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Texas Forever · May 11, 2013

http://www.pnj.com/article/20130511/NEWS12/305110031/Naval-aviators-gather-for-reunion-in-Pensacola

I can still remember as a kid, it must have been around '55 or '56, seeing a pillar of smoke rising up in the sky when we were stationed at Pax River. Yeah, the military sucks. But there are not many jobs where you leave home in the morning for what might be the last time.

Dale

snj5 · May 12, 2013

Texas Forever said: ↑

http://www.pnj.com/article/20130511/NEWS12/305110031/Naval-aviators-gather-for-reunion-in-Pensacola

I can still remember as a kid, it must have been around '55 or '56, seeing a pillar of smoke rising up in the sky when we were stationed at Pax River. Yeah, the military sucks. But there are not many jobs where you leave home in the morning for what might be the last time.

Dale
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Texas Forever · May 12, 2013

[sigh]Pensacola News Urinal[/sigh]

May 12, 2013

Naval aviators gather for reunion in Pensacola

By Rob Johnson
[email protected]

Henry Skip Hawkins doesnt attend his high school or college reunions. But even at age 79, he just couldnt miss last weeks get-together of buddies who were commissioned as ensigns in 1955 at Pensacola Naval Air Station.

I love these guys, said Hawkins, now a retiree near Houston, Texas. I was real proud to make the cut and graduate with them.

Now that were old we can celebrate our lives, our accomplishments and the fact that were still above ground, said Stephen Wilkey, who left active duty in the Navy in 1960 and went on to a three-decade career as a pilot for United Airlines before retiring in Gulf Breeze.

There are 32 surviving members of that first AOC class, in which four months of preflight training aimed at turning young college graduates into officers. They reported to Pensacola in August 1955 and graduated in December. Of the 50 who started that first class, 50 were commissioned although one had to drop out for health reasons; he was replaced by another candidate.

The training was a very physical indoctrination into military life for recruits who hadnt experienced boot camp. Run by Marine Corps drill sergeants, the schools culture was similar to the tense and loud atmosphere depicted in the 1982 film, Officer and a Gentleman, in which preflight candidate Richard Gere is constantly pressured by Louis Gossett Jr. to drop out.

I remember it was different from Officer and a Gentleman in that there were a lot more drill sergeants and a lot less pretty girls, said John Konvalinka, who served a four-year Navy hitch, later graduated from the Columbia University Business School and is now retired in Princeton, N.J.

The era in which that first class strived was worlds away too. For example, there were no women or blacks in the class.

Wilkey, originally from the Boston area, recalled the pre-Civil Rights Movement backdrop of Pensacola.

It was the first time I had seen a public restroom sign that said colored. It didnt say men or women, just colored.

The officer candidate school shaped lives that went in many directions. Some of the men made the Navy a career or stayed in active Reserve for many years.

None of the recent college graduates had attended the Naval Academy at Annapolis, yet three eventually rose to the rank of captain. The class didnt produce an admiral.

But the experience gave rise to camaraderie that has endured for more than a half century, caused many of the officer school classmates to keep in touch and has brought them together for six reunions from New Orleans to San Antonio to Charleston, S.C., and again last week in Pensacola, the third gathering here.

The Pensacola officer candidate school has passed into history now. Preflight training was relocated to Naval Station Newport, R.I., in 2006.

Wilkey said the reunionsare kind of random events where everyone can get together and tell lies.

Konvalinka added, I like to hear the stories about flying. Part of the problem with our stories is they tend to get better as time goes by.

The part of the interwoven tale of their lives they mostly agree on is the four months they spent together in 1955. There were plenty of pressures and rewards.

Who could forget Trader Jons on Palafox Street, recalled John Nelson, now retired in Fort Myers. I enjoyed many fun-filled happy hours there with the guys and watching the lovely Julie do her dance with a glass of booze balanced on her head was a sight to behold. Her routine was classic.

Even though there wasnt a war on, some in the first class didnt live very long after they became officers in Pensacola and went on to complete flight training at other bases.

Those deaths remind the remaining member of the 1955 class how fortunate they are and how precious life is.

Don Westbrock, now retired in Orlando, said the reunion brings back thoughts of the classmates who are no longer with us. We realize that time is creeping up on us.

Still, Westbrock is among those who said their lives benefited enormously from their Navy experience in Pensacola.

Going into the service was a significant cultural change for me, he said. I grew up on small farm in Minnesota without electricity, running water or indoor plumbing. We farmed with horses.

Westbrock, who retired from the Navy in 1981 as a captain and flew combat missions in Vietnam, recalled that he didnt understand exactly what he was getting into by signing up for preflight training.

I signed up for the school not knowing it was for flying, he said. I had never been on an airplane and the only plane I ever saw was a Piper Cub that crashed in the neighbors yard and killed a neighbor girl. I went to a small private all-boys college that was about as primitive as life on the farm. So arriving in Pensacola was a real cultural change.

The classmates dont remember friction among themselves, but their competition remains vivid.

I remember great frustration when I broke the record for the outdoor obstacle course and Steve Wilkey beat me two minutes later, Westbrock said. That was not enough so he did it again a week later when I beat his record and two minutes after that he beat me a second time. I dont remember any sympathy on Steves part.

The first few weeks of officer school were major transitions for some in the class. A few made down payments on cars with their initial paychecks. The most popular model, some remember: the 1955 Chevrolet.

For Bill Ketchum, who retired as a captain in 1986 after 31 years in the Navy, the memory of his early days of marriage is attached to the period in which he was in the class.

Janice and I were married July 30, (1955), he said. I joined the Navy Aug. 17. Thanksgiving meant four days off. I found a house just outside the main gate, on the water with a room for $10 a week. Janice came for Thanksgiving vacation. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.

Still, Ketchums Thanksgiving highlight also reminds him of a lowlight that came just before the holiday.

Pay day just before Thanksgiving was a big event. I needed money, he recalled. The paymaster looked up at me and said, Officer Candiate Ketchum, you owe the United States government a significant sum that was related to a mix-up in his financial records.

I was weak in the knees, Ketchum recalled. The paymaster then said, Do you want to pay it now or over time. My strength returned. That was absolutely my low point.

For many of the 1955 classmates though, even the worst part of their training experiences are fun to remember now.

Wilkey said the toughest part of the reunion is thinking, not about the past, but of the future.

When we were young, we felt invulnerable, he said. We were going into flying but you really didnt think about being killed flying, although some of us were.

The reality of death is harder to shrug off these days, he added.

Were not dying from flying anymore.
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You gotta love that last line.

Dale

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