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VOOZH | about |
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VOOZH | about |
In this article:
He was the second of two children and born on 25 January 1940 in Shandon Baptist Hospital in Columbia South Carolina. He, in every way, gave the appearance of a normal, healthy, well-developed kid of average height, slender but not skinny. History would show that he was anything but normal.
His name was John Monroe Smith, and “Roger Ball!” is his story—a tale that should be told. It intertwines the true, firsthand accounts and experiences of a fighter pilot with the significant developments in the fighter community and historical events in which Captain John Monroe Smith, USN, call sign “Hawk” was a part. Finally, it speaks to the men who laid their careers and sometimes their very lives on the line for their shipmates and their country.
Hawk was a legend in the fighter community. During his thirty-year career, he forged a reputation as a skilled and lethal aviator in the air-to-air combat arena, a natural tactician, and consummate leader. To many, he was one of the most essential pathfinders in the modernization of the naval air war arts.
He was just a man, but his story, his life adventure, is a high-fidelity history of personal achievements for naval tactical aviation, devotion to a cause, and service to his nation. It was a time during and shortly after the Vietnam conflict that America became ideologically divided. The military was disillusioned with the intrusion of nonwarriors in the White House over the conduct of the war, and tactical aviation of all the services was struggling to catch up to the realities of the war’s hard lessons. It was a time when the Navy needed leaders and tenacious thinkers to set things right again. It was Hawk’s time!
When last we left Hawk, as an F-14 Tomcat pilot he was providing armed escort for the helos involved in Operation Frequent Wind, the emergency evacuation of all remaining Americans in Saigon. The cruise had come and gone. Eight months at sea had produced a flood of emotions that can happen only in the military: sadness, excitement, exuberance, anger, reward, loss, fear, anxiety, and the agonizing humiliation of losing the war. It was a barrage of feelings catapulted by events not theirs to control and now … it was coming to an end. Enterprise was headed home.
The Enterprise and Airwing Fourteen cruise was a capstone achievement. It was the first deployment of the Tomcat and despite its technical sophistication and newness, it had acceptable availability and from an operational aspect, performed well beyond expectations. The airwing had discovered a serious engine problem, and with the timely response from Grumman and Pratt and Whitney, had corrected it in a matter of a few weeks.
For Hawk’s part, it was a cruise of firsts: his first F-14 barricade which he hoped he would never do again, his first WESTPAC cruise, and his first combat mission for which he would happily volunteer. All in all, he was satisfied with the WESTPAC adventure, but he was glad it was behind him.
Hawk had been back to Fighter Town USA, aka, NAS Miramar, just a short time and realized that he was about due for his next set of orders. He also recognized the sad truth that he wasn’t going to be able to Fly Navy forever. Someday they were going to jerk his butt out of the cockpit and make him get a real job. But that day hadn’t come yet. He was still young, had good eyes, fast reflexes, and a tree sloth-slow pulse. Hawk was still fighter ready.
He expected orders soon. The Bureau of Naval Personnel was very good at issuing orders. They were less accomplished at assigning orders that sailors actually wanted, however. Hawk had been fortunate to date. His reporting senior officers understood where he needed to go and what he needed to do even if he didn’t. Hawk was perfectly suited for his last two assignments, and both were exactly what he needed to stay ahead of the pack. Now he wanted an assignment that would keep him flying, keep him in the hunt for command, and keep his family near Fighter Town.
There was a small, somewhat new organization at Miramar. It was something unusual, a break from tradition. It was kind of a fighter squadron but had both Navy and Marine Corps aircrew. This command had an unusual mission and was assigned some very interesting projects. Though they sent detachments all over the United States and often to other countries friendly to the United States, they didn’t deploy aboard ship. The Navy Fighter Weapons School, known throughout the fighter world as TOPGUN, was something more than a school and more than a fighter squadron. It was the single touch point for fleet air combat training and the development of fighter tactics. TOPGUN was the higher learning center, the “grad” school for fighter crews: pilots and RIOs.
Hawk was not familiar with all they did, but the more he learned the more he figured he needed to go there. He settled his pipper on what he hoped would be his next assignment—TOPGUN. Hawk made a few casual inquiries about TOPGUN and more specifically about the rotation schedule of the XO.
The news couldn’t have been better.
Photo credit: U.S. Navy
Donald Auten: All articles
