Found this picture of an F9F-8T Cougar from H&MS 13 that was probably the same one I flew in the back seat in ’63 when I made Plane Captain of the month. Although this pic was taken at Chu Lai, it’s still the same H&MS 13 that my squadron, VMA 212, was a part of at Kaneohe Bay in 1963. They only had one Cougar trainer. That year, my squadron established an award to be designated “Plane Captain of the month” and I happened to be lucky enough to be the first one. Before I could actually fly, however, I had to take pressure chamber and ejection seat training at NAS Barber’s Point. After that initial training I was ready for the flight. The pilot was a Captain from H&MS-13 and the hop was about an hour long. We did all the maneuvers including a loft bombing where he put it in a power dive from around 30,000 ft. and pulled back on the stick at about 6,000 ft. climbing back to altitude and flipping over, simulating special weapons delivery. I was watching the G meter climb to about 7 G’s. I could hear the wings creaking like rusty hinges as my G suit filled up with bleed air. After that maneuver he let me take the stick. “Put your left wing down”, he said, and I eased the stick left. Same thing with the right wing. So now I get a little confident and asked if I could try an aileron roll. “Go ahead if you think you can” says he. Now I’m feeling very confident, even though I wasn’t a pilot (did that years later as a civilian), and I just whipped that stick over in my right lap. I didn’t know that you have to give it a little nose up before entering an aileron roll. Nobody mentioned that part. Anyway, we were up around thirty thousand when I started the maneuver. I was looking straight up at the ocean getting closer and the airplane was not coming out of the roll. It was falling towards the water upside down. I still had the stick all the way over in a death grip, looking up at the ocean, watching the waves turn into whitecaps. The Captain said “Let Go Of The Stick”. “Are You Sure You Got It Sir”, says I. “Let Go Of The Godd-mn Stick” says he with more emphasis. So I let go, and he rolled out to level flight before we got wet. He didn’t say a word to me after that all the way back to Kaneohe and after landing he got away from that plane post haste and left me in the fuel pits. At any rate, there was only one PC of the month after me. They discontinued it after that guy because he puked in his Oxygen mask. Made a h-ll of a mess so I hear. They discontinued the award after that.
Norm Spilleth
Cpl. 1960-1964
Wow! I’ve never flown in a jet. Lucky you! But I’ve put on a gas mask that someone puked in previously. In boot camp! Lucky me! Ooorahh.
Lucky you! I made Battalion Marine of the month while in Vietnam received a promotion to E-4 and 2 days r&r at China Beach. Paul
Great story….always grateful for all the various aircrafts in the skies above Vietnam in 1966/1967 as a “ground pounder” with 4th Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division near DMZ.
Cpl Ernie BarBeau
Very interesting! Thank you for sharing I am a Marine wife and Army Veteran. I probably would have nosebleeds from that!
Bn Marine of the month?? never heard of that! who were you with, an air wing??
Kilo 3/1 , 2nd herd 67-69
Some folks are born lucky!
THAT WAS A GOOD STORY… WELL WRITTEN AND WITH THE MARINE HUMOR I ENJOY SO VERY MUCH… THANK YOU…
CPL JACK LARKIN 0331 A-1-7 66-67 WE LIVED SOUTH OF CHULAI ON THAT BEACHY AREA SOUTH OF THE SONG TRA BONG RIVER…
I am so glad to see this picture and story. My first squadron was VMT-1, Cherry Point in January of 1967 and we had a squadron of TF-9J’s. I was only there about 3 months when I filled a quota for Vietnam as an avionics technician (Comm/Nav/Elec). I didn’t go straight from there to Vietnam (a separate story). I reported to III MAF and then MAG-12 November 11,1967. When I got to Chu Lai and called the comm number, a MGySgt, MAG-12 Avionics NCOIC came to pick me up and asked me what kind of aircraft I had worked on. I told him TF-9J’s. He said what’s that? Anyway he decided based on my “finger” school for AT”N”, he assigned me to H&MS-12 Avionics. From then on I always worked at the IMA level. I hadn’t been there long, after Tet 68 I found out that H&MS-13 had 2 or 3 of the F-9J’s. BTW, VMT-1 Cherry Point would take a mech or avionics tech to ride in the back seat on check rides, including any aircraft that came back from O&R. Semper Fidelis.
So disappointed you keep posting these BS stories. A plane ride ? Possible. Taking controls and doing rolls WHAT BS .
Don,t know why you think this is BS, IT IS A TRAINING AIRCRAFT! PILOTS DISCRETION !
Don,t know why they would have a trainer aircraft at Chu-Lai.
Hey Norm glad you got ride. I was at Kaneohe 65-66. Was in vmf 232 then 212. Made plane captain of month in 232 but didn’t get to fly. Just a day of liberty. We lost one of our tf-9 along with the pilots nothing was ever found. They were on trading sortie.
I’d never call out anyone here! All respect. I’ve witnessed things that others may think untrue. Taking mamasans on helecopter rides in Hong Kong, guzzling down a few beers with my crew on the flight deck during flight ops, ✈️ or ground turning on the flightline in South Korea as our pilot comes racing down the runway in a taxi cab after a nite in the ville still trying to zip up his flight suit! Yup that’s right, a taxi on the airport runway delivering our pilot to a helecopter ground turning at 100%! And our plane filled up with souvenirs to take back to the ship! Yes crazier things have happened and because you don’t believe it doesn’t make it untrue! RESPECT TO ALL TRUE MARINES! SEMPER FI!
I hear what you say Kapena, but there are times when the BS is obvious to me. This is NOT one of those times. All Marines are not good Marines, I have met a lot of embellishes and Juan a bees over the years. Harry
Every aircraft type in the Marine inventory flew in RVN. (including Training aircraft) They had hardpoints for weapons and were used. When more attack aircraft arrived, they were withdrawn. Semper Fi
I was Air Wing-Avionics Electrician- CH53’s-Natops Crew Chief – B4 going West Pac I knew plane Capt’s @ El Toro who got to fly with their Capt on F4 transfers- And as a 53 crew chief had SEVERAL occasions I was able to sit left seat of a 53 and take the ‘Stick”-When only crew on board was pilot/-co-pilot-and myself–and at a later date when I was assigned to ‘TEST” only 2 on board was the pilot and myself–left seat -so I could also take the controls and see how the bird “felt” in flight-
It’s a matter of the respect-and faith a pilot has in his crew chief OR plane captain– Luckly I had the same pilot for 2 years–from Santa Ana to west pac-and on board ship on the USS Tripoli–
I was stationed at MCAS Iwakuni 1963-64 assigned to “station” not the air wing there. We had, among many other aircraft and SAR helo’s,. two F9F-8t’s for squadron pilot proficiency flying. I had already been awarded my “OMYASS” card at MCAS El Toro . Although trained to aboard the back seat, I never got to fly on our Cougars/Panthers. Did a LOT of flying on our fixed wing and UH-34 and UH-19 SAR birds with a LOT of right seat and left seat (helo’s) during my 20 Marine Corps all over the world. Was at Quang Tri (67-68) with the Flying Tigers of HMM-262. I was an Aviation Electrician/Instruments (mainly) which was required to fly on most all test flights. On ALL autopilot and some instrument test hops, I was in the “copilot” seat putting the system/s through it’s test. Enjoyed almost all flights I was required to be on. Served the Corps 6/60-7/80 retired GySgt. Semper Fi !
GUNNY–You definitely know then what it is like to go thru the “Tests” with the Helos- I was with 462 but we went composite with 31st MEU along with HMM 165-Myself I prefered the 53 over the 46’s–I always thought the 46 was too noisy and sounded like it would shake apart-Ha- unfortunately that did happen on a few later on–Semper Fi Gunny-“Fair Winds and Following Seas”
RMD(Dingus)SGT 69-73/73-75
I was in a CH-46 squadron in KBay, and I knew a handful of crew chiefs that were given the opportunity to take the controls. They weren’t allowed to land, or take off, but they did take the controls during the flight. Also, my grandfather was an electrician for Marines F-4’s in Vietnam, and he had stories about enlisted men getting to ride in the back seat. Sometimes just for fun. Sometimes for job related reasons. Stuff like this goes all the way back to the dawn of Marine aviation, (and I’d be willing to bet, Army, Air Force, and Navy aviation as well). I know that sometimes pilots will take mechanics on a ride to demonstrate a problem that they can’t really explain accurately. So the next best option is to show / demonstrate to the mechanics what happens because sometimes the mechanic just doesn’t understand any other way. Also, some aviation problems are not reproduce-able on the ground, (eg: it only happens in the air). And, like others who’ve posted on this story, I got a degree in aviation when I got out as well, and I heard similar stories from my professors when we had free time. And I had professors from all branches of the military who were military pilots before becoming college professors. One of my professors was an Air Force B-52 pilot, and sometimes would talk about dropping live nuclear bombs for testing purposes. Jeeze…. Now that I’m on the subject, I have all sorts of memories coming back to me. And yes. To anyone who is uninitiated, some of the stories I can tell would sound like total B.S. to them. But my point is the same as all the other Marines here. Eg: before you go raising the B.S. flag, I recommend you learn about what you’re talking about first. As the saying goes: “Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction”. Just because we didn’t have cell phone cameras back in the day, doesn’t mean that none of these stories ever happened. So, you really do need to stop calling people liars just because you weren’t there when it happened.
Jason I Agree some problems cant’t be reproduced on ground–Had one when I flew “Test”–Problem–“Blades Fold In Flight”–a real “Pucker Moment”–Turned out to be a bad Blade fold harness!
Chu Lai Vietnam August 1967. While I was TAD to H&MS 13 from VMFA 542 I worked on the jet engine (a J-48) that powered the F9. With its long exhaust pipe and exposed combustion cans the centrifugal flow jet engine looked like a futuristic cannon. So before we sent the engine back we cranked up the engine in the work stand with the exhaust pipe pointing to the sky, tied a rope to the engine to use as a lanyard. As we were taking pictures of our “secret weapon” a crew from the Sea Tiger was in the shop doing a story on the record the shop set of repairing 51 jet engines in the month of July. They also took a picture of us with our “secret weapon”. The picture along with the story was published in the September 8 issue of their news paper.