Thursday, August 15, 2024

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My dad's Navy circa 1956:

 



I'm the son a true Cold Warrior. My dad, Vernon Talmadge Kight, joined the US Navy in 1951, at time, the Korean War conflict was going on, and the Navy needed carrier sailors, so my dad was trained as what was called a BB stacker, or "ordie" in Navy speak. And he wound up aboard a newly recommissioned Essex class carrier off the coast of North Korea. 

Afterwards, he was sent to the Naval Air Station Port Lyautey Morocco to work on these machines:





The Martin P4M was designed to be an anti-submarine patrol plane at the end of WWII. By the time my dad was assigned to this airplane, the 19 that were left were changed over to P4M-1Qs, the "Q" indicating a change over to a to a spy plane using radar and other electronic devices and antennas. These planes flew into Soviet airspace from their North African base, and were frequently chased out by MiGs and a few were shot down. My dad's job was to clean and load the twin 20mm guns in nose and tail turrets. His CO decided that, since these turrets were radar directed, he would send my dad and his counterparts to avionics school.

In 1955 dad wound up at NAS Sanford Florida, where he worked on the North American AJ-2 Savage nuclear carrier bomber:


 

My dad also met my mom there. As an avionics tech, dad could frequently fly to prove out electronics repairs. FG was the tail code of my dad's outfit, VAH 9 Hoot Owls, "Heavy Nine." Dad is likely one of those guys sticking up though the canopy hatch in the video above...



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