Flightdeck Friday: USS MACON Added to National Register of Historical Places

…though you might need a little more exotic kit than walking shoes and sunscreen to visit. (full story here) For those of short memory, the story of the USS Macon and her brood was the subject of an earlier Flightdeck Friday: “Gasbags and Hookers”

This Date in Naval Aviation History: Vietnam Cease-fire Takes Effect (27 Jan 1973)

27 Jan 1973: The Vietnam cease-fire, announced four days earlier, came into effect and the carriers Oriskany, America, Enterprise and Ranger, on Yankee Station, cancelled all combat sorties into North and South Vietnam. The cost of this endeavor in terms of lives and treasure was indeed dear.  From 1961 t0 1973 the Navy lost 896…

Former VFP-62 CO and DFC Recipient, CAPT William Ecker, USN-Ret Passes Away

On Oct. 19, 1962, the Pentagon’s Bureau of Aeronautics contacted Koch while he and Ecker were fishing in Orange Park, Fla. The bureau had a top-security mission in mind. “They called up and said, ‘Can you really take pictures this good?’ ” Ecker recalled. “We said not only ‘yes’ but ‘hell yes.’ ” A few…

Flightdeck Friday: Midway POV – Wade McClusky

Written narratives and biographies are important and a primary research source.  However, when one has the opportunity to listen to a narrative, especially of one who was there and played a key role in a major event  – that is even better.  Courtesy friend and contributor to this blog, LCDR George Walsh, USN-Ret, himself a…

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Flightdeck Friday: Planning, Building and Training for the Future

(which might also serve as a cautionary tale to those who decry ‘future warists’ – SJS) …Investments in blood and treasure: Jan. 1927: 8 officers and 81 enlisted men of VO-1M, led by Maj. Ross Rowell, arrived at Corinto, Nicaragua with six DH’s. Amidst the anarchy of the civil and banditry, the U.S. Marines held…

Flightdeck Friday: This Date in Naval Aviation History – 19 June

Fifty years ago: 19 June 1959 – the first ZPG-3W airship designed to supplement the AEW barrier patrol was delivered to the Navy.  To see other uses of LTA’s, head over to the USNI blog for today’s Flightdeck Friday… The ZPG-3W was the follow-on and larger AEW blimp to the ZPG-2N and was the largest…