1960 NOTES: First practical stereo radio broadcast – first practical implantable Pacemaker inserted – oral contraceptives and Sabin oral polio vaccine marketed. – practical application of lasers\ nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise launched – U.S. surveillance satellites launched – John F. Kennedy elected President
1960
VCP-61 - Air Wing COMFAIRSOWESTPAC Tail Code SS
July 29, 1960
VAP-62 - During a landing aboard the USS Saratoga (CVA-60), the squadron’s commanding officer, Commander C. T. Frohne, and two other squadron members, were lost when the tailhook of their A3D-2P Skywarrior separated and plunged off the deck into the sea.
July 1960
VAP-62 – Commanding Officer – CDR W. L. Berkey (acting)
September 9, 1960
VAP-62 - Commanding Officer – CDR John E. Cousins
My name is Ed Hickey and I served with VAP-62 from January 1961 to February 1962 at NAS Jacksonville, Florida. At the time I was an AT2 and worked on Com/Nav gear in the Avionics shop under Chief Berge. There was also an AQC Wimberley, ATC Paul LeBlanc, and AEC Blackie Simmons. I worked on the ARC-38 HF, the ARN-21 TACAN and ARN-6 Direction Finder. The CO was Commander Jack Cousins and the XO Commander Ward Berkey. I cannot pinpoint the exact date but I believe it was around July, 1961, that VAP-62 acquired an F9F-8 Cougar from VA-44, the training squadron in the hangar just East of ours. Commander Cousins made frequent trips to Washington DC in our RA-3Bs and I guess the economics were not too good. So, somehow, we acquired the F9F-8 Cougar for the Skipper to make his runs to DC and other places. It was quite a sight watching Commander Cousins climb into that tiny F9 cockpit as he was a rather large man. Maintenance on the F9 was real fun as we were used to the wide open spaces of the RA-3B. Railroad tracks had been installed in the nose of the F9 in place of the guns for balance.
Another remembrance during that time was painting our airplanes completely gray, obliterating all markings, national insignia and identification. I remember a stake truck backing up to the hangar with cases of gray spray paint cans. All available hands turned to and manned spray cans. The twin 20mm guns in the tail were loaded and all cameras serviced. The planes flew photo missions over Cuba and upon return to JAX the film was immediately dispatched to DC by RF-8 from the F8 photo squadron that was based at NAS Cecil Field. VAP-62 received the Navy Unit Commendation for its work in photo reconnaissance that led up to the Cuban blockade.
Prior to my assignment to VAP-62 I was stationed at Naval Air Facility, Lajes, Azores in '59 and '60. I remember well two VAP-62 airplanes, AJ Savages, that were working out of there for awhile mapping the Azores coastlines. The crews called them "Flying Fire Warning Lights" due to the very intermittent nature of these lights and that they would come on and go out for no apparent reason.
Ed Hickey
September 16, 1960
VAP-61 Commanding Officer CDR Jonathan J. Crowder
"O” Boat CVA 34 26 January, 1961
A3D-2P BuNo 144844 – on September 26, 1961.
1961 NOTES: First manned space flight / Vostok 1 – Bay of Pigs invasion – Berlin Wall erected
March 28, 1961
July 1, 1961
Redesignated Heavy Photographic Squadron SIXTY ONE (VAP-61)
October 6, 1961
VAP-62 - Commanding Officer – CDR H. Boldt, Jr.
November 9, 1961
VAP-61 - Commanding Officer CDR Donald B. Brady
1962 NOTES: John Glenn is first U.S. Astronaut to orbit earth – Polaris missile launched from U.S. submarine. France & Algeria sign cease-fire ending 7 year war – Oct 22 President Kennedy announces Cuban blockade – Oct. 28 Krushchev orders removal of soviet missiles from Cuba and dismantling of bases – first transatlantic communication satellite (Telstar)
1962
We all saw the VFP-62 RF8’s on television zooming feet dry over Cuba at the start of the Cuban Missile Crisis. What we didn’t see were the RA3B’s making daily runs over the missile sites several weeks before it became headline news. As for the briefings of the imaging done around and over Cuba, the very best source for this info would be Bob Roemer. Bob has wonderful stories about VAP-62 and Scottie Jenkins. Bob Roemer went from 62 to some intell job in DC and briefed McBundy every week based on the film from VAP 62 missions around and over Cuba. The film was processed at JAX photo lab and then read out in the VAP exploitation shop, packaged and flown to DC in the VAP F9F. Don Hubbard lost the entire load of film from a weeks mission in his approach to Andrews. The film was stored in the gun magazine compartment and the door came open during his let down. (Bob Skillen)
Bob, Please let me hear from you. Jim.
September 4, 1962
VAP-62 - Commanding Officer – CDR Robert F. Roemer
November 7, 1962
VAP-61 - Commanding Officer CDR Robert E. Morris
1963 NOTES: U.S., Britain & Soviet Union ban atmospheric nuclear test detonations – first use of artificial heart during surgery - 200,000 civil rights marchers converge on Washington – South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem killed in army coup – President John F. Kennedy assassinated – cassette tape recorders marketed
July 1963
VAP-62 - Commanding Officer – CDR John D. Stuffiebeem
“Look, Ma! These things actually take pictures!”
A Sixty-Two crew hams it up for the scrapbook.
October 24, 1963
VAP-61 - Commanding Officer CDR Hal B. Stewart
December 26, 1963
VAP-61 – Received KA-3B Aircraft
1964 NOTES: First lung transplant (U.S.) – U.N. Peacekeeping force sent to Cyprus to calm riots and fighting between Greeks and Turks – U.S. Navy destroyers attacked in Gulf Of Tonkin by North Vietnamese gunboats – Krushchev ousted as Soviet leader
January 15, 1964
VAP-61 – Air Wing COMFAIRWESTPAC Tail Code SS
May 1964
VAP-61 - Squadron detachments began flying photographic reconnaissance missions over Laos and south Viet Nam as part of Yankee Team Operations. Missions were flown from carriers operating in the South China Sea.
August 2-5, 1964
VAP-61 - Squadron detachments aboard carriers operating in the South China Sea provided photo reconnaissance support during the Tonkin Gulf Crisis involving North Vietnamese patrol boat attacks on American destroyers.
August 8, 1964
VAP-62 - Commanding Officer – CDR John P. Cullen
November 6, 1964
VAP-61 - Commanding Officer CDR D. A. Woodard
1965 NOTES: U.S. marines sent to Dominican Republic – first commercial television satellite – first space walk Voskhod 2 – first automatic landing by an airliner
July 5, 1965
VAP-62 - Commanding Officer – CDR William E. Nowers
1961 - VAP 62
I’m Hal Abbott and I was in VAP-62 from 1961 thru 1965. I went there as a Second Class Photographer’s Mate Third Crewman/Navigator and left as an LDO Ensign. When I was commissioned the powers that be decided I should do photo officer things instead of flying photo mate things so they shipped me off to Johnsville, Pennsylvania to the Aerial Experimental Photo Lab (APEL).
Bill Ward was the Director and the pilot of Apple’s A3. They had no crewmen nor did they have a right seater. They did have two guys in training to be crewmen but no NFO. Bill went to the bureau and managed to get me on partial flight pay. This was month to month and “half-skins” but I was flying. My tour at APEL was most interesting and at the same time the politics made it extremely stressful. Bill’s deputy was a civilian who was actually hiding proposals for new technology from Bill, the Director.
A contractor asked Bill what he thought of a proposal he had sent him. Bill knew absolutely nothing about it. He took me in tow and marched into the deputy’s office and demanded he open the safe. The deputy told him he was a civilian and Bill was military and he didn’t have to do a damn thing Bill told him.
Bill said, “Okay, I can get a marine and bolt cutters down here and open that safe by force.” We found piles of proposals the guy was hiding and had never forwarded.
The Submarine Electronic Warfare developers working with the HRB Singer Co. came up with a thermal infrared sensor that was extremely effective under no light conditions and was tota1ly passive. They brought it to me as the photo officer and wondered if we might be interested. Oooh yea!
The civilian factor was pushing the development of flashers (strobe units) attached to the plane. (These idiots obviously had never flown combat. Ed.)
The political battle at the director’s level became so bad Bill had his deputy investigated as a spy. It got all the way to the CNO Air Warfare office. before it was resolved in favor of IR. The Apple civilians had gotten to someone in NAVAIR so NAVIAR was not only mandating flasher development but directed us to remove the IR test sensors the submariners had helped us install in the airplane. We took it up the chain to the pentagon and though the two-star admiral in charge of Air Warfare didn’t attend the meeting several Captains did and they were pilots. NAVAIR was ordered to back off and we were green lighted to develop the IR systems.
There were three in the pot. One was Army, one was Air Force, then ours. The Navy’s had the poorest resolution but was the easiest to service and maintain. It was cooled with liquid nitrogen. It would resolve a three foot object at 190 feet altitude and 480 knots.
The Army’s had the best resolution, a nine inch object. The head was cooled with gaseous helium. Which is more difficult to handle than nitrogen but the Army only had the Mohawk aircraft, so they had the least interest.
The Air Force system was almost as good as the Army as far as resolution but it was cooled with liquid helium at about eight degrees Kelvin, almost absolute zero.
We had all three systems installed in our bird and the initial tests were conducted around Wright Patterson AFB. We tested urban, industrial, suburban, open road, all sorts of targets. When we flew over the field we could see where our airplane had been parked during the day.
Another test was at Eglin AFB in the Florida panhandle. The green berets had built a mock Viet Nam village in the forest and practiced assaults on it. Our job was to find them, not the village, them.
We duct taped thousands of leaflets saying, “Green Berets of Operation Underbrush! You have been detected by the Red Baron!” to the back of the speed brakes.
We flew over the area at 6,000’ and found them on the first pass. Now we knew where to line up for the low level run and did, 190 feet – 480 knots. As soon as we saw the we popped the speed brakes for an instant.
There was a Green Beret Colonel waiting for us back at the briefing. He told us he thought we had missed a go away after the first high pass then all hell broke loose as we came over low and fast. The noise was deafening then the leaflet snowstorm. They were impressed since if we could find them that easily we could damn find Charlie for them..
All this took place in about four months, from August to November 1965. The passive IR system undoubtedly saved lives – ours.
Hal Abbot
(A lot of us owe these guys not only a big thanks but our lives. I noticed transcribing the tapes Hal did not give the name of the civilian that tried to get us killed with flashers. Ed.)
