So here we are- Christmas roaring down, the new year looming, and there is too much going on, nationally, professionally and personally to really deal with. I think this is going to go down as One Of Those Years when we think about it, as a prelude to something really big that might have been avoided if people here in the Swamp by the Potomac had done their jobs the last twenty years.

The story I wrote yesterday brought back some still potent memories of the End Times for my folks- sad and funny at the same time. I thought maybe we could take a look at a more vibrant Raven today- a tall darkly handsome young man who in the right light looked a bit like Gregory Peck.

I was sitting in my brown chair splitting attention between the revelations of the latest crop of celebrities behaving badly, and I got a note from Bronco, who used to be our Air Wing Landing Signals Officer, like, three or four wars ago. Those are the pilots who stand on the platform and guide in the jets in an amazing steel ballet of sparks and flame.

He sent me an image of a Douglas Skyraider, the kind that my Dad Raven used to fly. Bronco flew McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantoms when both those monsters were still in the operational inventory. This is one of the Skyraiders in the later pint-scheme. Dad’s vintage was the deep blue uniform paint:

(A-1H Skyraider)

The airplane that became the AD Skyraider evolved from a 1943 Navy decision to combine the dive-bombing and torpedo missions in one aircraft. First flown in 1945, Skyraiders entered Fleet service the following year. Dad had transitioned from being a Douglas Dauntless scout and dive-bomber pilot with his decision to stay in the Reserves to something new. He logged time on aircraft as diverse as Catalina PBYs to the Lockheed PV-2 Harpoon. He wound up in Skyraiders for the rest of his Reserve commitment at Grosse Isle, about the time Mom started to get on his case for having a family and taking needless chances on the weekend. More on that later.

Later nicknamed “Spad” for its old-school approach to design and appearance that was reminiscent of the World War II aircraft, the AD was a true workhorse with endurance to burn and a rugged airframe that could take punishment. Dad used say proudly that his behemoth of a aircraft could haul more ordnance than a B-17 Flying Fortress and outrun a P-51 Mustang. This was an aircraft that empowered its pilots.

The single-engine AD-4J that Dad flew (later re-designated the A-1 in 1962, long after he was out) was considered one of the finest attack and close air support aircraft ever built. At least until the Aperture Science A-10 Warthog came along to fight the Russians hoards coming through the Fulda Gap.

They were brutes of strength. One Reserve weekend at Gross Isle Naval Air Station south of Detroit, he told me one of the pilots forgot the check lift an actually got airborne with the wings still folded and did not know it until he jinked on departure and went into the ground.

Skyraiders proved critical during the Korean War, not the least of which was critical to Raven, since his Reserve unit was east of the Mississippi and retained in CONUS for the European Contingency. Many of the Reserve units west of the Big Muddy were called up and sent to the land of the Morning Calm for the second installment of the East Asia War Games.

While deployed, the ‘Raiders had an impressive record striking heavily-defended industrial areas and key targets. One of the most memorable was the raid on the strategic Hwachon Dam with aerial torpedoes- a sort of Korean War version of the Dam Busters mission.

The venerable beast also was responsible for the first MiG kill of the Vietnam War, when LCDR Leo Cook and his wingman LTJG Wiley were flying a RESCAP mission to locat a downed US aviator. While maneuvering at low altitude between ridges and cloud layers, they were jumped by what turned out to be two sections of MiG 17s. Cook and Wiley fought for their lives, twisting and jinking at low level.

LT Pete Russell and LTJG Tom Patton soon arrived in the area and immediately gained a position of advantage on the MiGs. They got one confirmed kill, one probably and one damaged. The details of the engagement were taped by the intelligence officer on board the Intrepid after the incident. I was one of those guys a decade later, sitting in Mission Planning waiting for the crews to come back to Midway. It was sort of like being a court reporter at the scene of the incident.

Anyway, I had intended to tell you a cautionary tale about a training mission from Grosse Isle to the refinery cook-off tower down in Toledo that they used for a simulated target. Regrettably, I think that is going to have to wait until tomorrow.
Stay tuned.

Copyright 2017 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com