VP-26 Leaving Rota, Spain and Returning to the U.S.

The top two photos are of Rota, Spain. The next two photos are of  Naval Air Station Port Lyautey, Morroco. The bottom three photos are of  Argentia, Newfoundland. In spring,we fly from Rota to NAS Port Lyautey, Morroco to refuel and then to Argentia, Newfoundland where we refuel and spend the night before flying back to NAS Brunswick, ME.

Once back in Brunswick my job is to continue to work on all the squadron aircraft and to continue flying with crew 10. It enables me to learn aircraft electric systems that I'm not already familiar with. On Nov 16, 1960 they promote me to Aviation Electrician's Mate Third Class (E4). That comes with a raise in base pay and a raise in flight pay. Plus Chief Cunio recommends me for $30 a month in Proficiency Pay. Wow! It's like rolling in dough!

The promotion makes me assess my work in the electric shop. The Chief or one of the senior petty officers usually tell me what aircraft gripes to work on. It's time to change my attitude. Time to volunteer to check out any gripe that needs someone to troubleshoot and repair it. At first, I ask the senior petty officers or the Chief for help, soon I start reading the tech manuals and the wiring diagrams and discover it isn't that hard and you actually remember what you learned from reading them and figuring it out yourself. After a few months, most of the autopilot and compass problems are given to me and  the Chief has me training the new E2 and E3 men assigned to the shop.

AE2s Plecinoga and Balog have completed their four years and are discharged. AE3 Damstra is promoted to AE2. The manpower of the shop is changing. New guys without P2V experience are being transferred in and need to be familiarized with the aircraft. This year we fly through the winter in Brunswick and are told we'll be going back to Rota in the spring. That winter Diane Doris and I get married. Diane was my off and on girlfriend in high school. In Brunswick we rented a small three room apartment in downtown Brunswick. Brunswick had very wide streets. The snow would be plowed into the center of the main street. That winter it was plied up so high the city would cut turn around slots through the piles for the cars! After a few months, AE2 Gettle is transferred to a new duty station. He and his wife owned an 8 X 35 foot 2 bedroom house trailer and offered to sell it to us for $1300. That seemed like a good idea as we were paying $75 a month for the apartment. We lived in that trailer for five years at three different duty stations. Then we sold it for $1300!

VP-26 Rota, Spain

Rota, Spain is a small city on the Mediterranean Sea along the southern coast of Spain. The climate along the Mediterranean Sea is mild all year round. Warm days and cool nights. The California coast, the coast of Chile, Perth, Australia, and the southern coast of South Africa also have a Mediterranean climate. Not many parts of the world have this desirable climate.

Spain's money unit is the peseta. In 1960 it was 10 pesetas to a dollar making it easy to convert dollars to pesetas in your head. The nightclubs in downtown Rota that catered to American sailors were staffed with English speaking bar girls. Not prostitutes, bar girls that you bought drinks for. Drinks that were actually tea not whiskey. They were always up front about that, even the management. Female companionship that spoke English. Drinks for the girls were a dollar. A beer for you was 50 cents. That doesn't sound like much but even in 1959 and 1960, when your paycheck was $155 a month before taxes, it could add up fast.

Many buildings in a Mediterranean climate have flat roofs because there's not a lot of rain. Enterprising business owners put bars on their flat roofs. The bars were open at night because the weather cools dramatically at during the summer months. They became our favorite places, particularly the one where Angie worked. Angie was a big boobed good looking bartender working at Cal's Supper Club. She always shook mixed drinks over her head, amusing us with those boobs bouncing around in the sweaters she always wore. Sailors are easily amused! Many, many years later an American married to a Mexican gal in Mulaje, a small city in Baja, Mexico, owned a pizza place, that didn't do a lot of business. His building had a flat roof. He was talking with me on one of my numerous trips down there about how he wished he could drum up more business. After explaining the nightclub on a flat roof business in Rota to him, next year when I returned he had it up and operating with a packed noisy roof. "Curt, you have free pizza and beer for life!"

The Enlisted Men's club in Rota sold American beer and Spanish beer. Spanish beer has flavor, American is colored water. It was true then and it's pretty much true now. Being in Spain for a year is probably what got me to prefer beer with taste.

It was puzzling to me how difficult it was to get another to go out of Rota and take a bus to the nearby larger Spanish cities. I wound up taking bus trips alone to Cadiz and Seville to see the sites. Just to walk the streets and look in the shops and take in a bullfight. It was interesting to see that they really soften up the bull before the matador gets in the ring. Pretty dangerous for all the participants but fatal for the bull.

My favorite bus trip was to Gibraltar, as in the Rock of Gibraltar. Another guy actually went with me on that trip. It was overnight as it's a long bus ride. Gibraltar and Spain disputed then, and still dispute today, who Gibraltar belongs to. It was fun to be where English is the main language. I also liked the way the houses crept up towards the Rock. You can't comprehend how massive the Rock of Gibraltar is until you actually are there to see it! Beware of the very aggressive monkeys up high on the Rock. Don't get too close!

Ships of many nations port in Gibraltar. Cargo, cruise, and military ships. We stopped in a bar in the main part of the city. The bar was lined with Russian sailors in uniform. We were also in uniform as was required to go on this trip. The Russians welcomed us as soon as we sat down and bought us beer. It was awkward at first but over the next several hours, without them speaking English or us speaking Russian, we got along fine as long as politics didn't come up. We learned they had moms, dads, families, as we did. We were doing our job, they were doing their job. This was during the cold war years. People are the same everywhere. The conflicts aren't from the general population. The conflicts come from the politicians.

VP-26 Africa Comments and Loose Ends

Comments and loose ends about our time in Africa.

The Navy provides food to us sailors. When we go somewhere it's usually to another U.S. military base where they provide the food. Going to Africa is another situation. Not many U.S military bases there. We pre-planned for this by collecting money from the crew members and purchased food from the commissary at NAS Rota, Spain. In addition we obtained cases of World War II C rations. To store all this we built a sturdy rack with a plywood floor and and sides and hung it in the aircraft bomb bay. At commercial airports we were sometimes able to eat in their cafeterias and the meals were paid with a government credit card. Before the four months or so were over, we ran out of sugar and condensed milk and had to drink our coffee black. I was never able to go back to coffee with cream and sugar in it. Yuck!  We also ran out of peanut butter, jam, canned chili, canned beef stew, hash etc. Eventually we even ate the C rations but they were sure the last to go! Thankfully the French fed us all the time we were in Point Noire while all the diplomatic wrangling was going on and that never got resolved.

This is in 1960. The Mau Mau uprising is essentially over but there is still some occasional violence. One afternoon two of us were sitting on the front porch of a house that had a bar in the front room. We were  drinking Tom Collins and suddenly we heard gunshots off to the right. I stood up, leaned over the porch railing, and five or six Africans were firing assault rifles at people. The woman proprietor of the bar stepped outside, waved us into the house and stashed us upstairs in a back room. An hour or more later she came and got us and indicated it was safe for us to leave. I've always wondered if that incident was part of the Mau Mau uprising.

All the street kids in Africa spoke English, French, and a native tongue. Not so much the adults unless they work in a cafe, restaurant, or hotel. The kids seemed to know English was the language of the future.

The whites, whether they were English, French, or Dutch had all the power. They had the money, the courts, and the guns. All three nations colonized Africa to obtain the natural resources. An obvious imbalance between the races and you could sense the injustice and hostility.

To this day there are no records of us being there. At least I and my congressman have not been able to attain them.

What where we there for? Remember that we are looking for "something unusual in the sky or ocean." What could be in the sky or in the sea? In 1958 Sputnik 3 was launched.  The Russians were ahead of the U.S in the space race. That was a concern to the S.S. goverment. Sputnik 3 was supposed to come down in a year. It stayed in orbit. After 600 plus days there was information that it was losing altitude but no one knew where or when it would come down and land. Most likely it would land in the ocean. Six hundred days would put the landing in 1960. The time period we were patrolling off the west coast of Africa. My guess is that's what we were looking for. Were we going to help the Soviet Union recover the sattelite? Or were we going to attempt to have it recovered by U.S.?

For months after we returned from Africa, being tired became the norm. Constantly fighting my lack of energy despite numerous visits to Sick Bay and seeing various doctors. Eventually a doctor said there was a suspicion of me lingering. That was motivation to stop going to sick call. On a visit to home, after cancelling a Friday night date and a Sat afternoon and evening date, Mom called our family doctor who came to the house. An hour later an ambulance delivered me to Chelsea Naval Hospital in Boston, Massachuetts. And yes ,the dates were with three different girls.

Six weeks later they released me for light duty back to VP-26 with a diagnois of Infectious Mononucleosis and "unspecified inconsistancies" in my blood. Those records of the sick call visits and from Chelsea Naval Hospital have also proved to be unobtainable.

VP-26 Point Noire, Congo

The the aircraft's starboard generator isn't working shortly after leaving Gabon. The airport at Gabon is too small for us to use with a generator problem. We need both DC generators to start the jet engines on takeoff and we only have the one on the port engine. We need to land somewhere else. South of Gabon is the Congo, then the French Equatorial Congo, with a French military airport and we head for that. They deny us permission to land ever though we have an aircraft emergency. It's kind of complicated. The French are our allies but we aren't in France. We are an American warplane on a mission we can't discuss trying to land in an African country on a French military base. Three countries are involved and our emergency doesn't put us in immediate danger. After several discussions between the pilot and the French authorities, we do land and they have us park in a remote part of the airfield near a small hanger. Lt Frederick tells Gatch and I that after we install the landing gear pins and chock the main wheels we are to return to the after station. We jump out of the rear hatch and there are soldiers with assault rifles watching us install the pins and chocks. We are happy to get back in the aircraft!

The three pilots get out of the aircraft and are met by some French officers. After some discussion, Lt Frederick tells us that we are to stay by the aircraft until he or one of the other pilots return. I'm to look at the DC generator and see if its a problem I can repair without parts. After checking all the simple things it's time to remove the generator covers and look inside. The main power output lead is broken. No way to repair that, we need a replacement generator. Not likely one is hanging around in Africa. Once determined that the generator is not repairable we are escorted to the nearby hanger by the assault rifle toting soldiers. There we are to stay. We aren't allowed to leave the hanger. Guards are posted at every door. Open the door and stick your head out and the guard waves his rifle at you to indicate that your should stay inside. After a few hours, a bus pulls up by one of the hanger doors and our pilots tell us the bus is there to take us to the French chow hall where they feed their soldiers. The officers go with us along with one of the guards. That's a relief because we don't know what this is all about yet, we have no food, and no money, and no paydays for 3 months now. When they bring us back from the chow hall, there are cots set up in the hanger and piles of bedding for the cots. Guess we are sleeping here. This goes on for weeks. Diplomats are involved now, no new generator is forth coming. Every few days we start the aircraft and the pilots radio Port Lyautey and Rota, Spain to have someone bring us a generator. It doesn't happen.

On day 27 Lt Frederick comes to me and asks, "Is there anything that you can do?"
 "I've been out there looking at it while the generator issue keeps dragging on, thinking that I might have to come up with some kind of temporary fix." "There's nothing I can LEGALLY do, but if you want to look at it with me, there's something that's not a legal repair but might work."
"Show me."
"The broken generator lead is about the same diameter as my little finger." "If I jam the lead together, tap it down with a hammer, wrap some electrical tape around it, it might work.' "The problem is the cover won't fit over it snugly." "Air will flow through and under the cover creating a fire hazard."
"Do you think it will start the jets?"
"Only one way to find out,"
"Do it." "If the jets start, we'll take off, after we get airborne we'll feather the starboard prop to eliminate the fire danger and leave the starboard jet in idle for power balance and in case we need it in an emergency."
Four hours later we are airborne and headed for Port Lyautey for fuel and then home to Rota.

VP-26 Three More Stops in African Cities

We flew out of Monrovia, Liberia and flew down to Abijan, Ivory Coast. There we continued to fly our "looking for something unusual flights" with the same nothing results. Abijan was a modern city with French and African residents. We stayed in a pretty nice downtown hotel when we weren't flying. Plenty of time to mix with the locals. ADR3 WATSON and I roomed and roamed the city together. Seeing the sights and experiencing the culture. Sidewalk cafes, bars, and stores. One night we were out late and decided to leave the French (white) area and decided to visit the African shanty area. It was quite interesting looking in the local stores and drinking beer in the bars. People weren't friendly, no one said hello, no one accosted us either. The barkeeps flashed warning looks at their regular patrons. After the second or third bar we decided we should stop unintentionly annoying the locals. It's dawn as we leave and head back to the French area. We are half smashed and laughing with relief as we round a corner and see a large group of men kneeling on small rugs and bowing towards the rising sun. I sensed it was some kind of religion and tried to stop our laughing. Too late, a few of them start chasing us! Now we laughing because we are scared shitless. Luckily we are very close to an indoor cafe and run in there. The cafe people talk to the guys chasing us and the Africans leave. Later that night the police show up at our hotel. Lt Frederick must have known they were coming as he and the other two officers are in our rooms blocking the cops from coming in. After some discussion, the cops leave. This is about 9pm. The pilots tell us to stay in our room and get some sleep. We try sleeping but worry kept us awake for a few hours. At 2am the pilots are rousting all of us crew members out of our beds, have us pack our bags, out the hotel we go and into a VW bus they had rented with a driver and headed out of the city. When asked what we are doing, he said, "We're headed to the airport and flying out of here before the cops come back for you two." That was the fastest we ever manned that aircraft and got it airborne! We flew to Libreville, Gabon. We need fuel for the aircraft and the airport there has avgas. The field is pretty small but we need the gas so land and refuel we do. The pilots are concerned about taking off from the short runway that has small rocks all over it. We need the jet engines at full power to get the plane off the ground and full power jets could suck up some of those small stones and we could lose an engine. Not fun loosing an engine on takeoff. The pilots taxi around and find a less rock strewn section of runway and off we go hoping for the best. We make a safe takeoff and on our way. Shortly after takeoff the Direct Current (DC) generator on the starboard propeller engine quits working. That's a safety of flight issue and we can't land from where we just took off from.

The map below is a 1960 map of Africa. The map in the previous post is not as accurate but is more detailed.