TBS 2-67 Cruisebook_Updated_7Jan23

Second Platoon
minutes with perfect scores. The best part was that I
had to take a make up flight physical at Mainside on
the day of the Company 50 mile hike. I still feel guilty
about missing that disaster, especially after seeing the
company struggle back in at dawn after having been
lost in the outback through most of the night.
TBS Graduation: Got my first choice 7500 basic flight
student
After Completing TBS: Like all of us sent to Pensacola
we were put in a pool awaiting class spots. For most,
that meant up to six or more weeks of reporting in in
the AM, then being dismissed and off to the beach.
John Suhy and I somehow were the only two who were
given make work, 8 to 5 jobs at the BNAO school where
we tried to look busy in the flight office scheduling
once a month fam flights in their bugsmashers and
filing FAA pubs. The experience did give us a bit of a
leg up on our classmates as we learned some of what
was to come. Did enjoy the water training, the Dilbert
Dunker and the hunting and eating of raccoons on the
Eglin AFB survival training trek. Out of Glynco we were
put on the ECMO track and seven of us were sent to
Cherry Pt. for training in Electronic Warfare in the
relatively new EA6A which only the Marine Corps had,
and which turned out to be the best Active platform in
the US arsenal. The Air Force had the only EW school
around and Ray Britton and I went to Mather AFB for
six months of excellent training. The VMCJ squadrons
at the time also flew the EF10-B, a converted Korean
War nightfighter that had some interesting flight
parameters but was a good training platform. J-2 at
Cherry Pt. also flew the RF4-B, the Photo Phantom, but
that was another MOS that you could cross train for if
you were in the community long enough. At the
completion of Mather and Flight Quals, I was awarded
the 7584 MOS (Electronic Countermeasures Officer).
Because the Reserves had to get their tours in before
their enlistments were up, I, as a Regular, was sent off
to Naval Justice School at Newport, then back to
Cherry. Pt where I got a stint as Legal Officer as well as
Asst S-1.
Vietnam Era Service: Finally got orders to VMCJ-1 in
Sept '69. On the night I landed in Da Nang was read in
on a major investigation that would last most of my
tour, but only as an advisor. The CO needed an S-1 for
the largest tactical squadron in the M.C., no matter
that I was an O-2 in an O-4's billet. In between SRB and
Unit Diary entries I managed to get in 178 missions of
two to six hour length against Hanoi's SAM and Radar
AAA sites. Primary mission on passive flights was intel,
location mostly, for which the EA6-A wasn't very good.
But on active flights for attack aircraft and drone
support, between bombing halts, the EA6-A with it's 20
tunable, steerable jammers was the best plane in the
air. With the drawdown in 1970 we were one of the
first air units pulled out. We were sent to Iwakuni in
Aug. My twelve month tour ended in Sept with orders
to the 3rd MAW in El Toro. It was a relatively easy tour
with really good people, only a few hairy moments
over Hai Phong and Da Nang rocket attacks, some great
R&R in Tokyo, Hong Kong and U Bon, but primarily
the feeling of accomplishing something positive for our
own but also for the Vietnamese. This was made clear
by the heavy losses, especially the B-52s, after we left
and bringing us back, albeit from Cubi Pt. six months
later.
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