Vees's Buffalo NY Notice Obituary:
Vees's The Patriot News Notice Obituary, pennlive.com:
I enlisted in 1953 in the reserves and then as an AN went on active duty at NAS Oakland, CA, in 1955. That same year I was sent to TD (A) school in Memphis. The 20 weeks of school were excruciatingly awful, but I do have fond memories of being accepted by the USN community at NATTC Memphis as an equal and sharing my woes with the other women WAVE students living in the barracks there.
I returned to NAS Oakland in 1956, made third class, then made second class TD and then because I found I was falling behind in the electronics aspect of TD, I changed my rate to PN. As a result, I retired after 30 years in the Navy as a PNC (Chief Personnelman).
I would like to compare memories of operating and maintaining the old 1-CA-1's and my memories of the good old TD days with the rest of you guys.
"This is me as Vee L. Lauer, TDAN, hard at work."
(Official U.S. Navy Photograph)
I can recall that at that moment I was guiding the pilot in the trainer in for an ILS landing to NAS Oakland. "Cleared to land runway 27 Left, winds west at . . . . " Damn, those were exciting days!! BTW, note the chart in back of me that kept reminding us how to identify aircraft.
Have you ever seen a better picture of a "Crab?" Click it to enlarge.
For you non 1-CA-1 types, CRAB is the TD Name for the Plotter - Flight Path Recorder. How many of you just loved to keep the ink flowing and then cleaning plexiglass?
"TD3 Vee Lauer giving a Link Trainer Hop to a Lt. Amsbaugh in a 1-CA-1 Simulator"
(Official U.S. Navy Photograph)
(Official U.S. Navy Photograph)
Above is another picture of me back in the 1950's "instructing pilots" in the 1-CA-1 Simulator - Flight Trainer. It was a Navy publicity photo. It was taken on 14 April 1957. I was TD3 Vee Lauer. From left to right are three Reserve pilots from Aviation Squadron AAU-874 at NAS Oakland: LCDR Stan Stark, LT Norm Pedersen, LT Walt Calvin.