And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
I am a retired airline pilot and while I've never flown the Prowler, I've probably flown with someone who has flown pretty much any fixed wing airplane our military flies. I'm going to try to re-tell a story I heard from a colleague years ago, and I hope that you find it as funny as I did. I am a former Air Force guy, so anything I get wrong is due to that and the age of the story. Anyhoo, this story is now fourth-hand to you.....
My copilot lived in San Diego and had flown the Prowler when he was in the Navy, and he happened to run into a former squadron-mate at a McDonalds. This was back right after W had flown out to the Lincoln for that "Mission Accomplished" photo-op/stunt, and this is that story.
So, when they dreamed this stunt up, the first question they had was "What airplane do we use?".
Answer: One of those 2-seat F-18's would be cool.
Secret Service: Not only "No", but "Hell, no!". We are not giving up our protective responsibilities to anyone, even if that someone is the US Navy.
OK. Then it'll have to be a multi-seat plane....the Prowler will work. Who should fly W out to the boat?
A: Every landing on the carrier is graded, so let's get the Prowler pilot with the best landing scores. That'll work, right?
Maybe not. The guy with the best landing scores is a 25 year-old kid who has been in the Navy for 4 years. Do you really want to put the President of the United States in a plane flown by a 25 year-old?
Ok. Maybe you're right. Let's get that guy's Squadron Commander. He'll be old enough.
That guy's Squadron Commander is a Naval Flight Officer (NFO). He's a navigator, not a pilot.
Nevermind. Get us another Prowler squadron with a Squadron Commander who is a pilot. [Starts the whole process over.]
A bit of a digression here..... This stunt is a BIG DEAL in the Navy. Everyone has heard of "Air Force One". You see it any time the President flies. There have been movies made about Air Force One. If you pay attention, you even know about "Marine One"....the Marine helicopter that takes the President from the White House out to Andrews (or whereever). But here, there had never been an opportunity for a President to fly on a Navy plane, and this would be the one....and only....time that the Navy would use the "Navy One" callsign. The pressure on the Navy for this was immense.
/diregression
So on the appointed day, they strap the pilot and W into the 2 front seats of the Prowler, with a Secret Service agent and I think it was Andy Card (W's Chief of Staff) in the 2 back seats. A couple'o small events on the flight.....right before takeoff, a compass system (AHRS, IIRC) "tumbles" and the pilot has to reach across in front of W to get it working, and at one point, W's comm's cord comes unplugged and the pilot has to reach over and get him set up again....I imagining the Secret Service guy reaching for his gun in both of these events.
So anyway, they get airborne and fly out to the Lincoln (Navy guys: Do you refer to it as the "Abe"? I dunno.). W does a couple of aileron rolls/barrel rolls, but it isn't too long before it's time to land.
When you land on a ship, there are 4 cables strung across the deck and your tailhook grabs one of these, stopping you before you go off the other end of the deck. They aim to land on the "2 Wire". The first wire...the "1 Wire" is ok, but close to the approach end of the deck. The 3- and 4-Wire are ok too, but you really want to grab the 2 Wire. But catching the 4-wire means that you were ---><--- this close to boltering and having to come back to land again. Again. No pressure. It's only the entire US Navy watching this landing.
And our hero that day....the pilot who wasn't an F-18 pilot, who was a Squadron Commander (meaning he flew much less than those he supervised)....went all the way to the 4-wire.
Back in the day, W was a pilot....a Texas Air Guard pilot, but still a pilot. He certainly wasn't oblivious to all the nuts and bolts that had to go into getting him on the Lincoln. And every time I seeing that picture of him in that Navy flight suit with that big shit-eating grin, I think of the 3rd hand story my colleague told me about the flight.
With respect, this story about W flying in a Prowler is wrong. It is very easy to research this. 43 flew to LINCOLN in an S-3B Viking, VS-35. I know, because I knew the pilot: USNA '91 grad. He perished in a mishap in 2004 and his memory should not be forgotten. RIP https://usnamemorialhall.org/index.php/SCOTT_A._ZELLEM,_LCDR,_USN
You're right. I was wrong. I stand corrected-thanks. All these years, I believed something that was false. But then, we know how scuttlebutt is: https://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/05/01/bush.carrier.landing/
I never post anywhere but that story is untrue. It was an S-3B Viking. Also, squadron Skippers do not necessarily fly less. -signed VS-41,31,22 Aviator.
My b-in-law was an EWO with the Axmen squadron flying EA-6Bs out of Whidbey NAS, Whidbey Island, WA. He got me on the flight line to look at the cockpits. (yes, I had appropriate clearances). B-in-law, at 6'2" was a very tight fit. I'm 6'6" and no way would I fit. Some EA-6Bs were deployed in Desert Storm and played havoc with Iraqi air defenses.
dearly love the A-6 but it still looks like a pregnant guppy to me. And who came up with the idea of an "attack" aircraft not having a forward firing gun? Or any gun for that matter!
The same people who decided the F117 was a "fighter" with no forward firing weapons. More like a "B117" which isn't sexy at all, and probably would not have been funded.
The A-6 had provisions for gun pods (on the centerline ordnance rack IIRC), but I never saw them mounted on the bird in the three years I hung around them ('74-'77). The A-6's claim to fame was that it was an all-weather bird that could carry its own weight in fuel and ordnance. (16,000 fuel, 14,000 ordnance)
I flew both the S-3 and EA-6B. The story about Bush going to the carrier is generally correct, but the airplane was an S-3B that is currently on display at the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola. One of the more interesting EA-6B incidents I heard about at Whidbey was the time the Prowlers on a training mission accidentally shut down all of the television broadcast signals in Seattle. Oops. The Prowler in the picture must be early 70s because the bright and colorful paint schemes were phased out in the later 70s in favor of the more visually stealthy "haze gray" paint. Fly Navy.
Doesn't have a rotor and hover; ewwww.
ReplyDeleteEA-6B Prowler aka "Queer"
ReplyDeleteGrumman Iron Works
Looks like CV-67 was the boat.
ReplyDeletePretty slow if that boat is keeping up.
ReplyDeleteNope. I did work with a retired Navy officer who had been a WSO on EA-6B. At the time, we were working on an AWADS radar system for Air Force C-130s.
ReplyDeleteAwesome aircraft in my day.
ReplyDeleteWe had the EA6A, in Vietnam with the USMC in the mid sixties.
DeleteTom Retired, you might be happy to know the Navy was still flying them as late as 1990. (VAQ-33)
DeleteGood read: Launch the Intruders: A Naval Attack Squadron in the Vietnam War, 1972.
DeleteI tried back in 1973. The carrier just couldn't get airborne.
ReplyDeleteI am a retired airline pilot and while I've never flown the Prowler, I've probably flown with someone who has flown pretty much any fixed wing airplane our military flies. I'm going to try to re-tell a story I heard from a colleague years ago, and I hope that you find it as funny as I did. I am a former Air Force guy, so anything I get wrong is due to that and the age of the story. Anyhoo, this story is now fourth-hand to you.....
ReplyDeleteMy copilot lived in San Diego and had flown the Prowler when he was in the Navy, and he happened to run into a former squadron-mate at a McDonalds. This was back right after W had flown out to the Lincoln for that "Mission Accomplished" photo-op/stunt, and this is that story.
So, when they dreamed this stunt up, the first question they had was "What airplane do we use?".
Answer: One of those 2-seat F-18's would be cool.
Secret Service: Not only "No", but "Hell, no!". We are not giving up our protective responsibilities to anyone, even if that someone is the US Navy.
OK. Then it'll have to be a multi-seat plane....the Prowler will work. Who should fly W out to the boat?
A: Every landing on the carrier is graded, so let's get the Prowler pilot with the best landing scores. That'll work, right?
Maybe not. The guy with the best landing scores is a 25 year-old kid who has been in the Navy for 4 years. Do you really want to put the President of the United States in a plane flown by a 25 year-old?
Ok. Maybe you're right. Let's get that guy's Squadron Commander. He'll be old enough.
---broken for length---
That guy's Squadron Commander is a Naval Flight Officer (NFO). He's a navigator, not a pilot.
DeleteNevermind. Get us another Prowler squadron with a Squadron Commander who is a pilot. [Starts the whole process over.]
A bit of a digression here.....
This stunt is a BIG DEAL in the Navy. Everyone has heard of "Air Force One". You see it any time the President flies. There have been movies made about Air Force One. If you pay attention, you even know about "Marine One"....the Marine helicopter that takes the President from the White House out to Andrews (or whereever). But here, there had never been an opportunity for a President to fly on a Navy plane, and this would be the one....and only....time that the Navy would use the "Navy One" callsign. The pressure on the Navy for this was immense.
/diregression
So on the appointed day, they strap the pilot and W into the 2 front seats of the Prowler, with a Secret Service agent and I think it was Andy Card (W's Chief of Staff) in the 2 back seats. A couple'o small events on the flight.....right before takeoff, a compass system (AHRS, IIRC) "tumbles" and the pilot has to reach across in front of W to get it working, and at one point, W's comm's cord comes unplugged and the pilot has to reach over and get him set up again....I imagining the Secret Service guy reaching for his gun in both of these events.
So anyway, they get airborne and fly out to the Lincoln (Navy guys: Do you refer to it as the "Abe"? I dunno.). W does a couple of aileron rolls/barrel rolls, but it isn't too long before it's time to land.
When you land on a ship, there are 4 cables strung across the deck and your tailhook grabs one of these, stopping you before you go off the other end of the deck. They aim to land on the "2 Wire". The first wire...the "1 Wire" is ok, but close to the approach end of the deck. The 3- and 4-Wire are ok too, but you really want to grab the 2 Wire. But catching the 4-wire means that you were ---><--- this close to boltering and having to come back to land again. Again. No pressure. It's only the entire US Navy watching this landing.
And our hero that day....the pilot who wasn't an F-18 pilot, who was a Squadron Commander (meaning he flew much less than those he supervised)....went all the way to the 4-wire.
Back in the day, W was a pilot....a Texas Air Guard pilot, but still a pilot. He certainly wasn't oblivious to all the nuts and bolts that had to go into getting him on the Lincoln. And every time I seeing that picture of him in that Navy flight suit with that big shit-eating grin, I think of the 3rd hand story my colleague told me about the flight.
azlibertarian
Actually you are aiming for the 3 wire, 2 wire is bad and 1 wire is really bad because that is the direction of the ramp strike. 4 wire is not so bad.
DeleteVAQ-33 had EA-6A's, which were two seaters
With respect, this story about W flying in a Prowler is wrong. It is very easy to research this. 43 flew to LINCOLN in an S-3B Viking, VS-35. I know, because I knew the pilot: USNA '91 grad. He perished in a mishap in 2004 and his memory should not be forgotten. RIP
Deletehttps://usnamemorialhall.org/index.php/SCOTT_A._ZELLEM,_LCDR,_USN
I knew the real pilot because we were in NROTC at Marquette. He graduated in '85.
DeleteYou're right. I was wrong. I stand corrected-thanks. All these years, I believed something that was false. But then, we know how scuttlebutt is: https://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/05/01/bush.carrier.landing/
DeleteNo, but I worked on them for 6 years in the Marines as an avionics technician.
ReplyDeleteI never post anywhere but that story is untrue. It was an S-3B Viking. Also, squadron Skippers do not necessarily fly less. -signed VS-41,31,22 Aviator.
DeleteI got to fly in one once when I was a midshipman
ReplyDeleteI worked in Mech Equipment Engr - Ground Support Dept. at the old Grumman Iron Works on the A6-F for a short time, before that was canceled.
ReplyDeleteMy b-in-law was an EWO with the Axmen squadron flying EA-6Bs out of Whidbey NAS, Whidbey Island, WA. He got me on the flight line to look at the cockpits. (yes, I had appropriate clearances). B-in-law, at 6'2" was a very tight fit. I'm 6'6" and no way would I fit.
ReplyDeleteSome EA-6Bs were deployed in Desert Storm and played havoc with Iraqi air defenses.
dearly love the A-6 but it still looks like a pregnant guppy to me. And who came up with the idea of an "attack" aircraft not having a forward firing gun? Or any gun for that matter!
ReplyDeleteThe same people who decided the F117 was a "fighter" with no forward firing weapons. More like a "B117" which isn't sexy at all, and probably would not have been funded.
DeleteThe A-6 had provisions for gun pods (on the centerline ordnance rack IIRC), but I never saw them mounted on the bird in the three years I hung around them ('74-'77).
DeleteThe A-6's claim to fame was that it was an all-weather bird that could carry its own weight in fuel and ordnance. (16,000 fuel, 14,000 ordnance)
I flew both the S-3 and EA-6B. The story about Bush going to the carrier is generally correct, but the airplane was an S-3B that is currently on display at the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola.
ReplyDeleteOne of the more interesting EA-6B incidents I heard about at Whidbey was the time the Prowlers on a training mission accidentally shut down all of the television broadcast signals in Seattle. Oops.
The Prowler in the picture must be early 70s because the bright and colorful paint schemes were phased out in the later 70s in favor of the more visually stealthy "haze gray" paint.
Fly Navy.
IIRC, the Prowler was the last plane shot down by a bow and arrow :-). So far? :-).
ReplyDelete