Vol. 6, Summer 2002

A-3 Skywarrior Association

Newsletter

From the President…

With preparations for the 2002 A-3 Skywarrior First Flight 50^th Anniversary Reunion well underway, we are excited for this benchmark event to take place. The prospect of many old friends being able to reunite around the central theme of having labored on, in, or around the A-3 is exciting. The friendships and acquaintances, which sprung from a Web site dedicated to A-3 memories and grew to a viable organization, are meaningful and gratifying. I hope this gathering in Van Nuys on the last weekend in October 2002, exactly 50 years from when the Douglas Aircraft Co. first saw the A-3 take flight, will launch even more new friendships and solidify old ones. You former Heavies and Whalers have said much about the fact that the A-3 community was unique and special. It is my hope this camaraderie will continue to flourish.

One of our goals, beyond this anniversary celebration, has been to preserve some of the A-3 Skywarrior’s history. Obviously, the Web site is at the center of that role and will remain so as members continue to share their memories and experiences with others. Another important focus of preservation of the A-3’s history is the aircraft itself. Several are already in museums, but sadly, not all are maintained and displayed in a manner that befits the service to the Navy and this country that they represent. We think this needs to be addressed. As we grow and solidify, our hope is to establish a dialog with each of these museums. After assessing needs and identifying resources, we would like to see organized teams visit the museums to help staff members solve some of the problems that plague their A-3 Skywarrior exhibits, i.e., neglect, weather, and age. What better way to reminisce and have fun than to spend a few days working on the old birds again? Future reunions centered around this idea seem like a worthwhile task, and we plan to enlist your support and entertain some discussion about it in October.

We are continually spreading the word about the A-3 Association, but I know there are many, many others who don’t know about our plans or us. Please contact as many groups and individuals as you can, and encourage them to join us and help make some of these dreams a reality.

 Al Rankin, President

We Need Your Help!

            Several events are taking place this summer and early fall that we hope will further spread the news about and enlarge the membership of the A-3 Skywarrior Association but we need member volunteers to help out.

• Whidbey Island NAS is having their first flying air show in five years, called "Thunder on the Rock", on August 17, 18, 2002. The Whidbey ANA chapter has graciously offered to help us spread the word of our organization and reunion event at their booth during the air show. Any of you Skywarrior Assn. members in the area that would like to help, please contact me, president@a3skywarrior.com ,  and I will put you with the right person.

• The Tailhook Association has offered us a free space to share with the Intruder folks at Hook 2002 on Sept. 5-8. Unfortunately none of us that went last year will be able to make it back due to events leading up to our own celebration in October. If any of you old Whalers would like to man the booth and take in the festivities at Hook, let us know and we will get you the details. Please Email me president@a3skywarrior.com and I will get you in touch with the right people.

UPDATE

Mark Swisher reports that registrations for the 2002 A-3 Skywarrior First Flight 50^th Anniversary Reunion are steadily arriving in his mailbox. He just took off for vacation but when he gets back, he estimates we'll be over 100 registrants. The Airtel Plaza tells us that they have booked about half of the 580 room/nights they set aside for us. So if you haven't made up your mind yet, we encourage you to get signed up. Sometime in July we will make available a list of names of those already registered. This should encourage others to get signed up. Keep informed and up to date by checking the Web site (www.a3skywarrior.com) periodically for recent developments. October 28 will be here before you know it.

Our membership role is approaching the 600 mark (dues paid). Our master database has almost 1200 names of former whalers that we have accumulated since we started. Obviously, many of you filled out a data form but didn't send in dues. We encourage you to mail in your dues soon. Our strength depends of participation. To join simply fill out a dues form and mail in to the treasurer. Then fill out a data form so we can get you current in the database. Go to this link for all the forms.

One more thing...If your address has changed, that is email or snail mail we need to know so we can get a hold of you.

Frank Cogdell has been busy at the Naval Safety Center and the Naval Historical Center gathering reports we requested under the freedom of information act concerning accidents involving all A-3s. He reports that the task is complete except for still classified documents that we can not have. This will allow us to compile as complete a list as possible of all personnel lost during A-3 accidents. This list will be used during the memorial service to be held during the 50th celebration in Van Nuys.

Summer 2002 Feature Story

RECON MARINES VOLUNTEER TO JUMP OUT OF AN A-3

When Ed Heinemann conceived of the A-3 and put idea to paper and eventually to flight, he had one specific instruction. Design an aircraft to deliver a nuclear device from the deck of an aircraft carrier, and hurry or the Navy may be history! Well, he did and we’re not. But that single design criteria
turned into one of the most versatile and highly modified carrier-borne aircraft that was ever catapulted into the sky.            Once someone discovers and capitalizes on flexibility, you never know what ideas will emerge. Take this one we discovered, called “Operation Potshot.” We are not sure where or with whom it originated, but the short version of the concept was to deliver specially trained troops to an isolated target area where they were to perform a mission and get out. The delivery is where the A-3 entered the picture. The troops were going to be recon Marines, and one way to get them to that isolated spot was to launch them from a carrier and let them jump into the area. Could they jump out of an A-3? Why not? Couldn’t it drop paratroopers as well as bombs? Evidently several schemes to accomplish this were hatched.            Some testing took place at the El Centro Naval Aerospace Recovery Facility (later the National Parachute Test Range). Racks were designed to hold bodies that would be dropped from the bomb bay. Personnel used dummies, not Marines, and also tested various parachutes. Human drops were practiced by locking down the lower access door and letting the Marines slide out. Tests also involved Navy Seals and the feasibility of inserting them into combat zones as well.
	In the 1960s, a young E-2 marine, Marv Cohen, made one of those jumps. In fact, he was part of a short film promotion by Twentieth Century and The Prudential Insurance Company of America called, “The New Marines.” Narrated by Walter Cronkite, the footage focused on the dedicated and well-trained modern Marine, prepared for anything.
A piece of that film showed recon Marines manning an A-3, being launched from the Forrestal, bailing out, performing their mission, and then being picked up from a remote strip and returned to the ship via the COD. Cohen remembers the filming but stated that Cronkite never showed and only dubbed the narration. Also, the Marines and the A-3 involved in the drop came from Cherry Point or New River, N.C., not a carrier. The carrier flight operations portion was staged. Cohen doesn’t remember a lot about the jump but does recall that the Air Safety Board didn’t think much of the concept.
Our find—Operation Potshot, a similar test venture, was a West Coast operation involving Marines from Camp Pendleton. The date was March 19, 1962, and the A-3 squadron, VAH-8, was launching from the USS Midway. Following are the accounts of pilot, Lt. Nick Nickerson; second seat, Ltjg
Bob Flynn; and third seat, AT1 Dick Teply, an A-3 crew taking part in the exercise. Richard Teply, AMCS USN/USNR Ret 57-80 writes: IT'S TRUE, I flew that mission. As I recall, we only did it that one time...(I could be wrong). I was a gunner navigator (third crewman). My flight log book shows that it happened on March 19, 1962.  I remember the first Marine recon—they all looked like Arnold Swartzenager...if you know what I mean. We had a platform in the aft section of the bomb bay. The Marines sat on the platform while we were taxiing around the flight deck getting ready for the cat shot. I recall one of them getting the heel of his boot clipped a bit when we closed the bomb bay doors. I can't remember if they crammed into the companionway for the cat shot, or if they stayed on the platform.
	When we arrived at the jump zone, the pilot slowed the airplane down and the B/N opened the bomb bay doors. As I recall, the recon team then crammed into the companionway and jumped from that position. We had slowed to just above stall speed and out they went. The mission profile was for the team to cat off the ship in the Whale, bail out over the drop zone,
complete the assigned task, make their way back to the beach, and swim out to be picked up by a waiting submarine.   Nick Nickerson, CDR USN/Ret 55-77, chimes in with… I was the pilot scheduled for that mission, with Bob Flynn as the right seater and Dick Tepley as the third seater. As I recall, they stuffed three or four recon Marines in our companionway for a night cat shot off the Midway. We were to fly in over the beach at Camp Pendleton at about 2500 feet altitude, come to a predetermined visual fix from the east with the bomb bay doors open, locate a signal lamp on the ground, and then these guys were to jump out. There was sort of a traffic light jury-rigged in the bomb bay with green, orange, and red colors. It was visible to the Marines and controlled by Flynn. The red light would be on until we got near our IP, then Flynn would turn the yellow light on advising the guys to get ready, we're almost there. When I sighted the signal light from the ground, Flynn would switch the green light on, and away they would go. Anyway, that was the way it was supposed to work.
Back in the ready room, before the flight, we all kind of briefed each other as to what to expect from the Marine point of view, and we told them what they could expect from us. After parachuting into this broken terrain, they were to escape and evade capture by some more Marines posing as the enemy, make their way to the beach,
and then swim 4000 yards out to sea to be picked up by a submarine. Boy, was I impressed!           I remember prior to this, their officer, a charging young 1st Lt., mentioning to me that he was trying to get the powers that be to approve his request to be dropped out of an A3 bomb bay, going real slow and at about 100', and when curled up in a ball, he would hit the water, skip a few times, and then start swimming to complete his mission. I guess that didn't get approved. Gutsy guys, these recons.           As the briefing ended, their officer reminded them that they could still back out of this mission. I remember them sitting there in the front row of the ready room with all their battle gear on and their camouflaged faces making their eyes look that much bigger, shaking their heads, "No." I thought for a moment that they had decided not to go, but I guess those nods meant they didn't want to back out.           Everything went smoothly. We manned the plane, got a cat shot, and away we went! At the scheduled time, we dropped down to about 2500', our flaps down at some slow speed, heading westbound across Camp Pendleton looking for the signal light. Our crew’s conversation ricocheted back and forth somewhat as follows:
	"Everything OK back there, Teply?"       "Yes, sir. Looking good!"       "OK, tell them we're opening the doors! Bob, go ahead and open them and give 'em a yellow light!"       "Rog."       "Nick, you see anything down there?"       "Not yet. It sure is black down there. Boy, you wouldn't get me doing this!"
"We should be there by now!"       "Ah, wait a second. I think I see the signal."       "Are you sure? I don't see anything!"       "Pretty sure."       "Should I give 'em the green light?"       ”Ahhh...."       "Wha’d ya say?"       "Yeah, I think so... Go ahead."       "Oh, wait. That's not it!"       "What???"       "I said that's not it. Don't give 'em the green yet!"       "I ALL READY DID! IT'S TOO LATE!"       "Ah, Teply. Are they still on board?"       "No sir! They're all gone!"       "Hmmm, well that's too bad. I hope they will be all right. Close the doors, and let's go look for a Charlie time."       As we were climbing through 3000', "Oh, look over there at 11 o'clock. There's the signal light."       Never did hear what happened to those guys....
Bob Flynn, CDR, USN Ret, 58-85. NOW, FOR THE REALLY TRUE STORY!!! The actual drops, as per my logbook, were 13 and 14 March 62. We were VAH-8 flying off USS Midway. Two crews were involved: Jack Quinn, Ray English (and I can't recall the crewman); and Howie
Nickerson, Bob Flynn (me), and Dick Teply.           Quinn and crew had met well in advance of the ops with the Marine special recon people and had tried several ideas (side seating and aft seating in bomb bay) which proved to be unworkable. Thus the method used was to seat two Marines in the cockpit (third crewman stayed on the ground and gave up his seat plus the jump seat on the deck). When we approached the drop zone, we would drop gear and flaps, open the bomb bay, and the Marines would disconnect from the ICS and take their positions for drop. One Marine would sit on the edge of the cockpit deck dangling his feet into the bomb bay and the empty sky—the other would crouch and hug him from behind.       We had three lights (about 6 inch diameter): AMBER=standby, GREEN=jump/go, and RED=abort. The B/N controlled the lights and when he hit the green button, both Marines exited instantly and simultaneously, one scootch-jumping with the croucher shoving. Out they went hugged together. As soon as they cleared the aircraft, they shoved each other apart and popped their chutes.       They wanted to land as close to each other on the ground as possible. We dropped them from 1200' AGL to give them a modest time of fall. Problems? You betchum Red Ryder. The Marines thought we could drop them on radar. We sure could. We could make ‘em hit the ground, but
	where? What are the ballistics for a 165-pound Marine with full field pack? We never quite scientifically solved that problem, but through trial and error involving many practice runs with their leader, a mustang captain, we settled on something. I used the computer and radar to the maximum extent possible,

and since we were to be dropping humans into a football field-sized clearing in mountainous boondocks, I got me some of them there VISUAL BACKUPS----namely a nice, high, pointed mountain peak at 12 o'clock and a lake at 9:00 o'clock that glared at me by day and shined well by moonlight.       My logbook shows three flights where we dropped two Marines each for a total of six dropped. It seems to me on the first flight (3.5 hours) we only dropped one, their leader the captain, and that's when we made all the dry practice (“trial and error”) runs. On that flight, I'm quite sure, we had our trusty crewman Dick Teply along with the captain in the jump seat. So I think Nick and I only dropped five (one, two and two). The second flight appears to have been one where we did a two-man day drop, and flew into the nighttime to make night dry runs (praise the peak and the lake). The logbook shows we got a night landing at Mirimar plus a carrier landing on Midway for a 2.7.       The third flight was the big one. The two previous flights were both on 13 March 62 and were both day drops. The flight on 14 March was the “night go” night cat, night para drop, and night landing. All went well until the tail end of my ASB-7 Marine run. I had what I was supposed to have on radar, the bombay doors were open, the two young Marines were sitting and crouching, the amber light was on, and I had the green light button at the ready in my hand. I had the mountain peak visually and Nick's steering was perfect, but no lake—no lake. The computer and steering hit zero and still no lake, so I hit the abort light—and that's when the lake showed up. I looked back in the cockpit and saw a Marine coming foreword. When he got to me, he yelled (no ICS), "My buddy, he went. I couldn't hold him."       I reassured him that I'd hit the abort light because I wasn't absolutely sure of our situation, but that it had proven to be OK and his buddy should have hit the drop zone. I also told him that we'd make another run and that he could go, but only if he wanted to and that he didn't have to. All he could say was, "Gotta get with my buddy. Gotta get down there with my buddy. Gotta get to my buddy." So we got him to his buddy. We logged 1.9 flight hours and a carrier landing. Best of all, both Marines landed fine in the same football field-sized clearing!        Editor: However the exact event transpired and the evaluation of the total concept was recorded, it never became a fully sanctioned and operational method of troop insertion. But with Navy “can do” attitude and Marine “gung ho” training, they gave it a shot to see if it could be done.

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