All conversations and instruments will remain quiet as a moment of silence will be conducted for a Tech alumnus who died Tuesday while serving as commanding officer of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Norfolk, Va.
All active US carriers are nuclear-powered
John Fleming, who knew Tembe for more than 20 years, first met him in 1989 when Fleming was the commanding officer of Striker Fighter Squadron (VFA-132). He and Tembe were privateers who deployed on the USS Forrestall aircraft carrier.
WTH is a "privateer" in the US Navy? The Privateer was a World War II patrol bomber variant of the B-24.
“We called him ‘Haaji,’” Fleming said. “When we deployed on the Forrestall, we would take 80-100 aircrafts out on an aircraft carrier and go to the Mediterranean and participate in an event operation called ‘Provide Comfort’ that actually helped protect people against Saddam Hussein.”
"aircrafts"? I think he's talking about the carrier air wing, tho it's hard to tell. USS Forrestal (CV-59) was struck in 1993.
Tembe went to England as an exchange student and was trained by the British military in becoming a test pilot. From there, he went to a tour in Maryland as a naval test pilot.
Uh... NAS PAX, perhaps?
This man deserves far better reporting. RIP.
The times I was there Norfolk Naval Shipyard was located in Portsmouth, VA and I doubt seriously they moved it. Oh well. If that was a local reporter he/she knew better.
Fair Seas Captain Tembe. I haven't heard of many carrier CO's commanding one a second time. A very demanding and stressful job even in a shipyard environment.
In this case “Privateers” refers to the nickname of members of VFA-132. He would have been flying a variant of F/A 18
Then the statement was correct, wasn't it?
WTH is a "privateer" in the US Navy? The Privateer was a World War II patrol bomber variant of the B-24.
VFA-132's nickname is "The Privateers".