Many of us do not know how we will react when suddenly called upon to perform the extraordinary in desperate and lethal conditions. We train and plan, but until the bullet flies or the fire burns close at hand, all we can do is speculate. On the morning of December 7th, 1941 there was no…
15 April 1969 (Korean time) marked the final flight of a Navy VQ-1 EC-121/WV-2 callsign Deep Sea 129. Roughly 100 nm off the North Korean peninsular site where the Hermit Kingdom today defies the world with its ballistic missile tests, lies the watery grave of 31 Americans (2 bodies were later recovered): The crew of…
As previously reported, the Navy called off the search for the missing fourth crewmember of Bluetail 601, LT Steve Zilberman, USN of Columbus, Ohio declaring him lost at sea and presumed dead.  A memorial service in honor of LT Steve Zilberman, will be held this Thursday, 8 April 2010  at 10:00am at the Naval Station Norfolk base chapel…
With the neck down in platforms, officer accession and student naval aviator (SNA) training pipelines, there is a certain homogenization characterizing Naval Aviation today. Not that that is all bad mind you, especially when one considers the reduction in mishap rates and capabilities today’s anchor-winged warriors bring to the fight. Still, for those of us…
The small town of Bedford, VA lies in the mountain country of southwestern Virginia. Tracing its roots back to the earliest days of the country when it was established in 1782 as the town of Liberty, Bedford’s chief clam to fame lay in having served at one time as a Thomas Jefferson’s personal retreat (Poplar…
…The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the…
(NAVSTA Rota) 30 April 2009 – an EA-3B Skywarrior is loaded aboard USS Wasp (LHD 1) for transport back to the U.S. This marks the first time in over twenty-years a Whale is chocked and chained to the flightdeck of a USN warship. How it got to that point is an extraordinary story of one…
It began as an ordinary, early spring day – teachers going about their business of teaching students; students doing what normal high school students are wont to do. At 1140, it dramatically, tragically changed with 12 students and a teacher dead and 23 others physically wounded – many more emotionally scarred. Two years, four months…
Paul Gallagher, fellow VAW alum, dropped by a short bit ago to pass along a remembrance of one of the crews we lost in the early ’90s. See, one of the hallmarks of the E-2/C-2 is the (still) relatively low mishap rate. Mishaps, and in particular, mishaps that result in the loss of some or…
The Official press release: Marine Pilot Missing In Action From WWII Is Identified The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing in action from World War II, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors He is…
