Newsletter
April 2000
A-3 Skywarrior Assn.
Newsletter
The A-3 Skywarrior Association is launching its next phase and it's time for dues-paying members to sign on! Read on.......... |
Participation and enthusiasm are continuing with regard to the A-3 Skywarrior Web site. New visitors arrive daily. Many ‘Ole Whalers’ have submitted photos, stories, patches, and memorabilia that have contributed to the popularity. Keep checking those dusty boxes in the attic and garage. You may have something you’ve forgotten about that would interest other Whalers.
A few months ago we put together a steering committee from our group to begin to formulate some plans as we look at a reunion and other issues. We’ve grown so much that we had to move to a commercial Web host, for starters. The committee funded that effort. Preparing for a reunion will take resources in the form of volunteers and funds. The committee is unanimous in recommending that it’s time to collect dues to begin the next steps. Following is a list of goals that best indicate our direction in the near future:
At this point in time, your dues of $20/yr. will be a donation to the cause and records will be maintained for complete accountability. When it becomes economically feasable and time permissable, it is our intention to provide membership certificates or cards along with an A-3 Association brochure.
This outlines our vision for the A-3 Skywarrior
Association. We hope you will want to participate with us. Click here 
for a printable form to be
mailed in with your membership dues. A receipt will be e-mailed to you.
The following are the steering committee members:
John Anayannis, Ken Ballard, Tom Maxwell, Andy Niemyer, Al Rankin, Mark Swisher, and
Jack Taylor.
JOIN NOW TO HELP PRESERVE THE HISTORY YOU MADE WHILE SERVING!
-----More News-----
A note of encouragement comes from our own steering committee member Ken Ballard, who works as liaison between the Navy and Raytheon in keeping the 'last A-3 squadron' flying and recently visited Van Nuys. He reports, after some gentle arm twisting I'm sure, that Raytheon is tentatively committed to helping out with the 2002 First Flight 50th Anniversary Reunion. It may be in the form of providing an A-3 at a chosen location or offering some sort of access to the A-3s at their place. We at the A-3 Skywarrior Association are encouraged with this news and thank Ken and Raytheon for their efforts. It definitely gives us a starting position as we begin to plan and it would also lend great excitement and focus to the reunion.
Committee member Andy Niemyer has made contact with the Tailhook Association and we are looking into the feasibility of having a presence in the form of a booth at Tailhook 2000. This would help us promote the A-3 Skywarrior Association, recruit more members, and promote the 2002 First Flight 50th Anniversary Reunion.
dateline:
NAS Whidbey Island Washington
March 14 Happy Hour: About that A-3 model…
Editors note...the follow excerpts were taken from a report in the ANA Whidbey Air Plan by Mark Morgan.
An immaculate large-scale wind tunnel model of the mighty A-3 Skywarrior took center stage at the O'club as squadron members and others of the Whale persuasion gathered for hors d’oeuvres, libation, and classic sea stories.
Retired CAPT "Deke" Forbes--former OinC VAH-4 Det Golf, XO/CO HATRON Four, CO VAH-123 and the 65th Commandant at the U.S. Naval Academy--presented the model to the squadron and O’Club "museum" during the ceremonies and speechifying. His son, CDR Chris "Deke" Forbes of the Naval Safety Center, assisted. The younger Forbes cleaned up the aircraft and added finely detailed squadron markings; he also put together a ten-minute multi-media slide show on the noble Whale that was well received by all in attendance. LCDR Bill Snyder, OinC of VR-61, completed the deal by arranging to haul the model from the east coast to Whidbey Island for the ceremony.
Afterwards the group discussed the "formal" kickoff of the "Bring a Whale to Whidbey" campaign, led by CAPT Tom "TP" Lane. An impressive rendition of a display A-3 by artist Tony Turpin grabbed everyone’s attention while Lane commented on the activities to this point and future efforts to put an A-3 on display at Whidbey. "Ranger" Mark Morgan
As you can tell from the story,
steps are underway to procure an A-3 for a static display at NAS Whidbey. We will stay
abreast of these developments as they unfold. Information is also available at the
following Web site:
http://www.anawhidbey.org
The following tale was sent to us by Phil Wendling, CWO4 USN
RET. It provides the final piece of the puzzle in answering the question of "what
ever happened to GiGi?"
1958-1981
The Final Chapter on GiGi
While I was attached to Heavy Ten on my first WestPac cruise aboard the USS Constellation in 1963, a plan was set up with the approval of all Vikings, including Viking One Cdr. Frank Last, to steal the Golden Goddess from Heavy Six aboard the USS Ranger in port at Yokosuka, Japan. The night before the Ranger was to pull out, we launched two Viking Whales from Constellation to Atsugi. That evening at the base, we checked out a Navy Ford station wagon with a young airman driver and headed to Yokosuka. When liberty expired at midnight aboard the Ranger, we (Vikings LT Larry Hamaker, Crewman AQB3 Joe Flood, AQB2 Sam Anderson and myself, AT2 Phil Wendling) went aboard. We were in civilian clothes and boarded up the officers brow (in those days we enlisted guys never wore civilian clothes aboard ship, let alone went up the officers brow!).
LT Hamaker told the OOD we were a working party to help remove the admiral's awards and personnel staff items to be transferred to the USS Constellation. We proceeded to ready room 6. Inside the ready room, the ASDO was reading and paid no attention until Joe Flood grabbed him from behind and said, "Don't move and you won't get hurt." We tied him to the stantion with my white skinny belt (popular in those days) and gagged him.
The Goddess was secured to the bulkhead with a heavy steel strap at her base. Sam and I proceeded to saw through the strap (we came prepared). It was very difficult and before we could free the Goddess, a knock came at the locked front door of the ready room. A loud authoritative voice said, "This is Cdr. so & so, the XO. If you don't open this door right now I'll get the Marines!"
Since we did not have the Goddess free yet, we opened the door and Joe Flood restrained the XO--picture AQB3 Flood wrestling on the deck with a full commander! Meanwhile, Sam and I got the Goddess cut free. However, we damaged her base pretty bad. Sam and I grabbed up GiGi and ran out the back door, up the ladder to the hangar deck, past the OOD and down the gang plank.
The OOD yelled at the Marine at the bottom of the ladder to "stop those guys!" A big Marine with a big gun blocked our path. But with the momentum and heavy weight of GiGi, we knocked him down.
Lt Hamaker had the car and driver in position at the bottom of the ladder. We jumped in the car while the OOD was yelling at us and the downed Marine. Joe Flood finally came running as fast as he could. He had to push the OOD out of his way to get down the brow ladder. He knocked the OOD's cover off and it landed in the water between the ship and pier. Joe jumped into the car and we sped away.
We had preplanned to stash the Goddess at the base chaplain’s house (recently transferred from Whidbey). After doing that, we drove back to base at Atsugi where the car was searched. After the Ranger left port and the Connie pulled in, we removed the Goddess from the chaplain’s home and put her in the Viking's ready room.
Sometime later during that cruise, the Puking Dogs of VA-143 tried to steal GiGi from us but were unsuccessful. In their attempt to steal her, she was dropped on the deck during the struggle and broken in half at the waist. Viking Lcdr Bill Sturgeon put her back together in shapely fashion and repaired the damage to her base.
Some years later, the Puking Dogs of VA-143 were successful in stealing her from some other heavy squadron. At this point in GiGi’s life, she became pregnant via some plaster of Paris artwork. She was rescued from the fighter jocks ( I don't know that story) and made her way back to Whidbey Island.
In 1978 when I was assigned to VAQ-131, I heard that the Goddess was being held by the Raven's of VAQ-135. I fired up the junior officers of the VAQ-131 Lancers (formally VAH-4 before the transition) and we stole the Goddess out of their CO's office. Easy job! We just had to steal a key to the skipper’s office, and with no guards and no resistance, she was ours.
She was in pretty bad shape after the abortion and being accosted by VA-143, so I sent her to a doctor in Mt. Vernon and had her fixed. When I got her back home, I presented her to Admiral Sealy during one of our dine-ins at the O'Club.
I transferred from the Lancers in 1980 while we were on deployment to the Mediterranean. GiGi pulled a lot of liberty on that cruise and even made it through the Suez Canal. Unfortunately, that was her last deployment.
After I had left the squadron during that Med Cruise, she was put in a void for safe keeping but suffered severe injuries. She was unceremoniously buried at sea by the "Gutter Rats" of VAQ-131 in February 1981. It is ironic that after being recruited into the Navy by Heavy Four from Tim’s Nightclub in Alameda, she was buried at sea by one of their descendents, VAQ-131. The A3 community will always remember her escapades and the esprit de corps she brought.
REMINDER...Please mail in your dues
to support the A-3 Skywarrior Association.
dues form
