15 February 1988

AvCad serial #736-20-91
AvMidn serial #496956

[note from Lou Ives:  Glenn and I were in the same squadron (VA-134 Hellrazors) as ensigns in 1949,.  I had been appointed Midshipman on 16 December 1946 with file #496290, designated 24 June 1948, and commissioned 19 December 1948.  Although he outranked me by a year, my lower serial number caused all kinds of rank problems—another of those curious aviation midshipman glitches.]

[Note from Glenn Follows:]

Appointed Midshipman, USN:  Pensacola, 19 December 1946.

Received Wings:  Pensacola, 19 December 1946.

Appointed Ensign, USN: San Diego, 24 April 1948.

You read it right.  I was designated as a Naval Aviator and appointed Midshipman on the same date—right after my last carqual in the SNJ-5C.

After receiving my wings, I took operational in the Beast [SB2C] at JAX.

I drove SB2Cs and F4Us in VA-13A out of Mainside, San Diego.  It was later changed to VA-134.  We joined Air Group One on the Tarawa (USS Tarawa (CV-40)] for the 1948 world cruise.  We were the last air group into Tsingtao [China].

In 1949, at SAN, Bob Neely and Lou Ives joined the squadron (after their air group—CVG-21--was decommissioned in Seattle).  The air group (CVG Thirteen) was transferred to NAS JAX shortly thereafter.  Air Group One was also transferred from SAN to Cecil Field at the same time.  The only time Ives qualified in bombing was when I spotted for the flight.  He needed all the help he could get!

I got in the first purge and exited the Navy (along with Bob and Lou and many other good troops) on December 31, 1949.  We all went back to California and joined the active reserve at [NAS] Los Alamitos.  I didn’t get recalled for the Korean thing.

Spent many delightful years at Northrup.  Retired to Ramona, California, a few years ago, and do nothing but garden and golf.

Aircraft: 
Class: 
St. Mary’s Preflight Class 10-45