BIG SKY
CONA Finale
My last dozen columns have focused on Navy, Marine and Coast Guard aviation over the past century. I've learned that history doesn't have to be decades old to be appreciated. During the year of the Centennial of Naval Aviation (CONA), I took part in a number of aviation events that not only looked at the past, but were history in the making as they occurred. One of the largest aerial celebrations that I've ever seen in my four decades of watching flying events occurred in San Diego last February, during the CONA Kick-off event. A parade of aircraft, close to 300 in number, flew overhead San Diego's harbor, next to NAS North Island. There were other big shows that I wrote about throughout the year too, but as this series of CONA articles comes to an end, I'd like to tell a few short stories that, although not as encompassing as a weekend air show is, they're still large in my mind. Taking the time to hear personal stories from those who served in the armed forces can be quite entertaining; here are a pair of stories from the dozens that I heard during this CONA year.
Lieutenant Stephanie Latham is an F-18 Hornet pilot with the East Coast-based VFA-131 Wildcats squadron. While listening to her talk to air show spectators at last summer's Quonset (Rhode Island) air show, I met some of her family members. Both of her parents had served in the Navy in the medical field; her father served two combat tours in Viet Nam as a Navy corpsman attached to Marine ground troops. Neither of Stephanie's parents were ever assigned shipboard duty, but through their daughter, they got to do "Tiger cruises", in which a family member (in this case each of her parents) spends a few days aboard an aircraft carrier with their "kids".
Stephanie's route to becoming a pilot was rather indirect; she was a competitive runner in high school and went to the US Naval Academy for the sporting aspect of it, not to be a pilot. Before her junior year, she had to declare her major, and her coach recommended carrier aviation, as an aircraft carrier would still offer her acres of flight deck surface to run on during non-flying hours, and most have multiple gymnasiums aboard too. She had a positive influence from a few of her Academy friends who were pilots, and she decided on a flying major. She did so well in training that she earned a coveted fighter slot. Her next career step was to occur this past Autumn, going to school to becoming an instructor. Some people dream all their lives of becoming a Navy fighter pilot, here was a case where it never crossed her mind until late in her college years.
While on a trans-continental flight to the West Coast, the passenger seated next to me noticed the CONA emblem on my shirt and asked me if I was involved in Naval aviation. I answered honestly that I never was, but that I was interested in the history and the events that were occurring this year. It turned out that my fellow traveler, Bruce Ross, was a former P-3 Orion pilot. I'm a retired controller, and for much of the flight we traded stories about our careers, and what made them special. I enjoyed his recollection of a "close call" with a rocky island off the California coast, although the situation wasn't enjoyable at all (missing it by 6 feet or so vertically on a dark night), his experience flying a Japanese P-2J Neptune (a foreign adaptation of the forerunner of the P-3), and what it was like to be in China when one of their fighter jets collided with one of our EP-3 planes - he and his family were on vacation inside China when it happened, and interestingly enough he encountered no problems throughout the remainder of their trip!
Just last week, my wife and I were at a doctor's office awaiting a check-up when two middle-aged men in the waiting area began to talk about their careers in the Navy. Soon, they discovered that they had been based at NAS Patuxent River MD around the same time. They had worked with adjacent P-3 Orion testing squadrons on similar projects at the same time too, but had never met before that morning! It reinforced in me that the people who either have served, or are still serving in Naval aviation (and in the Marines and Coast Guard too) form a "small world" that is full of people with great stories and experiences. Hearing just a couple of them was really rewarding, and helped me round out my CONA experience this year.
By Ken Kula