Page 2
Pax River ProďŹ les 2015
1958956
2015 Pax River Profiles
Pax River Profiles
Albert Earnest
Jerry Gallagher
Vernon Gordon
Frederick Trapnell
Pax River Profiles is a special supplement to The Enterprise Christy Bailey, acting publisher / Al Dailey, associate publisher Written by Rick Thompson / Edited by Megan Johnson Cover design by Brandon Young www.somdnews.com
1959169
Page 3
Page 4
Pax River Profiles 2015
Albert K. Earnest Special to Pax River Profiles
The U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, then called the Test Pilot Training Division of the Naval Air Test Center, was established in April 1948, and convened its first class on July 6 of that year. There were, of course, test pilots before that. One of those was Albert Kyle Earnest, who served with the Tactical Test Division from August 1944 to April 1947, and then returned to NAS Patuxent River from September 1958 to July 1960. During his tour at Pax River, the many test divisions — tactical, flight, radio, armament, service, electronics, etc. — were consolidated into one entity, the Naval Air Test Center, on June 16, 1945. Forty-seven years later, on Jan. 1, 1992, NATC would become the Flight Test and Engineering Group with the formal establishment of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD). Earnest was one of hundreds of combatexperienced pilots who came to Pax River. Because of that experience, they were well-
suited to evaluate the combat-worthiness of aircraft and equipment. Not only did they fly new American planes, they tested captured enemy aircraft, passing on their vulnerabilities and flight weaknesses to pilots in the fleet. Albert K. Earnest was born April 1, 1917 in Richmond, Va., the son of James Gifford and Jessie Mullan Earnest. Graduating from the Virginia Military Academy in 1938, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army Reserve. He resigned that commission in February 1942 so he could be commissioned a Navy ensign. After winning his wings in November 1941 at NAS Opa-Locka (decommissioned in 1946 and now Opa-Locka Executive Airport), his first fleet assignment was with Torpedo Bomber Squadron 8 (VT-8) aboard the USS Hornet. “I wasn’t particularly overjoyed,” Earnest wrote later. “At Opa Locka we’d flown fighters and dive bombers but torpedo planes weren’t even mentioned.” He continued, “I knew, of course, what torpedo planes were supposed to do — See Earnest, Page 6
Capt. Albert K. Earnest as commanding officer, NAS Oceana, Va.
10735 Town Center Blvd., Suite 1
CUSTOM PICTURE FRAMING
Dunkirk, MD 20754 (Next to Dunkirk Hardware)
301.855.4515 Stars and Stripes by Dru Blair
medartgalleries.com
1958902
By RICK THOMPSON
2015 Pax River ProďŹ les
Page 5
1959168
Page 6
Pax River Profiles 2015
Albert K. Earnest on leave in 1943.
Ground crewmen surround Earnest’s heavily damaged TBF Avenger after the attack.
Earnest Continued from Page 4
penetrate the screen and drop a torpedo, low and slow, at an enemy vessel — but it didn’t seem like a recipe for a long life. “Nevertheless, those were my orders.” He was on leave when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, and reported to his new assignment the next day. Just under six months later, Torpedo 8 would be famously wiped out during its attack without fighter escort on the Japanese fleet during the Battle of Midway. Only one pilot, George Gay, survived. While a member of Torpedo 8, Earnest wasn’t with them that day — but he still participated in the battle. “We [a detachment of Torpedo 8] were supposed to bring out the new TBF Avengers from Norfolk and join the squadron,” said Earnest in a 1999 interview. “As it turned out, we got to Pearl Harbor the day after the Hornet sailed for Midway, so they decided to send the first six TBFs they could get ready up to Midway to back up the forces already there.” The rest of Torpedo on the Hornet was still flying the now-obsolete TBD Devastator. “For its time it was a pretty good airplane,” said Earnest, “but it was very slow, and carrying a torpedo just made it that much slower. It didn’t have the protection we had in the TBF. The TBF was a far superior airplane, but we didn’t get it in time.” The lumbering Devastators were easy pickings for the nimble Japanese Zero fighters.
When the six TBFs arrived at Midway, they added to the potpourri of different aircraft on the field. “It was full of B-17s, PBYs, four B-26 bombers that had torpedoes slung underneath them, some Brewster Buffaloes which weren’t worth a damn at altitude, some obsolete SB2U Vindicator dive bombers, a few SBD Dauntlesses, and eight F4F Wildcats.” Then came the waiting. Pilots would sit in their planes after they were warmed, periodically restarting them to keep them warm. “Then someone came over, jumped on the wing and told me 320 degrees, 150 miles. Right about that time everything was taking off.” At this point in his career, Earnest had only 400 hours in the air. Until the flight of the six TBFs from Pearl Harbor to Midway, he had never flown out of sight of land. After about an hour in the air, they found “what looked like a transport. A few seconds later I could see the whole Jap fleet,” said Earnest. “We were going to split into two groups of three and come from opposite sides and so I nosed down to start a run-in on the carriers.” The Avengers were about 200 feet above the ocean, flying slow, when the Japanese combat air patrol’s Zeros pounced. The Zero’s top speed of 410 mph far exceeded what the Avenger could do even without a torpedo (276 mph). “They were all over us. We had a power turret in the TBF, but pretty soon the gunner [Manning] stopped firing. I didn’t know it but he was dead,” Earnest said. “My tunnel gunner [Ferrier] got hit in the forehead, but it just knocked him out. He lived.” The Avenger was hammered by bullets from another Zero, and this time they severed the elevator control cables. With one crewman dead and another
unconscious, Earnest was effectively alone in the cockpit, trying to control a 10,000-pound aircraft with no elevator controls and failing hydraulics. He had also been hit in the neck and was bleeding from that wound. “I figured I was going in the water, but I had the trim well enough that it was nose down just a little,” said Earnest. “There was a destroyer aport, so I kicked it around with the ailerons and rudder, tried to take a lead on him and let the torpedo go.” By now he was nearing the surface and losing altitude, but the shot-up TBF had a surprise for him. “Just as I was about to hit the water, my left hand — for no reason that I know, because I didn’t tell it to — hit the elevator tab which is used for landing,” he related. “When I did that, the airplane jumped up in the air, and I realized that I could fly with an elevator tab.” Earnest’s was the only Avenger to return to Midway, but it wasn’t easy. “My compass was gone, but since the sun was in the east I decided I’d fly until I figured I was opposite Midway and then turn.” Earnest also got a good surprise when Ferrier regained consciousness. Finally, it was time to turn. “I could see a very big plume of smoke, so I figured that was probably Midway.” It was, but Earnest still wasn’t home free. When he came in to land, only one wheel of the landing gear would lower. “The guy at the end of the runway gave me a wave-off, so I went up and tried to shake it down,” Earnest stated. “It wouldn’t come down.” Another try, another wave-off, then another try at shaking the wheel loose; it stayed stuck. The whole time, he continued, “They were calling See Earnest, page 8
2015 Pax River ProďŹ les
Page 7
1959194
Pax River Profiles 2015
Earnest Continued from Page 6
me on the radio, which didn’t work, telling me to bail out. I wasn’t going to do that anyway, because I had one wounded man besides myself and probably a dead man onboard.” Earnest decided on the third approach that this was it. The Avenger “landed right nicely, went on down the runway and eventually lost lift on the right wing where there was no wheel and spun itself around,” he said. “It parked itself right off the edge of the runway. It turned out they didn’t want the runway blocked and I didn’t blame them.” After landing, “I wanted to go around and look at my turret gunner, but a very big Marine grabbed me and said, ‘No, you don’t want to see that.’” Earnest and Ferrier were the only survivors of the Torpedo 8 detachment’s attack from Midway. The turning point of the battle came later that day, when dive bombers from Enterprise and Yorktown went in unopposed at 10:20 a.m. The Japanese fighters were scattered at low altitudes after battling torpedo bombers and Army Air Force B-17s and B-26s.
In addition to the Purple Heart, Earnest received two Navy Crosses for his actions on June 4: one for the attack and the other for bringing the shotup Avenger home for evaluation. He would earn another, along with two Air Medals, before the war ended. Earnest continued serving with a reconstituted VT-8, this time on the USS Saratoga, during the landings on Guadalcanal and the Battle of the Eastern Solomons. After the Saratoga was struck by a torpedo, he flew numerous missions from Henderson Field on Guadalcanal. When VT-8 was decommissioned, he was transferred to Fleet Composite Squadron 7 on the USS Manila Bay. Then came his first arrival at Pax River in August 1944, were he was assigned to the Tactical Test Division. As part of Air Development Squadron Four (VX-4), he was the first U.S. pilot to fly the “Kate” Japanese torpedo bomber. He was commissioned as Navy Jet Pilot No. 62, flying the XP-59A Airacomet. He would also fly the P-80 Shooting Star and the FR-1 Fireball, a carrier-based plane that combined jet power with a conventional propeller. He would be part of other projects, among them the evaluation of a capSee Earnest, page 10
Lisa E. Polko, M.D., F.A.C.O.G. Nnamdi A. Davis, M.D., F.A.C.O.G. Danielah A. Gautier, M.D. Jessica B. Colwill, M.D., F.A.C.O.G. Reana K. Barnes, M.S.N., W.H.N.P. - B.C. Jill Collier, M.S.N., F.N.P. - C. Nancy Sidorowicz, P.A. - C. Brooke A. Bucci, M.S.N., C.N.M. Morgan M. Walker, M.S.N., C.N.M. Roberta Jordan, M.S.N., C.N.M. 41680 Miss Bessie Drive, Suite 102 • Leonardtown, MD Satellite Office: 23127 Three Notch Road, Suite 104 California, MD 20619 Obstetrics, Gynecology and Midwifery NEW PATIENTS WELCOME
We look forward to meeting the needs of our current and future patients.
Telephone: 301-997-1788 Emergency After Hour Telephone: 1-855-348-0561
www.smwomenshealth.com
1958755
The XP-39 Airacomet, the jet that many Navy pilots, including Albert Earnest, flew to attain their jet pilot qualifications.
1959166
Page 8
2015 Pax River ProďŹ les
1959002
Page 9
1958949
Do YYou ou Feel F eel Crabby Cra bby When You You Insurance Insura suranc ncee Bill Get Your In In The Mail? M ail?
Give Giv Us A Call. e You'll You'll Be Glad You You Did.
Leonardtown
Dan Burris, Lisa Squires, Paula Lillard & Jake Kuntz
Olde Towne Insurance AUTO - HOME - BUSINESS - LIFE Leonardtown 301-475-3151 LaPlata 301-934-8437 Bryans Road 301-743-9000
www.danburris.com
1958960
An Independent Agent Representing: ERIE INSURANCE GROUP
LaPlata
Matt Laidley, Katie Facchina, Ginger Mohler & Gary Simpson
Bryans Road
April Hancock
Page 10 Pax River Profiles 2015
Pilot Ens. Albert K. Earnest, center, with his crew, RM3 Harry H. Ferrier and AMM3 J.D. Manning.
1958999
Earnest Continued from Page 8
1958903
tured German Messerschmitt ME-262 jet fighter. During his career, Earnest attended the Naval Postgraduate School in Annapolis (since relocated to Monterey, Calif.); General Line School (now Surface Warfare Officers School) in Newport, R.I.; and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces (renamed in 2013 as the Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy). He was commanding officer of Strike Fighter Squadron Fourteen (VA14A) and Air Task Group 181 (ATG181) at NAS Oceana, Va. When Earnest returned to Pax River in 1958, he was again assigned to Flight Test, staying there until July 1960. That was followed by two tours at the Attack Design Branch at the Bureau of Aeronautics (which was combined with the Bureau of Ordnance in December to become the Bureau of Weapons, which in turn became NAVAIR in May 1966). Earnest commanded USS Estes, an amphibious force command ship, from Oct. 19, 1965 to Oct. 7, 1966, during the ship’s service off the coast of Vietnam. A month later, he became
commanding officer of NAS Oceana, serving two years in that post until November 1968. Earnest rounded out his naval career serving in Paris, France as Representative in Europe to the Commander, Striking Fleet Atlantic; and Representative in Europe of the Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic before retiring as Assistant Chief of Staff (Logistics) to the Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic, in 1972. After his retirement, Earnest was executive secretary to the operational test and evaluation group of a medical device company, before become a real estate salesman and broker. He was a member of the Association of Naval Aviation, Early and Pioneer Naval Aviator’s Association “Golden Eagles” and Tailhook Association, Virginia Beach Sports Club, and the Princess Anne Hunt Club. He was inducted into the Carrier Hall of Fame on USS Yorktown in October 1990. Albert K. Earnest died Oct. 27, 2009 at Sentra Virginia Beach General Hospital. He was 92 years old. Harry H. Ferrier, Earnest’s tunnel gunner on that TBF-1 Avenger on June 4, 1942, is now the sole surviving member of Torpedo 8.
2015 Pax River ProďŹ les
Page 11
1958958
Page 12 Pax River Profiles 2015
Jerry Gallagher By RICK THOMPSON
Special to Pax River Profiles
Sometimes you have a friend who turns out to be a prophet. Jerry Gallagher had one of those friends. He was completing his first tour as an A-7 Corsair II pilot on USS America (CVA-66) when he applied for admission to the United States Naval Test Pilot School. A squadronmate warned him, “If you go to Pax River, then your operational career will be over, and you’ll end up married.” Truer words were never said. Gallagher spent the rest of his career, both military and civilian, at NAS Patuxent River, almost entirely at the Test Pilot School — and yes, he got married. Until then, Gallagher had followed a straightforward course in his career. The son of Leo and Garnett Gallagher (one of his brothers, Leo Jr., is the watermelon-smashing comedian Gallagher), he graduated from H.B. Plant High School in Tampa, Fla., in 1965, with plans to
study mathematics in college. As a teenager he was active in roller skating, winning the U.S. Southern Regional Championship in figure skating, as well as trampoline, gymnastics and springboard diving. In one of those cases where it turned out that father did indeed know best, “I had a scholarship to Emory University, but applied to the Naval Academy to appease my father. I received an appointment just weeks before graduation. I knew nothing about the Academy, the Navy or aviation.” His father had been an Army paratrooper during World War II, but Jerry Gallagher was the only one of Leo Sr.’s four children to serve in the military. A funny thing happened in Annapolis. “I got interested in aviation, probably from my tumbling background,” he said. “I was a varsity gymnast, specializing in trampoline and floor exercise.” He would eventually run the Test Pilot See Gallagher, Page 14
1959192
2015 Pax River Profiles
Page 13
Picture your family here ...
Peaceful living IN A QUIET SETTING EXCELLENT SCHOOLS
WITHIN WALKING DISTANCE TO STORES, RESTAURANTS AND OTHER CONVENIENCES FLEXIBLE LEASE TERMS! LOCATION! LOCATION! LOCATION!
WildeRidge Apartments Owned and Operated by the Apartments of Wildewood
1, 2 & 3 Bedroom Apartments • 24 Hour Maintenance • Facility Upgrades Pet Friendly • Security Key Locks • Amenity Package Available 22760 Laurel Glen Road • California, MD 20619
301-862-5307 • 301-737-0737 DIRECTIONS: RT 235 (THREE NOTCH ROAD) TURN AT PANERA ONTO OLD ROLLING ROAD, MAKE LEFT ON LAUREL GLEN ROAD, WE ARE ON THE LEFT
1959011
(for leasing information)
Page 14 Pax River Profiles 2015
Gallagher Continued from Page 12
1959183
1959000
1959264
School’s spin program, which he described as “tumbling in an airplane. Acrobatics in an airplane are the same as doing somersaults on a trampoline or from a springboard, except that you’re sitting down. Your sense of what’s up and what’s down — your orientation — is about the same.” Gallagher had never flown in anything but an airliner, but “in the summer after your junior year at the Academy you were exposed to the various options in naval service, besides surface line, following graduation — naval aviation, submarines, the Marine Corps. Most of the midshipmen went to Pensacola for flight indoctrination, but I was involved in the leader- Jerry Gallagher as a gymnast at the Naval Academy. ship program greeting the Below, Jerry and Jan Gallagher just before passing new plebes, so that kept me under the traditional Saber Arch saluting their newlymarried status. from going the main route.” Instead, he got his first visit to NAS Patuxent River in 1968, arriving by bus. “They were going to give us a ride in one of the airplanes at Pax River,” Gallagher said. “They just happened to stick us all on a Super Constellation (the famous four-engine pistondriven aircraft with the triple rudder) that they had at South Site, so we all got a ride in an airplane, but it was basically no different than an airliner.” the first part of the prediction came In spite of the abbreviated expo- true. sure to Naval aviation, that was the On the staff was Lt. Cmdr. William career path he chose. After graduat- Bowes, later a vice admiral and coming from Annapolis in 1969, “I went mander of the Naval Air Systems Comto the Navy Postgraduate School in mand (NAVAIR). “Bill and his wife Dee Monterey, California, and earned by set up a blind date with one of Dee’s master’s in mathematics,” Gallagher friends, a 12th grade English teacher stated. “I then went to flight school at Great Mills High School named Jan and got my wings in 1971.” After his Smith,” said Gallagher, “and our first first tour flying the A-7 Corsair II over date was to a bluegrass festival at the Vietnam, he applied to USNTPS. Take-It-Easy Ranch in Callaway that Arriving at Pax River in 1975, he featured John Hartford,” the famed found a place quite different from songwriter and recording artist who today. Route 235 was still just two lanes wrote the Glen Campbell hit “Gentle all the way from Waldorf. A phone on My Mind.” call required dialing just five numbers “I took her to the festival in my as 863 was the only exchange, and Corvette,” Gallagher said. “Of course, on-base “Cedar Point Road was three I was a young naval aviator. I had the lanes, with beautiful mature elm trees Corvette for 10 years.” The rest, as they lining both sides of the road all the way say, is history. Jerry and Jan were mardown to the post office,” according to ried on May 6, 1978, at St. Nicholas Gallagher. “At low tide you could walk Chapel. They would eventually have along the beach all of the way to Cedar three children: two boys and a girl. Point Lighthouse,” which has since “Jan made it easy for me to meet my been torn down. It was during his TPS training that See Gallagher, page 15
2015 Pax River Profiles
Page 15
Gallagher Continued from Page 14
obligations at the Test Pilot School,” Gallagher said of his wife. “We had major graduation exercises for each class, so every six months I was on a trip somewhere, usually to France, Italy, Spain, England or California. I’d be gone, and she would be left holding down the fort. She did the lion’s share of raising the kids.” And the Corvette? “Typical of Corvettes, the brakes and exhaust system were a problem, so I eventually had it up on blocks in my garage. I never got a chance to work on it because by then I was at TPS and TPS is just a tornado of activity all the time. I ended up giving it to my younger brother, and he took it to Florida and fixed it up.” Gallagher became the proud owner of a station wagon, complete with car seats for children — not that it mattered. “By then I was getting my excitement at work and didn’t need a fast car,” he said. Graduating with Class 68 in December 1975, he was assigned to VX-23 (then called “Strike”), but after one year he was sent back to TPS as a “plowback” instructor — a recent
Jerry Gallagher after completing 1,000 flying hours in the TPS’ de Havilland Otter, the oldest aircraft in the U.S. Navy’s inventory.
graduate now teaching. Being at TPS, he added, is for a flyer “like being a kid in a candy store. I got to fly everything, and ended up flying 138 different aircraft, including helicopters.” By the time he retired, he would accumulate more than 10,000 hours in the air. In 1978, life at the Test Pilot School was very different from what it is today. “Our offices were in the upper spaces of the [current] hangar, and the hangars were in disrepair,” Gallagher said. “You’d arrive in the morning and
turn on the light in the coffee mess and the roaches would scatter.” He continued, “Any time it rained, we had strategically placed trash cans under all of the leaks. It was really embarrassing to host professionals from other organizations and show them our spaces. They were really subpar.” The opening of the Test Pilot School’s current building in 1993 changed everything. “It lifted the attitude of everybody,” Gallagher said.
ana M g n i r e f f Now O
ge
Lt. Jerry Gallagher receives his diploma during the Class 68 USNTPS Graduation Ceremonies.
“We are professionals, we have a nice facility and we do good work.” The aircraft hangar and maintenance spaces were improved as well. After his year as a “plowback,” GalSee Gallagher, page 16
ip h s r e d a e L ment and
1959003
Page 16 Pax River Profiles 2015
Jerry Gallagher’s fully combat-loaded A-7 ready for takeoff from USS America.
Gallagher Continued from Page 15
lagher, who by then had been promoted to lieutenant commander, received orders for a return to operational duty aboard USS America, but tragedy in the form of a T-38 accident at TPS blocked the way. “It claimed the lives of two key instructors, and so they didn’t have anyone to run the fixedwing program,” said Gallagher. “They put an operational hold on me and cancelled my orders within a month of my reporting date.” When the extended tour at TPS ended, Gallagher resigned his commission after 10 years of service and went to then-Commanding Officer Cmdr. Robert V. Sallada with an idea: a full-time contract instructor test pilot. Cmdr. Sallada liked it. In Gallagher’s words, “It made sense to have someone at the school who had been in flight testing long enough to master the material and actually be able to answer the tough questions that students had. You simply can’t really learn enough about flight testing in a couple of years.” It was 1980, and Gallagher would stay there until his retirement in 2013, being named Instructor of the Year in 1988. The second part of the predic-
tion had come true. Having resigned his commission, there was an immediate change. “When I left the service, I was chief or the fixed-wing syllabus, so I was free to make the changes that I felt were necessary,” Gallagher said. “I came back as a contractor, and support by its very nature is not supervisory. I was more of a consultant to help the guys along, and pretty much stayed as the local expert in out-of-control and spin testing, flying qualities and tail-draggers (aircraft whose third wheel is in the rear rather than the nose).” Over the years, the curriculum has changed. “We started in the late 1970s trying to get smart on airplane systems,” Gallagher stated. “That was when TPS took charge of maintaining the A-7s, which had been maintained at Strike. We began a systems syllabus where we were testing the radar, the inertial navigation system, the headsup display and the bombing system of the A-7. Later, the F-18 Hornet was chosen to replace both the A-7 and the F-4 in the fleet, so the A-7s were retired. In 1978 the first F-18s arrived at Pax River for testing, and after a while TPS got their own Hornets.” The Test Pilots School doesn’t usually get the latest models, however. “Generally what TPS gets are the old pre-production prototype airplanes, typically with the ‘N’ designation,” said Gallagher, “meaning they’ve been
highly-modified as test articles and are of no real use to the fleet. They were great for testing, but were too far from final fleet standard configuration to make conversion practical.” The newest program is unmanned aerial systems (UAS). “They were starting to get into UAS testing when I was leaving. By and large, however, the fundamentals of how airplanes fly and how propulsion systems work is pretty much the same,” according to Gallagher. Jerry Gallagher gives one of his many lectures at the What revolutionized Test Pilot School. everything, he continued, was GPS (Global Positioning System). “It used to be that you it was a real challenge.” With GPS, “The guessing is gone. really had to pay attention to where You know exactly where you are all the you were flying because you had limited navigational equipment,” he said. time, and so do the ATR [Atlantic Test “Now you have GPS and inertial navi- Range] folks. Everybody knows exactly gation systems, so you really can’t get where you are and what you’re doing, which is like having a camera on you lost. all the time.” “It used to be quite dicey when we Testing itself has improved, and would do spin flights in the area. Once also gotten a lot safer, partly because you spin, the gyros in the airplane simulators can do so much more, “but would tumble,” Gallagher continued. largely it was the supervisory atten“If you couldn’t erect them, then you tion that really turned things around,” had to find your way back home withsaid Gallagher. “It was a lot looser in out an attitude gyro or a compass. If you had to penetrate the clouds, then See Gallagher, page 17
2015 Pax River Profiles
Gallagher Continued from Page 16
’70s and ’80s, but now the supervisory chain is heavily involved in test planning and execution. It had to get tighter because the cost of flying and the cost of accidents — not to mention the loss of lives — is just prohibitive. You’ve got to manage the assets as intelligently as you can, and so we really improved the disciplines of test planning and risk management. All that has really Jerry Gallagher, right, is congratulated by Lt. Cmdr. paid dividends.” Brian Sandberg after his last flight in a Navy aircraft. As a contractor and tractor support test pilot on base.” instructor, he still got to fly, So why’d he leave it? averaging 250 hours a year, but there Gallagher: “It was time. I could was also paperwork — a lot of it, gradsense that I wasn’t as sharp as I used ing reports and managing exercises. “There were classroom lectures to to be. I could sense that I was slowing prepare and give, airplane programs down and knew that the job required to manage, NATOPS [Naval Avia- only the best that I could give. I was tion Training Operational Procedures beginning to feel the physical wear Standardization] programs, exams, and tear of putting on and taking off qualifications and coordination with the poopy suit and parachute multiple maintenance,” he said. “It was mainly times a day. As a young man I didn’t fly during the day and take the papers notice it, but it got physically wearying home at night, grading technical for me. I gave up flying the jets about reports and preparing lectures. My two years before I retired. I continued wife and I would sit at the table and flying just the tail-draggers and the grade papers, hers from language arts gliders.” His wife had retired from teaching classes and mine from TPS.” the year before, so on Dec. 23, 2013, In short, “I was the luckiest guy in the world. It was a super job — people Gallagher took his last flight, with Lt. would say that to me,” Gallagher said. Cmdr. Brian Sandberg, son of Acad“We taught the cream of the crop. emy classmate James Sandberg, in an There are no more willing students H-72 Lakota. His post-retirement career is selfthan you find at TPS, and the staff and support people are top-notch. One of described as “bouncing around.” Said the wives used to say that we didn’t Gallagher, “I’m bouncing around really have a squadron, we had a base- between my house on the water in ball team, because everybody pulls North Carolina, where I have a dock, a boatlift and a fishing boat.” Then there together to a common objective.” The level of instruction now “is way are his grandchildren. “I have a daughhigher than when I started, and I think ter and a son both living in the D.C. it’s largely because of the staffing,” area who each have given me a grandhe continued. “They started bring- son, so I’m spending time bouncing ing back second-tour guys to instruct, between their residences.” Gallagher’s other passion is being guys who had been in flight testing and acquisition for a while and had “a fiddler in an Irish band. I love playgotten valuable perspective. Then you ing the fiddle, especially for dances. add the full-timers, both government Our band does a few bluegrass and service and contract, who raised the old-time tunes, but mainly we conlevel of understanding because of their centrate on Celtic, mostly Irish music experience and corporate knowledge. — reels, slides, jigs, hornpipes, and Both factors have elevated the level polkas.” Retirement has opened up time for instruction quite a bit, and I’m really tickled with how I was able to contrib- all that. “I’m finding it hard to maintain two houses and find time for my ute to it myself.” All told, “It was a dream job,” he two grandchildren,” he said. “As much said. “I was totally fortunate to be at as I enjoyed working, it was just too the right place at the right time and time-consuming.” Still, “I was able to contribute to have TPS be responsive when I came to market the whole idea of contract TPS, and just enjoyed all 36 years I was test pilot support. I was the first con- at the school.”
Page 17
The Burch Family would like to thank the men and women of the armed forces who support the Patuxent River Naval Air Station Mission...
Saluting the 70th Anniversary of the Test Pilot School Pax River NAS
1959068
Page 18 Pax River Profiles 2015
Frederick M. Trapnell By RICK THOMPSON
Special to Pax River Profiles
Your flight lands and as it taxis to the gate the pilot announces, “Welcome to Trapnell Field.” Question: Where are you? Answer: NAS Patuxent River, because the station’s air field is named in honor of Capt. Frederick M. Trapnell — but like in the old American Express commercials, almost nobody today knows who he was. Frederick Mackay Trapnell (19021975) was an aviation pioneer: a member of the Navy’s first precision flying team, one of its foremost test pilots and the first Navy pilot to fly a jet. Most important for Pax River, he was instrumental in the creation of today’s U.S. Naval Test Pilot School. By 1949, after his appearance at a Congressional hearing, Time Magazine would describe him as having “probably flown more types of planes than any other U.S. pilot.” Trapnell graduated from Annapolis in 1923 and served two years on the
battleship USS California and cruiser USS Marblehead before arriving at NAS Pensacola in 1926 for flight training. He had a natural flying ability combined with a firm grasp of aerodynamics. He worked at obtaining a detailed knowledge of every type of plane he flew. Trapnell’s natural skills got him assigned to the Flight Test Section at NAS Anacostia in 1930, where he and two other young officers were made the “Three Flying Fish,” the Navy’s first official aerial demonstration team. For the first time, the Navy had a yearround unit that performed around the country, using Curtiss F6C-4 biplanes specially modified to fly upside down for long periods. Said an article in the June 22, 1930 edition of the Washington Sunday Star, “With these three planes, any of the maneuvers possible with the present-day airplanes may be duplicated, including the inverted or outside ‘falling leaf,’ which has been performed by only two pilots in the world.” The “Three Flying Fish” were predecessors of today’s “Blue Angels,” but
U.S. Navy photo
Capt. Frederick M. Trapnell in 1949 as Naval Air Test Center commander.
their life was short. The “Three Flying Fish” aerial demonstration team was disbanded in April 1931. Trapnell briefly had a career on two unusual aircraft carriers. For two years (1932-34), he was assigned to the small airplane units, first on USS Akron and then USS Macon. What made them unusual was that they weren’t ships. They were the only two aircraft-carrying dirigibles (commonly called blimps) the Navy ever owned. Trapnell and the other pilots would fly from, and then return to, the airship while it was in flight. The dirigible program was short-lived, however. On April 4, 1933, the Akron encountered a violent storm over the New Jersey coast and crashed into the sea, killing 73 of its 76-man crew, and then two years later, the Macon sank off the California coast after wind shear caused a structural failure. Thanks to the warm Naval Historical Center photo conditions and introducThe “Three Flying Fish” with one of their Curtiss F6C-4 Hawks. Trapnell is at left. tion of inflatable life jackets
and rafts, only two of the 76-man crew were lost. During this time, Trapnell was responsible for a complete redesign of the gear and method of airplane hookup to the dirigibles, but the crash of the two airships sounded the death knell of the program. By 1940, now Lt. Cmdr. Trapnell was back at the Anacostia Flight Test Section as its head. He became full commander in 1942, and moved with the section to the new Naval Air Test Center Patuxent River. World War II meant new developments in aircraft, engines and equipment. To keep up with these developments, Trapnell expanded the Navy’s flight test procedures. If pilots were to examine in detail and then report how this new equipment handled in the air, they had to know engineering. Trapnell set up a lecture series to improve their flying skills and also their engineering knowledge of aircraft performance, stability and control under various conditions. Trapnell was so well respected that a new Navy fighter went to the fleet under a test program best described as informal. As the war began, it was See Trapnell, Page 19
2015 Pax River Profiles
Trapnell Continued from Page 18
obvious that the Japanese Zero was far superior to the Navy’s frontline fighter, the Grumman F4F Wildcat, in everything but ability to take punishment. Grumman embarked on a crash program for something much better. The result was the F6F Hellcat. Instead of the usual six- to eight-month flight test schedule, Grumman in mid-1942 asked the Navy to let Trapnell evaluate it personally. Roy Grumman wrote later, “He came to the factory and flew the prototype F6F. It suited him, as I remember, except for the longitudinal stability — he wanted more of that. We built it in and rushed into production without a Navy certificate on the model. We relied on Trapnell’s opinion. His test flight took less than three hours. I’m not sure we ever got an official OK on the Hellcat design.” By the time World War II was over, Navy Hellcats had shot down 5,155 Japanese planes. When he tested the F6F, Trapnell knew very well what it would be up against. Shortly after the Battle of Midway, a Japanese Zero had been found nearly intact on Akutan Island in the
Naval Historical Center photo
Officers of the USS Akron Air Group, 1933, from left: Lt. (jg) Robert W. Lawson, Lt. Harold B. Miller, Lt. Frederick M. Trapnell, Lt. Howard L. Young and Lt. (jg) Frederick N. Kivette.
Aleutians. It was taken to San Diego for repair and evaluation, and Trapnell was
one of the pilots who tested it extensively against nearly all U.S. fighters of
Page 19
the day. Trapnell and his flight test unit evaluated a raft of new fighters, including versions of Army and British aircraft. Trapnell personally spent months flight testing a new fighter from Vought Aviation. As a result, Vought engineers made extensive modifications. Result: the gull-winged F4U Corsair, which would ultimately have a production run of over 10,000. It would remain a firstline Navy aircraft until the end of the Korean War, and is the only propeller-driven fighter to shoot down a jet — 12 of them, including a MiG-15. In the spring of 1943, Trapnell was sent as an exchange pilot to the Army Air Force’s secret test field at what is now Edwards Air Force Base. On April 21, he made the first jet flight by a naval aviator, in a Bell XP-59 Aeracomet. The Aeracomet was America’s first jet-propelled airplane. Promoted to captain in mid-1943, Trapnell spent the rest of the war years on fleet duty, commanding in succession two squadrons and an escort carrier, and also earning a Bronze Star. In October 1944, he became chief of staff for the Commander Carrier Division 6, participating in all the major strikes and landings until the war ended. In June 1946, Trapnell returned to See Trapnell, page 21
1958961
Page 20 Pax River Profiles 2015
Receives Bronze National Quality Award Maryland center recognized by national program for commitment to quality care --
(Lexington Lexington Park, MD) MD – Chesapeake Shores has been recognized as a 2015 recipient of the Bronze – Commitment to Quality Award for its dedication to improving the lives of residents through quality care. The award is the first of three distinctions possible through the National Quality Award Program, presented by the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/ NCAL). The program honors centers across the nation that have demonstrated their commitment to improving quality care for seniors and individuals with disabilities. “It is a great honor to be recognized by AHCA/NCAL with a National Quality Award,” said Kelly Friedman, Administrator of Chesapeake Shores Shores. “Improving the lives of the residents and families we care for every day is what brings us joy. This award symbolizes the dedication and commitment we have to the quality journey.” Implemented by AHCA/NCAL in 1996, the National Quality Award Program is centered on the core values and criteria of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program. The program assists providers of long term and post-acute care services in achieving their performance excellence goals. The program has three levels: Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Centers begin the quality improvement process at the Bronze level, where they develop an organizational profile with essential performance elements such as vision and mission statements and an assessment of customers’ expectations. Bronze applicants must also demonstrate their ability to implement a performance improvement system. Trained Examiners review each Bronze application to determine if the center has met the demands of the criteria. As a recipient of the Bronze - Commitment to Quality Award, Chesapeake Shores may now move forward in developing approaches and achieving performance levels that meet the criteria required for the Silver Achievement in Quality Award. “Chesapeake Chesapeake Shores has demonstrated its commitment to providing quality care and I commend them for that,” said the AHCA/NCAL National Quality Award Board of Overseers Chair Christine Boldt. “I encourage Chesapeake Shores to continue their quality journey by striving for the Silver and Gold levels.” The awards are sponsored by AHCA/NCAL Associate Business Members My InnerView, by National Research Corporation and PointRight. My InnerView represents the true voice of nursing home and assisted living residents, families, and employees with the most insightful quality measurement solutions and satisfaction surveys in the healthcare continuum. PointRight is the recognized leader in data-driven analytics for health care and insurance. Chesapeake Shores was one of 545 centers to receive the Bronze level award.
301-863-7244
1958965
21412 Great Mills Road Lexington Park, Maryland 20653
1959200
Changing the Tides of Healthcare!
2015 Pax River Profiles
Page 21
Trapnell Continued from Page 19
Pax River, this time as test coordinator. It was a time of vast change in naval aviation, as the Navy transitioned from aircraft where radial piston engines turned propellers to jets. The jets flew at higher altitudes and made oxygen use by pilots mandatory. In addition, instrument and all-weather flying were becoming required. Trapnell had always believed in all-weather flying, and practiced instrument flying for years. When those licenses were introduced, he was the first one to earn a green card, the top qualification. He pushed all his test pilots to do the same. The Naval Air Test Center had changed, too. More than the Flight Test Division, it was also the Armament Test, Tactical Test, Electronic Test and Service Test Divisions. All had their own aircraft, hangars and specialty shops, and all reported to Trapnell. Jets meant new flying characteristics, new tactics and new fuel See Trapnell, page 22
Seated in the cockpit of an XP-59A Airacomet, Capt. Frederick Trapnell is briefed by Bell Aircraft Company Crew Chief Joseph Brown prior to Trapnell’s take-off on April 23, 1943. Trapnell thus became the Navy’s first jet pilot.
1959197
Page 22 Pax River Profiles 2015
Trapnell Continued from Page 21
consumption problems. They had swept wings, pressurized cabins, ejection seats and radar for flight interception of bombers. They were also faster, and reaction times to thrust changes at low speeds, especially during carrier approaches, were less. Patuxent River NATC would be at the forefront in finding solutions. Trapnell insisted all his test pilots do what he did and earn their “green card.” Very quickly, they became a crack team ready to take on the job of evaluating the new jets. The new test coordinator was at the center of making the transition happen — and work — for the Navy. Like an umpire, he would call them as he saw them. As John Lacouture stated in a 1991 article, “In testing of airplanes, integrity was his motto, and [Trapnell] reported results as they were, not as some senior or contractor wanted them to be. Once the airplane’s flight characteristics were determined, he then had all his pilots work on converting the test results into design change recommendations for the contractors who would improve the capabilities of the aircraft.” He “also insisted that an airplane worthy of Navy procurement has to be able to operate well and safely over a broad range of flying conditions.” Trapnell saw a problem up ahead, though. Most of the test pilots would be moving on to the fleet, where they would be invaluable to squadrons flying the new jets for the first time. Their replacements would be less experienced, and unfamiliar with flight testing new aircraft and equipment. Pax River had a Test Pilot School, but Trapnell insisted on its upgrading and expansion. It would have a complete flying program that covered performance, stability and control testing. The classroom work would be a complete aeronautical engineering course. Trapnell himself had flown more types of aircraft than any of his pilots, and he flew all aircraft assigned to Pax River. The goal then, as now: provide the Navy with better airplanes for all missions, whether from carriers or not. The Test Pilot School at the time had an informal technical school periodically run by Capt. Sydney S. Sherby. As Sherby later wrote, Trapnell and NATC Commander Capt. James Barner “became very interested in the informal school, and were highly impressed with the results. One of the fallouts of the training was the knowledge that our pilots took back to the fleet with
U.S. Navy photo
A Curtiss XF9C-1 “Sparrowhawk” fighter attempts to engage the “trapeze” landing gear prior to being lifted into the hangar of airship USS Akron on May 3, 1932.
them. It was beginning to show up in improvement in fleet operations. They were the ones who started the ball rolling in the Navy Department to have the school set up as the Test Pilot Training Division of the Naval Air Test Center.” Barner was relieved as NATC Commander by Rear Adm. Apollo Soucek in 1947, but for six months in between, Trapnell served in the position before reverting back to Test Coordinator. Soucek, like Barner, “fully concurred with the effort to have the school set up as a permanent school and joined Trapnell in the effort to get the school approved,” said Sherby. They ultimately succeeded. On Jan. 22, 1948, Trapnell’s plan for a formal test pilot school as a division of NATC was approved by Deputy Chief of Naval Operations Adm. J.D. Price. The Test Pilot Division was established in April 1948, with Sherby as its first director. Trapnell’s involvement in the school’s establishment was far from over, though. He chaired the selection of the school’s first class. The criteria,
according to Sherby: “Candidates must be volunteers, have a good operational record, at least a high school education, be commissioned officers and have a letter of recommendation from their commanding officers.” He chose well. The first class ranged from ex-enlisted pilots with a high school diploma to one with a master’s in aeronautics, with ranks from lieutenant junior grade to commander. “The traits that all had were a very high intelligence, were exceptionally fine pilots and were all enthusiastic,” said Sherby. “The course was paced so that we did not bore the Master of Science or leave the high school behind. It took a little doing, but no one flunked the course.” Trapnell collected a library of about 550 technical books and assorted used desks to outfit the school, and the Test Pilot Training Division’s first class began on July 6, 1948. He would eventually write the foreword to the textbook Airplane Aerodynamics. The book had been created from the Test
Pilot Training Division’s lectures and concepts by Sherby and his successor, Capt. (eventually Vice Adm.) Thomas Connolly. Twenty-seven universities would eventually use its four editions (1951, 1957, 1961 and 1967) as the text for courses in aircraft design. In the book’s foreword, Trapnell wrote, “In the flight testing of aircraft, the talents of the engineer and the pilot must be available to the maximum attainable extent in one individual. Without a sound understanding of the basic principles and a reasonable appreciation of the more advanced problems of the aeronautical engineer, the test pilot can neither gather usable data nor analyze his own experiences with sufficient clarity to convey them to others in usable form. The requirement grows more severe as the complexity of the aircraft increases.” However, “Such dual personalities do not occur in nature. Very few pilots have acquired an engineering backSee Trapnell, page 23
2015 Pax River Profiles
ground in the normal course of events. In most cases, both time and inclination are missing during the early stages of his career. Later on, however, the inclination often appears rather strikingly,” Trapnell said. “When advantage is taken of this manifestation, and time and facilities are provided for study, the results are likely to be gratifying.” He concluded, “Such a procedure may not produce aeronautical engineers, but it does qualify pilots to meet the aeronautical engineer on common ground and to perform their flying duties with greatly improved insight and effectiveness.” In June 1949, Trapnell again became NATC commander. It was later that year that he appeared in House Armed Services Committee hearings that disputed Air Force claims for the B-36 — that flying at 40,000 feet it would be undetectable by radar and unreachable by enemy fighters. According to Time Magazine’s report, Trapnell “testified that standard Navy radar had no trouble picking up small jet fighters at 40,000 feet, and that Navy fighters had made interceptions at that altitude by day and by night.” He told the committee, “If you were able to ride as an observer in a B-36 at 40,000 feet during joint exercises, you would see (F2H) Banshees diving and zooming all around you and making repeated gunnery attacks with a speed advantage of over 100 miles per hour.” That summer Trapnell was named recipient of the Octave Chanute Award, named for the man who gave critical support and encouragement to the Wright brothers during their design of their aircraft. Given annually by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics for “notable contribution by a pilot to the aerospace sciences,” the award recognized Trapnell This monument to the namesake of Trapnell Field is on the left side, outside Air Operations. Its bronze plaque salutes Trapnell’s “calculated daring and prophetic vision.” It declares, “His insistence on formal test pilot training and a systematic approach to flight testing was instrumental in the founding of the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School and the emergence of the engineering test pilot.” Photo by Rick Thompson
GraciesGandG@aol.com 44150 Airport View Drive Hollywood, MD 20636
Family oriented, family discounts, playground for the kids, picnic area for the adults, and the best overall studio in Southern Maryland
Celebrating our Veterans • Schedule of events • Ways to celebrate • How to say thank you and more!
Look for our Veterans Day Salute in The Enterprise November 11th
Supplement to Southern Maryland Newspapers
1959018
Continued from Page 22
for “showing outstanding ability not only in flying every type of aircraft but also in detecting critical defects in new airplanes and suggesting ways to deal with them.” Trapnell’s career at Pax River ended in April 1950 when he was named commanding officer of the carrier USS Coral Sea. While CO, he developed a twoline system for aircraft takeoff, with the left line turning left and the right line turning right. This system significantly reduced takeoff times over carriers that used only one line. Promoted to rear admiral in Feb. 1951, Trapnell was deputy commander of Sandia Base and of the Field Command Armed Forces Special Weapons Project at Albuquerque, N.M. from March 1951 to April 1952. That was when he suffered a heart attack and was retired for physical disability in September 1952 with the rank of vice admiral. The medical findings also ended his days as a pilot. He spent the next 23 years as a consultant for Grumman Aircraft, and became a sailing enthusiast, first in the Long Island, N.Y. area and then San Diego. Vice Adm. Frederick M. Trapnell died in the U.S. Naval Hospital, San Diego, on Jan. 30, 1975. On April 1, 1976, the 33rd anniversary of the commissioning of NAS Patuxent River, the station’s air field was officially named “Trapnell Field.” A small memorial to the left of the tarmac outside Air Operations was unveiled in his honor. More than 300 guests attended the ceremony. Chief of Naval Material Adm. Frederick Michaelis said in his keynote address, “Vice Adm. Trapnell was a pioneer test pilot whose calculated daring and prophetic vision served to advance the science of naval aviation test and evaluation. ‘Get the numbers’ was the watchword of the test pilots he trained and led. His contributions to aviation were enormous. All who fly in Navy blue remain indebted to Vice Adm. Trapnell.”
1961623
Trapnell
Page 23
Page 24 Pax River ProďŹ les 2015
1951365
2015 Pax River Profiles
Vernon Gordon By RICK THOMPSON
Special to Pax River Profiles
“Space comprising the earth’s atmosphere and the space beyond; an industry that deals with travel in and above the earth’s atmosphere and with the production of vehicles used in such travel.” That is how the dictionary defines “aerospace” — and almost from the start, Vernon Gordon knew that was where he wanted his future to be. His father, Curtis Gordon, was a cotton farmer, and his mother, Ruth Gordon (nee Ray) was a teacher, but right from elementary school young Vernon was looking to the skies. “I was building model airplanes at that age,” Gordon says today, “so I had tons of model airplanes.” By high school he was heavily into math and science, not that the physical side of his life was ignored. He played football (quarterback), basketball (point guard) and baseball (shortstop and second base) for Tanner High School in Tanner, Ala. He graduated second in his class (of 28) and as salutatorian gave a speech at graduation.
1959022
Onward and upward: “When I graduated from high school, I received a fellowship to work in Huntsville (Ala.) for Chrysler Corporation Space Division in their space engineering facility,” which was then designing the first-stage boosters of the Saturn I-B that would become an Apollo program mainstay. After that summer fellowship, “I then went to college at Auburn University, where I studied aerospace engineering.” Hedidn’tknowitthen,buthewasalready donning U.S. Naval Test Pilot School colors. Both USNTPS and Auburn have the same orange and blue color scheme. He was one quarter from graduation when he realized, “I was about to be 1-A and drafted into the Army.” His preference was the Navy, but “I didn’t realize at the time that you could fly if you didn’t have 20/20 vision, so I talked to the blackshoe (surface Navy) recruiter to get into Navy OCS [Officer Candidate School].” Gordon was accepted, and shortly after graduation in June 1968 was told he didn’t have to report until the following January. See Gordon, Page 26
Page 25
Page 26 Pax River Profiles 2015
Vernon Gordon, second from right in the second row, graduated from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School with Class 74 in December 1978.
Gordon Continued from Page 25
That being the case, he started working on his master’s degree at Auburn. “I planned on doing a couple of years in the Navy and then going back to get my master’s degree,” he said. When he reported to OCS in Newport, R.I., he got some happy news: his vision was good enough that he could pass the aviation flight physical as a flight officer. He then got more encouraging news. “The aviation detailer asked me why I wanted to fly, and I answered that I was working on my master’s degree in aerospace engineering before I joined the Navy,” Gordon said. “He asked if I’d like to finish my master’s before I went to Pensacola. When I asked how I could do that, he said he could make it happen.” The detailer was as good as his word, and Ensign Gordon was off to the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., where he earned his master’s degree in 1970. From there he went to Pensacola and VT (Training Squadron)-10, earning his wings in March 1971. “In those days you went from VT-10 to the Navy Air Technical Training
Center in Glynco, Ga., for follow-on training,” said Gordon. “I had selected EA-6B Prowlers out of VT-10, so I went to electronic warfare school and got my wings. I stayed another month to get my jetnav [jet navigation] qualification.” Next stop was NAS Whidbey Island, where he became part of VAQ (Electronic Attack Squadron)-129 in 1971. His follow-on assignment was VAQ131, which was the second operational EA-6B squadron, flying from USS Enterprise as part of Air Wing 14 in Southeast Asia from September 1972 to June 1973, flying in Operation Linebacker 2 against North Vietnam. “We stayed there until they signed all the papers and got the POWs out, and then supported the minesweepers as they removed mines from the harbors,” Gordon said. “They kept us in the area just in case the North Vietnamese decided to do anything against the minesweepers.” Returning home, he was ordered to the VX (Air Test and Evaluation Squadron)-5 detachment at NAS Whidbey Island, which was then the operational evaluation squadron for the EA-6B. In 1993, VX-5 would merge with VX-4 to become the current VX-9, based at NAWS (Naval Air Weapons Station) China Lake, Calif. By that time, howSee Gordon, page 28
Lt. Comdr. Vernon Gordon at his USNTPS graduation as part of Class 74 in December 1978.
Page 27
1959017
2015 Pax River Profiles
Barbara Blades REALTOR ®
Jan Barnes REALTOR ®
CENTURY 21 New Millennium 23063 Three Notch Road California, MD 20619 Office: 301.862.2169 Toll Free: 800.638.7734 Cell: 240.925.1587 Email: barbara.blades@c21nm.com Website: www.barbarablades.com
CENTURY 21 New Millennium 23063 Three Notch Road California, MD 20619 Office: 301.862.2169 Direct: 301.737.5147 Toll Free: 800.638.7734 Cell: 240.298.1232 Email: janbarnesc21@aol.com
Robin Poe Errington REALTOR ®
Mary Ada Candela REALTOR ®
CENTURY 21 New Millennium 23063 Three Notch Road California, MD 20619 Office: 301.862.2169 Direct: 301.737.5138 Toll Free: 800.638.7734 Cell: 301.904.9365 Email: robin.poeerrington@c21nm.com
CENTURY 21 New Millennium 23063 Three Notch Road California, MD 20619 Office: 301.862.2169 Cell: 301.481.8081 Email: jacmac2@verizon.net
Veronica Kolterjahn REALTOR ® 23063 Three Notch Road California, MD 20619 Cell: 301.672.0840 Office: 301.862.2169 Fax: 301.862.2179
Email: veronicakolterjahn@mris.com Website: www.vkhomes.net
Karen Taylor REALTOR ®
CENTURY 21 New Millennium 23063 Three Notch Road • California, MD 20619 Office: 301.862.2169 Toll Free: 800.638.7734 Cell: 240.298.6955 Email: karen.taylor@c21nm.com
Page 28 Pax River Profiles 2015
Gordon Continued from Page 26
ever, Gordon had long since departed the squadron. “When I left there, I went to San Diego as electronic warfare officer
with Carrier Group 1,” he said. “We worked up USS Constellation and then spent two weeks on USS Ranger doing a reserve airwing workup. Then we flew to Japan and USS Midway. Six weeks after we were on Midway, she was going to the yard, so they crossdecked us to USS Coral Sea, where we spent the rest of the cruise.” He completed the circle by return-
ing to the Enterprise. His next destination: NAS Patuxent River as part of USNTPS Class 74, graduating in December 1978. After graduation, Gordon, by now a LCDR, was assigned to the Strike Aircraft Test Directorate (now VX-23), testing equipment for the A-6 Intruder and EA-6B. After a year, he returned to TPS as a “plowback” instructor. A
Dr. Vernon Gordon, fourth from right in back row, as part of the USNTPS instructional staff in July 1980.
1961602
“plowback” was a TPS graduate who, after a year’s experience of actual testing, would return as an officer staff member. “When I was here the first time as an instructor, the majority of staff were plowbacks,” Gordon stated. “We don’t do that any more because the concern See Gordon, page 30
2015 Pax River Profiles
Page 29
23314 Surrey Way California, MD 20619
The Beautiful Apartments of Wildewood have so much to offer!!!
Apartment Homes In St. Mary’s Most Coveted Address! (CENTRALLY LOCATED)
24-Hour Maintenance • Fitness Center & 2 Pools Great Schools Pet Friendly • Security Key Locks Warm Friendly Professional Staff Within Walking Distance of the Wildewood Shopping Ctr
Call Today & Schedule A Tour!
301-737-0737
LEASING OFFICE HOURS
MON. - FRI. 9AM - 5PM • SAT. 10AM - 5PM • SUN. 12-5PM
1961604
“SO MUCH TO OFFER”
Page 30 Pax River Profiles 2015
Dr. Lynn M. Fenwick
22646 Cedar Lane Court Leonardtown, Maryland 20650
www.bretonvet.com
Vernon Gordon, left, in 1972 as part of Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron (VAQ) 131, flying the EA-6B aboard the USS Enterprise. At center is squadron commanding officer John Diloreto and Jim Stokoe.
Providing this great community Gordon and serving the needs of your four legged family members. Continued from Page 28
Now Offering 10% Discount to our Military and Senior Members Some of Our Services Offered: • Life Stage Wellness • General and Laser Surgery • Vaccinations • Boarding and Grooming • Nutrition and Behavior • Dental • Radiology • Pain Management Including Therapy Laser
301-475-7808
1961562
Four Paws, Two Hands, One Heart Call for an appointment today!
was that the guys did not have enough experience to quickly be up to speed on all the flight exercises.” He left TPS in 1981 because he had been selected to study for his doctorate, again at the Naval Postgraduate School. After graduating on Sept. 1, 1984, Gordon was assigned to NAVAIRPAC (Naval Air Forces, Pacific) in San Diego for two years before coming back to Maryland. By now a full commander, he would be head of the Aerospace Engineering Department at the U.S. Naval Academy. It was a position that fitted well into his love for teaching. Even today, “I come to work every day because I like it. Teaching is the reason I’m still here.” After four years at the Naval Academy and two years on the Aviation Board of Inspection and Survey (which no longer exists), Gordon retired from the Navy and accepted a position at the Test Pilot School in 1993. Things had changed since his previous tenure. “When I was here the first time, we were still in the hangar,” Gordon said. “Whenever it rained there were buckets in several strategic places because they could never stop the leaks. You had to walk around the buckets and you had to empty them every so often to keep the floors from being wet.” TPS was still operating from the hangar, but that all changed in 1993 with opening of the new building.
“Classes were smaller when I was here before, and I think it was also more fun,” Gordon said. “We had more airplanes and more different types of planes to fly, which was good.” Instructionally, “When I went through the school and as an instructor on active duty, we had the three curriculums we do now — fixed wing, rotary and systems — but the systems curriculum was a combination of pilots and NFOs (Naval Flight Officers). We would fly most of our exercises with pilots who were classmates as opposed to staff instructors.” When he came back in 1993, however, “Classes were bigger and the systems curriculum had changed to just NFOs. We had gone from four to eight or nine NFO/FTEs (Flight Test Engineer) in a class in the systems curriculum.” While some aircraft were the same, others had been replaced, most notably TA-7 Corsair IIs by F-18 Hornets. “The staff was a lot bigger too,” said Gordon. “When I went through school here in 1978, we had a total of five civilian instructors. The number is larger now.” In addition, “When I came back, a lot more had been put on the plate, and it shows in the report-writing. They had been 15-20 pages long, and now I see reports that are 50-60 pages on the same types of subjects because of the way things have changed.” There are also more foreign students now. As Gordon noted, “In my day we had a couple of foreign students. Now we have five or six in every class, kind of a cross-pollination See Gordon, page 32
2015 Pax River ProямБles
Page 31
Auto Sales - Tires - Service - Car Wash
TomHodgesAuto.com
niversary C n A h t a w a e a v 5 i y r G 2
Early Registration Going On Now! CLIP-ABLE REGISTRATION
NAME ADDRESS PHONE EMAIL COMPLETE FORM AND BRING TO TOM HODGES SALES DEPARTMENT
301-373-CARS
24179 TOM HODGES DRIVE HOLLYWOOD, MD 20636
1961606
Hours: M-F 9-7 SAT 9-6
Page 32 Pax River Profiles 2015
Cmdr. Vernon Gordon, Ph.D., as chairman of the Aerospace Engineering Dept. at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1990.
Gordon Continued from Page 30
1958897
around the world.” There was, and is, improved equipment such as the ASTARS (Airborne Systems Training and Research Support) aircraft. Starting with a P-3 Orion, “We put a complete Radar/EOS (Electro-Optical System) suite in it,” said Gordon. “You could be in there and have all your equipment act as if you were in a Hornet. We even put an ejection seat to make it more realistic.” The big difference is that “the instructor can stand there or sit next to you and help you learn how to evaluate the equipment.” The P-3 has since been replaced by a similarly-outfitted Saab 340 turboprop airliner, and in turn will soon be replaced by a Fairchild Metroliner. “We’ll put a new ESA [Electronically Scanned Array] system in the nose, which is what all the new fighters have, and a new FLIR [Forward Looking Infra-Red] system in it,” Gordon said. “It will have a forward-looking infrared camera and a visible light camera, so it can be used for both nighttime and daytime testing.”
The system is more economical because “you can have four or five guys and an instructor in the airplane, which is much cheaper than flying a Hornet five times.” He continued, “On top of that, right next to the student you have an NFO instructor who is used to doing systems tests, which makes it really easy to teach. While it’s mostly for flight officers, we put jet pilots and helicopter pilots in it as well so they can learn how to do systems testing.” Collaboration is brought into the process. “We have a test where we take a flight officer, two jet pilots and two rotary-wing pilots and make them a team. They write a test plan and then have to test this system against test targets,” Gordon stated. “We usually have the NFO in the lead because he knows more about the systems testing process.” Equipment improvements through the years have had another benefit: fewer mishaps and fewer fatalities. “The planes are better, and the simulators help as well,” he said. “People are a lot more conscious about test planning than they used to be — that we’re not going to fly this airplane until we get everything correct and understand See Gordon, page 34
2015 Pax River Profiles
-- Orthodontics for All Ages --- Most Insurance Accepted --- Free Consultations --- Certified Invisalign Provider --
Thomas Hao DDS
Your smile lasts a lifetime, so don’t trust it to simply anyone. Serving Southern Maryland since 2007, Dr. Thomas Hao has helped thousands of patients achieve the smile they have always wanted. Join our family and see for yourself why our patients love us!
Evening Hours Available
1961607
29795 Three Notch Road • Charlotte Hall, MD 301-290-5666 www.drthomashao.com
Page 33
Page 34 Pax River Profiles 2015
Continued from Page 32
all the risks. If you crash a simulator, you walk away, and once you’ve done the simulator work, then you know how you’re going to fly the test when you get on the airplane.” In short, “We’re all a little more riskaverse, and this is a good thing. We spend a lot of time doing everything we can to make sure we cover all the bases.” But there is a flip side to this. Said Gordon, “If we went under the rules we have today, we’d have never gone to the moon. They took a lot of risks going to the moon that would never be acceptable in this society today — at least not the way we operate now.” Gordon has had a few times “when my heart rate got up pretty high, but not very often. I never had to eject.” Of course, “In my first flight back as a civilian in one of the jets, we had just gotten on the other side of the Chesapeake Bay when the canopy came off the airplane at 15,000 feet. I asked myself why I was doing this, but we kept flying, we landed, and I had a good story to tell.” Still, “It was a cold ride back across the bay.”
Cmdr. Vernon Gordon with his daughter Melissa and son Bradley, both now majors in the Marine Corps, at Melissa’s commissioning as a second lieutenant.
In all, however, “It’s been really fun to work with the students here. You get a diverse group, some who know a good bit about aerospace because they majored in it and others who don’t know much about it at all. I get to see them learn and understand that all that stuff they learned in college really has an application if you start working with it.” He likes it so much that he also teaches classes in aerospace engineering for Florida Institute of Technology, something he plans to continue even after retiring from USNTPS.
And when might that be? “That will depend a lot on my wife. She’s a test pilot instructor here at the school and the aviation safety officer. She likes flying and she’s got several years of flying left in her,” Gordon said. “I’ll probably work a little while longer, but then hang around here even after I retire until she decides she wants to give up flying and try something else.” He’ll also continue his two avocations, being an amateur (“ham”) radio operator and reading techno-adventure and spy novels. Gordon is an “extra class” operator, meaning he has
1961501
Gordon
every privilege the Federal Communications Commission allows amateurs. A special exam is required to achieve each class of amateur radio: technician, general and extra. What does he want people to say after he retires, when they say “I remember Vernon Gordon, he — what?” Gordon: “I hope they’ll say that I was a pretty good instructor, that I taught them a lot about the business at hand in a way that they could understand it.” Looking back on his career, “The biggest thing is that we who have been teaching at TPS for a long time made a difference in the capabilities of the warfighters who have been out there in Iraq, Afghanistan and the rest of the world,” said Gordon. “We’ve trained the people who tested the equipment that was procured, so the warfighters could go out and get the job done.” There’s a personal element as well: “I think about my daughter and I think about my son, both Marines. I know that they could be in a fight any day they’re deployed overseas, and I want there to be the equipment that will keep them safe and bring them home safely. “That’s what I like about it.”
Page 35
1958888
2015 Pax River ProďŹ les
1958887
Page 36 Pax River ProďŹ les 2015