VAW-13 DET DELTA

The following series of emails from Arnold Workman, a unique history I personally never have ever seen or heard of the time when VAW-13 had "Willy Fudds" Aircraft. Arnold is heavily involved with the USS Coral Sea reunion and found the www.VAW-13.com website and contacted me.

Hi Smitty;

Nice meeting you via email. My name is Arnold Workman. I served
aboard USSCoral Sea 1959-1962 working the flight deck. During this time I made two WesPac Cruises with the Zappers onboard.
I have been putting together a collection of patches for all the
squadrons that made the cruises with us. The last remaining one is the
VAW-13 Zappers Patch. The one you guys have for sale matches the one shown in our cruise book along with the picture of the VAW-13 CO, LCDR Bernard M. Mclaugherty Our Cruise Book also has pictures of all the pilots/aircrew and enlisted men.

The reason I want two of them is during a very bad crash on January 06,
1961 one our guys panicked and ran between the prop and the fuselage of one of the Zapper Planes; WF-2 ( Willy Fudd). The engines were turning up to move when he went thru. The prop destroyed his Mickey Mouse Ears, put a big tear in his foul weather jacket and he received ONLY a prop cut about 1/2 inch deep, 8 inches long just below his shoulder in the front. He has a tatoo that says 'PROP STOPPER." He has also been looking for the right patch and I thought I would give him the second one.

Thank you for you time and keep up the good work. Arnold 304-949-6408
P.S. I display the squadron patches at our reunions. IF you guys would
like copies of the photos in our cruise book to display at your
reunions; just say so, and I'll get them copied and in the mail to you -
no charge.

Morning Smitty;

Hope all is well in FL.
This may be one of those things when someone says: "How in hell did
that happen?" The aircraft that VAW-13 flew on our first cruise were
definitely Grumman WF-2's. Had the BIG rotating radar dome on top of the fuselage, twin engines and a huge tail with twin rudders. The wings
folded backward along the fuselage.
The second cruise we had both 111 & 113 onboard. 111 had WF-2's and 113 had AD-5Q's. Strange "stuff & things" happened out on the carriers.
You would not believe what we had to go thru to get two F-8U 1-P's
(photo F-8's) for the first cruise!
Must run. More later! Work (Navy name)

SMITTY;
The mailman just dropped off TWO magnificent, beautiful VAW-13 Patches that I had pretty much given up ever seeing again. THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!
Will get your stuff together and on the way to you this week.
I have an ideal about getting you and the guy tht went thru the prop
together. He just last month moved from Fresno,CA. to lithia, FL. If
you will give me your phone number I will get it to him, along with the
second patch, and ask him to call you. Thought maybe a picture of you
two together, along with a picture of the "Prop Stopper" on his
shoulder might make some good website postings. He also has a Bogey
Yogies Patch he can bring along. One of our guys got Abercrombie's
patch from South Vietnam "Abby" is the prop guy and one hell of a nice
guy also. He retired as a chief from the navy.
Thanks again Smitty!
Work

May take me a few days to get the scanning done and get it to you.
SIDE BAR: The Skipper of VAW-13 that sailed with us grew up about 30miles from where I grew up!

Also; On our first cruise ; Sept 1961 to June 1962, Coral Sea became
the 1st ALL Attack Carrier in the Pacific....AND...on January 01, 1961
(New Years Day) we became the FIRST U.S. Carrier inolved in
Vietnam when we responded to Patet Lao, Laos Crisis. North Vietnam had attacked Laos and our planes took care of them! VAW-13 was part of this and should have received a Vietnam Expeditionary Force Medal and a National Defense Medal just as we did. The 61-62 cruise we got moreinvolved and sent planes into take care of the NV's also----five
different times. This time we got a star added to our medals! 2nd
award! VAW-13 was ALWAYS first to launch and clear the air and feed
info to the others and was always last to land!

In our cruise book is a good picture of Coral Sea taking on fuel from a
tanker and we had just spotted the deck for a launch once the tanker
pulled away. Ready for Cat #1 and Cat #2 are the two Willy
Fudds...Right up front! There is also a smal color picture (color was
rare in 1960) of VAW-13 nose number 803 in flight.
By the wqy; the cruise book pictures also list the names , city and
state the people are from.
Enough history for now! Ha HA!

Take care Zapper!
Arnold

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