Scream of Eagles - F

How the Royal Navy Air Warfare Instructors (AWIs) influenced the formation of the USN TOPGUN program and
the RAN Fleet Air Arm (FAA) Sea
Venom FAW Mk.53 and Skyhawk A4G
Operations. RAN AWIs initially were
trained at RNAS Lossiemouth at the
AWI school until 1974 when they were
trained at NAS Nowra by ex-RN AWIs
& subsequently RAN AWIs afterwards.
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“TOPGUN was formerly known officially as the United States Navy Fighter Weapons
School, and was established on March 3, 1969 at NAS Miramar, California after a United
States Navy report recommended that a graduate-level school be established to train Fleet
fighter pilots in air combat tactics to counter the relatively poor air combat performance
being experienced by Navy aircrews over Vietnam. The school initially operated the A-4
Skyhawk and F-5 Freedom Fighter to instruct F-4 Phantom II aircrews, including the first
US aces of the Vietnam War, Randy Cunningham and Willie Driscoll. The 1970s and 1980s
brought with them the introduction of the F-14 Tomcat and the F/A-18 Hornet as the
primary Fleet fighter aircraft flown by students, while TOPGUN instructors retained their
A-4s and F-5s, but also added the F-16 Fighting Falcon to better simulate the threat
presented by the Soviet Union's new 4th generation MiG-29 'Fulcrum' and Su-27 'Flanker'
fighters. During the 1990s, the TOPGUN syllabus was modified to include more emphasis
on the air-to-ground strike mission as a result of the expanding multi-mission taskings of
the F-14 and F/A-18. In addition, TOPGUN retired their F-4s, A-4s, and F-5s in favor of F-16s
and F/A-18s. In 1996, the transfer of NAS Miramar to the Marine Corps was coupled with
the incorporation of TOPGUN into the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center at NAS Fallon,
Nevada. TOPGUN instructors currently fly the F/A-18 Hornet and the F-16 Falcon.
TOPGUN was made famous in popular culture by the 1986 release of the motion picture Top Gun.”
‘Top Gun’ Movie Patch
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one. The presTOP GUN AND reciprocal
ence of British instructors
THE BRITISH on VF-121 made available
An exchange programme
between the Royal Navy
and US Navy had existed
for many years. But from
1964 onwards, in advance
of the Phantom’s introduction into Royal Navy
service, small numbers of
experienced FAA Pilots and
Observers were sent to
NAS Miramar in California
where they flew as instructors on VF-121, the US
Navy’s Fleet’s Replacement
Air Group, or RAG. At
‘Fightertown, USA’ the Brits
helped train rookie crews
in the rudiments of flying
and fighting the F-4 before
these students were posted to frontline squadrons.
At the end of their tours,
the British exchange crews
were able to bring home
great experience of the
Phantom and its systems,
but the relationship was a
a handful more US Navy
aircrews to the frontline
fighting in Vietnam – a war
that by the end of the decade had sucked in over half
a million US troops. A war
that was not going well.
US Navy pilots in Vietnam
were struggling to gain the
upper hand against the
enemy. And, by the end of
the sixties, concern about
their poor performance
had become so acute that
addressing the situation
became a priority for US
Admirals. And in the effort
to turn things round, the
small British contingent
at Miramar would play an
important part.
Alongside its Phantom
squadron, Miramar was
home to VF-124, its equivalent Crusader RAG. And it
was Vought F-8 Crusader
jockeys who walked into
the bar at Happy Hour with the Phantoms until one
of them stumbled onto
the biggest swagger. The
single-seat F-8s were real the tail of an F-4 being
pilot’s jets, known to their flown by a Royal Navy Air
Warfare Instructor called
pilots as ‘The Last of the
Geoff Hunt. And he wasn’t
Gunfighters’. Relatively
having any of it.
small and agile, armed
In response to the
with machine guns and
indignity of discovering
short-range missiles they
were out and out dogfight- an F-8 on his tail, Hunt
slammed the Phantoms
ers. The Phantom, by
contrast, was huge, carried engines through the gate
to engage full afterburner
a crew of two and wasn’t
even equipped with a gun, and pulled into a screaming
relying instead on guided
turn towards the attacking
missiles alone. For all its
F-8. And then the two jets
record breaking, the Navy fought until their fuel was
never expected their new
gone. The Crusader pilot
interceptor to get tangled landed with eyes like dinner
up in the messy business
plates.
of dogfighting. It was supOnly the best were
posed to be beyond all that. selected to go on the
And Miramar F-8 pilots had Royal Navy’s Air Warfare
become bored of ambush- Instructors Course. And
ing them. Screaming into
for most students it was
someone’s six o’clock only the most demanding, most
to provoke a gentle 2 ‘G’
rewarding flying that they
turn in response – where
would ever enjoy. Ground
was the fun in that? They’d theory at HMS Excellent,
almost started to ignore
the Naval Gunnery School
in Portsmouth, was folThrough the instructors on aircraft than made up the
lowed by 3 months inten- exchange at Miramar, the
entire Fleet Air Arm. His
sive flying with 764 NAS at AWI’s methods made their own squadron, VF-121,
Lossiemouth. Flying 3, 4
way into perhaps the most had over 80. And it was in
and sometimes 5 sorties
well-known programme in the unit’s sheer size –the
a day in the squadron’s
the history of naval aviavolume of people involved
Hunters, students would
tion: Top Gun.
– that Lord, a single minded
learn about every aspect
The Brits at Miramar did and talented fighter pilot,
of modern tactics and
their best to fit in. They
quickly realised that a
weaponry, from ACM and
gave themselves US-style problem lay. As he passed
developing spatial aware- callsigns. But rather than
around the debriefing
ness leading divisional
the Vipers and Mavericks
cubicles that surrounded
attacks of 4 aircraft, to
that seemed to prevail,
the main room he listened
delivering nuclear weapons. they came up with Alien,
in. No-one teaching tactics
Sandwiched around the fly- Dogbreath, Cholmondley
was more revered than
ing they were given lessons and Spastic [LCDR Al
those pilots who’d killed
on how to brief and debrief Hickling SP then CO
MiGs in Vietnam.
a sortie, and taught about VC-724 in 1972-3]. When
‘Alright kid, you fly like
teaching. Because when
Lt Dick Lord arrived at
this’ Lord heard them say
they were posted to their
Miramar in 1966 he called ‘because this is how I flew
next squadrons, it would
himself Brit One. Because in Vietnam. And if you
be as that squadron’s
he was South African and don’t, they’re going to bust
AWI – the resident expert. because he liked the idea your ass!’ Then in the next
764 instructed its students of his American wingman
cubicle he’d hear someto join their squadrons
having to call himself Brit 2. thing completely different.
and share what they’d
Lord was staggered by the
‘Alright kid, you fly like
learned, spreading that
size of the operation the
this, because that’s how I
expertise throughout the
US Navy had there.
flew in Vietnam. And, if you
whole frontline. And they’d
Sitting on the harddon’t they’re going to bust
been doing it since 1959.
standing were more
your ass!’
There was no clear,
consistent message. He
could only imagine how it
must scramble the brains
of eager-to-impress young
students.
For his debriefing following his first sortie as
an instructor, Lord asked
for coloured chalk. On
the AWI course at Lossie
after every engagement,
he scribbled down headings, speeds, who did
what, when, where errors
were made. Then, in the
debrief after the sortie,
he could recreate the
fight on the blackboard,
pick it apart in detail and
learn from it. It took the
ego and subjectivity out
of it - stopped a debrief
just becoming a pissing
contest. Using the same
techniques he pointed out
his students errors and
explained how and where
he’d gained an advantage.
And soon he found that his
debriefs were starting to
own aircraft’s advantage
get crowded. Dan McIntyre, lay. And exactly where
boss of the air-to-air secyour weaknesses were
tion of VF-121, noticed it
found. Lord added it to
too and asked him to write his teaching, amused that
a revised ACM syllabus for he was now lecturing on
the whole squadron and
something he wasn’t even
tour the west coast bases allowed to have read.
lecturing US Navy attack
As the war in Vietnam
pilots on ACM.
deepened, sucking in
Lord threw himself into men and material in ever
it and, in early 1968, was
greater quantities, alarm
slipped a dusty file marked was growing amongst
‘Top Secret: For US Eyes
US Admirals about the
Only’ containing USAF
performance of the Navy’s
Major John Boyd’s work on fighters – and especially
Energy Manoeuvrability.
about its new ‘hot ship’ the
Shot through with mathF-4 Phantom. By the end
ematical formulae he could of the sixties, the F-4 had
see why the report had
only accounted for thirteen
been gathering dust. But
MiGs. The older, simpler,
Lord stuck with it and
gun-armed F-8 Crusader
realised it was golddust.
had eighteen. More worryBoyd had used graphs to
ingly, the overall American
illustrate the performance kill ratio against the MiGs
envelopes of different
was stubbornly refusing to
fighters. By overlaying
rise much above 2:1. Just
one graph with another,
two small, cheap enemy
Boyd’s work could show
jets for every multi-million
you exactly where your
dollar American fighter.
Throughout World War
Two and Korea the ratio
had been closer to 10:1.
Something had clearly
gone wrong.
In the summer of 1968,
Dick Lord left Miramar to
become the Royal Navy’s
pre-eminent weapons and
tactics instructor, the Air
Warfare Instructor of 764
NAS itself. But his legacy
at Miramar was there for
all to see in the standardisation, organisation and
rigour of the new VF-121
tactics course. A couple of
months after Lord returned
to the UK, one of his fellow
instructors, Lt Cdr Dan
Pederson USN, the squadron’s operations officer,
became the first CO of
the Navy Fighter Weapons
School. NFWS was soon
dubbed ‘Topgun’, its role,
like 764, was to take the
best crews in the fleet and,
for a month, give them
intense and comprehensive
tuition in aerial combat
before sending them back
to share that knowledge
in squadron ready rooms
throughout the Navy.
Topgun wasn’t consciously modelled on the
Royal Navy’s Air Warfare
Instructor’s Course, but
the similarities were
pronounced, and Pederson
was quick to acknowledge
Lord’s contribution – he’d
attended some of the Fleet
Air Arm pilot’s lectures
himself. Dick Lord’s work
at the VF-121 Tactics
Group was the foundation
on which Pederson and
the original eight Topgun
instructors built their
course. One of the eight,
John Nash, maintained that
the month-long course
was ‘nothing more than
an extended course of the
RAG tactics syllabus. And,
of course, Lord had written
that syllabus.
In 1970, a Phantom
launched from the deck
known as NATOPS:
of the USS Constellation
‘To be successful in
shot down a MiG-21 with
the fighter business the
an AIM-9 Sidewinder mis- aircrew must, first and
sile. It was the first MiG
foremost, have a thorough
shot-down by the US Navy background in fighter
in nearly two years of
tactics. They must acquire
war. The pilot’s name was an excellent knowledge of
Lt Jerry Beaulier. And he
all their equipment. Then
was a graduate of the first they must approach the
class ever to pass through problem with a spirit of
Topgun.
aggression, and with utter
Dick Lord’s parting gift
confidence.’
to Miramar was a typed
It sat alongside just one
fourteen-page document
other quotation. And that
he called ‘Flying and
was from Manfred Von
Fighting the Phantom’. It
Richtofen, the Red Baron;
was a distillation of all
the most famous fighter
he’d learnt about the jet
pilot who’s ever lived.
in his time in the tactics
Dougal Macdonald
group. Copies were handed was Dick Lord’s last ever
to every single VF-121
student at 764 NAS. Not
student on their arrival at everyone coped with either
Miramar. It was also sent
the physical or psychoto McDonnell-Douglas, the logical stresses of the AWI
Phantom’s manufacturer.
course. Over three months
They were sufficiently
students spent a lot of
impressed to quote from
time pulling ‘G’ and flying
it on the opening page of
straight at the ground
the F-4’s operating manual, – and that was never a
game for the faint-hearted.
And in being an Observer
rather than a pilot going
through the Air Warfare
Instructor’s Course,
Macdonald was a rarity. As
a Looker, he had no direct
control over the aircraft,
but, in having responsibility for navigation and
operating the weapons
system, he controlled
nearly everything else.
Without him, the guy in
the front seat could fly fast
and make a lot of noise,
but he couldn’t fight a war.
It was a lesson that oldschool fighter jocks were
still getting to grips with.
A fighter with a two-man
crew was more capable
than a single-seater. The
workload was shared; you
had an extra pair of eyes.
Dick Lord took the
young Observer under
his wing, flying as pilot
on most of Macdonald’s
sorties himself. He was
determined that Macdonald
was going to get through.
His first impression of
any young aircrew he
met came from the look
in their eyes. Macdonald,
tough and eager, his eyes
were alive with the spark
he was looking for. Much
more than the pilots, Lord
knew, the ‘Lookers’ were
completely outside of their
comfort zone at 764. But
Macdonald thrived during
his time at Lossie. And not
only did he qualify as an
Air Warfare Instructor himself, but, like his mentor,
he became an Instructor at
Miramar and, after sitting
the Top Gun course himself, joined an elite group
of aviators.
(PS In the broadcast
Doug let on that his callsign was “Haggis” - no
comment).”
http://www.fleetairarmoa.org/pages/images_
pages/page79.htm
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Brigadier General
introduced by British pilots, all
He and a handful of other
graduates of the AWI school
Fleet Air Arm graduates
Dick Lord–1936-2011 of the Royal Navy’s gruelat Lossiemouth, made their
way into the US Navy Fighter
ling Air Warfare Instructors
Brigadier General Dick Lord,
Weapons School, which was
(AWI) school in Lossiemouth,
the Fleet Air Arm pilot who
set up in 1969. Better known
Scotland, introduced rigorous
has died aged 75, was instrunew methods for recording and as Top Gun, it remains the
mental in the development of
scrutinising the performance of most famous programme in
America’s Top Gun fighter pilot trainees during exercises. Lord, the history of naval aviation.
academy, made famous by the for example, scribbled notes on Soon after it was established
film of the same name.
a Phantom flown by one of its
a pad on the knee of his flight
Lord established his unusual suit during mock dogfights,
first students shot down a MiGrole in 1968, when he was the which he then exhaustively
21, the first time a US Navy
foremost British instructor
aircraft had succeeded in aerial
analysed on a blackboard at
sent on exchange at Miramar,
combat in two years.
post-flight debriefs.
California, to train American
Lord enjoyed the film Top
Such was the trust placed
pilots then suffering significant in Lord that he was granted
Gun, but mused that it was
losses at the hands of MiG-21s access to classified American
“remarkable that any history
flown by the North Vietnamese. military documents comparing book studiously avoids menWhile some criticised the perthe performance of US aircraft tion of any British involvement”
formance of America’s multiagainst that of enemy fighters. and added that the film had
million dollar Phantom jet, Lord This access allowed him to write, not “given us due justice”. He
concentrated on sharpening his with others, the US Navy’s Air
remained proud of his involvepupils’ Air Combat Manoeuvring Combat Manoeuvring manual.
ment, however, and during his
(ACM) skills to improve their
time at Miramar had insisted
A year after Lord’s arrival,
odds in a dogfight.
on using the call sign “Brit 1”.
the tuition and methods
This meant that his wingman,
though American, was forced to
use the call sign “Brit 2”.
Richard Stanley Lord was
born on June 20 1936 in
Johannesburg, where he was
educated at Parktown Boys’
High. His father, a soldier in
the Imperial Light Horse, was
captured at Tobruk and did not
return from his PoW camp until
1946. Richard’s early fascination with flying was played out
in imaginary games of “Biggles”
high in the branches of a jacaranda tree.
Lord was one of several
English-speaking South Africans
who, despairing in the 1950s
and 1960s of a career in the
Afrikaner-dominated South
African Services, joined the
Royal Navy. His initial naval
training was at the Royal Naval
Engineering College, Manadon,
and he gained his wings in June
1959, flying Sea Venom and Sea
Vixen fighters from the aircraft
carriers Centaur, Victorious,
Hermes and Ark Royal.
In 1966 he found himself
flying from Ark Royal off Beira,
Mozambique, to enforce the oil
blockade of Rhodesia following
its Unilateral Declaration of
Independence. After one mission to intercept a suspected
blockade-runner, he returned to
find that the carrier had been
overtaken by a tropical storm
and that her flight deck was
pitching through 65ft: his aircraft caught the third arrester
wire and damaged its undercarriage – reckoned a near perfect
landing in the conditions.
Lord qualified as an Air
Warfare Instructor and in 1968
began his two-year exchange
tour with the US Navy, flying Skyhawks and Phantoms.
On his return he was senior
instructor with 764 Naval Air
Squadron where he passed on
the skills and confidence that
had made such an impact in
America.
He returned to South Africa
in 1970, where he gained a
civil licence and began to teach
commercial pilots. But, as he
said later, a visit to Cape Town
by Ark Royal “struck a deep
chord in my heart”, and rekindled his love of more adventurous flying. Though heBrigadier
General Dick Lordstill was
unable to pass the Afrikaans
language test, he joined the
South African Air Force, the
second oldest air force in the
world.
With the SAAF Lord took
part in the Border War, fought
between South Africa and
Cuban-backed Angola from
1966 to 1989. He flew Impala,
Sabre and Mirage fighters
His books included Fire, Flood
against Cuban-piloted MiG
fighters, and commanded No 1 and Ice (1998), a description of
SAAF search-and-rescue operaSquadron SAAF from 1981
tions, conducted in conditions
to 1983, later directing SAAF
ranging from drought, to whiteoperations from Oshakati and
outs in Antarctica, to devastatWindhoek (now the capital of
ing deluges.
Namibia).
His biography,
He ended his career in
From Tailhooker to Mudmover
charge of the Air Force Com­
(2000), which detailed his exmand Post in Pretoria, where
he was awarded a Distinguished periences as a pilot with the
Royal Navy, the US Navy, and
Service Cross for his role in
helping to organise the rescue in the Border War, is regarded
as one of the best and funniest
operations that saved all 581
books about flying in the 1950s
passengers and crew of the
and 1960s. He also wrote a hisGreek cruise-liner Oceanos,
tory of the Mirage fighter in the
which sank off South Africa’s
eastern coast on August 4 1991. SAAF, called Vlamgat (2000) or,
in English, “flaming hole”.
Another highlight of his
career was to organise, in 1994, In From Fledgling to Eagle:
the fly-past at the inauguration the South African Air Force
of Nelson Mandela as President during the Border War (2008),
Lord drew on his own diaries
of South Africa. Lord then retired as a Brigadier General and but also incorporated anecdotes
from dozens of other aviators
began writing about his life as
and squadrons, highlighting the
an aviator.
close relationship which existed
between the SAAF and South
African Special Forces.
Apart from flying, his passion
was military music, his favourite piece being Sarie Marais,
the march of the Royal Marines,
which is based on an Afrikaner
folk song.
Dick Lord married, in 1968,
June Beckett, a BOAC air-hostess. While he complained about
the fantastical characterisations
in Top Gun, she contended that
the film’s portrayal of big-talking fighter pilots was extremely
true-to-life. She survives him
with their two sons.
Brig Gen Dick Lord,
born June 20 1936,
died October 26 2011
[Obituary 06 Nov 2011]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
news/obituaries/military-obituaries/naval-obituaries/8873213/
Brigadier-General-Dick-Lord.html
Vampire Dual Seat
(side by side)
Trainer Jet Aircraft
http://
i.tele
graph.co.
uk/multi
media/
archive/0
2047/
lord_2047
777b.jpg
Jump to RN FAA Phantom F-4K trials on USS Saratoga story from Naval Aviation News Feb 1970
S
E
E
-
N
E
X
T
-
P
A
G
E
S
Photos via Al Hickling
(Then) LEUT Flatley Landed the 'NO HOOK HERK' also JUMP
USS Saratoga CVA-60 http://www.navy.mil/navydata/nav_legacy.asp?id=65
“...In March of 1980, Saratoga and embarked airwing CVW-17 departed on their 16th Mediterranean deployment. Highlights
of the deployment included major exercises with the USS Forrestal (CV 59) battle group, and visits by the Chief of Naval
Operations, Adm. Thomas B. Hayward, and Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Thomas C. Crow. Then-commanding
officer, Capt. James H. Flatley III, made naval aviation history on 21 June 1980 when he completed his 1,500th carrier
arrested landing. To make the event special, Midshipman James H. Flatley IV, the Captain's son, rode in the back seat....”
USS Independence Naval Aviation News June 1975
http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/?product_id=1850
“Impending Hookon. Another F4K parked in Fly4. Archive EM(A) John Fisher”
http://www.phantomf4k.org/resources/4271/imageGallery/DL2.jpg
300
CORRESPONDENCE
unity', and belongs to a five-nation Far
East military exercise. For reasons mainly
connected with Denis Healey's desire to
save face with the locals when Chairman
Harold speeded up our Far Eastern withhttp://www.navaldrawal from 1975 to 1971, Healey cooked
review.co.uk/
up Bersatu Padu to show how all three
issues/1970-3.pdf
services would jump into action to save
Malaysia and Singapore in an emergency.
So last week Complete Unity cranked
into action. Troops poured into Singapore
with Land Rovers, helicopters, guns and
other items designed to let Lee Kuan Yew
get on with reduoing his golf handicap in
peace. A shuttle of R.A.F. VC 10's showed
that London and Malaysia are but 20
hours apart. And to keep Denis's name
shining bright in the Vd1.P. lists the Ministry
of Defence flew out 3 7 journalists to watch
the fun.
Knowing that of the 14,000 British involved nearly 1 0 , 0 0 0 were Navy and
Marines, the unprejudiced might have
thought the Navy would figure in the
journalists' programme. It did - but only
after some last-minute stitching-up of the
P.R. organisations' own Bersatu Padu.
Apparently they got so enthused about airlifting out 2,000 odd soldiers and a similar
gaggle of R.A.F. that (they completely forgot that the Jolly Jack Tars had been there
Exercise
Bersatu
Padu
all the time, hull down on the horizon and
interfering with nobody.
It must also have been rather humiliating
for the R.A.F. to find that 'the Exercise
scenerio made them dependent on the Navy
ohopper pilots and Marine C k n m a d o s
capturing an air-strip for them, and probably painting that silly slogan ' m y Navy"
on the end of the runway to boot. Everyone
thought Chairman Harold had discovered
how to manage without the Fleet Air Arm.
Anyway - surprise, surprise - when the
Navy finally did get rememibered by the
P.R. boys the only day available was the
day after the Commando carrier Buhvm-k
was due to sail. Happily the said sailing
was postponed and the Navy had the las?r
word.
After a superb demonstration of Commando assault techniques, they said coolly
that while the Army and R.A.F. spent the
next six weeks getting acclimatked, B d w m k
was off to show the flag at Expo '70. They
would return when everyone else was
ready. It is hardly surprising that one of
the 6ide-shows at Bersatu Padu is a camReview’Navy to persuade
paign by ‘Naval
the Australian
Fleet Air Arm pilots to defect
to them.
July 1970
Yours ,truly,
G.A.F.
“Most people also don't realise that TopGun school
was heavily based on the RN FAA AWI course —
and that RN instructors taught USAF pilots in the
model precursor to TopGun. In fact the RAG manual for students was written by a RN FAA pilot.”
gf0012-aust comments:
http://www.defencetalk.com/forums/navy-maritime/role-aircraft-carriers-conflicts-10867/
-
“Of significance is Ex BERSATU PADU. Involving
RN & RAN carriers - and which the UK DoD was
able to learn that organic air support provided by
RAN Skyhawks was far more effective and timely
than any land based air provided by RAAF Mirages
and RAF Lightnings. It is also an expeditionary
event, so has some relevance.”
Navy News
Aug 1977
225
NAVAL AIR SQUADRONS
HC 723
Lieutenant-Commander
EX
Lieutenant (SLl
EX
Lieutenant!SL)
EX
EX
EX
EX
EX
EX
EX
EX
EX
EX
EX
EX
EX
EX
EX
Sub-Lieutenant<SLl
Acting Sub-Lieutenant(SL)
Engineer LieutenantlSL)
(P) B.J. Boettcher
In Command!
(P) V.T. Battese
(as Senior Pilot)
(P) R.J. Kyle
(P) K.J. Alderman
(P) J.R. Brown
12.1.76
5.1.76
5.8.74
18.1.75
5.1.76
2.2,
19.1
2.2
2.2
13 5
2.2.76
2.2.76
2.2.76
2.2.76
2.2.76
2.2.76
2.2.76
10.3.75
(0) L.N. Phillips
(P) A.W. Criddle
(0) J.L. Vagg
(P) M.D. Buckett
(P)T.J. Morgan
(0) A.M. Cass
(P)
(P)
(P)
(P)
(P)
(0)
P.H. Pinniger
N.A. Jackson
D. Knowles
R.K. Lawrence
D.A. Fairhurst
M.J. Wright
B.T. Hamilton
Additional
Sub-Lieutenant(SL)
EX
(P) H.G. Forbes
Acting Sub-Lieutenant(SL)
EX
EX
EX
EX
L.F.J. Costain
(P) G.A. Ledger
(P) J.H. Edwards
(P) C.W. Townsend
EX
(P) D.J. Sinclair
27.8.74
17.11.75
2.2.76
25.11.71)
19.12.71)
19.12.71)
(Re-formed at Nowra, 18th February, 1957)
RAN Navy List
Lieutenant-Commander
EX
EX
Lieutenant
EX
EN
EN WE
EX
EX
EX
EX
Lieutenant (SL)
March 1976
VC 721
(P) P.C. Marshall (In Command)
(P) C.C. Blennerhasset (as
Senior Pilot)
(P) M.B. Nordeen, U.S.N.
P.C. Johnson
R.B. Vitenbergs
(0) J.H. Jones
(P) C.R.O. Rex
((P) P. Cox
(P) J.C. Clark
7.7.75
15.7.74
9.9.71
9.2.76
21.11.75
17.6.75
17.6.75
22.9.75
15.12.75
Additional
Lieutenant
Midshipmen (SL)
EX
EX
EX
EX
Engineer Sub-Lieutenant (SL)
P.H. Greenfield
(P) C.F. Tomlinson
(P) R.S. Norman
(P) A.J. Bradtke
A.P. Middleton
Undergoing Training
Lieutenant
EX
EX
1.12.75
11.8.75
5.1.76
29.10.75
19.5.75
2nd RAN AWI Course
(P) D.J. Ramsay
(P) B.J. Evans
(Formed at Nowra, 1st June, 1955!
23.6.75
23.6.75
L to R: Peter Marshall & Max Poole 26 April 2012
at NAS Nowra with former TA4G 880
[formerly NZ6255] ‘J’ Hangar
http://www.flightglobal.com/
pdfarchive/view/1969/1969%
20-%201337.html+...38.html
F-4K PHANTOM
http://www.flightglobal.com/airspace/photos/militaryaviation1946-2006cutaways/images/12060/mcdonnell-douglas-f-4k-phantom-cutaway.jpg
http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1969/1969%
20-%200561.html & ...62.html
The flying teams; from the left: Peter Goddard;
Paul Waterhouse; Doug Borrowman; Brian
Davies; Al Hickling and Hugh Drake
DAILY MAIL TRANS-ATLANTIC AIR RACE 1969
Leut Al Hickling RN later
SP/CO VC-724 in 1973
Beecroft Range,
RAN–Army
co-operation
publicity
photo,
late 1973
VC-724
CO
Lcdr Al
Hickling
Jump to
another
example
Click above for:
‘Who ya gonna
call? Sea Vixen!’
Australian Army
Sergeant
Graham Hay
Leut Phil
Thompson
Holden Utility
Public Domain
THE HOOK,
Winter 2012
A similar poster
(with vultures)
was seen in
the office of
VC-724 Senior
Pilot (SP) in the
early 1970s
http://www.tailhook.net/PDF/Hook_Magazines/8.Winter2012.pdf Vietnam War era unofficial poster
VC 724 Sqdn Linebook January 1974
Jump Back
George Heron RN/RAN
On the 26th of March 1965, 736 Squadron was
reformed at Lossiemouth from 809 Squadron, as a
Jet Strike Training Squadron equipped with
Buccaneer S.1s. The S1s were partially replaced by
Buccaneer S2s from May 1966. The squadron
eventually disbanded on the 25th of February 1972
XK523 — THE VERY FIRST CARRIER LANDING
Derek Whitehead makes a 'hookless' approach to
make the very first carrier landing onto HMS
Victorious on 19th Jan 1960 in XK523. Great Weather!
http://www.avcollect2.co.uk/AvCollect/
buccaneer/brough/1st_carrier_landing.jpg
Cmdr George Heron top photo 2nd from right
Navy News 10 April 1981
-
HMS Ark Royal was the most powerful warship the Royal Navy
had ever put to sea.50,000 tons of British Sovereign Territory – a
floating airfield that was home to 2,700 men, a stockpile of nuclear weapons, and the most modern, capable air force in Europe.
But by the early seventies, Ark Royal was in the twilight of her
career. Only kept in service to help face down the Cold War threat
from the powerful Soviet Navy, it seemed Ark would play no
further part on the world’s stage.
Then, in January 1972, intelligence reached Whitehall that
British Honduras – now Belize – was threatened with imminent
invasion. To defend the colony Britain’s response had to be immediate and unequivocal. And Ark Royal offered the only effective means of preventing the little Central American country being
overrun by battle-hardened, US-trained Guatemalan paratroops.
But to do so the old carrier would first have to endure a destructive, high-speed 1,500 mile dash across the Atlantic towards the
Gulf of Mexico. Only then would it be possible to execute an
audacious, record-breaking plan to launch a pair of Buccaneers
on an extra-ordinary and unprecedented long-range mission. It
was an operation loaded with difficulty and danger.
Drawing on many hours of interviews with the participants and
previously unseen, classified documents here and abroad, Rowland White, best-selling author of Vulcan 607 has pieced together
this remarkable episode for the first time. And has brought to life
a unique, unfamiliar and thrilling piece of post-war British military
history: the world of the Fleet Air Arm’s last Top Guns.
-
For a ‘controversy” about this “last 'Top Guns'” go here. (Tailhook
Association has picked up this ‘RN FAA AWIs started TOPGUN’ story):
-
http://tailhookdaily.typepad.com/tailhook_daily_briefing/2009/03/the-ault-retort.html
&
http://www.neptunuslex.com/2009/03/23/hmmm-4/
CO
VF-805 linebook page(s) 1 of 2
SP
Ex-RN
Buccaneer Pilot
Late 1972 perhaps — VC 724 — CO Lcdr Brian Dutch AWI lower left with
Leut Chris Olsson lower right (formerly of the RN FAA — Buccaneer pilot)
Chris Olsson had a
younger brother Nigel
who was the drummer
in Elton John Band in
1970s
Leut Chris
Olsson
transferred
from the
Royal Navy
(formerly a
Buccaneer
pilot) to
the RAN
beginning
of 1970s
due to the
RN FAA
winding
down at
that time
“Yea tho’ I fly thru the valley of death,
I fear no evil...
Because I'm the best in the valley”
SP’s Prayer
AL
Flying Instructor’s Prayer:
My student is a headache that I do not want.
He maketh me to lie down at night very weary.
He leadeth me beside high-tension wires.
Yea, though he knoweth better, my hair turneth grey.
And though I fly on the clearest days,
I fear much evil, for he is with me. Amen.
Flight Line Cafeteria
THE HOOK, Spring 2009
http://www.tailhook.org/Sp09catwalk.pdf
Photo via Al Hickling