Programming Alert: "Air Group 16 - We Came to Remember"

Air date: Sunday, 27 May 2007 @ 2130 on your local PBS station

"Air Group 16: We Came To Remember" tells the story of the last reunion of Air Group 16 -- the pilots, radiomen and gunners who served on the aircraft carrier USS Lexington in the Pacific in World War II. The film follows the veterans and their families as they make the journey by train, plane and car to Washington, DC, for their final reunion at the dedication of the National World War II Memorial in May 2004. Through stunning archival footage, period music and dramatic first-person accounts, the film follows Air Group 16 as they tell their stories, remember their fallen comrades, and are officially honored by the country they served.

Chronicles of Naval Aviation: Squadron Nicknames

We get mail and some of it is darn interesting. Take this for example - sometime back we posted on the return of CDR Pete Mongilardi's remains from Vietnam. Following up on that posting came a note from the former OPS O of VA-153 relating how the Bluetail Flies came by that nickname.

It occurred while they were flying the F9F-5. Seems that one plane had a failure in the tail section and the only replacement on hand was painted in the old dark blue scheme. Grey body/blue tail and a new nickname is born ... have to love naval aviation, eh? Which, of course, brings to mind a question - anyone else out there that knows of a similar tale leading to a squadron nickname? Feel free to pass it along here...

-SJS

P.S. One of the VMI grads whose postings YHS has come to look forward to and appreciate has a right decent shot of a gaggle of hummers over at OPFOR - fair warning Lex, better not stare too long into all those props!

Flightdeck Friday: Video Edition

Because...

Because you can never get enough of props:



Because you can never forget your roots nor those who came before, who were tested in the crucible of the Pacific War -- and prevailed:



And because, well, in an age of plastic it's worth remembering when planes (and their crews) were made of iron:



Just, you know, because...

Turn,turn,turn

Turn around and you're two,
turn around and you're four,

Turn around, you're a young boy going out of my door

So. Some events are supposed to make one feel - older? Graduations, children moving along and the like. Yet, curiously some of us feel - energized, excited at the prospect of watching fledglings take wing. Such as when the neighbor's son your children grew up with, whom you watched progress in fits and starts through grade school and college, whose parents are closer than friends, even family and with whom you have shared the joys and heartbreak, wonder and consternation of incipient adulthood, pins on his wings and sets off for his chosen endeavor. That being CH-53Ds. In Hawaii.

*Sigh* Oh to be a freshly winged JO once again and headed off to your first squadron...

Congratulations to Marine Aviator, 1st LT Sean Jones, USMC upon his winging this past Friday. Pictures, I have been assured, are inbound... Doug & Debbie - ya done good and we're proud and overjoyed to be able to share in this with you!

- SJS

Cockpit Conversations

So Scribe -- what do pilots and NFOs talk about when things are quiet on a flight?

- Lots of stuff, but some conversations you *don't* want to hear...

Chronicles of Naval Aviation: Tailcodes

Writing in the latest edition of The Hook (what, you're not a member? Right this way then -- and there's associate memberships available for those who support tailhook aviation but haven't experienced it first hand...yet), Boom Powell ("From the Catwalk") relays a contributor's lament about squadron tailcodes and callsigns, citing as examples VMA-255's tail code of "WI" which, of course in true kind and gentle NAVAIR tradition was morphed into "Wandering Idiots." The story continues (you really should read it) and Boom, after alluding to an unfortunate nickname for his Vigi squadron (RVAH-6) asks of any other known combinations, unfortunate or otherwise. (Background: Navy aircraft carry a single or double alpha-numeric code (e.g., AG, F, 6F, PR, etc.) on the tail to identify their parent organization (e.g., AG = CVW-7, F = TRAWING 6, etc.). Established by CNO following WW2, the system has remained pretty well intact since, with minor mods along the way. Read more about it here courtesy the Navy History Center.)

Hmm, well, yes, YHS can think of at least one example (naturally). Jumping in the way back machine, we travel back some 30-odd years to the east coast and the E-2C FRS, RVAW-120 as it was known then, whose tailcode was "GE" -- an appropriate moniker one would think given the radar parts the company by the same name provided for the mighty war Hummer's main battery. Alas, with the consolidation of the east coast FRS' under TACWINGSLANT, RVAW-120 became VAW-120 and lost the GE code (which was "owned" by Carrier Airborne Early Warning Wing Twelve) and replaced it with "AD," and one, albeit small, peice of VAW lore was history, or so we thought. For, you see, some number of years later there was a squadron in search of a tailcode... VAW-122, one of the last survivors of the CVW-6/FID team and bearer of CVW-6's tailcode of AE found to their chagrin that with the disestablishment of CAG 6, the AE code had to go, leaving them with, well, a naked tail.

Now, it being neither fitting 'nor proper for a squadron, even one bereft of a carrier and airwing they could call home, to be gallivanting about the skies sans tailcode. Like Rudolf and how his infamous nose isolated him from the other reindeer, checking in to center with a vanilla "Navy 602" left one open to all sorts of jibes from the other reindeer, um, naval aircraft. Even the C-9's had tailcodes, for pity's sake...

Whilst pondering this scenario one day, YHS in his position as Steeljaw One had a revelation. Since the squadron was now beholden to CAEWW-12 (aka "The Wing," and they made d*mn sure we never forgot) and The Wing at one time held "GE" as a tailcode, why not resurrect it for the Steeljaws use? Quick checks of the standing regs and a call back to The Wing (for the Steeljaws were on yet another deployment to fight druggies) confirmed all the above and GE returned to the skies on the tails of E-2s again.

Alas, the budgetary axe eventually fell on both the Steeljaws ('96) and Wing 12 ('05) so it would appear that would be the last time GE will fly on a Hawkeye...

- SJS
P.S. Hey Boom -- SH is taken by VMFAT-101...