This fabulous topic deserved a bump

Thank you very much for these films. A great time!

Monday

20 SEPT 53

 

Dear Mother and Dad,
    

Sitting here in our makeshift living room, amidst all our stolen gear (merely confiscated to further our comfort) I decided to write a real “gung-ho” letter and describe to you the fascinating life of a naval aviator (home town boy makes good) aboard ship.
  

If occasional brown spots appear on the paper it is because squadron mate, Al Booth, is shooting the “bull” faster than I can sweep it away with a rapid backward motion of my left arm.  Pardon my French.
    

It will please you doting parents to know that your offspring has not flown in four days and has had to take to bodily exercise to work off excess energy when the usual methods (loud and prolonged cursing of all military ways and officers above ensigns, inciting unrest and mutiny among the enlisted men) failed to relieve the tension.
    

We are now 200 miles NE of Gander Newfoundland and the weather is such that all the brass monkeys aboard have died of frustration and consternation.
  

 The last few days have been nothing but all pilots meetings which consist of putting out of the word, dull type, by some senior officer.  This routine is sprinkled generously with taxi hops where all the ensigns and junior J.G.’s dash madly onto the flight deck and act like they are going somewhere but only taxi to the forward end of the ship so a ready deck may be maintained.  This is causing the maintenance people to gurgle strange utterings and roll their eyes as this aids in fouling spark plugs causing frequent changes of the innards of the beautiful R-3350 engines.  However, such shenanigans are good for the soul in that the plots are kept busy to such a state that they look to the skies and call wrath on the Chief of Naval Operations, Bureau of Aeronautics, Captain of the Wasp, Flight Deck Officers, and plane spotters and taxi signalman in that order. Plane spotters and taxi signal men because they bring you up to the edge of the deck in such a position as to obscure all objects from the pilot’s vision except the frothing cold, cold water 60 feet below.
    

Such as this serves to push out of any innocent halfwits mind all thoughts of making this canoe club a career.
    

Finally got in the air today on a 3 ½ hour tail buster.  We went out about 80 miles then the six of us “snuck” back in and three of the guys made a dive bombing run on the Wasp while the other three of us made a torpedo run on the Bennington.  I always get a charge out of the people on deck when you come whipping over about 15 feet off the deck at 300 knots.
    

Then we stayed down and made strafing runs on the escort vessels as we ran away.  I cut across and gave the cruiser Macon a dusting off hoping Earl Thornton was on deck and somehow figured out it was me.
  

Don’t let this letter fool you.  It really isn’t bad and I’m enjoying it a lot now.  At first though I have never been so miserable in my life.

 

Let Joe O’Conner read this and tell him to write.
    
                        Love,
                        Roy
 

 

Hello.

 

Very nice grouping.! Thanks for sharing it .

Arnaud (France/ Paris)

On 4/8/2019 at 2:09 AM, frank2far said:

APH-6 with VA-673.

It' s an aph 5 not an aph6

Sunday

4 October 1953

 

Dear Mother and Dad,

 

Well, Operation Mariner is finished and we have broken away from the task force and are heading independently to Naples.

           

I haven’t flown since the 23, September but I got 5 hours 13 minutes that day plus a night landing.  It wasn’t scheduled or I wouldn’t have been on the “hop” but it just turned out that way.  I had not even had a night FCLP, so I was pretty proud.  All the guys kidded me and congratulated me and said it was a better pass than I usually make in the day time.

           

We came into the break up slot and I said “what airspeed do you fly this darn thing on a night pass?”  Somebody said “Don’t get below 90 knots.”  So that was it.  I turned off the bow like a day pass and wasn’t quite long enough in the groove but it didn’t matter.  The LSO held a Rodger on me all the way up to the ramp when he gave me a high, fast, and a cut in quick succession.  Nice landing, number 2 wire.

           

It’s no different from a day pass except you have to check your instruments more closely and start higher.  The LSO has a lighted suit and lighted paddles.

           

I have been grounded with a cold and tonsillitis for the past week but I am O.K. now.  I have been having to work pretty hard and have lost a lot of sleep but that’s the way it goes around here.  Loaf for a day or so and then work like hell.  Thursday I didn’t even go to bed. 

           

As for seeing interesting things I haven’t seen anything I couldn’t have seen 20 miles out of Jax.  The weather was so bad the Iceland or Greenland strikes didn’t go off and I was grounded for the British strikes.  They didn’t see anything either because the weather was so bad.  I have the duty one day in Naples so I won’t see too much there I don’t guess. 

           

We won’t fly hardly any for the next 30 days or more and if the war doesn’t start again we will fly even less.  Sure would like to be back on the beach if for nothing else but the flying.

           

It’s warming up here a lot now and the water is up to 62 degrees so we don’t have to wear loopy bags any more when we fly.

           

I’ll write again soon so take it easy.

                                   

                                                   Love,    Roy

                                                                                   

I’ve recently located a few patches from the cruise. 
 

This one is rather large, about 7” in length. I paid a lot for it, but money well spent for me to have it. 
 

I suspect it is VF-173, since it was the only F9 Cougar.
 

 

This one it is rather longer than those I’ve typically seen of the same design at

6-1/2 x 8-3/8”. 
 

 

This one I’ve not seen before, also I’ve seen similar designs for other carriers. Also a larger patch at 9”. 
 

 

Another really nice quality patch at 6x5. 
 

 

Although I have another VC -33 Night Hawks, I believe this is an earlier version due the the quality. It is also trimmed down as normally observed on Jackets. A little mothing that has been mitigated. 
 

 

Good looking patches, congrats.

I've been able to locate more families of veterans from this cruise.

 

Walter "Bud" Tilgman

 

Alan Keiran

 

Roy Davis

 

 

Tom McDonald. He crashed on a side of a mountain due to heavy fog in late 1953. He survived.

 

 

A few photos from the cruise thanks to some family members of Alan Keiran.

 

 

A few more

 

 

LSO Jim Shannon. Leaning on the F4U, USS Roosevelt.

 

VF-172 aviator Paul Creteau, center.

 

 

Great photos, thanks for sharring!

I meant to add Paul Creteau's Logbook, wings and dog tags.

 

VA-175 aircraft decal

OK, I'm going down a rabbit hole on VA-175 for a bit. Here are some photos from when VA-175 was un the USS Roosevelt in 1952 under the Command of Ross Knight.

 

Ross Knight (Right) taking command of VA-175 from Malcolm Wolfe, 1952.

 

VA-175, Bob Fitch's 200th carrier landing on the FRD 1952. Ken Templeton behind.