In 1952, while a Junior at Roosevelt High School, Yonkers, New York, I joined the Naval Reserve and applied for an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy. Following an interview and a battery of tests, I was selected as an alternate appointee for New York State. The primary appointee was selected and I continued in the Naval Reserve.

The Naval Reserve

Following graduation from high school in 1953 my first assignment was to eleven weeks of boot camp followed by assignment to a Destroyer Escort, the USS Heyliger, for a deployment to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to refuel and on to Kingston, Jamaica, where we had liberty for a few days - reporting back to the ship each night. At that time my designation was Machinist Mate Apprentice, and I spent all of my time in the engine room learning to look after boilers and oil cups while at sea.

I particularly remember one night, when we were off Cape Hatteras in a very rough sea. The ship rolled 57° - DEs have been known to roll over at 59°. When a ship rolls that far, the bulkheads become decks.

My first full-time civilian job was as a truck front-end riveter at the Chevrolet factory, Tarrytown, New York. It was a rather uninteresting job on the assembly line, and my social life consisted of accompanying another fellow to local bars where he, a Golden Gloves Champion, just loved to pick fights. One particularly rough night, he picked the wrong guy, who broke a bar stool on the bar and then went for him. I didn't stick around to witness the outcome. It was then that I decided that there was no future in the auto industry for me.

The Regular Navy

In 1954 I joined the regular Navy and experienced 16 more weeks of boot camp at Bainbridge, Maryland, (my total boot camp was 27 weeks - body weight at beginning was 135 lbs, at graduation it was 185 lbs). A selection board suggested that I train to be a pilot and showed me movies about flying from carriers. It sounded good to me! While standing night barracks fire watches, I studied for and took a GED (General Education Development) test. I heard nothing about the test or possible selection while completing boot training.

Upon graduation from boot camp I was designated an Aviation Electronics Technician Apprentice and ordered to Norman, Oklahoma, for further training. Just before the bus pulled out, a Lieutenant stepped aboard and called out my name. He told me "You've got 2 weeks of head cleaning and then you're going to Pensacola, Florida, to become a Naval Aviation Cadet (NAVCAD).

Head cleaning duty went by as in a dream, and I headed for Pensacola by Pullman train.

Navcad

I entered cadet class 28-54 as a NAVCAD - for another 16 weeks of boot camp (preflight training). During this time we studied the theory of flight, navigation and meteorology, as well as manual of arms, obstacle courses, trampoline, skeet shooting, hand-to-hand combat and boxing. We also had to demonstrate proficiency at swimming and learned to escape from the "Dilbert Dunker" under water. Everything seemed to be done "at the double".

I recall participating in a "smoker," (three-round boxing contests among Navcads from different preflight classes) where I had to endure three rounds of pummeling by a boxer much better than I. The outcome, as I recall, was a draw - or maybe I just like to remember it that way. The reward for having participated was an overnight liberty in Pensacola in uniform.

I went to the movie alone to see "The Bridges of Toko Ri". I sat next to a complete stranger - a very attractive young lady who was as impressed as I with the story. We ended up quite innocently holding hands during the flick and, when the show was over, her parents were waiting to pick her up. I was 19 and she must have been about 16. I never learned her name or saw her again. For me, it was back to preflight.

Basic Flight Training

Whiting Field (South Whiting) - Upon graduation from preflight, I went to Whiting field for my first flight in an aircraft - an SNJ. Having never been in an aircraft, I had some basic misconceptions about flying, which were rapidly put right by my instructor. There we learned basic flight to solo, precision flying, basic instruments, and aerobatics. Ground school consisted of theory of flight, meteorology and Morse code. Taps was at 2200, and I can remember sitting through the night on the toilet to study for the next day's flying, since we were not allowed to have lights on after taps and the head lights were always on.

Corry Field - Advanced Radio Instruments and Day and Night Cross Country - Remember the old "Alpha and November" radio beams? We learned how to intercept a radio beam and determine whether we were proceeding into or away from the station through a series of 45° intercepts and reversals. There were four beams where the Morse code for Alpha and November merged to form a steady signal. Then an approach was made from holding to a procedure turn with a 45° intercept of the beam to the station at minimum approach altitude. When over the radio station, we flew through a "null" or cone of silence. From there we started timing and turned to the final approach heading. The Alpha and November signals reversed past the station and could be very confusing as to which way to turn to reacquire the beam. At completion of the correct time (some minutes and seconds past low station) we then had to perform a missed approach and return to the radio station to enter holding for another approach. Remember, this was all under the "bag" in the back seat, so we never saw anything outside the aircraft - unless our instructor told us to pop the hood and have a look - most of the time to see how far off we really were.

Automatic direction finding (ADF) was easy after the tortures of riding rhe beam.

Saufley Field - Formation, Day and Night  - How many of us can remember flying in close proximity to another SNJ, and then three SNJs, and getting a crick in the neck and a sore shoulder? Canopies were open and we spent endless hours learning to do CV rendezvous, rendezvous around a point, running rendezvous, parade formation, echelon right and left, and tail chase.

Keeping the lead aircraft on the horizon and everyone else in the flight in sight during join up was absolutely necessary. Flying up the cone just aft of lead's wing to stop inside and then ease to the outside. If we were over running at any time and could not get back into position without losing sight of everyone else, we were required to go outside - make a positive move to turn and clear the flight and head aft, above and outside. There we waited until everyone else had joined and we were then called in by lead. We would convert height to joining speed and then slide into position. There was always some confusion about whether we were to join in our original briefed position or as "tail-end charlie". How many of us would step on the foot brakes to slow down if we realised we were joining too fast and might over run? Didn't work, did it?! I did that several times until I found that cross controlling aileron and rudder would add drag to slow down. Another technique was to push the prop control to full pitch, but this was a no-no because it was not good for the engine. We flew formation cross-countries to Mobile and back with each student leading a leg and all students required by their instructors to identify landmarks whether in the lead or not. We also learned our lookout responsibilities in formation. Entry to land was by a break from right echelon to achieve a 30-second interval on landing - staggered right and left on the runway - lead landing on the downwind side of a cross wind to keep propwash at a minimum on the runway - otherwise lead landing left.

Night formation was interesting. I tend to remember more about advanced night formation at Cabaniss Field in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Barin Field - Air-to-Air Gunnery, Bombing and FCLP - Gunnery was great. A rule when flying a pass on a target sleeve pulled by a tow plane was never to fire if the tow plane came into view. We had to do a lead intercept and fire at an angle. I don't recall getting very many hits

FCLPs - We practiced carrier approaches, controlled by a landing signal officer (LSO), to a box painted on a runway. The aircraft was set up at the 180° position in landing configuration, canopy open with full flaps - 2 knots above stall speed - at 500-ft AGL. Approach was made to 250-ft at the 90° position and 150-ft at the 45° position. We then "locked on" to the LSO and flew according to his signals, watching the "paddles" and keeping lined up with the runway. When above the intended point of landing, the LSO would give a "cut" with the paddles. Upon receiving the "cut", we pulled the throttle shut, dropped the nose, and flared out to touch down in a 3-point position. As soon as the aircraft touched, we pushed the throttle full forward to keep flying out of the bounce, and climbed out again to remain in the circuit. Hundreds of these landings were practiced until the LSO was satisfied that we were ready to qualify aboard ship.

Remember the motto "Don't Stall" printed just below the canopy rail on the port side? On one FCLP pass, there was a slight crosswind and I pulled the aircraft back into the air on a bounce in the box, to then almost lose it - as she settled back onto the runway and veered off onto the grass. I throttled back and sat there rather sheepishly until the LSO called me and told me to take off again. No mention was made at debrief, nor did I bring it up.

CARQUALS - Carrier qualification were required prior to selection for advanced flight training. We qualified aboard the U.S.S Saipan. Pilots would either fly out to the ship in the Gulf of Mexico, or join the ship the night before as switch pilots. I was a switch pilot and had to be ready and waiting below and outboard of the flight deck while the aircraft performed 6 "traps." When the pilot qualified, he taxied just behind the island and was chocked without shutting down. I was notified to man my aircraft. At that very moment, I experienced a tremendous urge to pee my flight suit - thankfully I didn't. The pilot exited the aircraft over the starboard side while a big burly flight deck petty officer half lifted and shoved me into the cockpit from the port side.