NATTC Memphis tour of duty not once, but twice.
Hello Shipmates. I attended AFUNP school and aviation electronics A school after San Diego boot camp the summer of 1970. I recall the thousands of sailors and marines there and settling into a routine of duty and school. It was odd as I didn't ask for this schooling, but somehow ended up in aviation and electronics. I soon found my niche, and I guess the Navy somehow knew my destiny. I enjoyed the challenge and the less restrictive life at NATTC. I still recall that getting off base…
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Attended "ADJ" A school in August 1963. My first duty station after Boot Camp.
If you have not been on Facebook the TRADEVMAN Association has 167 former TD's signed up on our group come join us and have some great conversations with others that were part of hte greatest rate in the Navy.
Vic Vydra
TDC USN (Ret)
TRADEVMAN Association Vice President
It wasn't as much fun as it sounds. We were dead serious in the middle of two wars so every move you made counted.
No I never flew with Chuck. Our crew and officers flew together as a unit all the time. Chuck was in another crew. My twin brother was also in another crew, because they wouldn't let brothers fly together. This is because sometime during the war, 5 Sullivan brothers were killed on one ship. No we haven't considered it, because it's too expensive and there are hundreds of islands in the Crribean that all look alike. All of our flights were 12 hours long. We would fly from noon till midnight or from midnight till noon. We covered a vast territory.
I do remember that Memphis was a very dirty city at the time. In cafes in town you would find coal dust on the rims of glasses. I returned many years later to find it one of the cleanest cities.
Hi James, We had three officers on board. The Pilot, the co-pilot and the Navigator. The bonbardier was a petty officer like me, and used the bomb sight. I used the radar.My first time on radar the skipper told me to pick an island and we'b bomb it. there was a curtain around the radar and the radioman and you couldn't see out of the plane. I found a good target and hit it right on the money. We bombed the heavest rainstorm in the Carribean. Our #3 engine quit but he quickly restarted it. He said the cylinder head temprature drop caused it and we both learned something from this so everyone is happy at this point.
The BuNo of the plane in front might be 14373 or 14375.
George Wolf is on the extreme left, Mike McCarthy is center front with legs crossed, Ray is drinking coffe to his left. That might be Rob Bixby with the beard. (This was the middle of the Zumwalt era.
John Land is probably out cleaning erasers.
As usual, Pat Henderson is behind the camera.
Overall I enjoyed my school time at NATTC-Memphis in 1971. (Those who didn't referred to it as "Rat Center Mucus".)
I was in the new barracks by the gate to north side. Everytime I smell PineSol in the local post office lobby, I remember cleaning the heads in those barracks. We once had rains so severe that the big ditch next to the main gate flooded and classes were canx, so we all went out and played in the mud, including WAVES who were finally being allowed to attend more Navy schools. Guess that was my first med wrestling/wet t-shirt experience.
I had intended to attend AT"A" school when I arrived in Millington, but during our orientation an AWC Holt and AW1 Cleveland came in to pitch their relativeley new rate. I was sold and switched over to AW"A" school.
Our class consisted of regular and reserves who had just graduated form their four-week boot camp on north side. Many of them thought we regular Navy were schmucks for not joining the reserves. Hving just completed twelve weeks or more of "real" boot camp, we had little sympathy for their tales of recent woe and deprivation. They were a bit of a squirrelly lot. (One of them, John Land, frequently angered our instructors to the point that erasers or chalk would be launched at him. No Zumwalt group hugs for him.)
At the time, we got a lot of electronic theory, which I devoured. For acoustic experience, we trained down in the labs on AQH-4 JEZ recorders with their distinct burning paper/ozone oder.
I got in to Memphis some weekends via the bus and even helped build the set for "Fiddler On The Roof" at the Pink Palace.
There was a P-2V on display east of the northside. It still had the original tail turrent on it and inside there were overhead rails for hoisting and moving objects the length of the plane.
Our class was the first one to receive VP (P-3) orders in several months. Every one else had been going to LAMPS. One classmate, Rob Bixby, ended up as an AW/swimmer in LAMPS. Three of us (George Wolf, Mike McCarthy, and I) went to the same squadron and crew. (VP-4, crew 5) One classmate (Ray) got orders to VP-17 and was on the P-3B that got bullet holes in the vertical stabilizer during the Mayeguez incident.
After graduation, we we held over for a couple of weeks. I used my modeling skills to build models of a Sea King helicopter and an aircraft carrier for display in one of the classrooms. (Wonder if anyone here saw them or what became of them.)
Many years later when I was in the west coast RAG (VP-31), we flew to NAS-Memphis for a weekend training flight. I managed to get on a P-2V reserve training flight. (Somewhere between 1982 and 1985.)
What an experience !
Real plane have recips.
There's nothing like the sound of a Pratt & Whitney clattering and roaring along. (Too bad about the engine fire when we landed.)
I got to go up to the nose in-flight, then look through the nav's plexiglass dome.
I'd brought along my bicycle and exploring east of the base, I found the remains of three FU-4U Cosairs in a field just south of Navy raod. I took photos and pried out a fastener, which I still have a souvenier.
I guess the base is closed now, at least judging by wwhat I've seen on Google Earth and on the web.
Except for a couple of peole who made things hard for everyone around them, Memphis was an enjoyable Navy experience for me. (Especially from the vantage point of forty years later.)
I'll post photos as I find them.
-- AW1 Pat Henderson (USN-ret)
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