[Oral interview at LAX 28 April 1989]
[If any can i.d. this avmidn, send info to Lou Ives]

· ….. Midshipman Class 15-47. I am already a member of the Flying Midshipman Association, and so you've got my basic data, officer number, and address, and that kind of information. Finished preflight in Thanksgiving of '47, spent the next several months on the ground waiting for weather. Took our first hops in the early Spring of 1948, on about March. Finished Basic Training in SNJs. Was Carrier Qualified about October of '48. From there: went to Corpus Christi, where we were stationed at Cabaniss Field, which had just reopened, having been shut down at the end of World War Two [ed: some class went through SNJ basic in 1947].

Sat at Cabaniss for about five months--November through '48 … through March of ’50—’49 rather--waiting for weather again. In March of '49, started flying F4Us. Completed that series of training in May, and back to Pensacola for Carrier Qual in F4'Js, which completed flight training. A total of about 250 hours in SNJs and about a 150 hours in F4Us.

Received the wings on 9 June 1949.

Was assigned to VA-94 or -95, don’t remember for sure, at Charleytown, Rhode Island. Sat their for about four months when the squadron was decommissioned. Was reassigned to VA-65 at Oceana. And those squadrons were flying Skyraiders. Was a … discharged from the Navy June 30th, 1950, which was just a couple of days after the Korean War started. (That's a little story in itself.) Flew in the Reserves at Los Alamitos, California, from the Fall of '50 through about '54, or so. Flew back to Cincinnati with the General Electric Company, Aircraft Engines. Flew in the Reserves at Port Columbus, Ohio, for the year-and-a-half, or so. Left the area to go' to Florida, lost my Reserve billet, and that was the end of my Navy flying ­about 1955, or so. Maybe '56--memory gets a little dull with time.

A … spent the last 30 years with General Electric Company, in the aerospace and aircraft engine business, and now located in Los Angeles working with the airframers … on … new applications of engines--most interesting ones these days [1989] are the ATF and particularly the Navy ATF. Have also been involved in the … the [garbled] or the P7A replacement for the P3.

Spent an interesting series of experiences over the last many years, being directly associated with the Navy, and indirectly associated through the aircraft engine business. [garbled] back ever my years of active and reserve duty. I believe that probably the most challenging and interesting assignment was the time that night fighter school down at FAWTULANT, Key West, in the Spring of '50, where a … had the opportunity to get some intensive instrument training under night-time condition. After finishing this, when I got back to my squadron, … which was a Skyraider squadron, I became the squadron instrument instructor. An interesting experience, which I'll never forget.

Class: 
Pensacola Preflight Class 15-47