An email from CAPT (Ret) Jack "JET" Taylor
Anthony,
A couple of days ago I received some mail from CDR Chuck Templin (VQ-1/2 Eval and
EW dept head at VQ-2 79/80). Chuck clued me in to the Survivors page and I was
delighted to see LCDR Schmidlin's disertation on Conus vs. Rota. Many excellent points
and data to back up his conclusions. I hope that it works out but I fear
that the budget-cutters could care less, since they probably don't have the
slightest idea of the value of the VQ squadrons. It is a grim period of time,
and I certainly hope that someone will take a stand. I went through two periods
of budget cutting during my active duty---it was a tough time getting 4
hours per month. Fortunately, it didn't last long, since Korea and then
Vietnam came along and we were all back in business. Supposedly the lessons
were learned, but the staffers didn't get the word!
Perhaps I should introduce myself. I will limit my tours to the ones that
apply to EW. I started flying EW/ASW flights while attached to FAETULANT in
the early 50's. We trained operators and evaluators using various types of
aircraft. My next tour was with VQ-1 from 57 to 60 flying the P4M and the
A3D1Q. Plus I was the first pilot to ferry a A3D2Q (later EA3B) from the factory to
Iwakuni. CDR Frenchy Surrey picked up the first one but was lost at sea
somewhere near Wake, Island. By the time I left the squadron we had all 9 of
them. My next three years were at Pt Mugu as the EW flight test coordinator
and flew the weird configurations of older and newer A3's. From there I had
my first tour in VQ-2. Had to carrier-qual before reporting in and since I didn't
qual in flight training, it was quite a deal. I had over 6000 hrs at that
time, so when I got my first trap on the Forrestall, the Air Boss came on the
1MC and told the flight deck to treat me nice since it was my first one.
That tour also saw VQ-2 send two A3's over to augment VQ-1 in Vietnam. I was
with the first contingent. My next assignment was back to VQ-1. More time in
Cubi, Danang and on various flight decks. At the end of two years there, I
made CDR and screened for command of VQ-2. Back to Spain and more great
deployments (until I relieved Al Gallotta and then all I could do was go to
meetings and worry about everyone else). I had a great tour though and 6th
fleet gave us a lot of "Atta Boys"!. Next was the pay-back tour: 4 yrs in the
Pentagon as the Recce Mission Sponsor. Another great tour since we had a
bunch of VQ people that provided support for both squadrons and the Special
Project EP3's. Well, the powers that assign new captains decided I should
have a staff job. No, not in EW. I went to Orlando as the COS for the Base
Commander (the first Flag officer there, Radm Brad Mooney). It was a good
tour and I thought I should retire since I had over 37 yrs of active duty. Got
a call from a 3-star who asked me to go back to Spain since CincUSNavEur had
fired the CO of VQ-2. I asked for 30 seconds to pack and was on my way the
following week. The first few months were rough, but everyone got back on
track and the final outcome was a lot of new equipment for the A3's. The
EP3's held up well and also started getting new back ends. I retired in Rota
the end of June 1980.
If you haven't read the full story of VQ-1/2 in the HOOK Summer of 87
magazine, you should look it up. CAPT Don East put it together and did a
great job.
I have rambled on enough. Just wanted to let you know about a VQ pilot that
had 5 great tours in those squadrons.
Warm regards,
Jack Taylor