gkainz
Final Approach
an email thread from friends "MUCH" older than me... 
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I can smell the 115/145 now...just listen to that 3350 crank out the power...I think
Im getting a woodie!!!! You ADJ's just would not understand!!!
Its a RECIP thang......Dogg sends
Bill
--------------
For those too young to remember, during Viet Nam conflict, carriers were so woefully
short of ordinance that missions were often launched with only a half load just to keep
the sortie rate up so that the REMF's in DC would not send out blistering messages
about failure to support the war effort, etc.
Given that the loss rate approached, and sometime exceeded, one aircraft a day, all
will understand that there was a degree of reticence to launch with less than a full
load -- if I must dance with the elephant at least let's make it worth while.
Nevertheless, the indomitable spirit of the carrier aviators, and their squadron-mates,
prevailed in some rather perverse ways.
(see below).
I have every hope that today's successors to the mantel left at the Cubi "O" Club bar
persevere as well. Kick the tires, light the fires, bolt for the blue and brief on guard -- last
one up is lead.
Back in Nam, I know you weren't on USS MIDWAY in Oct 1965, but thought you'd get a
kick out of one squadron's ingenuity.
Yes, this really happened
---
Once again history is stranger then fiction, and a lot funnier:
USS Midway VA-25's Toilet Bomb
In October 1965, CDR Clarence J. Stoddard, Executive Officer of VA-25 "Fistof the Fleet",
flying an A-1H Skyraider, NE/572 "Paper Tiger II" from Carrier Air Wing Two aboard USS
Midway carried a special bomb to the North Vietnamese in commemoration of the 6-millionth
pound of ordnance dropped.
This bomb was unique because of the type... it was a toilet!
The following is an account of this event, courtesy of Clint Johnson, Captain, USNR Ret.
Captain Johnson was one of the two VA-25 A-1 Skyraider pilots credited with shooting
down a MiG-17 on June 20, 1965.
"I was a pilot in VA-25 on the 1965 Vietnam cruise. 572 was flown by CDR C. W. "Bill"
Stoddard. His wingman in 577 (which was my assigned airplane) was LCDR Robin Bacon,
who had a wing station mounted movie camera (the only one remaining in the fleet from
WWII). The flight was a Dixie Station strike (South Vietnam) going to the Delta. When they
arrived in the target area and CDR Stoddard was reading the ordnance list to the FAC, he
ended with "and one code name Sani-flush". The FAC couldn't believe it and joined up to see
it. It was dropped in a dive with LCDR Bacon flying tight wing position to film the drop. When
it came off, it turned hole to the wind and almost struck his airplane.It made a great ready
room movie. The FAC said that it whistled all the way down.
The toilet was a damaged toilet, which was going to be thrown overboard. One of our plane
captains rescued it and the ordnance crew made a rack, tailfins and nose fuse for it. Our
checkers maintained a position to block the view of the air boss and the Captain while the
aircraft was taxiing forward. Just as it was being shot off we got a 1MC message from the
bridge, "What the hell was on 572's right wing?" There were a lot of jokes with air intelligence
about germ warfare. I wish that we had saved the movie film."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
I can smell the 115/145 now...just listen to that 3350 crank out the power...I think
Im getting a woodie!!!! You ADJ's just would not understand!!!
Its a RECIP thang......Dogg sends
Bill
--------------
For those too young to remember, during Viet Nam conflict, carriers were so woefully
short of ordinance that missions were often launched with only a half load just to keep
the sortie rate up so that the REMF's in DC would not send out blistering messages
about failure to support the war effort, etc.
Given that the loss rate approached, and sometime exceeded, one aircraft a day, all
will understand that there was a degree of reticence to launch with less than a full
load -- if I must dance with the elephant at least let's make it worth while.
Nevertheless, the indomitable spirit of the carrier aviators, and their squadron-mates,
prevailed in some rather perverse ways.
(see below).
I have every hope that today's successors to the mantel left at the Cubi "O" Club bar
persevere as well. Kick the tires, light the fires, bolt for the blue and brief on guard -- last
one up is lead.
Back in Nam, I know you weren't on USS MIDWAY in Oct 1965, but thought you'd get a
kick out of one squadron's ingenuity.
Yes, this really happened
---
Once again history is stranger then fiction, and a lot funnier:
USS Midway VA-25's Toilet Bomb
In October 1965, CDR Clarence J. Stoddard, Executive Officer of VA-25 "Fistof the Fleet",
flying an A-1H Skyraider, NE/572 "Paper Tiger II" from Carrier Air Wing Two aboard USS
Midway carried a special bomb to the North Vietnamese in commemoration of the 6-millionth
pound of ordnance dropped.
This bomb was unique because of the type... it was a toilet!
The following is an account of this event, courtesy of Clint Johnson, Captain, USNR Ret.
Captain Johnson was one of the two VA-25 A-1 Skyraider pilots credited with shooting
down a MiG-17 on June 20, 1965.
"I was a pilot in VA-25 on the 1965 Vietnam cruise. 572 was flown by CDR C. W. "Bill"
Stoddard. His wingman in 577 (which was my assigned airplane) was LCDR Robin Bacon,
who had a wing station mounted movie camera (the only one remaining in the fleet from
WWII). The flight was a Dixie Station strike (South Vietnam) going to the Delta. When they
arrived in the target area and CDR Stoddard was reading the ordnance list to the FAC, he
ended with "and one code name Sani-flush". The FAC couldn't believe it and joined up to see
it. It was dropped in a dive with LCDR Bacon flying tight wing position to film the drop. When
it came off, it turned hole to the wind and almost struck his airplane.It made a great ready
room movie. The FAC said that it whistled all the way down.
The toilet was a damaged toilet, which was going to be thrown overboard. One of our plane
captains rescued it and the ordnance crew made a rack, tailfins and nose fuse for it. Our
checkers maintained a position to block the view of the air boss and the Captain while the
aircraft was taxiing forward. Just as it was being shot off we got a 1MC message from the
bridge, "What the hell was on 572's right wing?" There were a lot of jokes with air intelligence
about germ warfare. I wish that we had saved the movie film."
