No, I didn’t. VT-30, the Spad training squadron in Corpus Christi was decommissioned in early 1965 when I was about halfway through VT-3. I was devastated, of course! A lot of my buddies just quit the program when that happened; I elected to stay with it. Got my wings in November, 1965 and was ordered to VAW-111 to fly the E-1B “Willy Fudd.”
The best part of all of it was the carrier “work.” In the course of my active duty flying around the boat (1965 - 1973), I accumulated a total of 365 CVLs (103 night) in the left seat and probably 1,000 or so in the right seat as an IP/co-pilot. We multi-engine pukes had to share CVLs with our co-pilot, which cuts the number of CVLs in half.
Landing on an aircraft carrier is the most fun a mortal can have with his clothes on!
I absolutely loved the C-1 as a COD (which the E1B was derived from?) and have always thought “If I could have a recreational plane to fly me and my family and friends around the country...I would love a COD.
If you look at my Freep Page, you can see I was a jet mechanic, and how I loved the sound of those reciprocating engines. The first time I saw a COD take off (1976) from a carrier, it made an impression on me.
As it ran up its engines, the plane almost seemed to crouch and gather itself...almost compressing like a spring, it seemed to me. Then when it released its brakes, it would go forth, and my thought was “Huh. There’s no way that thing is getting in the air!” but it seemed before it even came level with the island, it was already in the air.
They just looked like a wonderful plane to fly...and cool looking to me, too.
As for being the most fun a mortal can have with clothes on...I used to watch the pilots walking down the passageway from the flight deck after landing, and seeing their armpits, backs (and it seemed, crotch) stained slightly darker with sweat, and I thought “Hm...that must be hairy flying!”