Comments

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  Donald Stoffel April 24, 2018 at 10:53pm

  Tom Brem sent out an email today that Captain G.F. Wilster passed away this past Sunday evening in Tenn.

  The Captain was the RVAH-9 1970 Med cruise when I met him and you.

  Don Stoffel
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  Donald Stoffel June 5, 2015 at 11:45am

  Mr. Affeld:

  Thank you so much for responding to my ejection seat question.  We are on a luxury yacht cruise here in the Med and moved the yacht from Barcelona to Ibiza yesterday.

   

  My naval aviation interest started when I wen to Kansas State to play football in 67.  My college advisor was a WWII Navy fighter pilot who has fought in the Pacific.  He had helped a lot of the poor kids that managed some college to enlist in various Navy aviation programs.  A number became A4 pilots and some flew the prop jobs which It think were A1.  I never got my football scholarship and managed two years of college.  I was accepted for an Army Warrant Officer progam and a Naval air crewmen program for RiOs and BNS. He convinced me to go the Navy was.  I headed off to the basic Navy recruit training in San Diego and then scheduled for  the officer program.  The Navy doctors gave me additional eye tests after learning I had eye issues as a child.  The doctors found that I had no depth perception and had me dropped form the program. The doctors felts that I would be able to read and interpret the radar screen.   I was put back into the enlisted ranks and sent of to avionics schools to fix the equipment versus operate it.  That was a real bummer.

   

  Cmdr. Meyer started encouraging me to finish my education through the Navy and carried over when Cmdr. Wilster became CO.  The Navy offered me everything that I wanted to stay in the Navy, but I elected to complete my college education while I was still in the Navy reserve.  The AF recruited me very heavily along with the Army as I was finishing at Kansas State.  I just had enough Navy in my heart and could not transfer.  The Navy offered me a lot more to stay in, but I elected to go into the civilian world to accommodate the special lady in my life.  I just couldn't see myself on a Navy supply ship or tanker as an officer chasing those lousy deck hands around or pushing all the Navy forms.

   

  RVAH-9  and their cruises offered a lot of experiences that were very valuable in my life after the Navy.  I was fortunate to witness Naval aviation history when Grumman brought the first F-14 Tomcat on the Forrestal in 1972 in Norfolk.  I got to watch the first time they started the Tomcat's engines to test the revamped jet blast deflectors.  I was allowed to talk to the test pilot and his RIO a few days later about the new weapon system.  Then I was allowed on the flight deck and stood on the angled deck with a great view of the Tomcat when they fired the engines on the front starboard  catapult and launched the first Tomcat form a carrier and then the first recovery.  I was able to watch all the first flights over those few days.  The very sad thing was the crew then was killed several months later on a test flight.   Just experiencing Naval aviation history in the making was quite the deal for a twenty two year old kid.

   

  One of my 65th birthday presents was to go out to CVN77 a little over a year ago for a day off the California Coast.  A couple of young F-18 pilots were finishing up the carrier quals.  It was a nice day.  This was after the Blue Angels performed here.  It was  nice feeling to see those flight operation live again.

   

  Thanks you for your time and service to our country.

   

  Don 
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  Donald Stoffel June 3, 2015 at 12:27pm

  Mr. Affeld:

  I was one of the AQBs on the 70s med cruise and remember you flying with Cmdr. Meyer a lot.  Us new guys were there to pull and put in the ejection seat head rest safety pens and lug around the lousy ladders on the recovery cycle.  Another enlisted friend just sent me a website directory for the Saratoga 70 med cruise.  I did not remember Captain Johns as being on that cruise until I saw the cruise book.  One of the Vigilante picture was his plane with his name on it.  I assumed it was 603 because Cmdr. Meyer was 601 and Cmdr. Wilster was 602 as the CO and XO.  My recollection was there were six planes on that cruise.  I could see 605 in another picture.

  I witnessed the Vigi crash and related crew ejection in Albany in either 71 or 72.  That was nasty.  I do not recall which squadron it was, but it was during take off and was quite the mess.  Thankfully both crew members survive, but was one severally hurt.

  The squadron was deployed to Rota, Spain in 71 and then 72-73.  I believe it was either 72 or 73 when an A3 did a landing without the nose wheel.  Everyone was expecting a real crash and burn,  but the pilot did one hell of a job landing it that large aircraft.  We just remember that the crewmembers got out of the plane very quickly. 

   

  I talked to Cmdr. Meyer quite often on that first cruise.  He was always educating me about the Navy etc.  It was always quite clear the pilots were under a lot of pressure not to lose and aircraft.  I was quite amazed at being a young kid from Kansas on how dangerous Naval aviation and carrier operations were.  I have nothing but the upmost respect for men like yourself and Capt. Johns and the other Naval aviators.

   

  I get the impression from Capt. Johns comments that you could have ejected alone. My recollection was the pilot and BN ejections system were totally independent of each other. 

  This became a dispute between myself and a former RVAH-1 plane captain that came over and talked to me in Hawaii..  My recollection was the ejection seat also had zero zero capabilities which meant from my RAC FAM classes that you could eject at zero altitude and zero speed.

   

  I thought the world of Cmdr. Meyer then after his passing I started wearing an RVAH9 cap to honor him and the other fine squadron officers.

   

  My home is here in Palmdale, CA the home of the space shuttle, BI and B2 bombers and a large Air Force plant with Edwards AFB down the road a little bit.  There is a lot of AF people around here.

   

  My Navy days are years ago, but a lot of interesting experiences that I will never forget.  

   

  The Blue Angel flight team came to town last year.  I had not seen them in over 25 years when I lived in the Bay area.  We are in the north east corner of Los Angeles county so the air show was at the county air port that was lengthened to handle business jets.  I have landed there a number of times in my wife's Gulfstream G550.  It is a pretty tight space.  The AF Plant runway is huge, but apparently could not be used for security reasons.  We went to the airshow and all the F18 Hornets were lined up.  The looked real dam cool even though they are a fairly small plane.

   

  A lady AF pilot friend of mine went with us to see the show.  She normally flies the F-16, but also has flown the F-22 Raptor.  She was kidding me about the Navy like usual.  I assumed the planes would have to take of  in single file because of the size of the runway.  The pilots fired up the six planes and rolled off.  The noise scared the hell out of the crowd on just the taxi.  &