THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 17, 1996 TAG: 9603170176
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: OPERATION JOINT ENDEAVOR
BOSNIA
Reporter Jack Dorsey and photographer Martin Smith-Rodden traveled to
Bosnia to report on the drudgery, pain and occasional terror
confronting U.S. troops who are part of a NATO force helping restore
peace after four years of fighting.
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ABOARD THE GEORGE WASHINGTON LENGTH: Long : 155 lines
The wisecracks from some of the Oceana-based A-6 Intruder crews get more prevalent as the deadline for switching to F/A-18 Hornets nears.
``I don't care how fast the Hornet is, it will always be 50 feet behind an A-6 tanker,'' quipped a senior enlisted man from Attack Squadron 34, in a not-so-subtle remark about the Hornets' reputation for burning fuel.
The remark came from a veteran A-6 mechanic who has worked on Intruders for 20 years and doesn't want to see them retired. It drew cautious stares from some colleagues, and good-natured laughs from others aboard the carrier George Washington as the ship sailed the Adriatic Sea off the coast of the former Yugoslavia.
The Blue Blasters of VA-34 is the second-to-last Intruder squadron left in the Navy and will become an F/A-18 squadron after this deployment. And as the two aviation communities begin to meld, the pilots and maintenance personnel from both camps are starting to think as one.
The Hornet, after all, is the aircraft of the future for the Navy's carrier-based planes. It will dominate the decks of all aircraft carriers after the turn of the century. Newer versions, called the ``Super Hornet,'' will include faster, beefier and more fuel-efficient single-seat ``E'' models that will replace the A-6s. Twin-seat ``F'' models will take the place of the F-14s.
VA-34 is among two A-6 squadrons and one F-14 squadron that had been slated for disbanding but will be kept intact, according to 1997 budget proposals.
``I told the (squadron) as we got ready to come on this deployment that you have a chance to deploy into the history books,'' said Cmdr. David H. Buss, the commanding officer of the Blue Blasters.
Changing planes is not easy, said Buss. But it has happened frequently in the squadron's 43-year history. The squadron has flown seven types of aircraft since its commissioning.
``As an F/A-18 squadron, our (shoulder) patch will live,'' said Buss. ``The name of Blue Blasters will live. That's kind of nice and it makes us a little bit different from most of the A-6 squadrons that have all been through the decommissionings.''
Nearly everyone in the 320-man squadron knows his new assignment, said Buss. About 120 enlisted personnel and five or six officers will go with the squadron as it switches to the Hornets.
The others will head for shore commands or other squadrons.
Buss has been ordered to be out of the A-6 business by Sept. 30 and to move his squadron to Cecil Field, Fla., for Hornet training. The squadron won't return to Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach until late 1998 or early 1999.
The disruptions have good and bad points for both the Intruder and Hornet aviators.
The Hornets, scheduled to make their debut at Oceana during the next two years, are moving from Cecil Field as a result of base closings there.
More than 1,000 of the $37 million single- and twin-seat Hornets are to be purchased by the Navy through 2015.
Eventually, Oceana will be host to 10 F/A-18 squadrons and one Fleet Composite Squadron of mock enemy aircraft.
Twelve F-14 Tomcat squadrons also will be based at Oceana, which will become the only F-14 base in the country. Five F-14 squadrons are to move from Miramar Naval Air Station near San Diego during the next two years, joining seven F-14 squadrons at Oceana.
Oceana, which at its peak in 1989 had 363 aircraft and 12,473 personnel, currently has 181 aircraft and 8,069 personnel because of drawdowns mandated by Congress since 1990.
When the moves are complete in the early spring of 1999, the numbers of personnel and aircraft at the base will be slightly higher than they were in 1989. Projections call for 374 aircraft and 13,003 personnel to be assigned to Oceana by then.
For the Florida-based Hornet crews, the move to Virginia Beach is eagerly anticipated.
``I haven't flown a whole lot in Virginia air space,'' said Lt. Stan Jones of VFA-136. ``But I'm looking forward to the move. Personally, my mother and sister live in Portsmouth, and my wife has relatives in D.C. So it will be nice to be close to them.''
Lt. Jeff Heiges, also a Hornet pilot from the Wild Cats of VFA-136, is looking forward to moving closer to family members, who live in Pittsburgh.
Both said they will miss the wide-open spaces of Cecil Field and the warmer climate of Jacksonville. They are a bit concerned about all the air traffic at Oceana.
Yet, they are happy the Navy didn't go with its first plan, to relocate the Hornets to Cherry Point, N.C.
``I don't think any of us wanted to go to Cherry Point,'' said Heiges. ``I was surprised they shut down Cecil Field.''
Cecil Field apparently will become a state prison after the Navy abandons it. Most troublesome will be selling homes in a market that may be adversely affected by the Navy pulling out, they said.
They plan to start house-hunting in Hampton Roads in another year.
For the Intruder aviators, the move comes at the expense of the more veteran aviators, such as Buss.
``It's kind of tough,'' said Buss, a bombardier/navigator with 3,000 flight hours in the A-6 since 1979.
``It's easier, I think, for the young guys because they knew when they went through flight school the A-6's days were numbered.
``We have been very successful in getting all those guys to transition to other planes.
``The department heads, mainly lieutenant commanders, are in `no man's land.' . . . In a lot of cases they are flight instructors, but with the community going away, if they are going to command squadrons, it will have to be in another community.''
For them, they are pretty much limited to flying the EA-6B Prowler, a close cousin to the Intruder.
The increasing role of the F/A-18 is bound to help the careers of young pilots such as Jones and Heiges.
Both are junior officers completing tours that will set them up over the next couple of years as division officers and department heads. By the time the squadrons are fully in place at Oceana, they will be ready to take command.
``For us it doesn't get any better than that,'' said Jones, a 1988 graduate of the University of Tennessee who initially worked an engineer until he got bored.
``I got so bored, I joined the Navy,'' he said.
Now he is satisfied if he gets just a few minutes of sunshine above the gray clouds over the George Washington and the Adriatic.
``If we're not going to pull into port, a day of flying is just fine. Sometimes, just 15 minutes is nice,'' said Jones.
``The biggest thing for me is the excitement of the job,'' said Heiges, a 1991 graduate of the Naval Academy.
``There's a lot of work involved, because of the multi-missions of the Hornet. We are constantly learning about it. They are constantly coming out with new weapons, systems and tactics.
``Every day there's something new.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color Photos
MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN\The Virginian-Pilot
On the carrier George Washington in the Adriatic Sea, an A-6
Intruder, left center, prepares follow an F/A-18 Hornet taking off
during air operations. The Hornet is the aircraft of the future for
the Navy's carriers.
MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN photos/The Virginian-Pilot
An A-6 Intruder, center, sits tied down on the flight deck of the
George Washington, awaiting one of its final missions.
In the ready room of the carrier George Washington in the Adriatic
Sea, Lt. Stan Jones focuses on a colleague during a briefing before
a flight over Bosnia. Jones said he looks forward to his squadron's
transfer to Oceana Naval Air Station. ``My mother and sister live in
Portsmouth, and my wife has relatives in D.C.''
KEYWORDS: BOSNIA CIVIL WAR OPERATION JOINT ENDEAVOR
U.S. NAVY by CNB