Ryan, I went through pilot training and RAG training with your father. Like Duks wrote, he was a good, down-to-earth guy and knew what it meant to be part of a team. In pilot training, we were part of a group that studied together. I think about him a lot. I know quite a bit about the crash. I will send you a PM with my email address.

Phred

 

Would you mind telling me any details? I'm looking to get as much information as possible about the crash. And may I ask what a DIVO is? I don't know anything about my dad because I was 4 months at the time of the accident, and my mother later passed away from cancer. So anything I can learn about him, regardless of who I hear it from, is good for me. Thank you so much for your service and for your time talking to me.

 

Thank you also for responding. As you've read in the other post probably, I'm just looking for any information. Thank you also for your service and your response. And also I can't recieve PM's yet, so my email is [email protected].

 

I DIVO is a Division Officer. He was the officer that was in charge of a division of sailors. Pretty much an admin/baby sitting job. Like I said he was a great guy. Now that I have been an officer for a long time you see good ones and bad ones. The bad ones think that anyone that is enlisted, is there to serve them and make their life easier. Your dad was one of the good ones. He would always come around the work centers and see how everyone was doing and what was going on. Most of the time it was just to hang out and shoot the breeze like he was one of you. You wouldn't believe how far something like that goes when you are trying to mold young sailors. You could tell that he actually gave a crap and wasn't just doing it because they told him to.

As far as the crash I can tell you what I heard back then. There was a fire and the cockpit was full of smoke. So much smoke that the A-6 (I think or might have been an S-3) that was flying beside them to give them calls could hardly make out thier white helmets inside. The A/C was pitching up and down a good bit and then it pitched down and went into the water. They found bits and peices but most of the wreck sank. If I remember right we only had about 10 cruise boxes of parts the recovered. The dome was found and they shot it full of holes to sink it. I can tell you that some great men were lost that day. You could tell by how upset the sailors were that they were all loved and would be missed.