Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville)
August 11, 1999

Navy Retires Old Friend

A-4 Skyhawk jet fondly remembered

By Matthew I. Pinzur, Times-Union staff writer

The attack plane that carried thousands of American pilots into combat over Vietnam and trained thousands more since was officially retired yesterday at Jacksonville Naval Air Station.

The A-4 Skyhawk, among the most enduring combat planes in history, was taken for a final flight by Capt. Stephen A. Turcotte, commanding officer of Jacksonville NAS.

''I've got some real mixed emotions here today,'' said Turcotte, who earned his own flight wings in an A-4 more than 20 years ago.

Turcotte led the ceremonial final flight with Cmdr. Jim Galanie, commander of the Navy's last A-4 squadron and another pilot who qualified in the A-4.

The Skyhawk was developed in the early 1950s to drop a nuclear bomb behind enemy lines. But during the Vietnam War, thousands of more conventional attacks were flown using the one-man bombers.

''It was a friend as well as a vehicle to carry us into war,'' said M. Davis White, a retired Skyhawk pilot and founder of The Skyhawks, a national group of former A-4 pilots. ''Whatever we asked of her, she did.''

The last attack squadrons with A-4s were disbanded after Vietnam, and the planes became the cornerstone of naval air training. Later versions of the plane accommodated two pilots, allowing an instructor to take control if necessary.

Because it is so similar to the Russian MiG-21, the A-4 was often used as an enemy plane in training exercises. Millions of moviegoers were acquainted with it in the 1986 hit Top Gun, in which Tom Skerritt flew one to challenge Tom Cruise - and his Navy F-14 Tomcat - in a dogfight.

''It was absolutely a ball to fly that thing,'' said White, 60, now a dentist in Bossier City, La.

''It never got its just due,'' said Ted ''Bear'' Langworthy, another former Skyhawk pilot. ''It just wasn't big and splashy enough to get all the headlines, but it was a wonderful workhorse.''

White described the Skyhawk, with its narrow cockpit and light weight, as a funny-looking plane that won its pilots' hearts.

''We said she was like a high school sweetheart,'' White said. ''She was fast enough to enjoy the trip, yet classy enough to take home to momma.''

But Langworthy, a Texan who retired from flying Delta airliners this year at age 60, said the Skyhawk's small size and maneuverability saved his life just five days before the end of his tour in Vietnam.

He said he didn't react when he saw a dust cloud below him, believing it was from a missile he had just fired at an anti-aircraft installation. Seconds later, he realized the opposite was true, and an enemy missile was heading at him. In the nimble A-4, he was able to break right and narrowly avoid disaster.

''The missile going off actually rolled me inverted,'' Langworthy said. ''That's how close it was.''

Nearly 3,000 Skyhawks were manufactured before being discontinued in 1979, and the future of the surviving planes is unclear. Retired aircraft are often sold or scrapped, said Jacksonville NAS spokesman Bill Dougherty.

The planes are still used for combat or training in half a dozen countries, including Brazil, Israel and New Zealand.

The Skyhawk's legacy was celebrated at a retirement party last month in Pensacola, but it remained in service until a handful of pilots finished training in the planes at Jacksonville NAS yesterday morning.

The more modern T-45 Goshawk, which Turcotte said more closely resembles contemporary naval aircraft, will replace the Skyhawk, which had little of the advanced technology that has come to symbolize modern warfare.

''You had to look right down the barrel with the A-4; you had to see the target,'' White said. ''The computer was our fingertip.''

A handful of Skyhawks will remain in service for assorted purposes, Turcotte said, primarily in Puerto Rico. But with the dissolution of the last A-4 squadron, he added, ''This is pretty much it.''

''We have a greeting that we say in a pool of scooter drivers: 'A-4s forever,' '' White said. ''As long as there are ears to hear a tale, a tale about an A-4 will be heard.''