Fighter 'Gator (eBook)
eBook Download:
EPUB
2022
|
1. Auflage
270 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-6678-2859-6 (ISBN)
270 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-6678-2859-6 (ISBN)
This story is about Lt Colonel John E. Norvell's quest to fly and David Garbe's work to restore the shell of F-4D 0720. It first focuses on how Norvell got to flight training, then was selected to be a backseater in the F-4, his time in combat in Thailand, and F-4 flying over Alaska, providing 'Top Cover for America.' Then in the appendix covers Garbe's work to find a bird, get the parts, and rebuild the front cockpit area.
This story is about Lt Colonel John E. Norvell's quest to fly and David Garbe's work to restore the shell of F-4D 0720. It first focuses on Norvell's flight training, selection to be a backseater in the F-4, time in combat in Thailand, and F-4 flying over Alaska, providing "e;Top Cover for America."e; Then, the appendix covers Garbe's work to find a bird, get the parts, and rebuild the front cockpit area. It is a story of duty and dedication. It covers how the crews trained to fly the Phantom, the specialized survival schools they attended, their entrance in combat, and the toll it took on them. Lt Colonel John E. Norvell tells the story from the perspective of an F-4 backseater or GIB. It is a story of his comrades and the stress he felt from a year-long separation from his wife. He describes the daily combat and how it affected him. He stresses the professionalism and dedication of the aircrews who flew the hostile skies of South East Asia. When the air war ends, he tells of the boredom and frustrations of warriors without a war. Then his story moves to Alaska, where he attends arctic survival school and is stationed at remote sites to provide "e;Top Cover"e; alert guarding North America against Soviet aircraft incursions. Alaska is a very different type of flying, and it is clear that he enjoys all that Alaska has to offer. Finally, he discusses the role that his mentor Major Theodore J. Shorack played in his life. Shorack was lost while on a rescue mission over North Vietnam. Norvell considers him to be a personification of the three cardinal principles of the military: Duty, Honor, County. In the end, Norvell looks at the past nearly 50 years and tells what it meant to him to fly and be a military officer.
This story is about Lt Colonel John E. Norvell's quest to fly and David Garbe's work to restore the shell of F-4D 0720. It first focuses on Norvell's flight training, selection to be a backseater in the F-4, time in combat in Thailand, and F-4 flying over Alaska, providing "e;Top Cover for America."e; Then, the appendix covers Garbe's work to find a bird, get the parts, and rebuild the front cockpit area. It is a story of duty and dedication. It covers how the crews trained to fly the Phantom, the specialized survival schools they attended, their entrance in combat, and the toll it took on them. Lt Colonel John E. Norvell tells the story from the perspective of an F-4 backseater or GIB. It is a story of his comrades and the stress he felt from a year-long separation from his wife. He describes the daily combat and how it affected him. He stresses the professionalism and dedication of the aircrews who flew the hostile skies of South East Asia. When the air war ends, he tells of the boredom and frustrations of warriors without a war. Then his story moves to Alaska, where he attends arctic survival school and is stationed at remote sites to provide "e;Top Cover"e; alert guarding North America against Soviet aircraft incursions. Alaska is a very different type of flying, and it is clear that he enjoys all that Alaska has to offer. Finally, he discusses the role that his mentor Major Theodore J. Shorack played in his life. Shorack was lost while on a rescue mission over North Vietnam. Norvell considers him to be a personification of the three cardinal principles of the military: Duty, Honor, County. In the end, Norvell looks at the past nearly 50 years and tells what it meant to him to fly and be a military officer.
-4-
The Old D.C. Blues
Washington, D.C.—February 1968-September 1971
In 1968, a new air force second lieutenant, I arrived at my initial duty station: Bolling Air Force Base in the southwest quadrant of Washington, D.C. Bolling adjoined the Anacostia Naval Station, near the confluence of the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers, and lay on the flats along the water.
Above it, on the bluffs, lay Congress Heights, a one-time residential neighborhood of WWII government workers and the location of the St. Elizabeth’s Hospital complex. Congress Heights had once been a thriving community; as the 1960s progressed, it witnessed a demographic change. Middle-class workers moved across the D.C. line to Maryland, and others displaced by urban renewal replaced them. Below the heights, Bolling and Anacostia took up a large prime real estate area along the river.
On 15 February 1968, I reported to the 1100th Security Police Squadron at Bolling to be one of its officers. I did not know before I arrived that this was the Air Force Honor Guard squadron. This very elite unit performed ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery, the White House, and the Pentagon. I walked in the door, and the captain in charge took one look at me; I could tell I was not what he expected. To be clear on this: Air Force Honor Guard officers had to be a minimum of 6 feet tall, well built, and not wear glasses. However, I was five foot five inches, built like a fireplug (40-inch chest on 29-inch legs), and wore glasses.
When I walked in, he did a double-take. In today’s world, this would have been like the Imperial Storm Troopers’ commander in Star Wars expecting a new officer and in rolls Artoo Detoo. The captain quickly got on the phone and then hustled me off to the base personnel office. Somewhere in the bowels of air force personnel, someone had a strange sense of humor to assign me there. By noon I found myself in the base plans office as the new head of training.
Being the new training officer, I worked for a major, the chief of the plans office, who had served in World War II. He was ROAD (retired on active duty) for all practical purposes, as were several non-commissioned officers (NCOs or sergeants) in the office. The major hid in his office, fumbled with papers all day long, and repeated what you said when asked a question. The NCOs were not much better. One had been a captain during the war and had flown on B-17s as a bombardier. When the war ended, the air force had released him in a RIF (reduction-in-force) action. No longer needed as an officer, he re-joined as an enlisted man.
Now a staff sergeant, about 20 years later, he appeared to be ROAD also. Additionally, I would later learn one of the other sergeants was engaged in an illegal loan shark scam where he made payday loans at exorbitant rates to other enlisted folks. So assigned to an office of people who were counting their days left in the service and some committing felonies, I began my Bolling tenure.
Being the base training officer meant that I ensured that the base’s enlisted force’s mandatory training occurred. This training included small arms proficiency, first aid, UJCM (Universal Code of Military Justice) to ensure they understood the system, and other requirements. On a typical military installation, this most likely would have been handled by an NCO. However, Bolling was not a typical base. It had a distinguished past, but those days were gone when I got there in 1968.
Bolling, which had opened in 1918, honored the first high-ranking air service officer killed in World War I: Colonel Raynal C. Bolling. During the 1920s and 1930s, it had served as the Army Air Corps gateway to the nation’s capital. In the 1920s, the Spirit of St. Louis was stored there after Lindbergh’ s successful transatlantic flight.
Col Billy Mitchell at Bolling, 1925,
Source: National photo collection,
Library of Congress
In the 1930s, future Air Force leader Henry “Hap” Arnold led a bomber flight from the base on a 4000-mile journey to Alaska that demonstrated the feasibility of strategic bombing missions. When the runways were active, several presidential aircraft took off from Bolling. Those glory days had faded by 1968, and the former runways now were neglected. They had closed in 1962 due to high traffic at Washington National Airport just across the river.
Bolling Field about 1926,
Source: Harris & Ewing Collection, Library of Congress
In 1968 the base had one of the biggest officers’ clubs in the air force, provided imposing brick quarters for about 15-20 generals who lived near the club, and ran a shuttle boat for the generals to go to the Pentagon across the Potomac. Finally, though unofficially, one of Bolling’s reasons for existence was to hold on to this enclave of land in D.C. for the air force. Since the closing of the runways, there had been discussions of turning the land into low-income housing. If Bolling were operational, this would not happen, nor would this prime real estate on the Potomac be opened for commercial development.
The 1100th Air Base Wing ran the base.1 Its mission was to keep the base functioning, nothing more or less. The plans office’s staff did the training, wrote plans in case of emergencies, and prepared for any disasters that might occur (which, of course, since there were no flying operations anymore, seemed very unlikely). I sat at my desk, read plans, worked in the command post periodically, and pushed paper. Not the exciting future in the air force that I had hoped for and most certainly not flying.
In addition to the airbase wing and honor guard, Bolling also housed the Air Force Band and the Air Force Headquarters Command. This major air command supervised the operations of two bases: Bolling and Andrews in Maryland. It also served as the focal point coordinating air force activities in the Washington, D.C. area. The folks in the 1100th Air Base Wing professionally did their jobs. However, many junior ranking officers (a.k.a. junior officers: lieutenants and captains) felt that Bolling did not have much of a mission. In contrast, Andrews had air operations and housed presidential support as the home of Air Force One. Bolling, clearly the lesser of the two installations, had facilities and leadership which had seen better days.
In the comics, there was “Camp Swampy,” where Beetle Bailey served; Bolling, in the late1960s, seemed to fill that role in the air force. Many of the senior officers in the wing had served since the mid-1940s. Some of the younger officers referred to Bolling as the “Elephants’ Graveyard”—where more senior officers came to the end of their careers. The facilities were mostly old and tired.2 I saw a prime example of how old they were in the Headquarters Command building, where the restrooms were labeled officers or enlisted, a throwback to earlier years.
Bolling had a mission: to support the generals who lived there, run the officers’ club, and keep the base looking pretty. In the early 1960s, someone had planted roses all over the base. At the time, we believed it was because Lady Bird Johnson was pushing her program of beautifying America. There was not just one rose bed—they were everywhere. They required maintenance, and enlisted folks tended them throughout the summer in the hot, humid D.C. weather. Secondly, the officers’ club hosted many special events. VIPs frequently came to the base. So Bolling needed to make sure the roses were blooming and the base looked good.
Perhaps, since it seemed that we did not have enough to do, Bolling had base parades from April to October. In our minds as junior officers, the senior leadership had the idea that parades somehow improved the morale of the wing. Nearly everyone, except those at the top, hated the parades. That we had to march affected our morale negatively, it was our “Catch 22” moment. It seemed that the wing commander was channeling the parade impresario Lieutenant Scheisskopf of that novel. The commander and vice commander loved the parades. In turn, we devoted a great deal of wing support to them. I suspect it took them back to their air cadet days before WWII. They expected them to be perfect–PERFECT.
In a nice bit of irony, I, an officer rejected by the Air Force Honor Guard, now scheduled the monthly parade in which the guard appeared. The official Air Force Band also marched in the parade. The wing squadrons marched, led by various “lucky” officers as they passed in review. Many of these folks had not marched in years. Only the honor guard squadron and Air Force Band members gave this whole enterprise an aura of professionalism.
The Air Force Band played the “St. Louis Blues” march, for every parade, for no apparent reason—at least to us, junior officers. Perhaps that was the wing commander’s favorite. Several folks came up with alternatives: “It’s My Party, and I’ll Cry If I Want To,” because we hated the parades. “Tip Toe Through the Tulips,” a song currently in vogue sung by Tiny Tim. “Suicide is Painless,” the theme from the movie M*A*S*H, as we were kindred spirits to the men of the 4077th. In the end, it seemed the “St. Louis Blues” march was more fitting, for being at Bolling did not lift anyone’s spirits. The parades were something to be endured—and dreaded. Nearly all the enlisted men and NCOs hated the parades. The...
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 28.1.2022 |
|---|---|
| Sprache | englisch |
| Themenwelt | Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung |
| ISBN-10 | 1-6678-2859-2 / 1667828592 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-6678-2859-6 / 9781667828596 |
| Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
EPUB (Adobe DRM)Größe: 4,0 MB
Kopierschutz: Adobe-DRM
Adobe-DRM ist ein Kopierschutz, der das eBook vor Mißbrauch schützen soll. Dabei wird das eBook bereits beim Download auf Ihre persönliche Adobe-ID autorisiert. Lesen können Sie das eBook dann nur auf den Geräten, welche ebenfalls auf Ihre Adobe-ID registriert sind.
Details zum Adobe-DRM
Dateiformat: EPUB (Electronic Publication)
EPUB ist ein offener Standard für eBooks und eignet sich besonders zur Darstellung von Belletristik und Sachbüchern. Der Fließtext wird dynamisch an die Display- und Schriftgröße angepasst. Auch für mobile Lesegeräte ist EPUB daher gut geeignet.
Systemvoraussetzungen:
PC/Mac: Mit einem PC oder Mac können Sie dieses eBook lesen. Sie benötigen eine
eReader: Dieses eBook kann mit (fast) allen eBook-Readern gelesen werden. Mit dem amazon-Kindle ist es aber nicht kompatibel.
Smartphone/Tablet: Egal ob Apple oder Android, dieses eBook können Sie lesen. Sie benötigen eine
Geräteliste und zusätzliche Hinweise
Buying eBooks from abroad
For tax law reasons we can sell eBooks just within Germany and Switzerland. Regrettably we cannot fulfill eBook-orders from other countries.
Mehr entdecken
aus dem Bereich
aus dem Bereich
eBook Download (2023)
Kohlhammer Verlag
69,99 €
Mit „Green Growth“ gegen den Klimawandel und für die …
eBook Download (2023)
Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden (Verlag)
9,99 €
