Feet Wet

Rear Admiral Paul T. Gillcrist: Feet Wet - Reflections of a Carrier Pilot He made his first carrier landing in a propeller-driven SNJ Texan trainer on to the teakwood deck of the USS Monterey in the Gulf of Mexico. Almost thirty years later, strapped into an avionics-crammed cockpit, Rear Admiral Paul Gillchrist roared down on the USS Kitty Hawk and become the first Navy flag officer to land an F-14A Tomcat on a carrier. For three decades in between, Paul Gillchrist was one of the Navy's top fighter and test pilots, breaking in a new generation of jets and carriers, winning seventeen combat decorations for his duels with MiGs and SAMs in the bloody air war over North Vietnam, and making daring, dangerous ejections more than once in his heroic career. Now in this extraordinary memoir, Gillcrist shares what it is like to land a fighter jet on a heaving carrier deck at night in the Gulf of Tonkin; to make desperate "hot" refuelings in mid-air; and to be a part of the unique fraternity of Navy pilots who faced one of the highest mortality rates in the services to take America's tremendous air power to the seas of the world. Rear Admiral Paul T. Gillcrist, a U.S. Navy fighter pilot, served also as a test pilot and weapons delivery instructor, and actively flew from sixteen aircraft carriers for over twenty-seven years. The author speaks with authority as a former fighter squadron commanding officer who recorded 167 combat missions over Vietnam flying the F-8 Crusader. Subsequently, he commanded a carrier air wing and finally served, with the rank of Rear Admiral, as the wing commander for all Pacific Fleet fighter squadrons. His pilot's logbook includes over 6,000 hours, in seventy-one different types of aircraft from 1952 to 1981. He retired in 1985 as Assistant Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Air Warfare). He is also the author of Tomcat! The Grumman F-14 Tomcat Story, and Crusader! Last of the Gunfighters. Webmaster's Notes:   More Information: Vulture's Row Home Latest Topic | Air Warfare | Conferences/Air Shows | Fighter Tactics | Fighter Aircraft | Missiles | Fighter Aviation Topic | Fighter History | Warbirds | Magazines | Current News | Links | Physiology | Photo Gallery | Bibliography | SIIVET - Wings | What's New J Lindberg. Copyright © 1997-2006 Fighter Tactics Academy. All rights reserved. Revised: tammikuu 01, 2006.