Category Archives: man card

Spad V. MiG

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Some 60 years ago today, on 9 October 1966.

A Douglas A-1 Skyraider piloted by 26-year-old LT(j.g.) William T. Patton from the “Thunderbolts” of Attack Squadron 176 (VA-176) off USS Intrepid (CVS 11) bagged an NVAF MiG-17 over Vietnam. It was at least the second victory scored by a propeller-driven Skyraider against a MiG, following a 1965 dogfight between MiGs and Spads from VA-25 off USS Midway.

U.S. Navy Douglas A-1J Skyraider (BuNo 142028) of VA-176 “Thunderbolts” with the AK tail flash tagging it to Attack Carrier Air Wing 10 (CVW-10) aboard the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid (CVS-11), during her 4 April to 21 November 1966 Vietnam deployment. U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation photo No. 1996.253.2886

Though officially an ASW carrier, Intrepid carried out three Vietnam cruises as a fairly conventional attack carrier, with nary a S-2 Tracker or SH-3 Sea King in sight.

1966, Intrepid (CVS 11) off Vietnam with an A-1 on cat

Besides the 1966 stint mentioned above with CVW-10, she clocked in 11 May– 30 December 1967 and 4 June 1968–8 February 1969.

While the first used two squadrons of Skyraiders (VA-165 and VA-175), balanced by two of A-4B Skyhawks (VA-15 and VA-95), Intrepid’s 1967 tour saw CVW with three Skyhawk squadrons (including Sidewinder-carrying “fighter hawks” of VSF-3), one of Skyraiders, and a det of F-8C Crusaders from VF-111.

By 1968-69, the Spads had been left behind with just A-4C/E Skyhawks (three squadrons), F-8C/RF-8G Crusaders (two dets), and VAQ/VAW dets of EA-1Fs and E-1Bs.

CVW-10 was disestablished on 20 November 1969 when Intrepid went back to carrying Trackers and Sea Kings of CVSG-52 and 58 until she was decommissioned in 1974.

As for the young Lt Patton, he earned a Silver Star for the confirmed 1966 MiG shootdown and, after leaving the Navy, went into finance. He passed in 2014, aged 74, leaving two sons and a daughter behind. His family requested donations in lieu of flowers to the Intrepid Sea Air and Space Museum.

Pour one out for John Smith, and Bruce

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Some 30 years ago this week, the ultimate Prohibition-era anti-hero hit the screen in Walter “every film I’ve ever done has been a Western” Hill’s Last Man Standing, featuring Bruce Willis as dual-1911-equipped John Smith, passing through the off-map Texas town of Jericho.

Twin shoulder holsters, 1911s, three-piece suits, and fedoras should be sold in sets

John/Bruce duly becomes caught between two rival bootlegging gangs, Strazi and the Italians vs. Doyle and the Irish.

The ensuing 1920s take on Yojimbo and A Fistful of Dollars is almost spectacularly over the top in terms of gunplay, but probably sold another million 1911s.

John Smith long ago hung up his crushed fedora, and Bill is, well, not Bill any more, but you have to love it.

 

Of canvas, ramps, and brass balls

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Following in the heels of yesterday’s Warship Wednesday of the hardworking 9th HMS Aurora during WWII (“We were in action a Tremendous Amount of Times”), how about this great circa 1915 photo essay on the 8th HMS Aurora, a light cruiser (C1), complete with a Deperdussin Monoplane (No.1378) on her deck during early flight trials from a 38-foot (!) ramp.

Her aircraft trials came when she was the leader of the 10th Destroyer Flotilla of the Harwich Force, with the thought that the aeros could be used to ward off German naval Zeppelins that were harassing the tin cans.

HMS Aurora, Deperdussin Monoplane at the ready. Note the platform is on her No. 1 BL 6″/45 Mk XII gunhouse. Naval History and Heritage Command, NH 112869

Same as above, NH 112871

As noted by the RMG, “The Deperdussin was successfully flown from Aurora on 4 November 1915 by Flight Lieutenant R J J Hope-Vere. According to her ship’s log, Aurora carried out aeroplane experiments in the morning of 4 November 1915.”

Flight Sub. Lieut. Ralph James Hope-Vere, R.N.A.S

However, it was found the aircraft were too underpowered to be of use against the roaming Teutonic dirigibles and the flying platform was removed.

Commissioned in September 1914, Aurora was a “war baby” and was the leader of the 1st Destroyer Flotilla at the Dogger Bank in early 1915, earning a battle honor for the engagement that left the cruiser SMS Blücher on the bottom. She later helped catch the German commerce raider SMS Meteor, captured two of the Kaiser’s naval trawlers, and sowed nearly 300 mines in Jerry’s waters. She was on hand at the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet in November 1918.

The 3,600-ton German Hilfskreuzer SMS Meteor on fire, shortly before she sank on her second raiding voyage, 9 August 1915, by Surgeon Oscar Parkes, IWM SP 1087

Paid off by the RN in 1920, Aurora was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy and was eventually scrapped in 1927.

HMCS Aurora, Courtesy of the CFB Esquimalt Naval and Military Museum CTB043473

As for the aviator who flew that tiny plane off that ridiculously small platform, Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Jean James Hope-Vere, O.B.E., A.F.C., Royal Air Force, late Royal Naval Air Service, Royal Aero Pilot Certificate No. 900, ended the war flying seaplanes in No. 66 Wing, Adriatic Group, against the Austrians, then moved to the retired list in the RAF in 1934. After Home Guard service in WWII, as one would expect, he passed in 1959, aged 71.

Unlikely Oasis Skyraider Reunion

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We’ve covered the legacy of the Toyota Wars and the saga of French Jaguar Diplomacy in blunting Gaddafi’s Libyan legions in Chad in the 1980s, but another, even more shoestring, story often goes untold.

Between 1973 and 1978, a group of a half-dozen Korean War-era ex-USN A-1N/NA Skyraiders known to history as the Sky Tchadiens were being flown for the Chadian forces by a collection of French mercenary pilots and two Gabonese Air Force president’s squadron (Groupement Aérien Présidentiel) lieutenants on loan, Jacques Borne (nicknamed “Sarcife”) and René Gras, who, of course, were all just sheep-dipped French Air Force officers.

In the below, Borne is seen in a red scarf, while Gras is seen in a green.

From left to right: Pierre Grosjean, René Gras, Fayolle, and Jacques Borne (Coll. F. Borne)

Underwing are French-designed and produced 60-pound SERAM T-10 100mm rockets, typically carried by Dassault  Ouragan or Mystère aircraft in strike roles. Combined with light GP bombs and the Raiders’ 20mm cannon, they proved strong medicine on attack runs.

Operating as a “light aviation support squadron” (Escadrille Légère d’Aviation d’Appui 1/22 “Ain”), they were officially stationed at Fort-Lamy (now N’Djamena, Chad) but forward-deployed in pairs to Faya-Largeau, an oasis in the north of the country.

At the Faya-Largeau oasis strip, the desert was so deep and loose that planes often sank to the wheel hubs and aircraft patrols took off near-simultaneously as visibility after the first plane went to full power was nil for several minutes after.

From there, they flew dune-height strafing, bombing, and rocketry runs over Libyan-backed insurgent camps and columns and lived to (not) tell the tale.

An average of 35 operational recon, strike, and support sorties were logged every month, which is impressive for two forward-deployed aircraft and just six in the whole country.

The French dubbed the 12,000-pound (empty) Skyraider “La Bête” (The Beast), and they flew them throughout the 1960s and 70s not only in Chad but also in Algeria, Djibouti, and Madagascar.

In all, they acquired 20 ex-USN AD-4s, 88 ex-USN AD-4Ns, and 5 ex-USN AD-4NAs in the early 1960s, some of which were later passed on third-hand to Cambodia, as well as the aforementioned Gabonese and Chadian planes.

At least a dozen ex-Navy Skyraiders flew with ELAA 1/22 in Chad at one time or another in the 1970s (BuNos 126882, 126912, 126935, 126959, 126969, 126970, 126979, 126994, 126996, 126997, 127888, and 127894).

Retired by the French Air Force in 1979, at least one Beast is preserved in Djibouti at Base Aérienne 188 “Colonel Massart” while another, AD-4NA BuNo 126979, which flew with EC 2/20 Ouarsenis in Algeria, is on display at the Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace.

First flown by the Navy on 24 September 1952, BuNo 126979 left NAS Norfolk in April 1960, flew with EC 2/20 in Algeria as 20-QA, then with EAA 601 at Châteaudun, and later with ELAA 1/22 in Chad from 1971 through 1975 as 22-DD before she was struck off in 1976.

She reportedly still has a base coat of Navy blue under her French livery.

U.S. Navy Douglas AD-4/-4L Skyraider aircraft from Attack Squadron VA-175 Devil’s Diplomats on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVB-42). VA-175 was assigned to Carrier Air Group 17 (CVG-17) aboard the FDR for two deployments to the Mediterranean Sea in 1951-52. U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation photo No. 1996.253.2860

Catching a nap

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Enjoy your day off, folks. You can almost smell autumn coming.

“Catching a nap aboard a Man-o-War,” in an interior compartment of a U.S. Navy battleship, circa 1907-1908. Note the fire hose and nozzle stowed on the bulkhead behind the sleeper, and his folding stool. This view may have been taken during the Great White Fleet World Cruise. Collection of Chief Quartermaster John Harold. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 106078

First Crabs, now 85 years in the rearview

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Some 85 years ago this week, on 22 August 1941, at the Navy Gun Factory (now the Washington Navy Yard), Mine Recovery School Class No. 1 graduated, minting 10 officers (three of them Coasties), five chiefs, and eight ratings in the art of Navy EOD.

Note the distinctive broad eagle cloth cap insignias on the three USCG officers in the front row, standing out from the smaller eagle devices on the USN officers

These men, who all certainly went on to risk life and limb around moody, explosive-filled devices so that others may keep theirs, were the Navy’s first “Crabs.”

Over 340 American EOD techs have lost their lives since 1942.

The first U.S. casualty in mine disposal was Navy Ensign John M. Howard (who graduated in Class No. 2) when the washed-up German TMA-1 magnetic influence mine he was attempting to defuse on 11 June 1942 exploded on Corton sands at Garton, near Lowestoft in England.

Today, the Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal community numbers roughly 2,290 active and about 140 reserve personnel, but has been very well seasoned, especially during the Sandbox years, in counter-IED and UXO disposal, while keeping their gratefully lesser-used skills of underwater de-mining and WMD disposal at more of an academic level.

But they still practise beach clearing.

A Navy explosive ordnance disposal technician assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 9 prepares to simulate clearing a beach during a drill at a training location in San Diego, Sep. 1, 2026. ( Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class August Clawson, VIRIN: 260902-N-VX022-9015)

Plus, the Crabs of today benefit from investments in unmanned underwater vehicles, advanced sensors, and a “fusion of machine learning and artificial intelligence to extend the reach and lethality of operators.”

Their unofficial motto is a very understandable “Initial success or total failure.”

Mary Bonnin Closes her Dive Locker

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EMCM/MDV (Ret) Mary J. Bonnin has passed in an accident on dry land, near her home in Panama City, at age 63.

Wisconsin-born Mary joined the Navy in 1976, finished “A” school to become an Electrician’s Mate (EM), and became one of the first women (following Donna Tobias in 1975) to complete Navy Second Class Dive School in Little Creek in 1977 (with a 200-pound dive rig), graduating at the top of her class, the Honorman position.

After service on a dry dock, in 1982, she completed First Class diving school in Panama City, becoming the first enlisted female diver certified in both air and gas diving (with a 300-pound hard hat rig).

Finishing tours with USS Samuel Gompers (AD-37) working on ships husbandry, she became an instructor training at the Second Class Dive School at NAB Coronado for three years, then shipped out as Master Diver on the salvage ship USS Grasp (ARS-51), having made MD in 1990 by unanimous decision of the Board.

Keep in mind that of the 7,750 dive-certified personnel in the Navy, only about 1,300 are rated as Navy Divers (ND) and only about 75 of those are Master Divers.

She was the Navy’s only female MD until 2024!

She trained for another three years at the First Class school at Panama City, finished her uniformed career at the Naval Safety Center in Norfolk, Virginia as a Master Chief (E-9) Master Diver, retiring in 1996.

During her six years as a Navy diving instructor, Bonnin trained more than 1,000 divers, shaping that very small community for decades.

Mary Bonnin was inducted into the Women Divers Hall of Fame in 2000.

She had three sons, and reportedly kept diving for practice torpedoes while eight months pregnant with her first.

She hosted a great sub-Reddit and made a great podcast appearance on Bottom Dwellers a few years back.

And so we remember,

In Waters Deep– Eileen Mahoney 
In ocean wastes no poppies blow,
No crosses stand in ordered row,
There young hearts sleep… beneath the wave…
The spirited, the good, the brave,
But stars a constant vigil keep,
For them who lie beneath the deep.
‘Tis true you cannot kneel in prayer
On certain spot and think. “He’s there.”
But you can to the ocean go…
See whitecaps marching row on row;
Know one for him will always ride…
In and out… with every tide.
And when your span of life is passed,
He’ll meet you at the “Captain’s Mast.”
And they who mourn on distant shore
For sailors who’ll come home no more,
Can dry their tears and pray for these
Who rest beneath the heaving seas…
For stars that shine and winds that blow
And whitecaps marching row on row.
And they can never lonely be
For when they lived… they chose the sea.

How Copy?

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Happy National Radio Day!

And, as the grandson of a Vietnam-era Fort Gordon Regular Army Signals Corps instructor (MOS 31Z5H, 31W50) with two tours in Vietnam and the two Bronze Stars and 7-starred-VSM on his DD-214 to show for it, big salute to those unsung RTOs with the PRC-25s and PRC-77s on their back, up to their chins in the rice paddies and river marsh, who were still able to smile about it.

Radio…check

Lifting Battle Weary Eyes to the Heavens

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Some 60 years ago this week. A well-traveled paratrooper with good reason to wonder why.

Official caption: “14 August 1966. SP4 Ruediger Richter (Columbus, Georgia), 4th Bn., 503 Inf., 173 Abn Bde (Separate), lifts his battle-weary eyes to the heavens, as if to ask why? SGT. Daniel E. Spencer (Bend, Oregon) stares down at their fallen comrade. The day’s battle ended, they silently await the helicopter which will evacuate their comrade from the jungle-covered hills in Long Khanh Province.”

By Pfc. L. Paul Epley, 1966 National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer (111-SC-635974)

Richter, 25 years old at the time, had a long and winding history before the above image was captured. One that had included surviving Allied bombers in WWII as a youth, running away to the sea at age 14, then accepting a “join or go to prison” stint in the French Foreign Legion under a new name, before heading to America.

From a 2014 article, by which time he was a 73-year-old grandpa in Georgia, finally in a quiet time.

Born in Berlin in February 1941, when Hitler’s Nazi troops already had been marauding across Europe for years, Richter’s earliest memories are of bodies outside bombed-out bunkers and bright flares dropped by Allied bombers.

“We called them Christmas trees. They were beautiful,” he said. “You could hear the sirens going off all over Berlin.”

Richter said when the war ended in 1945 and the Allies sliced the city into sectors, he was fortunate enough to live in the American district, where GIs were a soft touch for a young German boy begging for food. With few options in Berlin, Richter said, he joined the German merchant marine at age 14. That three-year stint ended when his ship docked in Calais, France, where he and other sailors were arrested after a bar fight.

“They put us in a dungeon with water dropping down, just like in a movie. There was just a little window with bars,” he said.

After three days in lockup, a judge gave the penniless Richter a choice: Stay in prison or join the French Foreign Legion, which was battling rebels in French-controlled North Africa. He was too young to join legally at age 17, Richter said, so he was given a new name — Horst Timm — and allowed to enlist.

Richter does not know how many men he killed with the Legion, or how many night-long marches he made through Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. But after five years, he left the Legion and regained his true name. An aunt and uncle living in Columbus suggested he come to America to restart his life, so he did in 1964.

Richter grew bored with his job constructing helicopter landing pads, so he enlisted in the Army in 1965.

Thanks, Mike!

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The animated film Heavy Metal premiered in the United States and Canada on August 7, 1981, making it 45 years young this month.

As any Gen Xer can vouch, HM and the magazine that went along with it were transformative.

Besides perhaps the Harry Canyon segment, the most affective, at least to me, was the B-17 Pacific Pearl segment, and we wouldn’t have had it without illustrator Michael G. Ploog— who knew guns and militaria firsthand.

Ploog, born in Mankato, Minnesota during WWII, signed up with the Marines in 1958 and remained on active duty for ten years, working on the Corps’ Leatherneck Magazine, among others.

Working for Filmation and Hanna-Barbera, he did side work for  Will Eisner on the Army’s PS, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly, guide.

A typical spread from Will Eisner’s U.S. Army publication PS, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly #224 (c. 1971), with art attributed to Ploog.

Of course, Mike went on to work with Marvel (Man-Thing, Ghost Rider, Werewolf By Night, et al), DC (The Spirit), Dark Horse (The Goon), and clocked in on the amazing 1978 animated version of The Lord of the Rings, and so on.

He is still around and deserves to be honored in the likes of Frazetta, Wrightson, and Moebius.

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