Latest Addition to the WIX Library

[Scott Rose]

AMAZON: A-3 Skywarrior Units of the Vietnam War

[Sasquatch]

NICE...! One of the joys of working carrier flight decks in the late 70's was watching tanker whales come aboard...lots of presence and noise, and they sure made a big ol' flight deck suddenly look small when they hit the deck.

-Tom

[Scott Rose]

NICE...! One of the joys of working carrier flight decks in the late 70's was watching tanker whales come aboard...lots of presence and noise, and they sure made a big ol' flight deck suddenly look small when they hit the deck.

-Tom

The Skywarrior is of special interest to me. My father was aircrew on them for the first half of his career before transitioning to P-3 Orions.

[Sasquatch]

So you probably already know the A-3's unofficial nickname was "Whale", but the crews often told us "A-3D" really meant "All 3 (crew) Dead")!

Scott, what did your dad do on A-3's?

-Tom


(Note: under the original Navy designation scheme, the Skywarrior was designated A3D (third Attack aircraft from Douglas Aircraft). In September 1962, the new Tri-Services designation system was implemented and the aircraft was redesignated A-3) - from Wikipedia

[Scott Rose]

So you probably already know the A-3's unofficial nickname was "Whale", but the crews often told us "A-3D" really meant "All 3 (crew) Dead")!

Scott, what did your dad do on A-3's?

-Tom


(Note: under the original Navy designation scheme, the Skywarrior was designated A3D (third Attack aircraft from Douglas Aircraft). In September 1962, the new Tri-Services designation system was implemented and the aircraft was redesignated A-3) - from Wikipedia

I'm not 100% sure of the title, but essentially he was flight engineer/plane captain. Sat back to back with the pilot. Would of been the tailgunner in the bomber version but he was mainly in EA-3 and KA-3 versions with VQ-1.

[Ken]

I flew many times at the airline with a former A3 pilot; great guy. While he had hoped to fly fighters, he always said that strong grades during carrier training locked him into the A3. It had a reputation for requiring extra skill and, according to him, the A3 assignments went out ahead of everything else to ensure the right guys were flying it. He was later an A3 instructor and told some hair raising stories about teaching someone else while stuck in the right seat with no control stick ....

Ken

[Scott Rose]

I flew many times at the airline with a former A3 pilot; great guy. While he had hoped to fly fighters, he always said that strong grades during carrier training locked him into the A3. It had a reputation for requiring extra skill and, according to him, the A3 assignments went out ahead of everything else to ensure the right guys were flying it. He was later an A3 instructor and told some hair raising stories about teaching someone else while stuck in the right seat with no control stick ....

Ken

My father told me a story once (actually about a hundred times) about operations in the Med in KA-3 tankers. The fighter used to run practice intercepts on them during training. Whenever there were noob pilots in the fighter squadron this one particular whale pilot my father flew with like to knock some of the shine off their bars. The Phantom would come zipping in on intercept and work up a firing position on the KA-3. Something that was not widely known at the time is that the A-3 at full throttle is faster than a F-4 Phantom... until the afterburners kick in and then its no contest. Well these noob pilot would work up a firing solution and my father would give a running commentary on what the Phantom was doing. The Whale pilot would firewall the throttle and slowly pull away from the Phantom, frustrating the solution for the noob. The Phantom would try and catch up but couldn't, the moment the Phantom went to afterburners my father would warn his pilot and the he would chop the throttle, drop the flaps, open the speed brakes and drop the gear and tail hook to make the Whale as dirty as possible.

The over eager Phantom pilot would suddenly find the Skywarrior hanging in the air like a brick relative to his speed and he would overshoot. The Whale pilot would choose his moment, clean up everything and go to full throttle as the inexperienced Phantom pilot tried to rapidly slow down (not the smartest move). The Whale would slip in behind the Phantom and the pilot would declare "GUNS GUNS GUNS" over the radio, indicating he was "shooting down" the noob.

Suffice is to say, EVERYONE on the carrier new the noob pilot was shot down by a whale before the Phantoms tailhook caught the wire.

[Sasquatch]

Awesome story Scott! You gotta love stuff like that. KA-3s were our tankers on Forrestal-class boats when I was aboard flattops in '76-'78...don't know when they phased them out. I don't recall every seeing the bomber versions; I think they were already gone by then. Your dad had a GREAT job...a flying Plane Captain/crewman as opposed to us Phantom Plane Captains. Though I did manage to get one F-4 flight in the back seat before I rotated out.

-Tom

[Scott Rose]

:supz: Awesome story Scott! You gotta love stuff like that. KA-3s were our tankers on Forrestal-class boats when I was aboard flattops in '76-'78...don't know when they phased them out. I don't recall every seeing the bomber versions; I think they were already gone by then. Your dad had a GREAT job...a flying Plane Captain/crewman as opposed to us Phantom Plane Captains. Though I did manage to get one F-4 flight in the back seat before I rotated out.

-Tom

My father was in the Skywarrior in the 60's early 70s, then the phased out enlisted positions in aircrews of carrier aircraft and he transitioned to EP-3 Orions with VQ-1.

[Sasquatch]

P-3s were the way to go, in our F-4 world too. Carrier squadron life, even ashore--and as wonderful as it seems to me now--is a real cyclic grind and it does get tiring. Guys I worked with shipping over for another Navy hitch often went to patrol squadrons for the flying (moving up to Flight Engineer) and the great duty stations. I seriously considered it myself.

-Tom

[Scott Rose]

Just in...



B-24 Nose Art Name Directory
By Wallace R. Forman

Stumbled across this one on Amazon and thought I'd give it a shot, it was only $26. I'm hoping it will help identify a bunch of the Liberator photos I have in the WIX Archive.

If you'd like to snag a copy and support WIX, use the link below.

AMAZON

And there's one for B-17s too, haven't got that one yet but if one of you acquires it let me know how it is. And that one is selling used for $10!
Again, if you use the link below it helps support WIX.
AMAZON

Thanks for your support

[Michel Lemieux]

Seems like a nice book!!!! Let us know how you like it.

P.S. that name....with the extra armour plating over the name just says it all.....

Now that side window also seems odd!!!! Armour also?

[Scott Rose]

Seems like a nice book!!!! Let us know how you like it.

P.S. that name....with the extra armour plating over the name just says it all.....

Now that side window also seems odd!!!! Armour also?

I'd definitely say that is armor glass, that frame looks "aftermarket".

[Michel Lemieux]

Looks like my basement split window!