School's symbol catches flak [Encinal High School Jets]

Sacramento Bee ^ | 5/4/03 | Herbert A. Sample

[slowry]

ALAMEDA -- Just a stone's throw from Encinal High School on this island town's western end sits the once-bustling but now-shuttered Alameda Naval Air Station. The proximity is not merely physical: The school's athletic teams are the Jets, its newspaper is the Jet Blast, and its mascot is a smiling cartoon plane. But the harmony between school and armed services is under strain now as a small group of Encinal's teachers and parents attempts to bar the return of a retired Marine Corps jet to a display on the school's front yard.

[Psycho_Bunny]

"Dibs"

[joesnuffy]

Yes what a travesty instead of inspiring every kid with the greatness and strength of America who is able and willing to go cross oceans to save and free people from grave oppression
The money could be used to shore up the gay-straight student union and alliance
of some other note worthy social plague

[Skooz]

Eventually, all mascots will be outlawed completely, as PC dictates.

I went to High School in Alabama (Robert E. Lee HS--wonder how long THAT name will last). One of our rivals was Sidney Lanier HS, named after the poet. Their mascot was the Poets. I'm not kidding. They had the word "Poets" on the side of their football helmets.

They might be the only school allowed to keep it's mascot.

[vikingchick]

"I would see it as sort of a leftover from a previous era," Zialcita said.

Yeah, let's get rid of everything that refers to a previous era. For the love of Mike.....

[Howie]

From Sunday's Palm Springs Ca. desert Sun:

Cold War fighter retired
Newest addition to air museum was last A-4 Skyhawk still in military service


By Benjamin Spillman
The Desert Sun
May 4th, 2003

---

PALM SPRINGS -- Another American link to the Cold War retired from service Saturday in Palm Springs.

The cold warrior stood silently on a tarmac at the Palm Springs Air Museum while friends celebrated the unprecedented airborne accomplishments the undersized, spindly-legged fighter achieved in a career spanning five decades.

Navy Lt. Rob Woods, the guest of honor’s partner in their final mission together, described the unique relationship.

"It has got a lot of personality," said Woods, 32, of the unflappable Redtail 101, the last A-4 Skyhawk jet in active military duty. "You can do just about anything to it; the engine won’t stall; the thing won’t spin."

A crowd of onlookers at the local museum cheered and gawked as Woods, the Redtail and Navy Capt. Greg Cooper, 48, cut the screaming engine for the last time.

It was a bittersweet moment for the two pilots as technicians conducted post-flight activities on the 36-year-old aircraft for the final time.

"This plane was a revolution," said Woods of the breed of tiny aircraft designed early in the Cold War to carry a nuclear bomb on a "one way trip" into Russia. "You don’t get into it, you strap the thing on or you wear it like a suit."


Puerto Rico base


The A-4 that arrived in Palm Springs came from Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Puerto Rico where it was cast in the role of adversary for pilot training.

Despite being designed to perform in a situation that never unfolded, the Skyhawk evolved into one of the most enduring aircraft to ever serve the military.

There were 3,960 of the jets built from 1952 to 1983. The planes were used for bombing, airborne fighting and training.

In Vietnam, the planes were popular for bombing missions and suffered heavy losses.

The strength of the A-4 Skyhawk was in its simple design. A cramped cockpit hugged pilots who described flying the Skyhawk as "being at the controls of a bullet in flight."


Could fly at 653 mph


It had a range of 700 miles and reached speeds of 653 miles per hour. Visibility from the cockpit gave the nimble plane an advantage in dogfights.

Yet it was also strong. Retired Navy Capt. John Duncan, 69, said the A-4 was the first military plane that would carry its weight in bombs. The tall "legs" above the wheels enabled the small plane to carry huge bombs, which at times made it look, "like a spider on an egg" according to its pilots.

Duncan, of Cathedral City, said he flew 120 A-4 combat missions in Vietnam.

He said the reliability and versatility of the plane was a major confidence boost to pilots.

"It could take punishment from the enemy and still get you back to the base," Duncan said.

However, despite upgrades, the model began to show its age in recent years. Most notably, it is unable to carry precision guided bombs, so-called smart bombs, which were used heavily in the recent war in Iraq.

Duncan, who is also on the board of directors at the air museum and attended the ceremony Saturday, said he’ll miss knowing the venerable aircraft is no longer part of the American military.

"It is sad," said Duncan. He brightened, "But what a fabulous history."


End of relationship


Woods will also miss the A-4.

He described the relationship between a fighter pilot and plane as nearly as nuanced as one between people -- with the same type of rewards and challenges.

"It will frustrate you sometimes; it will challenge you sometimes. It will try to kill you," he said describing how a pilot comes to know the plane’s subtle "personality" traits.


‘Hard to fly well’


"It is not hard to fly; it is hard to fly well," he said. "A plane that doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t teach you."

The A-4 Skyhawk is now on permanent loan to the Palm Springs Air Museum. It will no longer fly but will rest on display in front of the museum at 745 N. Gene Autry Trail.

Sharon Maguire, the museum’s director, said former A-4 pilots affiliated with the museum, "carried enough weight," with the Navy that it allowed the last active A-4 to rest in Palm Springs. "We are very proud," Maguire said.

---

Benjamin Spillman can be reached at 778-4643 or by e-mail at Benjamin.Spillman@thedesertsun.com

[TommyDale]

I went to High School in Alabama (Robert E. Lee HS--wonder how long THAT name will last). One of our rivals was Sidney Lanier HS, named after the poet. Their mascot was the Poets. I'm not kidding. They had the word "Poets" on the side of their football helmets. They might be the only school allowed to keep it's mascot.

Now that's funny! Yes, we Southerners will eventually be renaming all Confederate namesakes to liberal ones. Example: Robert E. Lee High School will become William Jefferson Blythe Clinton School of Sexually Depraved.

[stainlessbanner]

While moderate conservatives may go along with removing confederate heritage/flags/symbols, the PC crowd just keeps taking. These ingrates don't stand for the pledge, they don't remove their hat during the anthem, and now they want an airplane removed cause it's "offensive!"

Anti-Americanism is way overboard.

[Luke]

Back in 1961, before I shipped out for WESTPAC, I drove the NAS Alameda school bus that served this and other local schools. Back then... those families were honorable patrotic Americans. All those families transferred or moved long ago. Today, the whole damn state is not worth a fart.

Give that plane to someone who deserves it.

[Drew68]

They had the word "Poets" on the side of their football helmets.

One of the local high schools in the town where I went to college called themselves the "Lambkins" and adorned their football helmets with smiling baby lambs.

How humiliating.

[Smokin' Joe]

Odd that many of the Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Afghan people who came here did so to escape opressive, and often murderous, regimes.

The jet might represent something deeper than just a school mascot to them, alright: it might be a symbol of the power of the nation which they willingly came to to escape opression and gain opportunity.

Funny how poorly those who claim to speak for others think.

[drjimmy]

My high school's nickname was the "Tartans," for our supposed Scots heritage, and the symbol on our football helmet was (and still is) a guy in a kilt playing the bagpipes.

[GOP_1900AD]

As is true throughout the Bay Area, a sad conclave of the long outnumbered (that was, up until about 30 years ago) and the more recently arrived, both of anti American, anti tradition characteristics, have now made themselved heard even in our staunchest, most pro military enclave. Sign me up for the counterrevolution today. I'll be the one with the rope.

[frodolives]

Sounds even worse than the U of Oregon Ducks and the Oregon State U's Beavers.

[Modernman]

All the Vietnamese people I've met in the US aren't upset that we used too much military force in Vietnam, but rather that we used too LITTLE force. If we'd played a little tougher, they and their families wouldn't have had to flee communist oppression in tiny boats.

[BruceS]

I went to two different high schools - one in Nebraska and one in Hawaii. One of our rivals in Nebraska was the Benson High School "Bunnies" (no kidding) and one of our rivals in Hawaii was the Punaho "Buff 'n Blue" (referring to their school colors).

I also went to the University of Hawaii when their team name was the "Rainbows" (later changed to Rainbow Warriors and now just Warriors). The Scottsdale (Arizona) Community College team is the Artichokes.

I think anyone who is upset by a name or a mascot is demonstrating that they don't have any real problems.

[Taft in '52]

Although I'm an Occidental Tiger, and one of our rivals, Whittier College, in my hometown of Whittier, is the home of the Poets. By the way, Richard Nixon was a Fighting Poet from Whittier College.

[slowry]

bump

[Hatteras]

"I bet he'd have stumbled and said he forgot their names or that they wanted to remain anonymous."

Actually, this guy was saying that the kids are asking when it will be back. The kids are not saying to "not bring it back". I had to read it twice.

"Students have been coming up to me asking when is it going to come back, not to not bring it back," he said...

[judgeandjury]

Janet Gibson, a school board member and Alameda resident since 1973, said she's long considered the jet an inappropriate emblem for Encinal. "I would think there is a better symbol for the school, something that might reflect education and intelligence," she said.

Hmm, how about the Encinal High School Books!

[theDentist]

Oops! I read that twice and mis-read it each time. Mea culpa.