TBS 2-67 Cruisebook_Updated_7Jan23

Staff job at Group Headquarters, Group Aviation
NATOPS Standardization Officer. Gave it a go for about
a month. The Group CO, Col. Frank Peterson was a good
listener and good coach. Told him my concerns and
that I felt "betrayed", let down. VMA-513 was
returning from WestPAC to Yuma.
There was the Detachment Bravo at Cherry Point that
was going to be disbanded and the aircraft flown to
Yuma to join the returning squadron. I asked to be
transferred to them. He obliged me. (I will always be
grateful to Gen. Frank Peterson for allowing that
transfer. [Sidenote: Several years later at the airport in
St. Louis I ran into Frank Peterson, now a General of
Marines, while walking to my gate between flights. He
knew me right away and with that big smile of his
stuck out his hand, called me by my first name and
“How the hell you doing?” Had a good chat both ways
for about 15 minutes, standing there in the corridor
with lots of folks going both ways to catch flights and
parted with a handshake and a slap on my back. God
bless Frank Peterson.] After two and a half years at
Cherry Point we moved to Yuma during November,
1976. In Yuma Lt. Col. “Bobby” Reed relinquished
command to Lt. Col. Rich Hearney and Maj, Jim Sabo
took the reins as X.O. I was assigned as S-4 Logistics
Officer and it was game on. Received promotion to
Major 770801 (thank you very much) and for the next
18 months it was training, old guys, new young guys,
and Marines at Twenty-nine Palms using Close Air
Support with Harriers. Multiple deployments. Low
level, terrain masking attack methods tried, improved
on, and re-tried, many many times. We all knew war in
the Middle East was inevitable.
Second Platoon
On the home front Ginger was pregnant. “Chip”, was
born March 21, 1978. The CO “asked” me to take the job
of Deputy O.I.C. Det “Alfa” deploying to Kadena AFP,
Okinawa, in the Spring, 1978. Major Pete Wallis
(“Gator”) was assigned O.I.C. Per “Skipper”
instructions, “I am counting on you to keep Pete safe.”
Pete had a history. That’ all I will say. Luckily, the CO
allowed me to deploy after my son was born. So three
weeks to the day after his birth I was on a USAF flight
to “The Rock” out of San Bernardino. Life at Kadena
was pretty cool. We had 6 AV-8A’s, 13 pilots, 30
maintenance Marines, huge (USAF) hangar, shared
with USN support unit servicing C-9 transports and
occasional Navy jets diverted to shore for
maintenance. Lived in the BOQ. A practice target 10
minutes flight time from Kadena-practice bombs,
strafing and rockets. The “ville” just outside the gate
loved our business. Mama-sans did our laundry. The
O’Club liked our business and we learned to get along
with the USAF weenies. Bottle rocket duels were
common between our wing of BOQ rooms and the
transport weenies’ wing, 20 yards to our west. We had
in-theater deployments to Cubi Point and Osan. We
took ”cross-country” flights (actually cross-oceanic) as
far north as Hokaido and South to Cubi, Taiwan, and
Osan. Primarily we were training the junior aviators by
showing and then letting them plan the flights and be
flight leaders to us aged aviators.
As for incidents occurring, the only one was the OIC
waiving the Landing Signal Officer (me) instructions to
“wave off” a vertical landing approach to the Landing
Pad at Kadena with too much fuel on board, causing a
burnt out engine and landing gear structural damage
2‐69