Yellow Devils
On Tue, 7 Oct 1997
Dale Crews wrote:
1730 Easy St.
Yazoo City, MS 39194
Telephone: 601/746-7755
Need info on VF 194, of ATG 1, home-based at NAS Alameda and on the
Valley Forge, CV45,'51 &'52, and on the Boxer,CV21, in'53. Please
list we Yellow Devils, the lovers of 194.
Background
On Fri, 17 Oct 1997
Nin1280@aol.com wrote:
I haven't found anything yet ref: VF 194. I was in this "Fightron" from
1950 till 1954. We were reassigned from CAG 19 to a new type of air
group called Air Task Group One. ATG -1 consisted of VF 0194, (AD 3's
& 4's), VF-52,(F9F's), VF- 111(F9F's), & VF 653,(F4U Corsairs).
I believe that VC 35 made up the Gators, Guppys, Peter Peters,etc.
194's home base was at NAS Alameda, and I think that 111 was from
NAS Miramar, 52 was from NAS San Diego(?). 653 was an activated reserve
squadron out of Cleveland, Ohio.
In late'51, we boarded the USS Valley Forge, CV 45, in San Diego and
were on the line off North Korea in December,'51. We returned to
Alameda in late June or early July of'52. I have a recap of strike
damage done during the cruise.
In March of '53, ATG -1 boarded the USS Boxer, and reported on the
line in April of'53. We were there when the cease-fire was signed.
Navy Carrier Squadrons in the Korean War were home-based at various
Naval Air Stations, and were assigned to available Carriers for 2-week
"Carrier Quals" (training),and also for overseas duty. In our case, we
spent a few weeks operating out of Pearl for additional training
before continuing on to Korean waters.
When in the states, we were, on occasion, sent as a squadron entity for
other training at NAAS El Centro, CA, and NAAS, Fallon, NV. I remember
that on our first trip to El Centro, the ground crew was flown down
from Alameda on a Martin Mars, and landed in the Salton Sea, not far
from El Centro ! !
I guess that there is water everywhere !
I sure would like to see ATG-1 listed, and especially VF-194, the
Yellow Devils part in the Korean War listed.
More
I was a plane captain ! As I like to point out to various people from
time to time , we strapped our own personal heroes into those cockpits
hour after hour, day after day, week after week - - - time after time
! We KNEW they were heroes - - once, we had to have the tinbenders
come out to cut away about 30 feet of telephone wire that had whipped
around the starboard wing of one of our AD's ! Often, we had to remove
twigs and small branches from the bomb racks - - Damage to aircraft
and pilots was, in many cases due to small arms fire. Those guys flew
so low to reach their targets, that it's a wonder that many more
didn't return !
