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#CDR William J Overman, USN (1954-1974 ) | |||
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 Overman |
Nickname: Jack Branch: USN Commission: AOC 1955 Pre-Flight: Navcad 28-54 Wings Year: 1956 Active Years: 1954-1974 Reserves: Mil Retirement: 1974 Last Location: NC |
Assignments: VP-44 VP-30 VT-6 VP-47 Ticonderoga NAAW Dam Neck NAVFACEleuthera NAVELECSYSCOM |
Highlights: |
| — Jack Overman July 7, 2007 | |||
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CDR William J Overman USN 1954-1974
As you may be aware, I chose to go VPS (sea planes) and therefore went to NAS Corpus and flew SNBs and PBMs. Then I made my second mistake (the first was volunteering for VPS) and volunteered to fly Blimps and be stationed in my hometown of Elizabeth City, NC. I needed a mentor or something to tell me not to elect VPS and then ZP. Dumb, Dumb, Dumb!!!
Fortunately they decommissioned my squadron and the base and transferred me to VP-44 in Norfolk, VA flying P5Ms. I stayed there for three years and when they started the VP RAG Groups I was chosen to become a plank-owner in VP-30 (Det Alpha), the seaplane detachment. Stayed there for a little over a year and when they closed down the Det. I was transferred to VT-6 flying SNBs and instructing in Instrument training at NAAS Whiting Field, Milton., FL.
At this point things got a little muddled. I was enjoying a great tour at VT-6 and was in tight with the CO who was a local NC 'boy' about 18 miles from my home in Elizabeth City, NC but all good things have to come to an end and we received a real Dilbert for a new CO and I along with about a third of the squadron, including the XO, bailed out. By this time I had become very active in the sport of pistol shooting and had earned my Distinguished Pistol Shot badge (24kt Gold). I was the 77th Navy person to earn that distinction since 1925.
As a result of that qualification I was selected to head up the shooting program for CNABATRA and was assigned to the Staff and transferred to NAS Pensacola. I also was selected to be the SNB Standardization Pilot on the CNABATRA Staff so I continued to get flight time at VT-6. I had agreed to take the job only if I was promised that I would not be extended past my normal rotation date. You know what happened. Yes, extended for a year!!
Finally back to the fleet. Orders to VP-47, then VP-40, then VP-50, then back to VP-47. Of course I had to go through VP-31, the West Coast VP RAG at NAS North Island, San Diego, CA. VP-47 was a great squadron. We were deployed to NAS Sangley Point, PI, when the Vietnam conflict flared up and we were to NAS Sangley Point, PI, when the Vietnam conflict flared up and we were posted to a Sea Plane Tender, the USS Salisbury Sound in the Tonkin Gulf where we flew patrols for about a month until VP-40 relieved us.
We returned to CONUS and transitioned to P3A (Deltic configuration). We were based out of NAS Moffit Field and eventually deployed to Naha, Okinawa with detachments at Sangley Point. My deployment was interesting. I took off (along with the rest of the squadron) on Jan 1, 1966 from Moffit for Naha, stopped, after 11 hours, in Midway for one hour to refuel, then off to Naha. I was one of only two planes to make it to Naha. The rest had to divert to Japan due to fuel problems. I had to declare a low state in order to keep from being put in a holding pattern at Naha. That part of the flight took 12 hours so the total flight was 24 hours.
I and my crew was on the ground for 2 to 3 hours at Naha when I was tapped to fly to Sangley Point to be part of the first deployment detachment. Another 6 hours! Upon arrival at Sangley we had time to check in to the BOQ, etc and I and my officer crew were briefed and put on a VP-9 plane to fly an orientation flight to Vietnam. This was a 14 hour flight. Believe you me when I say that we were a bushed crew when we finally landed back at Sangley. My crew became the 'designated' night flight crew and I logged over 400 hours of night time in that six month deployment.
From VP-47 I was transferred to the USS Ticonderoga, CVA-14 for two years as the Assistant CIC Officer. (Of course I had to go to NAS Glynco, GA for CIC School for six months.) It was back to Vietnam for two deployments before I finally got a little shore duty. I was actually home for only 10 months during this 5 year period.
During this period I was selected for Commander and passed over for Captain. In other words, I failed to screen for command of a VP squadron. I had some really tough competition. There were 18 LCDRs in VP-47 during my tour and six of them screened and two of them got one or more bonus commands, with one of them getting his THIRD early promotion to Captain and command of NAS Moffit Field.
I left the Ticonderoga in '68 and was assigned to NAAW Dam Neck, VA and while there wrote Bupers and volunteered for 'ANY COMMAND, ANY WHERE.' Imagine my surprise when I received an invitation to interview for a command in the SOSUS network at COSAL the heqqbuarters for the network. I passed their screening and received orders to NAVFAC Eleuthera, in the Bahamas. A two year tour.
I won't bore you with the extensive details but will tell you that when I took command of Eleuthera it was the worst NAVFAC in the 13 station Atlantic network, having failed three ORIs and ADMIN inspections in a row. We progressed to number six within three months and to number one by the twenty first month of my tour. We had one hell of a crew and, believe it or not, they are still one hell of a crew. They have held one reunion (of only the people assigned there during my tour) and are now preparing to hold another one. I consider it one hell of a compliment.
I left Eleuthera in 1972 and reported to NAVELECSYSCOM in Washington and completed my Naval Service in 1974. While I was at NAVELEC I was selected to attend the Executive Management program at the U of Pittsburgh and while there I was being interviewed without knowing it and following my 20th anniversary date in the Navy I got a call with a job offer that I couldn't refuse.
So I retired (before coming up for Captain) and accepted a management trainee assignment with Peterbilt Motors Co (the maker of the big 18 wheel trucks). I stayed with them for 13 years then went to Grand Rapids, MI as the plant manager of an automotive stamping plant and finally retired from there in 1993 and returned to North Carolina where we still reside.
I forgot to mention that while I was in the NAVCAD program at Barin Field they initiated the AOC program wherein anyone with a college degree could be commissioned immediately. That is for those who are already out of Pre Flight. All others had to complete Pre Flight before being commissioned. I was already in Advanced Training at Corpus by the time my commission came through so I was commissioned in the Naval Reserve. Only NAVCAD Class 24 thru 27-54 has a lower lineal number (by one week) than those of us in Class 28-54
.Since I was now an officer I could get married and did so to Lou, a girl that I went to Wake Forest with. We celebrated our 51st wedding anniversary last week. We have two sons and four grandsons. My oldest son is now a Navy Captain in the reserves (he had 10 years active and another 17 in the reserves), and the younger is at Duke University and is Number 2 in the Duke Hospital Computer management division.