VIRGINIA BEACH -

While their nickname symbolized death and despair, the
"Grim Reapers" of Fighter Squadron 101 were better known for the spirit and
adventure they brought to naval aviation.



 As the training squadron for the crews of F-14 Tomcats at Oceana Naval Air
Station slips into history with its retirement Thursday, its bygone days are
being remembered.

The Tomcats will all be retired from service by October 2006, replaced by
newer F/A-18 Super Hornets.



This squadron has been around for decades, and one piece of our history is
that the original Grim Reaper was a World War II combat squadron, born right
after Pearl Harbor," Cmdr. Paul A. "Butkus" Haas, the squadron's final
skipper, said. Several of its pilots became aces.

One family of naval aviators epitomizes the squadron, having soared above
its hangars for more than 60 years.

The Flatley family - three fighter pilots who at one time or another flew
with the Reapers - typified the dogfighting dare devils the squadron
produced, Haas said.

The late Vice Adm. James H. "Jimmy" Flatley Jr. established the first Grim
Reapers in 1942 at North Island Naval Air Station in San Diego.

His son is retired Rear Adm. James H. Flatley III of Charleston, S.C., who
will be the keynote speaker at Thursday's retirement ceremony.

He flew with VF-101 on at least three tours at Oceana with F-4 Phantoms and
F-14 Tomcats and commanded VF-33 and Air Wing 7, all at Oceana.

And his son, retired Cmdr. James H. "Seamus" Flatley IV of Virginia Beach,
spent nearly his entire career flying out of Oceana in Tomcats and was an
instructor with VF-101 for three years.

He retired in July after commanding the "Black Knights" of Fighter Squadron
154 in Japan.

A second grandson, Cmdr. Joseph F. Flatley, flew F/A-18s for 16 years as a
pilot in the Naval Reserves.

When it was formed, the Grim Reapers flew the F 4F Wildcat and became the
only squadron during World War II to deploy in Wildcats, Hellcats and
Corsairs.

"Vice Adm. Flatley set the tone for fighters at a very critical time," Haas
said.

That came in his efforts to bolster fighter pilot moral and confidence in
the F 4F Wildcat against the Japanese Zero. His letters went to the Navy's
top leaders, according to his son, James III.

Likewise, his reputation in tactical development and his penchant for safety
were well-known.

It was the elder Flatley who designed the now-famous insignia showing the
Grim Reaper as a skeleton, carrying a scythe, who cuts off people's lives as
though he were harvesting grain. He designed it, along with the motto "Mow 'em
Down," during a slow transit from the South Pacific.

Asked why his father chose such an emblem for the unit, his son said: "You
have to remember, he was out there in this mess in the Battle of Coral Sea.
I think he got five airplanes during that battle.

"Then they sent him home and two weeks later it was the Battle of Midway.
They all had it in for the Japanese back then."

While the squadron's first plane, the Wildcat, was capable, it was less so
than the best the Japanese were flying, Haas said.

"Vice Adm. Flatley made up for that by figuring out how to fly tactics and
how to train his air crew," Haas said. "The way they operated greatly made
up for a lot of the weaknesses in that plane."

It also was Flatley who conceived air training and operating procedure
manuals that help air crews troubleshoot in- flight emergencies. He is
credited with saving naval aviation because of his aggressive initiatives in
safety.

He also came up with the concept of developing fleet replacement squadrons
such as VF-101, where pilots who have just received their wings are trained
on the plane they will fly before they enter fleet squadrons.

"You don't send them to a squadron right away, you train them first, then
you send them to a squadron," Haas said. "That's all him. So much of the
work that guy did is recognizable today in our air wings."

That's how the Grim Reapers trained the 3,168 Tomcat pilots, plus a like
number of radar intercept officers, or RIOs, since 1976. The squadron
probably trained a similar number of Phantom pilots and RIOs, Haas said.

The elder Flatley, who died in 1958, was one of 13 Grim Reapers to become a
fighter ace.

Rear Adm. Flatley became famous in 1963 when, as a lieutenant, he was the
first pilot to land a four-engine KC-130 Hercules aircraft on the aircraft
carrier Forrestal.

He went on to fly combat in Vietnam and to command Fighter Squadron 213 on
the carrier Kitty Hawk, Fighter Squadron 31 on the carrier Saratoga, Attack
Carrier Air Wing Seven on the carrier Independence, the oiler Caloosahatchee
and the carrier Saratoga.

His son, Seamus, president of the Naval Academy class of 1983, flew combat
over Iraq and earned his squadron of F-14s the honor of being called the top
fighter squadron in the Navy.

Haas said that many of the tactics still used today involving "fighters and
strikers" also were the work of the elder Flatley.

"Most treated them as separate entities where bombers went off and bombed
and fighters went off to try to find some Zeroes to shoot down.

"He said it might be more efficient if we stick these guys together and
protect them from all getting shot down. Well, we're doing that today,
escorting strikers and fighters."

As VF-101 began flying jet aircraft, it moved to Oceana in 1961 to begin
operations as a Replacement Air Group in the F-4 Phantom. In 1976, it began
flying F-14s and became the East Coast replacement group for that aircraft.
In 1996, following the reassignment of all F-14 s to Oceana, VF-101 became
the Navy's only Tomcat training squadron.

While just 40 sailors and 15 officers care for the three remaining F-14s
assigned to the squadron today, in its heyday in the mid- to late-1970s it
was nearly bursting with 1,200 people and 60 planes while training Phantom
and Tomcat air crews.

Students nearly lived with their planes for 44 weeks as their class learned
radar, tactics, weapons, avionics and "such dry theory about Doppler shift
and physics to make even a strong man's eyes roll up in the back of his
head," Haas said.

Reach Jack Dorsey at (757) 446-2284 or at [email protected].

Quoted: Rear Adm. Flatley became famous in 1963 when, as a lieutenant, he was the first pilot to land a four-engine KC-130 Hercules aircraft on the aircraft carrier Forrestal.

Whoa, I thought that was impossible!

WTF?!? What is Seamus's problem? Why didn't he make Admiral?  

Aviator

Quoted: Quoted: Rear Adm. Flatley became famous in 1963 when, as a lieutenant, he was the first pilot to land a four-engine KC-130 Hercules aircraft on the aircraft carrier Forrestal. Whoa, I thought that was impossible!

Hey! Look at that! Two F-18s pushing a C-130!

Quoted: Quoted: Rear Adm. Flatley became famous in 1963 when, as a lieutenant, he was the first pilot to land a four-engine KC-130 Hercules aircraft on the aircraft carrier Forrestal. Whoa, I thought that was impossible! www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/kc-130-tanker.jpg

IIRC, there's a thread somewhere with a link to video of the takeoff.

JATO, natch.

Quoted: Quoted: Rear Adm. Flatley became famous in 1963 when, as a lieutenant, he was the first pilot to land a four-engine KC-130 Hercules aircraft on the aircraft carrier Forrestal. Whoa, I thought that was impossible! www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/kc-130-tanker.jpg

JAG had an episoade where they did that. I was thinking BS the whole time until the very end when they showed film of the USS Forrestal incident. it was during the time when Harm was working for the CIA

www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/ships/carriers/histories/cv59-forrestal/cv59-forrestal.html

Forrestal made history in November 1963 when on the 8th, 21st and 22nd, Lt. James H. Flatley III and his crew members, Lt. Cmdr. "Smokey" Stovall and Aviation Machinist's Mate (Jets) 1st Class Ed Brennan, made 21 full-stop landings and takeoffs in a C-130F Hercules aboard the ship. The tests were conducted 500 miles out in the North Atlantic off the coast of Massachusetts. In so doing, Forrestal and the C-130 set a record for the largest and heaviest airplane landing on a Navy aircraft carrier. The Navy was trying to determine if the big Hercules could serve as a "Super-COD" — a "Carrier On-board Delivery" aircraft. The problem was there was no aircraft which could provide resupply to a carrier in mid ocean. The Hercules was stable, reliable, and had a long cruising range and high payload. The tests were more than successful. At 85,000 pounds, the C-130F came to a complete stop within 267 feet, and at the maximum load, the plane used only 745 feet for take-off. The Navy concluded that with the C-130 Hercules, it would be possible to lift 25,000 pounds of cargo 2,500 miles and land it on a carrier. However, the idea was considered a bit too risky for routine COD operations. The C-2A Greyhound program was developed and the first of these planes became operational in 1965. For his effort, the Navy awarded Lt. Flatley the Distinguished Flying Cross

Well, that's another trick in the US War Machine we can use.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Rear Adm. Flatley became famous in 1963 when, as a lieutenant, he was the first pilot to land a four-engine KC-130 Hercules aircraft on the aircraft carrier Forrestal. Whoa, I thought that was impossible! www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/kc-130-tanker.jpg IIRC, there's a thread somewhere with a link to video of the takeoff. JATO, natch.

There's an episode of Wings that shows the landing.

After matrix glitch bump