The Brown Shoes Project

“Autobiography” ^*

Enlisted in the Navy prior to finishing High School with the allowance to complete High School. V-5 opened up prior to finishingHigh School and I qualified.

July 1945 reported to North Texas Agricultural College V-5 Unit in Arlington TX. That fall we were transferred to the SMU V-12 Unit in Dallas TX.

Sept. 1946 reported to NAS Los Alamitos for Selective Flight Training. During the few hours we got to fly the N2S I managed to ground loop follow­ing a landing, at which time I got a lot of instruction and ad­vice through the gosport [tube]. The Instructor took over control and proceeded to ground loop again at which time it became very quiet over the gosport.

June 1947. Reported to Ottumwa, Iowa, for Pre-Flight Class 8-47 as Av CAD and later MIDN. Transferred to Pensacola for the remainder of Pre-Flight and Basic Training. Some of us were together through most of training. Some names that pop-up are Rex Vannoy, Mack "Red" Sellers, Jessie Brown, Sam Clausel and Eddie Boufard. Jessie was the first Black to finish Flight Training and unbeknownst to the higher ups he was married all the way through. Advanced Training was in Jacksonville in Jacksonville in F6F.

Wings came in Nov. 1948.

Reported to VF-173 in Feb. 1949 thru May 1952 in F4U-4 & F4U-5.

Married on May 8, 1949 to Ellen McSpadden with Red Sellers as best man. Red was killed soon after in a mid-air while operating with VF-173 in the Atlantic.

1952-1954. Flight Instructor ATU-2 & ATU-100 in F8F & F6F.

1954 – Reported to USS Yorktown CV-10 as asst. Cat and Arresting Gear Officer.

1955-1957 Reported to USS Lexington (CVA-16) Pre-Commissioning Detail then as Asst Cat & Arresting Gear Officer.

1957-1960 Reported to VA-146 in FJ-4B Aircraft as Maintenance Officer and later Operations Officer.

1960 -1962 Navy Post-Graduate School Monterey.

1962 - 1964 OINC Guided Missile Unit 7 Point Magu, CA.

1964 - 1966 USS Hornet (CVS-12) Asst Air Office.

1966 -1969 Office of CNO OP-43 Logistics-Military Construction.

1969 - 1975 CINCPACFLT 442 Logistics Military Construction.

Retired July 1975 with 30 years.

Became Insurance Agent for Lincoln National Life and was Manag­ing Agent of the Honolulu Office for 10 years. Now work only part time. 

Have been sailing since 1969 and racing for about 15 years. Sail­boats grew from 25 feet to 41 feet now. Started competitive running 1975 and have been successful in several age groups.