Enlisted Pilot

This reminds me of Cpl Foote who borrowed an A-4 at El Toro and was not offered a techrep position even though he returned the aircraft in serviceable condition.

Wayne Stafford

Okinawa MAG-36 Gooney Bird

I was at MAG-36 for 14 years 1973/1987 so I cannot pin the exact year. However H&MS 36 was still flying Gooney Birds R4D A/C between bases in Japan & Okinawa. One week end two crew Chiefs think one or both were Sgts decided to take the A/C & fly back to Okinawa from Atsugi. That they did & were directed to land at IE Shima which they did. Of course they were Court Martialed. I later understood they hired a sharp Civilian Lawyer & beat the case. They were charged with stealing a Goverment A/C of the value thereof. They had in the meantime scrapped the Gooney birds & were no longer in service. They claimed that the value than was nile & not the value the men were charged with. In any case those two did a good job of flying & landing the old Bird!!:D SF PM

I was stationed in Iwakuni when that happened, 1977-1978 time frame.

I remember that. The "Pilot" was instructed to ditch the aircraft and he said he was going to land at Kadena and they blocked the runway and directed him to land at EI Shima.

Flying Peons

Two that I remember was M/Sgt Truax, VMCJ-3 and M/Sgt Mayhew, H&MS-33 (?). Truax was still flying the jet F3D when I left VMCJ-3 in 1964 and the last I heard of Mayhew is that he got out of the Corps in 1965 and was flying for Air America in Vietnam shortly after.

s/f
del Rosario
HMM-365 Vietnam 1964-65

Enlisted flyers

Ahhh yes! We too can fly, us with chevrons instead of bars!! Albeit not as often, but it was fun if infrequent!!:D