POST WORLD WAR II AVIATION CAREER

  "MY MOST EXCITING PERIODS IN MY POST WW II CAREER"

    Since I chose not to make a career in military service, 35 of my 40-year aviation career was Post WW II. The first 8 years after the war, was with airline maintenance and although all were exciting. I would have to pick the periods, when I used my four years of Veteran eligibility under the GI Bill, to complete my Commercial Pilot training course. And when I was sent to Canada and then to Japan in 1951 by California Eastern Airways, as the most exciting. Then of the remaining 27 Post WW II years, while I was employed by the Allison Division of General Motors, as a Jet Propulsion Engine Tech Rep. in their Field Service Department. I would have to pick the 5 year period when I was assigned to the Navy Fighter Squadron, VF-21 (FREELANCERS), as the most exciting. I made four Western Pacific (West Pac) cruises with them, (six months duration each) aboard the USS Midway (CVA-41) aircraft carrier. And privileged to become acquainted with and witness the best flying by professional fighter pilots America has to offer. The Navy (Tail-hook) pilots! It is the latter period I have chosen to launch my Post WW II Career writing, by the following article, including photos of my Navy Flight Jacket.
               
                "HOW I BECAME A FREELANCER"

I transferred into the J71 engineering and development program at Allison Division, in Indianapolis, IN, after my two-year assignment in Kansas City, KN. Where we (General Motors) built F84F airplanes in an automotive (BOP) assembly plant. On a sub-contract from Republic Aviation Company. I was a general foreman in flight test inspection when our contract completed and went into Allison engineering as project test and development inspector. We were involved with development and testing of the J71 Turbo Jet, non-afterburning engine for United States Air Force (USAF) B66 twin engine bomber planes. I went through the development and into testing of the engine in a bailed B-66 airplane at Edwards Air Force Base (EAFB). Upon completion of the flight testing, I was picked to join our engineering staff at our home factory in Indianapolis, developing our J71A2 afterburning engine. That was needed to replace the J-40 Turbo Jet engine built by Westinghouse, for use in the Navy F3H Demons, built by McDonald aircraft company. The Navy was about to lose the much-needed F3H Demon contract as the Westinghouse J-40 engine was badly under powered for the plane. This consisted in developing and adding bifurcated inlet air ducts and a afterburner section, to our existing J71 engine that was being used in USAF, B-66 planes. I went on with this program through testing and then was assigned to one of the first F3H Navy Fighter Squadrons on the west coast in 1957, located at Naval Air Station, Miramar, CA. I was first with VF-122 for a short period, then assigned to VF-64 that later became VF-21 (FREELANCERS) and remained with them over the next five year period, until they transitioned to the McDonald F4H planes, powered  by General Electric (GE) J-79 Turbo Jet engines. In late 1962 or early 1963. It ended a Peak Period in my aviation career.

Watch this web site for my exciting period in 1951, to be completed at a later date.  

My Navy Flight Jack with Name patch and Army  Air             Left shoulder VF-21 " Freelancer"patch                 Corps Flt Engineer wings, with CVA-41 Midway Patch.  

I had an old flight jacket from WW2, Army Air Corps, and Big Bob swapped it in at small stores for this new one
and our Parachute riggers sewed my patches on during a West Pac cruise.

My Navy leather fly jacket front view.                  VF-122 Demon Sqd'n Patch, My first F3H assignment in 1957.                                                                                       I made one Car Qual cruise out of San Diego with them

 VF-64 Sqd'n Patch. I made my first West Pac                        VF-21 "Freelancers" patch.
 Cruise with CO Hugh Heider in 1958 -59,                               I made 3 West Pac Cruises in 1959 -60,    
 We lost Skipper Heider and our XO Glen Even                     1961 and 1962, with CO's Bill Eason, Don Engen and
 replaced him. In 1959 VF-64 was redesignated VF-21           Bob Kuntz,  respectively.          
            
       

Back view of my flight Jacket with 3 of my four West       My first Cruise patch 1958 - 59, with VF-64, CO Heider.
Pac cruises, 1958 - 59, 1959 - 60 & 1961. I do not          We lost CO Heider & he was replaced with XO Glen Even.
have my 1962 Cruise Patch, with CO Bob Kuntz.             We became VF-21 in 1959 with Skipper Bill Eason.

VF-21 on 1959 - 60 Cruise with Skipper Bill Eason.        VF-21 on 1961 Cruise with Skipper Don Engen.

I remember having the VF-21 1962 West Pac Cruise patch with Skipper Bob Kuntz., but there was no room left on my flight jacket for it and sometime after our fourth Cruise I misplaced it. Me and Ed (Mac) McKinnon had top seniority in VF-21 when they switched to the F4H's in 1963. McKinnon was our maintenance officer during our four West Pac cruises and he advanced from ltjg to lcdr. Not long after he retired from Navy service and boned up, passed the Calif. Bar and started his law business in San Diego and Chula Vista. I went directly to Lockheed Burbank and was assigned to the first west coast P-3 Orion Squd'n, VP-46 based at NAS Moffett Field. Six months later switched to the 2nd sqd'n, VP-19 and stayed with them and made the first P-3 deployment to Okinawa in 1964-65. The rest is history and in my Autobiography.

Lee Webster and a J 71-A2 Jet Engine