and if the airplane gets busted all to pieces, it wouldn’t do anybody any good,” Ecker said. At the last second, Ecker saw a jet-sized hole open up in the clouds. “It was just a sunspot,” he said. “I said, ‘Burners, now!’ We popped out the top.”

On November 5th, 2009 CAPT William Ecker, USN-Ret passed away at the age of 85 near his home in Punta Gorda, Florida. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, he joined the Navy in October 1942 and completed fight training in April 1944. From there he was assigned to VF-10, embarked in USS Intrepid (CV-11) and flew combat operations in the Pacific Theater until he left the squadron in November 1945. A series of assignments at sea and ashore stretched through the following decade until he reported for duty in Research & Development at the Bureau of Aeronautics and Bureau of Naval Weapons from 1958 to 1961. After that he reported to VFP-62 as the Commanding Officer where he played a critical role in leading the first and subsequent low-level reconnaissance missions over Cuba to confirm the presence of medium-range ballistic missiles emplaced by the Soviet Union. He was awarded the DFC and VFP-62, the first peacetime Presidential Unit Citation in a ceremony attended by President Kennedy.

Following VFP-62, Captain Ecker became the Head of Naval Photography and Reconnaissance in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations until he was ordered to the Naval War College in 1966. While at the Naval War College, he received his Master of Science degree and after language training, he reported to the Military Assistance Advisory Group, Denmark, as Chief, Navy Section.

He commanded the Naval Air Technical Training Unit, which included the Naval Schools of Photography, for one year before being ordered to report to the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations in September 1971. From there, he retired in 1974.

(h/t Msgt Tony Tang USMC Retired for bringing it to my attention)

Flightdeck Friday: Midway POV - Wade McClusky

Written narratives and biographies are important and a primary research source. However, when one has the opportunity to listen to a narrative, especially of one who was there and played a key role in a major event - that is even better. Courtesy friend and contributor to this blog, LCDR George Walsh, USN-Ret, himself a dive bomber pilot from the Pacific theater (SB2C Helldiver) comes a clip of a radio interview with then RDML Wade McClusky, USN-Ret conducted on the 30th anniversary of the Battle of Midway and a few short years before he left this life for greener pastures. - SJS

(click here to listen) → C.Wade McClusky, Radio interview 1972

Rear Admiral Clarence Wade McClusky, Jr., USN (Retired), (1902-1976)

Clarence W. McClusky, Jr. was born in Buffalo, New York, on 1 June 1902. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1926 and became a Naval Aviator three years later. Over the next decade, he served in several air units, as well as on command staffs, as an instructor at the Naval Academy and at shore facilities. In 1940 he was assigned to Fighting Squadron Six (VF-6), based on USS Enterprise (CV-6), and assumed command of that squadron in April 1941.

Lieutenant Commander McClusky became Enterprise air group commander in April 1942. During the Battle of Midway, while leading his air group's scout bombers on 4 June 1942, he made the critical tactical decision that led to the destruction of the Japanese aircraft carriers Kaga and Akagi, thus making a vital contribution to the outcome of that pivotal battle. Later in World War II, he commanded the escort carrier USS Corregidor (CVE-58).

Captain McClusky served in a variety of staff and shore positions in the later 1940s. During the Korean War, he was Chief of Staff to the Commanders of the First and Seventh Fleets. He commanded Naval Air Station, Glenview, Illinois, in 1952-53, and the Boston Group of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet in 1954-56. Clarence W. McClusky, Jr., retired from active duty in July 1956. At that time, in recognition of his vital contributions to the outcome of World War II, he was advanced to Flag rank. Rear Admiral McClusky died on 27 June 1976.

USS McClusky (FFG-41) was named in his honor.

CVN Naming - Enough With the Politics Already

It's time to return some sanity to the way ships are named. Why? Because the silliness is upon us once again:

111th CONGRESS 1st Session H. CON. RES. 83 Expressing the sense of Congress that a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier of the Navy, either the aircraft carrier designated as CVN-79 or the aircraft carrier designated as CVN-80, should be named the U.S.S. Barry M. Goldwater.

Bill information and status here

It began with CVN-70 ( Nimitz - ok, Ike, yes; but Vinson???) and reached the height of historical blindness with the Truman (honestly, naming a carrier for a president who tried his hardest to kill naval aviation and oversaw the death of the United States (CVA-58) in favor of the B-36). Why not Enterprise (CVN-65 isn't long for this world)? Coral Sea? Yorktown? Hornet? Midway?  (Note - this is not/not a slam on the great crews of those ships - its the process of naming that we have a bone to pick with...)

Enough with the politicians - these ships are going to last to the middle of the century and outlive many of us reading these words. Why not go back to naming the carriers after famous battles and reclaim some of our heritage and linkage with notable CVs from the past? And, BTW, what better way to celebrate naval aviation's upcoming centenary?

Leave it to a Chief to put it succintly:

"One man’s hero is another man’s goat. Carriers should be named for things we all have in common, not the party in power’s favorite politician. I vote we go back to the traditional carrier names as a reminder of the great ships and men who held the line when the chips were down and the odds were against us. Those names are a tribute to America’s greatness. Politicians? Not so much."

And yes, I'm familiar with Rickover's quote - how about standing firm this time anyway?

(h/t: SB)

UPDATE: A petition to SECNAV and Congress is in the works - stay tuned...

(cross posted at steeljawscribe.com)

Flightdeck Friday: Planning, Building and Training for the Future

(which might also serve as a cautionary tale to those who decry 'future warists' - SJS)

...Investments in blood and treasure:

Jan. 1927: 8 officers and 81 enlisted men of VO-1M, led by Maj. Ross Rowell, arrived at Corinto, Nicaragua with six DH's. Amidst the anarchy of the civil and banditry, the U.S. Marines held the railroad. In July the Sandinista rebels (the original ones) besieged 37 Marines at the Ocotal garrison, 125 miles from Manaagua. Patrolling Marine pilots, Lt. Hayne Boyden and Gunner Micahel Wodarczyk, discovered the defenders' plight. After they reported this to Maj. Rowell, he led five DH's to bomb the rebels. From 1,500 feet, they conducted one of the first dive bombing missions, killing dozens of Sandinistas. Rowell and his fliers flew 50 missions against the Nicaraguan guerrillas.

June 4th, 1942

Pause...

Ponder...
Remember...

Honor...
 

From these honored aviators, Marines and Sailors - those departed and the few left with us, we draw our heritage...our ethos. 

May they and their actions this day never be forgotten.  And from their stand, may we evermore draw strength.
- SJS

Flightdeck Friday: NFO Copilot

In the mid-80's, the VAW community in an attempt to address soaring OPTEMPO and a shortage of pilots tried the NFO Copilot program, wherein 2nd tour LTs and LCDRs were taken through a FRS NATOPS syllabus and qualified to fly right seat for day/VMC ops off the boat...

"So Scribe, what was it like as a mole copilot?"

By the way, I had 5 night traps before I saw my first "day" VMC trap from the right seat...

-SJS

Flightdeck Friday: The F6F-3/-5 Hellcat - Scourge of the Pacific

5,156 victories (4797 by carrier-based F6F's) vs 270 lost in air-to-air combat (19.1:1 kill ratio);

305 Aces;

55 per cent of all aircraft destroyed by Navy/Marine aviators for all of WW2;

When WW2 began, the US fighter force (land- and sea-based) was woefully inadequate. Slow in speed and maneuvering, out powered in the climb, often times out-gunned and certainly outnumbered, the fighters that oversaw the US entry into the war were relics of an earlier age, even though most were relatively new production. P-40, F2A, F4F - even the vaunted P-38 all suffered various degrees of inadequacy. In the European Theater of Operations (ETO), the P-47 and ultimately the P-51 would rise to the top of the pile, asserting an ironclad air supremacy that knocked the Luftwaffe from its home skies. In the Pacific Theater - it was the Grumman F6F and specifically the F6F-3 and -5 models that gave the fast carrier task force its lethal offensive counter-air punch.

U-Caption It

General Curtis LeMay - SAC's second commander-in-chief (1948-1957), is shown here "[taking] a break for a cigar during flight operations aboard [the aircraft carrier] the USS Midway ([CVA-41). General LeMay is on board, along with 50 high-ranking NATO officials for a one day cruise designed to portray the Sixth Fleet in action."  (From photos released 1 May 2009 to the National Security Archives Project)

Calling All Marine F4U Drivers

Looking for anyone who was part of VMF-215 from 1943-45, aviator, ground-pounder or those who may have flown with VMF-215 in combined/associated operations during that period.  Bryan Bender, a reporter with the Boston Globe, is looking for any of the above to flesh out a story he is working on stemming from earlier work on a returned MIA from that period and which was featured in a Flightdeck Friday at the mothership.  Feel free to go VFR direct -- his contact info as follows:

email: bender@globe.com  

Thanks All!
- SJS