A True Story by J.H. Thompson (31 August 2006)

It was Saturday, April 5th, 1952, and southern California was expecting nice weather for the weekend. During the month, President Truman would seize the nation's steel mills on grounds that a threatened shutdown due to a strike would endanger U.S. efforts in the Korean War. Cuba's voters would approve President Batista's plans to replace his congress, and the French government was finding their engagement in a little known place called Indochina troublesome. And the Missouri River was on a rampage, forcing mass evacuations with Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota and Saskatchewan hardest hit.

F3D-2 BuNo. 124617 VMF(N)-542

A young Marine Master Sergeant stood in the cool morning air in his brown, baggy flight suit. A discolored, yellow survival vest hung loosely around his neck. At his feet lay his B-4 gear bag containing a couple changes of clothes, a suit, and some toilet articles. His H-3 flight helmet, its gold color long faded with use, was perched on top and his oxygen mask was stuffed inside the helmet, its hose hanging partially out. It was a little past 0400 (local time) and outside the gates of El Toro Marine Corp Air Station (MCAS) southeast of Long Beach, California, all was quiet. On the flightline however it was anything but with the screech of jet engines and the drone of whirling propellers. Joe was a Radar Operator (RO) attached to VMF(N)-542, a night fighter squadron and with the Korean War in full swing El Toro was a beehive of flight activity preparing flight crews for another war. Normal flight activity involved air-to-air intercept training over desert training areas that pockmarked the southern California and Nevada landscape, but today's flight was different. Joe was flying cross-country to McGuire Air Force Base (AFB) outside Wrightstown, New Jersey with refueling stops at Tinker AFB in Oklahoma City and Columbus, Ohio.

Joe had left his draftsman's job with the Corp of Engineers in Philadelphia and enlisted in the Marine Corp in 1942. After Recruit Training in Parris Island he was assigned to Cherry Point MCAS in coastal North Carolina, where he was trained as a gunner & radio operator in the Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber. Just before deployment to the South Pacific he married a local Carolina girl, Ruby, and then like so many thousands of other young Americans, he shipped out.

After combat flying out of places like Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Emirau and the Philippines his war was finally over. He had survived unscathed with 708 hours logged and now all he wanted was to return to his home in New Jersey, start a family with Ruby and get back to his profession as a draftsman. And for while that's exactly what he did. Joe was discharged from the Marines in November 1945 and went back to his draftsman's job and in 1947 a son was born. Things were looking pretty good for Joe and Ruby.

Then along came Korea. On June 25, 1950, after numerous border skirmishes along the 38th parallel the North Koreans finally made an all-out assault into South Korea. The Korean War had begun. It was only a handful of years earlier that World War II had ended and the troops had returned to their homes and prewar jobs. But now the nation geared up for another war effort and servicemen who thought their days in uniform were over now found themselves being recalled to duty. Joe was no different, and in October 1950 he received his recall to the Marines. First order of business was to get his wife and their small son moved back to the small Carolina fishing village were Ruby's parents and siblings lived. After that was completed Joe's life was a fast paced marathon of getting back up to speed with Marine Corp aviation. He started crewing in DC-6's, followed by Radar Operators School and then radar intercept training in the venerable Beech SNB (Expediter). In December 1951 Joe was assigned to VMF(N)-542 at El Toro MCAS to train in the aircraft he would go to Korea in - the Douglas F3D-2 Skyknight.

As Joe stood outside the Quonset hut waiting for his pilot, Major Martin, to join him, out on the flightline were parked a line of F3D's. The aircraft had been dubbed Willey the Whale due to their large size, but most flight crews merely referred to them as Willie or The Whale. For a twin seat fighter it was extremely large, with side-by-side seating instead of the customary tandem seats. Hidden under the aircraft's fiberglass nosecone was a large dish antenna for basic search with a 170 degree search azimuth, and in front of that one a smaller antenna that was used to lock on to a target. Stowed in the tail was an APS-28 radar, with a 140 degree search azimuth, that warned the crews of intruders from the rear. Joe had flown in a vast assortment of aircraft since joining the Corps back in 1942, but flying in The Whale was something totally different.

In late 1945, the Navy began discussions with aircraft manufacturers about requirements for a jet-powered night fighter. The Navy wanted a carrier-based, radar-equipped aircraft capable of detecting enemy aircraft at distances of up to 125 miles at 40,000 feet, with a target speed in excess of 500 knots. Even Ed Heinemann at Douglas Aircraft, the eventual designer of the aircraft, was initially shocked at the stringent requirements. (Heinemann was a prolific designer responsible for other historic aircraft like the SBD Dauntless, the AD Skyraider, the F4D Skyray which eventually replaced the Skyknight, the A3D Skywarrior, and the A4D Skyhawk. Heinemann's team came up with a mid-wing design, powered by two 3000+ lb. thrust rated Westinghouse J34 axial-flow turbojets installed in semi-external nacelles housed underneath the fuselage center section. Heinemann always thought the aircraft was underpowered. Westinghouse and the Navy had intended to fit J46 engines in the Dash-2 models which would have bumped the thrust up to 4,600 lbs, but development problems prevented the engine from entering service. All Dash-2's therefore flew with the anemic thrust of the J34 engines. The Westinghouse APQ-35 search and target acquisition radar was to be carried in the nose. The large size of this radar installation required that a wide fuselage be designed to accommodate it, and the team adopted a side-by-side seating arrangement for the two crew members. Large sideways-opening speed brakes were installed on the sides of the rear fuselage. A conventional tricycle landing gear was chosen and an auxiliary tailwheel was added to the rear ventral fuselage to prevent airframe damage during nose-high landings. A carrier arrestor hook was fitted behind the auxiliary tailwheel, and the wings folded upward at mid-span for stowage aboard carriers. Armament consisted of four 20-mm cannon mounted in the lower part of the nose.

The Navy judged the Douglas proposal as the best of the designs submitted, and awarded Douglas a contract for three prototypes under the designation XF3D-1 on April 3, 1946. With engines, radars, most of the electrics, and autopilot made by Westinghouse, the designer, Ed Heinemann use to quip that the Skyknight was actually a Westinghouse aircraft assembled by Douglas. The aircraft were built at the Douglas Aircraft Production Facility in El Segundo, California, next door to the Los Angeles Airport (KLAX). In all 237 Whales were produced between early 1951 and mid-1952. Ironically the aircraft, which was designed primarily for Navy carrier deployment, had shortcomings related to carrier operations that proved more than the Navy wanted to tackle. Sixty F3D's flew in navy composite squadrons but the vast majority of the total production run went into the Marine inventory.

"Are you ready to go Joe?" asked Major Martin as he walked up. "Yes sir" was the crisp reply. "OK, let's go flying" and both men, laden with flight gear and baggage, walked towards their aircraft. Ground crew personnel were already preparing the plane, Bureau Number (BuNo) 124617. On the vertical stabilizer were painted the large white squadron letters - WH - and the number - 10 - was painted under the cockpit on both sides of the fuselage. The fuselage was also festooned with decals indicating access doors, drain holes, static vents, operating pressures, and other warnings placards needed by the ground service personnel to maintain the aircraft. Nearby was parked an NC-5 auxiliary power cart used to supply starting power. As they walked towards their aircraft neither Marine could possibly know that a decade later it would be an electronic-countermeasures (ECM) equipped F3D that would be the first to detect Russian radar transmissions from an island named Cuba which eventually lead to the Cuban Missile Crisis. And still later in a place called Viet Nam the F3D, now designated EF-10B, would still be carrying young Marine aviators in harms way.

Major Martin tossed his gear up on the right wing, talked briefly to the Plane Captain and then commenced his walk around, a red lens flashlight in hand. Joe tossed his gear up too and began the precipitous climb up the right side of the aircraft to gain access to the cockpit. The F3D was a very peculiar aircraft in many respects and entry was no different. Most two crewed aircraft had tandem seating and an opening canopy that allowed them to climb a ladder, step over the sill and down into their seats. Not so in a Whale. You had to climb up and over the right engine nacelle using hidden steps in the fuselage. In fact white guide lines were painted on most aircraft to assist in locating your ascent path. Once on top of the wing you then stepped up to the top of the fuselage, walked forward to the canopy and drop down into the cockpit through a trap-door in the canopy top. During the day this was daunting enough, but at night and with wind, rain, or snow this procedure was not to be taken lightly. Once on the wing Joe gathered up their gear and dropped it into the open cockpit hatch, then dropped down inside himself.

The cockpit was huge, much more like an airliner flightdeck in scale, than what one would expect in a fighter. On the left side sat the pilot with standard controls. The throttle quadrant was located on the left side of the cockpit but this cockpit actually belonged to the enlisted Radar Operators. On the right side of the cavernous deck were crammed a huge array of electronic panels with switches, knobs, and circuit breakers and not one, but several different sized radar screens. Crews found new features on the Skyknights flightdeck that had not appeared on previous aircraft they flew such as red, indirect panel and instrument lighting and control handles that were designed to resemble the components they operated; e.g. a small round wheel on the end of the gear lever. You couldn't help but not notice the windshield too because it was optically flat, like the British Mosquito Bomber of World War II vintage. Initially it gave the aerodynamicists some concerns but proved itself in the wind tunnel tests not to mention the excellent visibility it afforded the crew. And another truly unique feature was the emergency egress system. Since the aircraft's seating arrangement would not permit the use of the ejection seats available at that time, F3D's were provided with a tunnel escape system. This consisted of an exit tunnel behind the cockpit, through which the two crew members could slide one at a time, feet first and facing aft. The tunnel exited the aircraft through a hatch located underneath the belly between the engines. The escape sequence was initiated by pulling a lever which blew off the aft portion of the belly hatch door, the forward part of the hatch door hinging forward to act as a windbreak. The crew would then pivot in their seats, grasp a vaulting bar attached to the wall behind their seats, kick open the cockpit exit door behind their seats, and then jump feet first into the tunnel and slide down an escape chute, angled at 40 degrees, and exit out the bottom of the plane. Successful bailout tests, using this egress system, were conducted between 139 kts up to 433 kts with live subjects and up to 500 kts with dummies. And if all that wasn't unique enough, there on the central pedestal, was a cigarette lighter and on both sides of the cockpit were ash trays for the crew, just like you'd expect to find in an airliner. And to top it off it was pressurized and air conditioned which made the F3D one of the nicest cross-country machines available, even if it was a fighter.

In a few minutes Joe was joined by Martin and after strapping in he quickly ran through his checklist up to the point of engine start. Joe had already completed the necessary portions of his RO's checklist. The Plane Captain indicated they were ready outside and Martin signaled that he was turning up the engines. The throttles were cracked slightly, one at a time, and Martin crammed his finger between the throttle levers to gain access to the igniter switches. Engine exhaust gas temperatures (EGT) were carefully monitored to detect a hot start problem. The start was normal and the throttles were increased slightly. With the aircraft now producing its own electrical power Joe started the procedure to bring the radars up on line. Inverters were cranked up because the F3D radar system used a lot of power. Next Joe carefully brought the large dished search radar to life and once that one was swinging away under the forward radome he energized and tuned the APS-28 unit mounted in the tail. You could almost feel heat and power emanating from the hundreds of vacuum tubes required to make the whole system work (keep in mind this was in the days prior to solid state electronics). Joe indicated he was ready to go and Martin signaled for the chocks to be pulled. Cleared to taxi The Whale pulled off the line at 0450 and headed for the active runway.

At the runway additional cockpit checks were completed and Major Martin keyed his mike, "El Toro Tower, Marine Four Six One Seven at runway 25 left, ready for takeoff with a departure to the east". "Four Six One Seven, wind two two zero at four, cleared for takeoff 25 left, downwind departure approved." Martin stood on the brakes and shimmied the throttles up, watching the needles of his engine gauges as the J34 engines spooled up. When the proper engine readouts were obtained he released the brakes and Marine 4617 began to roll. Acceleration in a Skyknight was nothing to behold, in fact the word lethargic comes to mind. Marine crews on the other hand used more colorfully, expletive laced terms to describe the underpowered performance of the Skyknight. Finally, with a whole lot of the 8,000 foot runway behind them Martin eased back on the stick and they broke their earthly bond. Even airborne the F3D could fly quite a ways with little indication of a climb on the Vertical Speed Indicator (VSI). But finally Martin saw a positive rate of ascent indicated so gear and flaps were retracted on schedule. As the aircraft climbed westward towards the Pacific, Martin rolled the aircraft to the left and started a climbing turn to get them headed eastward. In the early 50's radio traffic was still relatively sparse and they heard only an occasional call from a DC-3, DC-6, or a Lockheed Constellation. A muted whoosh in the cockpit from the pressurization system kept them company and Martin could see out of the corner of his eye that Joe was working various knobs on the radar sets already. In a few moments they had turned 180 degrees to the east and as El Toro passed under their left wing tip the ground lights ahead all but disappeared. The faint outline of the Santa Ana Mountains was just off their left nose and the sky above was filled with millions of stars. Behind them the sky was lit up from the lights of Long Beach and Los Angeles but ahead the sky was an indigo blue-black.

High above the desert southwest the first rays of the morning sun began to burn off the darkness. Joe snapped the hoods onto the radar screens to keep out extraneous light so he could better see targets. Martin, hands folded in his lap, occasionally glanced at his flight chart as he monitored the flight instruments making sure that they were where they thought they were and that the Westinghouse G-3 autopilot was still doing its job. They were and it was. As the Skyknight streaked eastward it flew over places named Albuquerque, Amarillo, Tulsa and Cincinnati. However in only a couple months both of these men would be sitting on a far away airfield named 'King 8' in Korea flying over places with unpronounceable names escorting B-29's in the pitch blackness of night. Enemy jet aircraft would be up there with them trying to shoot them down. It would be a cat-and-mouse game that had fatal consequences for those who made a mistake.

After 3 hours enroute they landed at Tinker AFB and a faded blue Follow-Me truck met them on the taxiway and guided them to the Transient Parking Line, where a fuel tanker was already awaiting their arrival. As was the case at most non-naval airfields they visited, a large contingent of personnel had gathered to inspect the strange looking aircraft. And invariably the question was always asked. "How many bombs does it carry?" And when they were told that it didn't carry any because it was a fighter there would be a shake of the head and something along the lines of, "Man, no bombs? Sure looks large for a fighter!" Martin and Joe shut-down and climbed out of the aircraft. It was good to walk around and stretch the legs for a few minutes and there was always the invariable run to the head (toilet). Several Air Force guys climbed up on the Skyknight for a close peek but in a short period of time, with tanks topped off, they were climbing out over the flat, brown Oklahoma landscape headed to the northeast.

A similar stop was made at the Naval Air Station that occupied part of the Port Columbus Airfield, in Ohio. This time there was less of a crowd and after a quick refueling they took the active and flew off. Martin told Joe he didn't need to bring the radar's on-line for this last flight segment so the young RO assumed the more traditional role of assisting with communications. As they leveled off at their assigned altitude Martin turned to Joe and asked, "How old was your sister, Joe?" "Twenty-two" was his response and then almost as an after thought he inserted, "She was just twenty-two. Too damn young to die but she did!" Joe's younger sister, Madeline, had died suddenly of a burst appendix and Joe was headed back for her funeral. When the squadron got word of the death the squadron Operations Officer had informed the Commanding Officer (CO). The CO immediately indicated that he thought Major Martin needed some additional cross-country time and this explained why this F3D was a half dozen miles above the earth headed for New Jersey. Martin would remain overnight at McGuire and then single pilot the aircraft back to El Toro the next day. Joe would remain for his sister's funeral then return to El Toro via commercial transport. And that's the way it happened.

As Marine 4617 made its approach to McGuire there was a low overcast, with visibility around 2 miles in a light rain. On the flightline Ruby stood silently, griping her young son's hand tightly. Her brother-in-law Jim stood next to her. Two days earlier, on her son's 5th birthday, they had flown to New Jersey from North Carolina for the funeral. It was the first time either of them had ever been on a airplane and the DC-3 flight was rough and her son had gotten airsick. Now the young boy was just excited at the prospect of seeing his Dad again and of seeing the jet he flew in. To the side stood about a half dozen Air Force personnel who had come to see the Skyknight up close. Then off in the distant could be heard the very faint growl of jet engines. The noise grew louder and soon the faint glow of a landing light could be seen as Willie the Whale broke out of the low clouds several miles off the end of the runway. They watched as the Skyknight grew larger in the sky and then crossed the runway threshold, flared and landed, blasting a large amount of spray in its wake. All eyes followed the aircraft as it rolled down the runway, turned off the active and taxied back up to their position. Rolling gently to a stop less than 50 feet away the engine noise was deafening, but then the engines began to spool down and a clanking noise was heard as the turbine blades turned slower and slower in their housings. In a few moments it was quiet again. The canopy hatch opened and Joe and Major Martin climbed out, as if they were exiting a foxhole. Air Force personnel greeted them and Martin talked to a couple of them for a few minutes while Joe eagerly greeted Ruby, his son, and his brother.

The boy was glad to see his dad. It had been six months since they had been together but the huge airplane, sitting so close, was even more awe inspiring to the blond headed youngster. Joe saw the look on his son's face and asked if he wanted to sit in the cockpit? He was greeted with an emphatic, "Oh, yeh can I?" Joe climbed up on the wing and Martin lifted the boy up his father. The rest was indelibly stamped into the young child's memory for the remainder of his life. The cockpit smells, its size, the hundreds of gauges, switches, knobs, and the radar scopes that seemed to grow from the wide instrument panel. All of this overloaded his senses. It was like nothing he had ever seen before but years later, as he sat in the cockpit of his own naval aircraft, waiting to take the active runway with the rain pelting his canopy, he would think back on that April day at McGuire and reflect on how much had changed in military aviation and how some things had stayed the same.

Joe (L) and Major Martin (R), just prior to first combat mission in Korea. The F3Ds canopy is barely visible over Martins left shoulder.

Epilogue

Credits

Books
Naval Fighters Number Four: Douglas F3D Skyknight by Steve Ginter; Simi Valley, Ca. privately printed, 1982
Night Fighter's Over Korea by G.G O'Rourke with E.T. Wooldridge; Annapolis, MD., Naval Institute Press, 1998
Ed Heinemann, Combat Aircraft Designer by Ed Heinemann and Rosario Rausa, Annapolis, MD., Naval Institute Press, 1980
Night Fighters: A Development and Combat History by Bill Gunston, New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1976.

Web Sources
Joe Baugher's Encyclopedia of US Military Aircraft @ http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~pettypi/elevon/baugher_us/
How It Was - Kunsan Air Base - VMF513 @ http://www.kalaniosullivan.com/KunsanAB/VMF513/Howitwasa1ac_a.html
Air Vectors @ http://www.vectorsite.net/avskykt.html

F3D Technical Assistance
For their time, patience, and sharing of information about the F3D I want to heartily thank:
Mr. Ken Gates
Mr. Ron Stout

Author's Note

Joe Thompson
joe308@zianet.com