We received an email from Jerry Froyd about his service at Operation Dominic.
From: Bonecrus88@aol.com
Date: Fri, 5 Jun 1998
To: pdxavets@aracnet.com
Subject: Operation Dominic (JTF8)
Hi Keith,
I joined VF-17at NAS Whidbey Is. Wash. in 1961 after training in JAX San Diego on the P2V-7 later to be called the SP2H. On arrival to Whidbey the squadron was in the process of deploying to Kodiak Alaska. Two days later the third a/c to arrive porpoised on landing and crashed into "Old Woman Mountain", all crew members in cockpit and flight deck were
killed and all in aft ditching stations survived although badly burned, Eye
opener for a 18 year old kid! Anyway, 2 or 3 deployments to Kodiak and our crew
was told we were going to Johnson Island. I was young, having fun and didn't really
realize what was happening.
We sent two a/c from our squadron plus one from NAS Alameda (VP-9 or VP-19 ?)
We went to Hawaii then to the island. First sight out the after station it
looked like a small speck of sand.
The rest of the story are my recollections as I remember them. Most everything
of importance on the island was built underground. We lived on a barge although
I read one of your members lived on a ship. This might have been a different
time period.
We flew supression patrols to inform traffic in area. We told them which direction
to retreat. There was a Russian trawler in the area which would not depart with verbal
commands. We had leaflets in 6-10 languages. We had no coffee cans so we used oxygen
mask bags with apples and oranges and flew across them and put them on their
deck. He eventually left but did hold up the tests a day or two. I got his radar on camera (electronic images) and was told I was the first to do so for that ship. Then to top it all off approximately a year later we were flying a track out of Adak and picked up his radar again.
At that time, we had 60 hour inspections on the a/c, because of other a/c
going down we flew 65 hrs in 6 days and so returned to Hawaii for the inspections.
The tests started and I will recollect as much as I can. I was young and wasn't
told very much. I was a/c electrican had limited maintenance crew and you would
fly 10-12 hrs then then fix it if it needed it, because your probably going
out next morning.
We were in the air for 3 air drops, all at night. We had to wear the goggles
and were told we were 10 miles from the drop zone. The first drop we could see
the cloud but by standards was small. (I guess). The third one was what do you
say unexpected, with goggles on it lit up the inside of the plane like bright
sunlight. We had vibration but in getting to look out and see the cloud was the
major concern at the time.
I was told the island was 1 half mile long and 1quarter mile wide. We had
ping pong, ( I wasn't bad ), 10 cent beer and San Miguel was free, a few gambling
tents and that was it. I don't have to tell you about the food! Let me know what you know about that Alameda a/c left in the coral.
We also experienced a high altitude blast launched from Johnson Is. They locked us in the barge and let us out right after detonation. Multi-colors streaked across the sky!!!!!
I almost forgot a good moment. After the drops, we were back doing post flight and maintenance, and this B-57 Canberra, taxi's up and they crane him (the pilot) out of the cockpit. What I was told he flew through the cloud right after the detonation. I saw this twice.
I am a 26 yr retired AECS working at NAS JAX in Jacksonville, FL.
Good bye for now.
Jerry Froyd
Email: Bonecrus88@aol.com
Keith Whittle
June 9, 1998
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