FAA’s diversity push includes focus on hiring people with ‘severe intellectual’ and ‘psychiatric’ disabilities
- Thread starter Oxman
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ASpilot2be
Qbicle seat warmer
We're supposed to be happy? I didn't get the memo.
SurferLucas
Southern Gentleman
No no no, not you…you fly cargo…back to unhappy/no 117 land for you. Dont let me catch you out of it again
ASpilot2be
Qbicle seat warmer
I get sad just entering the terminal these days.No no no, not you…you fly cargo…back to unhappy/no 117 land for you. Dont let me catch you out of it again
Pilot Fighter
Well-Known Member
VAH squadrons deplored with a squadron of up to nine planes on a single carrier.
Whale Dets came when VAQ-130 was the only EKA-3B squadron and sent Whales to Yankee Station. These Whales were not nuclear capable.
The A-6 and F-4 were nuclear capable, as were the VAH Whales and A-4’s. The Whales replaced the Savage, which were the Navy’s first nuclear bombers. Prior to that, the Navy put some one-way-only nuclear capable P-2’s aboard as a stopgap.
Pilot Fighter
Well-Known Member
In 1967, VAW-13 became VAQ-130 and traded their EA-1F’s for EKA-3B’s and KA-3B’s. Until EKA-3B airframes were available, VAQ-130 sent dets to Yankee Station carriers (and Da Nang) as they had previously with Spads. New VAQ squadrons were established as airframes were received.
No VAH units deployed with EKA-3B’s. VAH-123 became the RAG for EKA-3B crews but didn’t have any EKA-3B’s. Crews trained in straight Whales and modified C-1’s for ECM training.
I guess very early in the war, until maybe about 1966ish, VAH squadrons were actually doing bombing missions over North Vietnam?
ppragman
FLIPY FLAPS!
Some things you simply cannot understand until it happens to you. And that's "ok" - life is supposed to be like that I suppose. One of the things we all have to learn is that we cannot understand and know how everything feels. As time goes on I see this more and more everywhere - with people scowling at each other for various perceived faults, when really, we should walk a mile in the other person's shoes.
Now, it seems likely to me, that about 10-20% of people are •, sure - and I can try to walk a mile in there shoes but only because then I'm a mile away from them and they are barefoot - but in so many cases I feel like a little compassion goes a long way. Nearly every issue where there's some • screaming can be re-examined through the lens of "oh I wonder what it's like to be that person" and I find that why they act the way they do makes much more sense. Regardless, the burden is on us as people to evaluate each other through the lens of compassion and an attempt to understand not to judge - no matter the issue. That's easier said than done with that 10-20% of dbags, but yeah, we owe it to ourselves to at least try.
Pilot Fighter
Well-Known Member
Yes, but I think they were done by 1967. I recently bought Rick Morgan’s A-3 Units of the Vietnam War. I need to do a little reading. My Whale knowledge pretty much follows my dad’s VAW/VAQ trajectory.
Lawman
Well-Known Member
If you haven’t found it yet, there is a YouTube channel that does some incredible detail discussions on that period of 50-70ish tactical development.
It’s interesting from a pioneering jet age of SAC tactics or deep dives into the dissection of the MiG-21 and other stuff we got from the Israelis.
Example of one of the episodes.
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SurferLucas
Southern Gentleman
We need more A5 Vigilante talk here if we’re talking 1960’s Navy planes, esp the prettiest of them all.
Lawman
Well-Known Member
Oh man… he’s long gone but there was an old Vietnam era vet in Airwarriors.com that talked about being LSO quail’s for the Vigi… magnificent story teller.
Edit: found the old thread… Tell us a Story A4's
Every time I went to Key West I saw that thing sitting on its perch…. Looked like it was screaming to be going Mach 2 and being held in place like somebody paused time.
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Lawman
Well-Known Member
SurferLucas
Southern Gentleman
We had one at SFB, and it’s just such a gorgeous plane…looked like it could be an 80’s design. It and the F8 are two of my top Navy designed planes…just stunning pieces of work.
Pilot Fighter
Well-Known Member
And what happened to VAH squadrons? They were redesignated as VAQ squadrons, RVAH squadrons, or disestablished.
As a kid, my favorite plane was the Vigilante.
Lawman
Well-Known Member
You have to be broken somehow to look at that thing and not think it’s beautiful.
It’s like the SR-71 in full burner or a Black 70 Chevelle SS doing a burn out… I don’t need to know anything else but the image. It’s just violence, sex, and raw emotion given form.
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I believe they stopped taking the Whale to the boat after the Nimitz VQ Whale accident in ‘87?
We used to have 4 Whales based at DVT here, doing flight test work along with a couple of civilian F-8 Crusaders and two EA-7L Corsairs.
///AMG
Well-Known Member
Don't worry, A4's isn't gone, he just went elsewhere. Still kicking, albeit a lot older now. Retired NWA whale driver (the other whale) most recently, which was decades ago I believe.
There is a Fallon gate guard too, that is painted in mid-Nam era camo green. Kinda wild color scheme for that jet. But like you all are saying, the A-5/RA-5C is the hottest looking jet to ever have wheels I'd say.
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