Classmates,

Jim Stark here reporting that what follows are two narratives from Jim Donovan and Chuck Geiger. Donovon spent one tour with VAW-12 and then had a 30-year career flying for United. The following account is about his near tragic failed night cat launch and it’s gut wrenching.

Chuck Geiger’s report of his 31-year Marine Corps career gives a rather modest account of his squadrons and travels, retiring as a Colonel. What he doesn’t mention are his decorations, which include two Legions of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star w/combat V, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Air Medal with numeral 22 and the Combat Action Ribbon. When I finally contacted Chuck, I was bringing him up to date on all his

classmates experiences and was telling him that you all had crashed four aircraft. “Make that five,” he said, “I left a Phantom at the bottom of DaNang Bay with battle damage. Read on …..

Loss of

E1B in 1966 off USS Lexington by Jim Donovon

Doing night

carrier quals as instructor with a new pilot in the left seat. On third launch starboard bow catapult holdback fitting broke prematurely just as we got the launch salute. A/C was accelerating towards the bow and we continued the T/O with engine at max power and wind over the deck but no cat thrust. The a/c staggered into the air in a stall, we pulled the gear up and dumped fuel but couldn't get flying speed so we pancaked nicely in front of the onrushing bow of the Lex. We bounced once and the second time was very violent.

Cockpit filled with water quickly and that old Dilbert Dunker training paid off as we sank in the dark. Looked for the bubbles and followed them to the surface. Inflated my vest and went for my light and flare but saw the Lex bow about to hit me. Swam away as fast as I could ,aided by her bow wave but still scraped down her hull and heard the screws churning and basically lost consciousness.

Had an 'out of body' experience where my recently deceased grandmother was welcoming me into a bright tunnel and other departed family members were also there. Suddenly I was back in the water and saw the stern passing me and the crewmen on deck were throwing their flashlights down at me to mark my position. Took a deep breath and all my senses came back in vivid fashion. I even remembered the 'tits' on the night end of my flare and lit it off.

The place was alive with floodlights from the ship and a light from the 'angel' chopper that was in a hover over me. Rescue swimmer dropped in beside me and I gave him a big hug and a 'thumbs up'. The other pilot was aboard already and we hugged again and were back on the flight deck and welcomed by the XO and the docs and taken to sick bay and really did have a shot of 'Jack Daniels' to calm us down.

The ship had stopped and launched a utility boat with armed marines due to sharks in the vicinity of the crash site. Luckily the Captain had just come onto the bridge as we launched and saw the potential danger of running over us so he ordered full rudder over, and basically did a 'weave' around us and that saved our lives. The turns were unexpected and many crew were thrown from their bunks by the evasive maneuvers and lots of wardroom china got broken.

Accident report found that the holdback fitting was defective and 49 others were found in the fleet and from the same batch. I believe an A4 Skyhawk on the west coast was also lost from the same defective fitting.

I did wind up having a water landing in my logbook printed in ocean blue ink. Kind of a nice touch.

I then decided to spend the rest of my airborne career at 35000' in short sleeves, on autopilot, trying to choose between filet mignon and prime rib. Not all was easy as I experienced a massive bird strike on T/O (Rochester), bomb scare with ransom note and evacuation on the runway (Dulles), lightning strike that burned a 3 inch hole in the radome and completely destroyed the antenna and scared the wits out of the passengers as it discharged with a loud bang from the discharge wicks on the tail (Chicago), numerous flight attendants who hesitated to give the required neck rub on their first flight. The things we pilots have to endure!

Warm regards to all my classmates. You were the best.

Jim Donovan

Chuck Geiger, Navy Preflight class 28-62 - - Abbreviated Bio

Three days after getting my wings at Kingsville TX in 1964, I married my long time friend and now life-mate and business partner, Carole. Off to Cherry Point, NC where I joined VMFA-115 which was transitioning from the F4D Skyray to the brand new F4B Phantom. We trained for deployment to WestPac. We arrived in Japan and almost immediately took up residence in sunny DaNang. 15 months later Carole and I reunited and I spent two years training replacement aircrews before returning to ChuLai myself. Another 15 months and a total of 377 combat missions later Carole, our two sons and I arrived in Scotland for our dream tour flying Mk 6 Lightnings with the Royal Air Force. The next few years were spent in professional schools, Auburn University, several fighter squadrons and deployments back to WestPac. I was proud to command VMFA-451, attend the Naval War College, pick up a total of 3 Masters degrees and serve in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. My final flying tour was as commander of Marine Air Group 15 in the Far East where Carole and I spent 2 years. By that time I was dual qualified in both fixed and rotary wing aircraft and flying the F/A-18. I completed my active duty service as Deputy Commander and (for a short time) Commander of the Naval Space Command. Since then I have served in positions of responsibility in the business world and, in 1998, Carole and I started C Geiger Consulting, a business and executive leadership consulting firm consisting of Carole Geiger PhD & Chuck Geiger MBA. We live on 17 acres in western Virginia near Roanoke and are trying to cut back just a little in our professional endeavors to enjoy DAR, Kiwanis, and visit our grand children (ages 15 and 18).

Fond memories of Preflight and the summer of ’62.

1. To this day I hum to myself the song you, the entire class, created to sing to me as we marched to chow and to class down that endless grinder. The song was “Teenage MarCad” (to the tune of “Teen Angel”) since I was all of 19 at the time and you were all college graduates. I think I laugh more about that now than I did then.

2. I remember the dreadful night at the ACRAC (Aviation Cadet Recreation and Athletic Club) when, with the help of a jostling crowd, I managed to adorn myself with a large pizza down the entire front of my dress whites including my shoes. Bummer.