Maybe one of you "more experienced" gentlemen may have known my Dad...

[Hardball]

One of my greatest sorrows is that one year after I joined the Navy, my hero-of-a-Dad passed away. I grew up as a child staring at his neat collection of Navy aircraft models on his dresser, which defense contractors had given him. He had A-4s, an F-4, Vigilante, F-8U Corsair, a Demon, and a few others I can't recall... not to mention the numerous photos and plaques on his bedroom walls.
Being a brat growing up through the Post-Vietnam era, I never really asked him much about the Navy. Then at the age of 26, I joined "to get an education" as so many others did. Well, I sure got one alright.
I wound-up being part of a VS squadron which set nearly every record in the book. What a great team VS-38 became.
But as I noted above, Dad passed away before I could spend time with him gleaning any pearls of wisdom from an "old-school" guy who helped to write the book on Naval Carrier Aviation.

To any WWII era Navy men who may read this, my father is Paul Max Harbaugh, (Cdr. USNR Ret.)
He flew TBMs and SBDs, in the South Pacific aboard the USS Lunga Point. At the end of his 23 year career in 1965, he was stationed at NAS Miramar attached to CVG-12.
To those interested in reading an article he wrote for a 1962 issue of Naval Aviation News , entitled, "Where Stands the LSO"... please go to the LSO School at NAS Oceana.
http://www.nasoceana.navy.mil/lso/U...ficerSchool.htm
I also submitted an original copy of the very first LSO NATOPS Manual, complete with his photo on the cover.

Thank YOU veterans for giving me the opportunity to live free.

Dana F. Harbaugh
Former AW2 Naval Aircrewman
S-3A Viking Tailhook SENSO
VS-38, CVW-2, USS Ranger (CV-by-God-61)
Desert Shield / Desert Storm / Kurdish Invasion
Night Armed Scouts for AirWing 2