Military

Service Record Post Part 4
  Avionics Line and Shop



In the previous chapter of my Naval Aviation saga, I finally advanced to my billet of Avionics Technician at the Targets and Drones Avionics Shop. At last, I was working alongside my friend and original sponsor that got me assigned to the Targets Department, Emmett.

After transfer to the Avionics Shop, I was assigned as a line troubleshooter and repair technician. My job was to remove and re-install avionics radios and other equipment from the aircraft on the line. The technicians in the shop and the aircraft maintenance schedules kept me pretty busy with that assignment.

Eventually, since I had the coveted Navy Driver’s License, the Chief Petty Officer over the shop put me in charge of the two “Fox Vans” which were a part of the shop’s maintenance responsibility. The vans were Large (think Class A RV) and contained the electronics for remote control of the drone aircraft as well as a large diesel generator to power all the equipment.

I kept the vans fueled up, ran up the generators once a week and drove the vans with the pilots aboard when they were remotely launching and landing the QF9G drone aircraft from the airfield. For safety of the airfield and its personnel, these operations always had a pilot on board the drones just in case something went wrong with the remote systems. NOLO (No Live Operator) operations were restricted to the Auxiliary Field on San Nicholas Island, 60NM south of Point Mugu. “Saint Nick” is an unpopulated island save for the limited base personnel that stay there. The island had their own Fox Vans.

It was at this time that I became senior enough to upgrade from ATNAN to ATN3 or Airman Avionics Technician Navigation Striker to Airman Avionics Technician Third Class Petty Officer. I passed the exams and got the new stripes plus a “hash mark” on my sleeve, since I now had four years as a sailor. A Hash Mark is awarded for each four years of service, including Navy Reserve time. I enlisted in 1960 and it was now 1964.

Concurrently with my Fox Van duties, I was also qualified to be an aircraft crew member, so I started earning “Flight Skins” as a crew member. “Skins” refers to hazardous duty pay which is in addition to the regular paygrade. Although I managed to serve as crew for several different aircraft on the base, I am particularly proud of my service as radioman on many missions aboard our drone launch aircraft, a Lockheed P2V Neptune converted from submarine detection and combat to launch the Ryan BQM-34A (Q2C) Firebee Drone, which was a pilotless drone also managed by our department.

A typical Firebee launch mission would be to fly downrange (over the Pacific Missile Range) and at some designated point, fire up the drone’s jet engine, release the drone (under remote control from the PMR HQ) and bank the aircraft hard away from the Firebee as it proceeds further downrange to be shot at by the target mission aircraft.

Most of the time, however, the drones would survive and splash down somewhere in the area only to be recovered by an old classic H-34 Sikorsky Wright Cyclone Radial Engine Powered rescue Helicopter. I had the opportunity to fly in the left seat of one of these recovery missions. What a blast!

The image at the top of the article is our P2V with a Firebee Drone attached and ready to fly. Click on either image to enlarge.

So that tells some of the story of those days after the Vietnam conflict had begun, but not yet in full swing. I finished my obligation on active duty and mustered out into the civilian world and pursued a career in aerospace engineering in which I not only supported the conflict overseas, but also space programs and many other technological improvements to the state of the art in electronics and software.

Footnote: I mentioned that my Ham Radio pal, Emmett, was involved in getting me assigned to the Targets division, but we were both involved in the Radio Club at Point Mugu, K6CST. Although I only had a Technician Class License at the time, I was able, under the supervision of the Club’s Lead PO, a General Class Ham, to learn and operate the Club’ various stations including RTTY HF, VHF/UHF, SSB HF, CW HF and more. Local Hams in the Oxnard/Ventura/Camarillo area were also involved in the Radio Club. It was a good camaraderie with those old guys, many of whom are now gone to the Savior. I still miss them.

This concludes the story of that part of my life in the service of our Nation as a young buck willing to take the risks of being a part of the Nation’s defense. I hope you enjoyed the story. God Bless.

Service Record Post Part 3
  Naval Missile Center

In the second installment of my Navy experience, I alluded as to how I may have had a hand in getting my ultimate assignment to the Targets and Drones Department at the Naval Missile Center. Well, one of the Avionics Techs assigned to Targets was none other than a ham radio acquaintance from my earlier days involvement in the radio hobby in the western Los Angeles County area, Emmett, WA6COT (SK). Emmett found a way to influence the Master Chief Petty Officer, Chief Stringham, to select my name from the list of sailors becoming available in mid-1962. I was assigned to the Targets and Drones flight line as a result.

The flight line at the Targets Department had two categories of aircraft; looking from the line shack, on the left were “chase” aircraft equipped with remote control systems for the drones, and on the right were the drones themselves, several QF-9G Drone Aircraft. Better known as the Grumman Cougar, these planes were brightly colored with red-orange fluorescent paint, thereby identifying them as drones.

When I checked into the line shack for duty, the chief petty officer in charge assigned me to be a driver, since I was then 20 years old which was enough to qualify for a Navy drivers license. I became qualified to run the various tow tractors and utility vehicles on the line. I also qualified for several other vehicle types including fork lifts, NC-5 mobile power generator carts and what the Navy referred to as a “fox-van” which contained the remote control equipment used for piloting departures and arrivals of drone aircraft.

I spent several months on the Targets Aircraft line tending to the “fleet” of vehicles on the line which I had been put in charge of seeing to their fuel, maintenance and usage. There was an event that took place during my time on the line that was very significant in the history of the USA – the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. For several days prior to JFK’s interment, the base played dirges and other grim music over the 1-MC (public address system). We were sad to hear of the death of the Commander in Chief, but were glad when things got back to normal.

The last few weeks on the aircraft line, I was commissioned as a “plane captain” for one of the QF9G drones and became responsible for this particular airplane to keep it clean, maintained and ready for operation by a live pilot on the airfield. NOLO Operations (no live operator), were restricted to our auxiliary Naval Air Base on San Nicolas Island located 60 NM due south of Point Mugu.

The next (and final) chapter of my service record will account for the time spent as an avionics technician assigned to my actual training as an Aviation Technician Navigation Striker in the avionics shop. Stay Tuned.

Service Record Post Part 2
  Naval Air Station Duties

In part one of this series, after competing “A” school, the orders came through assigning me to the Naval Missile Center Command located at Point Mugu Naval Air Station near Oxnard, California. In June 1962, I reported for duty at Point Mugu NAS to be attached to the Naval Missile Center, but that had to wait until (as new NAS reports will testify) I was attached to the Naval Air Station Command to be washed through the usual menial chores duty of a new report.

My first assignment was to be attached to “Compartment (Coop) Cleaners” in the barracks on the Naval base. Of course this involved “swabbing decks” and general clean up of the areas where the station personnel resided. It was totally unrewarding save for the acquired skills of running a mop, a floor buffer and a broom. I still treasure those skills even to this time in my life, and use them in our daily maintenance of Casa Casandro here in Arizona.

After a few weeks of “coop cleaning,” I got an assignment to the base “Security Infantry” whose purpose was to augment the Naval Station’s Security force. Upon reporting to the barracks where about sixty of us had been assigned, we were indoctrinated to our new billets as security force members.

The Security Infantry program started out with a daily routine of calisthenics followed by compartment cleaning, training exercises (with M1 Garand Rifles) and other interesting classes with topics such as survival of a nuclear attack, dealing with biological warfare and protection from chemical weapons.

We all were made available to the base security force as gate sentinels, Colors Crew (Flag raising and lowering), post watches (guarding the perimeters of the NAS 24/7) and so forth. We were on a “port/starboard” duty cycle, with one day on duty and one day off and a 48 hour liberty pass every other weekend.

We served the security force for a total of two months after which we were to be assigned to one of the several departments of the Naval Missile Center. Our experience with the Security Infantry had many benefits including live time on the firing range with introduction to M1 Garand, Browning Automatic Rifles and Handguns (1911 .45ACP). The time in Security Infantry was of great value to me, such as to be equivalent to advanced basic training (boot camp).

When my tour as a Security Infantryman completed, I got myself assigned to the Targets and Drones Department of the Naval Missile Center. More about how that came about in the next part of this series.

Service Record Post Part 1
  Naval Reserve and Schooling

This will be the first in a series of posts that address my memories of serving in the U.S. Naval Reserve. My original enlistment (at age 17) was for six years as a reservist with two years of active duty with the regular Navy. The timeline was

  1. finish high school as an active reservist
  2. go on active duty for two years
  3. muster out of active duty and transfer to inactive reserve

This first installment covers 1) and the beginning of 2) above.


I pulled some old records out of the hard copy files we keep here and scanned them in to PDF documents for posterity. Electronic files can last a lot longer than their paper counterparts.

Since I had the hard copies out of the file folder, I scanned through my service records and came to realize that my Naval Service was more of an adventure for me, rather than a job. I can think of quite a few highlights that took place in the span of about four years. My recollections follow below.

I enlisted in the US Naval Reserves in 1960 while I was still in high school. I attended weekly evening drills at the Naval Reserve Center in Santa Monica, CA. During my active reserve time before going on active duty I went to serve for a couple of weeks in USN Boot camp – NTC San Diego and also a couple of weeks on an amphibious Navy fleet vessel, the USS Pickaway, APA-222, during what the USNR referred to as “cruises.” What a contrast to what is considered a “cruise” today. I got my transfer to active duty delayed by a year in order to attend Junior College and work part-time my first year out of high school. I also got my private pilot’s license during the first year out of high school.

I reported for my two-years of active duty in June of 1962. I had a brief stay at the US Naval Station in Long Beach, CA on TDY (temporary duty) pending assignment to an eventual duty station. That service was interesting since it introduced me to Navy life as a full-time sailor. We (there were a lot of sailors on TDY) did odd jobs which included working at the commissary (base grocery store), cleaning up the barracks and even being selected as a shakedown cruise crew member for a vessel being transferred to the Iranian(!) Navy.

Finally, the interim duty at Long Beach was concluding and I had an interview with a recruiter to determine the remainder of my active duty assignment. I opted to extend my service by a year in order to attend “A” School at the US Naval Air Technical Training Center, NAS Memphis, TN. It just so happened that my older brother was on the staff of the USNATTC as an instructor, so we could be close and in touch during my schooling.

In August of 1962, I arrived at NAS Memphis for “A” School Training. While attending school, I went to church every Sunday to sing in the Bluejackets Choir which, conveniently, got me some perks (like light duty) for the duration. School went well and I scored number four in my class of 96 students in Avionics Fundamentals school (AFUA), and as number one in my Avionics Technician Com/Nav (ATNA) class of 26 students, I got to choose my next duty station as a result of class standing. I chose somewhere on the west coast of the US.

My orders came through and I found myself assigned to the US Naval Missile Center Command, Point Mugu, CA, which was located just 44 miles from my parents’ Mar Vista home in the West Los Angeles area. I will report more about my tour of duty at NMC and NAS Point Mugu in the next part of this series.

D-Day Eightieth Anniversary

From The Patriot Post:

Today marks the anniversary of D-Day, the Allied invasion of France codenamed Operation Overlord, which commenced in the early hours of June 6, 1944. It was the beginning of the end for Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist Workers (NAZI) Party and its reign of terror across Europe — an epic battle in defense of American Liberty and, by extension, that of all mankind.

On that day, and many bloody days that followed on the European and Pacific fronts, American Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines purchased Liberty for the next generation at a very heavy human price. It is our sacred responsibility now to extend that inheritance to the next generation.

Join us as we pray for the American Veterans of that war and the preservation of the Republic for which they fought.

Memorial Day 2024

Today, the last Monday of May, we recognize our fallen military heroes for their sacrifices to honor and defend America. Pray for our current military in harm’s way. Pray for the fallen and their grieving families and friends.

From The Patriot Post:

On this Memorial Day, and every day of the year, may God bless our men and women in uniform, who have stood and continue to stand in harm’s way — more than 41 million veterans who have served our nation since the American Revolution. For their steadfast devotion to duty, honor and country, we, the American people, offer them and their families our humble gratitude and heartfelt thanks. It is with eternal gratitude that we remember those who have paid the ultimate price in service to our nation.

We pray for our Patriot Armed Forces now standing in harm’s way around the world in defense of our liberty, and for the families awaiting their safe return.

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” —John 15:12-14

Image created by Copilot AI. Click to enlarge.