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After Marine Drill Instructor/Naval Aviation Flight Cadet Battalion Commander Dave Ferman crashed, burned and nearly drowned in a Florida swamp, Dave was assigned to Naval Air Intelligence with Navy Squadron VAH-7 in May of 1955. A Top Secret operation disguised as an air-to-air refueling squadron, VAH-7 was actually a Navy atom bomber squadron deployed on U.S. Navy aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean Sea and the Middle East at the point of the U.S. Navy spear during that extremely tense, explosive phase of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United Nations.One of only two VAH-7 Air Intelligence personnel on the USS Coral Sea (CVA-43) aircraft carrier, Dave's boss broke his leg while riding a motorcycle in Palma, on the isle of Majorca in October 1955, was careflight transported back to the United States and, amazingly, he was not replaced until the squadron returned to the United States in late December, 1955. However, the VAH-7 Air Intelligence functions on the USS Coral Sea continued uninterrupted. That's when Dave's life became far more complicated.The daily work load for VAH-7 Air Intelligence could be 16 or more hours during major operations, but somehow even shore leave became considerably more intense and threatening. In the Holy Lands, both Palestinians and Israeli's shot at Dave in Jordanian East Jerusalem and in the Jordanian desert. FYI, the Israelis were the better shooters, but the Palestinian terrorists were far more troublesome. They had just killed 10 Israelis and were looking for more victims to murder.In an ancient, crowded slum crammed between west Istanbul, Turkey and the Golden Horn, two home boys tried to kill Dave and one of the bomber crewmen with an antique Mercedes limousine squeezed into a very narrow alley. The next day Dave bumped into a friend and classmate from Wichita, Kansas. Dave didn't know that his friend was a CIA agent stationed in Istanbul until their high school class reunion 50 years later in August of 2001.In 1955, Squadron VAH-7 won the coveted Navy "E" for Excellence
To quote a pithy Kansas farm maxim: "Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a Rain Dance." Back in March of 1954, Marine Drill Instructor Dave Ferman could not have picked a worse time to sign up with the Navy Flight Program at Pensacola, Florida. The worn-out, pre-World War II Navy basic training aircraft, the SNJ Texan, was on its last legs and rapidly becoming "unglued." As a result, Navy maintenance and repair crews could not keep up with the excessive wear and tear. Various parts such as engine nacelles fell off in flight, control cables popped off their roller tracks, metal fatigue took its toll, accidents were common, and at least a dozen pilots were killed during one year.Dave witnessed four of those accidents. During his Ground School's outdoor graduation ceremony, two SNJ aircraft collided overhead. Since each aircraft had two tandem seats but only one parachute deployed, up to three pilots may have died in that collision. Then the same thing happened again six months later. Dave also witnessed a fatal crash during a cadet's first solo landing, and then another cadet panicked during his first flight. He jerked the control stick back into his lap, the SNJ went straight up just after his wheels lifted off the runway, then it stalled, swapped ends, and plunged straight down to everlasting eternity.Dave was the Cadet Battalion Commander when he was assigned a mortally pre-damaged SNJ that was declared--while he was flying it--to be not only too dangerous to fly, but too dangerous to land. After crashing in a nearby swamp, the engine, both wings, and the tail assembly were ripped off the fuselage, and the cockpit cage flipped upside down as Dave submerged unconscious under the brackish swamp water. Fortunately a Navy Crash Crew arrived at the crash site almost as soon as Dave did, but his military flying days were over.Bummer!
Ever since Dave Ferman was 8 years old at the start of World War II, he wanted to be a U.S. Marine. Like many of the little kids in his low-rent, blue-collar neighborhood, Dave idolized these fierce warriors and longed to wear their snazzy dress-blue uniform. Nine years later 75000, North Koreans soldiers quipped with Russian T-34 tanks and MiG-15 fighter planes invaded our ally, South Korea. Hot to trot, Dave wanted to enlist in the Marines immediately after high school graduation, but by then he was recuperating from a football injury and could not enlist before February 1953 when 75 local studs enlisted en masse to form Boot Camp Platoon 118 at MCRD San Diego, California. Dave's Cold War Warrior Trilogy comprises three related collections of stand-alone, true, sea stories that are interconnected and chronological. Beginning with this book, these personal memoirs are as follows. 1953--Making A Marine Grunt Warrior offers many glimpses into the rigorous world of Marine Boot Camp, three weeks of intense, precise challenges on the Rifle Range at Camp Mathews to qualify as a rifleman, the intense challenges of Drill Instructors' (DI) School, around the clock duty as a working DI, and a tour as a Military Policeman (MP) introduce basic orientation to the U.S. Marine Corps.1954--Making a Marine Pilot Warrior reveals the U.S. Navy's dire predicament when their Pilot Training Program had to continue although the SNJ-Texan, their basic training aircraft, was dangerously overdue for replacement, and the personal consequences of that lethal situation.1955--VAH-7: Secret Navy Atom Bomber Squadron was disguised as an air-to-air refueling unit operating in the Mediterranean Sea and the hostile Soviet surrogate countries in that theater. During the Cold War, 152 U.S. aircraft and their crews permanently disappeared behind the Iron Curtain. However, the gallant airmen of VAH-7 continued to fly those dangerous and essential data collection missions from June to late December of 1955.
. These paranormal events and a dozen more chapters are cited in these Five Star rated, true ghost stories.
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