Blog: Flights of the Albatross, 1955-1967

FromHamptonRoadsNavalMuseum

NORFOLK Va Universal Studios in sunny Orlando Florida, is about 12 hours and 750 miles from the Hampton Roads Naval Museum This resort was the destination of the Lonzanida family for a family vacationtakenearlierthisyearwheninquisitivechildrenStellaandNoahweretakento the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and Minion Land. Each morning began with a watertaxiridetothethemeparktopartake oftouristadventures Onthefirstday Stella pointedoutaretiredU.S.NavyAlbatrossHU 16seaplaneatJimmyBuffet’sMargaritaville café The plane, aptly named “Hemisphere Dancer” (Civil Registry Number N28J), attracted attention not because of its new role and paint scheme, but out of curiosity about how it had been used in the Navy I referred the question to Captain Alexander Monroe USN(Ret.),andwhatfollowsisthe resultofhisinvestigation.

The Albatross aircraft on display known as ”Hemisphere Dancer was built at the Grumman Aircraft Company at Bethpage, New York. Construction was completed on July 22, 1955, and the plane was delivered to the Navy at Naval Air Station North Island, San Diego, California. It was one of 466 aircraft built by Grumman and was assigned Bureau Number (BUNO) 137928. The machine could operate from established runways ashore or from open-ocean byvirtueofaV-shapedhull.Itcouldtakeoff in 4-foot seas, though Jet Assisted Take Off (JATO) was required in seas greater than 8 feet. It was specifically designed for Search and Rescue (SAR) and was so used by the Navy,CoastGuard,andAirForce.Itfollowed the Grumman Goose first constructed in 1937

The12-yearcareerofBUNO137928began withpre-deploymentoverhaulattheNaval AirStationAlameda,CaliforniainSanFranciscoatFleetAircraftServiceSquadron116.

Following this evolution, it was assigned to the fleet as an operational unit and joined Naval Air Station, Naha, Okinawa and then NavalAirFacility Oppama,Japan,formerly known as Yokosuka Airfield, a Japanese Navy activity with an associated seaplane base south of Yokohama The design noted above made it ideal for stationing close to openocean,whereSARmightberequired.

IntimetheplanewasassignedtotheU.S.

Naval Air Station at Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands for SAR responsibilities While in this assignment, it was assigned otherdutyquitedifferentfromthepurpose for which it was designed: participation in atomic weapons testing. Between May and

July1956,lessthanayearaftertheplanewas delivered to the Navy, it was assigned as a secondaryobservationaircraftinOperation Redwing, a series of detonations conceived todemonstratethepowerofnuclearweapons Thetestswerecarriedoutinthevicinity ofBikiniAtollintheMarshallIslands

On June 25 1956 Rear Admiral Byron Hall Hanlon, Commander of Joint Task Force Seven and in charge of the operation observed detonation Dakota in the northeast lagoon at Bikini from the aircraft. One crewman,AT2RichardR.Casey,developed symptoms of radiation sickness, and the aircraftreturnedtoKwajalein.

Other Albatross planes were involved in historically important activities For example the crew of BUNO 141264 assigned to SAR duty at Naval Air Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, photographed Russian forces unloading missiles in Cuba prior to commencement of the Cuban Missile Crisis IntheVietnamWar,theU.S.AirForce carried out rescue missions from bases in the Philippine Islands, Okinawa, and Da Nang in South Vietnam. Air crewmen such as Larry Barnes of the Air Force 31st Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron flew closetoNorthVietnameseterritorialwaters

Vietnam Veterans to be honored at NEX locations

Navy Exchange Service Command

Once again this year, NEX locations aroundtheworldhavethehonorofdistributing lapel pins to Vietnam Veterans on Vietnam Veterans Day, Weds March 29

U. S. Veterans who served on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces at any time during November1,1955toMay15,1975,regardless oflocation,willreceivealapelpin.Thepins are available on a first-come, first-served basis,whilesupplieslast.

NEX locations distributing the label pin include NEX Norfolk, NEX Oceana, NEX Portsmouth Navy Regional Medical Center, NEX Portsmouth Norfolk Naval Shipyard, NEX Wallops Island, NEX Dahlgren, NEX Little Creek, NEX YorktownandNEXDamNeck,Virginia; NEXAnnapolis,NEXBethesda,NEXPatuxentRiverandNEXIndianHead,Maryland; NEX Washington Navy Yard, Washington, D.C.;NEXPhiladelphiaandNEXMechanicsburg, Pennsylvania; NEX Everett, NEX Bremerton, NEX Whidbey Island and NEX Bangor Washington; NEX Memphis Tennessee; NEX San Diego; NEX North Island, NEX China Lake, NEX Point Loma, NEXPointMugu,NEXPortHueneme,NEX Lemoore, NEX Monterey, NEX Coronado,

NEX Imperial Beach, NEX El Centro and NEX Point Loma, California; NEX Fallon, Nevada; NEX Meridian and NEX Gulfport, Mississippi; NEX Kings Bay, Georgia; NEX Mitchel Field, NEX Saratoga Springs and NEX U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, NewYork;NEXColtsNeckandNEXLakehurst, New Jersey; NEX Kittery Maine; NEX Charleston and NEX Beaufort Naval Hospital,SouthCarolina;NEXBelleChasse, Louisiana;NEXKingsvilleandNEXCorpus Christi,Texas;NEXNewLondon,Connecticut; NEX Newport, Rhode Island; NEX Jacksonville, NEX Key West, NEX Panama City NEX Whiting Field, NEX Pensacola, NEX Orlando and NEX Mayport, Florida; NEX Great Lakes Illinois; NEX Crane Indiana;NEXPearlHarborandNEXKauai BarkingSands,Hawaii;NEXBahrain;NEX Djibouti;NEXGuam;NEXYokosuka,NEX AtsugiandNEXSasebo,Japan;NEXGuantanamo Bay, Cuba; NEX Naples, Italy; NEX Rota, Spain; NEX torescuecrewswhosedamagedaircrafthad reached open ocean and were at “feet wet” locations. These were hazardous missions, and the crews that flew them would never forget their experiences.There were other non-combatantevolutions.Forexample,air crewmen Dick Wilbur and Robert Prange remembered operations conducted from theNavalStationatRooseveltRoads,Puerto Rico, in which the aircraft and their crews were used to restock green turtle sites all over the Caribbean from nesting places in CostaRica The evolutions carried out had an effect ontheairframeandtheircrewmen Aviation Machinist’sMate2ndClassHarryMarshall recalled that BUNO 137910 was a “good old girl,” and while assigned to Naval Station Trinidad experienced water takeoffs and landingsonly.Henotedthat,“corrosionwas a big problem requiring complete overhaul of the empennage” during his tour of duty in 1965 AD3 John Kaye, USCG, noted that it,“wasatough,loudaircraftthatdideverything asked of it,” though others later lived with the deafness caused by the extreme engine noise He also found water takeoffs disconcertingbecauseofexcessiveporpoising before getting up “on step.” Likewise,

waterlandingsrequiredconsiderableatten-

tionbytheaircraftcommander

The crews of BUNO 13978, like other Albatross crews, carried out many rescue and support flights in its Navy service It had operated in places named above but also in Atlantic Fleet stations such as the Naval Air Stations at Jacksonville, Florida, andNorfolk Virginia.Insodoing theplane accumulated 2,689 flight hours On August 1, 1967, it was retired from active service and flown to the Military Aircraft Storage and Disposition Center (MASDC) at Davis MonthanAirForceatTucson,Arizona.After intermediate ownership by others, it was soldtoJimmyBuffetinNovember1995,relocatedtoitspresentlocationatOrlando,Florida,named“HemisphereDancer”andgiven anewpaintscheme InJanuary1996 itwas attackedbyJamaicanpolicewho—thinking itwasanarcoticsrunner’splane—hititwith gunfire, and fortunately no one aboard was injured. The fortuitous sighting of “HemisphereDancer”duringafamilyvacationhas permittedareviewoftheroleoftheunique planeintheNavyandotherarmedforcesin avarietyofimportantroles.