XBradTC

So, about that video of the A-6’s flying Ky out to the Enterprise. My sister emailed me asking why I suspected Dad was flying 504 when I’d sent her a perfectly lovely picture of 501 with his name clearly painted on the canopy rail.

Well, let’s talk about that. First, the basic carrier air wing on board the big deck carriers of those days had 2 squadrons of F-4 Phantoms, two squadrons of A-4 Skyhawks (or, later, A-7 Corsair II’s), an A-6 Intruder squadron, an E-2 Hawkeye squadron, an RA-5C Vigilante squadron, and a detachment of KA-3B Skywarriors and a helo detachment for Search and Rescue.

While each plane in the Navy has a Bureau Number, kinda like a serial number that stays with it throughout its lifetime, it’s a little awkward to try to memorize all the BuNos. So each plane within the airwing also has what is known as the MODEX, a three digit number painted on the front part of the aircraft. Now, MODEX’s run in a very defined sequence. The senior fighter squadron has all its MODEX numbers in the 100 series, starting with 100. Given that most Phantom squadrons had 12 aircraft assigned, that would give a range of 100 to 111. The second Phantom squadron would similarly have a range from 200 to 211; the Skyhawks 300 to 311 and 400 to 411.  When VA-35 deployed as part of Carrier Air Wing 9 in 1966-1967, they only had 9 aircraft assigned, and so their MODEX sequence was 500 to 508. Traditionally, the X00 numbered aircraft is known as the CAG’s* bird, and the X01 is the squadron skipper’s bird.

The X02-X08 or X11 birds bear the names of other aircrew in the squadron in descending order of seniority.  There’s generally 1.5 aircrews per aircraft assigned in each squadron. That means each twelve plane Phantom squadron would ideally have 18 crews, and the 9 plane Intruder squadron would have 12, maybe 13 two man crews.

And while everyone who has seen Top Gun knows that Naval Aviators have cool personal call signs like Maverick and Viper,** those are generally only used within a four ship flight, or during normal social interactions. Around the big grey boat, a more formal system is used. While VA-35 was named The Black Panthers, it, like every  other squadron had a tactical call sign. For VA-35, it was “Raygun.” For their sister squadron, VF-96, it was “Showtime.” Calling back to the ship (“Mother”) one would combine the squadron tactical call sign with the MODEX number of the aircraft. So, if Dad was flying 501, his call sign for that flight would be “Raygun 501.” Similarly, when Cunningham and Driscoll downed three MiGs in one day to become the only Navy aces of the Vietnam War, they were mounted in Showtime 100.

Now, being the Skipper, Dad didn’t fly quite as often as most of the aircrew. Sure, he flew his fair share,  particularly of the tough ones. But he also had to run the squadron. Just as importantly, as an attack squadron skipper, he spent a lot of time planning Alpha Strikes with the Air Wing staff, and prepping to lead them, a duty shared among the fighter and attack squadron skippers as well as the CAG.

But with only 9 airframes, and 12 crews, that meant the operations officer and the schedules officer couldn’t afford to just leave Raygun 501 idle while waiting for the Skipper to fly a mission. Plus, the A-6 was something of a maintenance nightmare, with various aircraft suffering from system failures at a rather horrendous rate. So the maintenance department struggled mightily just to provide enough “up” birds to meet the mission schedules. And that meant that aircrews took whatever jets were available. And so, on any given day, 501 might be flown by the most junior aircrew in the squadron, and and Dad and his B/N would take out, say, Raygun 507. Or, in the case of the video I linked last night, Raygun 504.

*Despite being renamed from Carrier Air Groups to Carrier Air Wings, the traditional name for the Wing commander has remained CAG to this day, as it rolls off the tongue a lot better than calling him the CAW.

**Not really. Some call signs are virtually automatic. If you’re last name is Rhoades, you’re tagged with Dusty. If your last name is Gibson, you’re Hoot. If your last name is Bright or Swift, you better get used to Notso. But most call signs are a bit more obscure in their origin. I’d love to know the back story on Dad getting tagged with Pedro. And then there’s Enya.