See Part 2

“All in all, Monterey would be a neat place for a tour if we had had more free time.”

So now I am finishing up my 4th year of shore duty and a sea duty tour is in the offing. I was ready to get back to a fleet squadron. I wrote a letter to the Personnel folks in Washington, requesting any of twelve different duty assignments by airplane type and location.

My orders came in, and they were to an A3D squadron at Whidbey Island, in Washington state!!! The assignment officer had picked out a 13th choice! I did not want A3Ds – they were a multi-engine multi-crew airplane. They were designed as the Navy’s answer to the Air Force high altitude nuclear bomber. Well, hell’s bells – it had a yoke, not a stick, and the throttles were on the right! What kind of a flying machine is this for a dyed-in-the-wool attack guy? So I called Washington, only to be met with stonewalling.

So in June of 1964, the Weitzes are off to Whidbey Island in the trusty Chevy, towing the little English Ford wagon we had bought. (At the time, I said “never again”. Every time I looked in the rear view mirror, here was this car right on our bumper.) We stopped in San Francisco and Crater Lake on the way. We arrived in Oak Harbor and found a rental house to get us by until we could get into base housing.

I checked in to the A3 training squadron and managed to master the yoke and the throttles on the right. The A3 crew consisted of a pilot on the left, who of course flew the airplane. A Bombardier Navigator (BN) was on the right and operated the radar and weapons delivery systems. An enlisted Crewman Navigator (CN) sat behind the pilot and was responsible for the navigation and electronic countermeasures systems. The A3 was the largest carrier airplane in the Navy. It could weigh as much as 80,000 pounds when catapulted. Another interesting experience – several of us got to qualify in night landings in the Navy’s biggest carrier airplane on the Navy’s smallest operational carrier. Needless to say, it was an eye-opening experience. Hoo boy!! It was really quite a capable airplane, but I just didn’t care for the mission, which at the time was predominantly as airborne tankers. After completing the transition syllabus, I reported to Heavy Attack Squadron Four (VAH-4), which, rather than deploying as a complete squadron, provided detachments to various carriers in the Western Pacific. This is a photo of an A3 in Heavy Four markings.

Skywarrior A3D-2

VAH-4 detachments were coming and going all the time. I was assigned to a det that was to deploy to WestPac on USS Independence (CVA 62) in 1965. Independence was the first East Coast carrier to go to Vietnam. We had some long cross-country flights between Whidbey and Oceana, in the Norfolk, Virginia area in order to work up with the attached Air Wing. The ship’s captain and the Air Wing Commander (CAG, still called that from the days when it was an Air Group – the Navy is steeped in tradition, as you all know.) were nice guys and permitted us, now referred to as VAH-4 Det 62, to fly westward from Whidbey and join up with the ship in the Philippines, rather than go aboard ship in Norfolk and sit on our butts while steaming halfway around the world.

The detachment consisted of three airplanes, four crews and about 150 support enlisted. The ground crew folks were flown to the Philippines on Navy transport airplanes. The A3s left Whidbey and flew to Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska on June 5, 1965. We spent the night there and the next day flew to Shemya Air Force Station, which is on Shemya Island way out on the western end of the Aleutian Islands. Shemya is noted for its lousy weather and a strong crosswind – it did not disappoint. The next day, glad to be on our way, we went on to Atsugi Air Force Base in Japan. We had a couple of days there until Independence pulled into the Naval Base at Cubi Point, Philippines, then flew out to join the Air Group, flying aboard ship on June 16th.

During the 1965 era in WestPac, there were generally five carriers. Two would be at “Yankee Station” off the coast of North Vietnam; two would be at “Dixie Station” off the coast of South Vietnam; the other carrier(s) would be at some port call – Cubi Point, Hong Kong, or Japan. The Yankee and Dixie carriers would split the day’s operations – one would fly from noon to midnight, and the other from midnight to noon and would swap every week or so. So everybody got their share of day and night ops.

The mission of VAH-4 Det 62 was primarily aerial refueling, and the Admiral considered us a valuable asset, so we were not exposed much to high risk operations. We did get our licks in occasionally, though.

When up north on Yankee Station, we would sometimes get to launch all three airplanes at night with some bombs. Six A4Ds would also be launched with their own loads of ordnance. Two A4s would join up with each A3, one on each wing. We would proceed to our designated target, make a radar bombing run at about 25,000 feet, dropping our bombs, typically on a bridge, while the A4s also dropped theirs on our signal at the same time. I was never convinced we did a lot of damage, but at least it felt as if we were doing some good.

The powers that be would launch a major bombing mission (called an “Alpha Strike”) into North Vietnam every couple of weeks or so. When that occurred, we would launch as many of our tankers as necessary to top off all the outbound strike airplanes. When we completed tanking, we would recover back aboard ship and “hot refuel” (taxi from the arresting gear up to the catapult and take on a full load of jet fuel with our engines still running). After we were topped off we would launch and meet the returning strike airplanes to give gas to whoever needed it.

When down south on Dixie station, we were often permitted to load up with some WW2 high drag bombs on day missions. (The A4s and A6s needed low drag bombs, but we had an internal bomb bay, so we could carry some of the old style weapons that the ship was glad to get rid of.) So we would trundle off to find a cooperative Forward Air Controller (FAC). He would fire a smoke rocket to mark where he would like the ordnance delivered and we would do our best to put the bombs where wanted. All we ever saw was exploding greenery, so we were never sure how much good we did, but it felt good and gave us something to do.

The Independence cruise lasted the advertised six months. Previously, the Pacific carriers had had cruises that were slated for six or seven months but were often extended to nine to twelve months. So we felt very fortunate. The ship was going to proceed home to Norfolk by going west from the Philippines. We didn’t care too much for spending a couple more weeks aboard without flying, only to wind up in Norfolk, 3,000 miles from home. Our friendly CAG released us from the Air Wing to wend our own way back to Whidbey Island. So on November 22, 1965, we departed Cubi Point. We spent the night at Barbers Point in Hawaii, having flown 11.8 hours with refueling stops at Guam and Wake Island. (Need I say we were anxious to get home?) On the 23rd, we flew 4.9 hours to NAS Alameda near San Francisco. The weather at Whidbey was not too good, and we were kind of dragging, so we spent the night there. The next day we flew in to Whidbey for a joyous reunion with our families. (p.s. Independence arrived Norfolk on December 13, so our kind-hearted CAG allowed us to get home three weeks earlier by releasing us.)

See Part 4