Last Name:  Cooke 
First Name:  Jack
Middle Name or Intl:  D.
Nickname:  
Address: 
City/ST/Zip: ,  
Phone: 
Email:  cj66@juno.com
Receive VP-28 Email Messages?:  1  (Yes=1 / No=0)
Rate/Rank:  AT1
Years in VP-28:  61-64
Deceased:  
Biography:  I served with VP-2 and VP-28. I made the NAS Kodiak, Alaska deployment in 59' or 60' - can't recall which. I was in VP-28 and was detached to be apart of the ground crew during the Christmas Island atomic testing. What a trip that was. I have run across two old Shipmates through this forum (boy they must be old…I was a kid then and I'm OLD now!). Chief R. L. Collins and Chief (E-6 when I knew him) Ernie Grims. I made one an a partial NAS Iwakuni, Japan trip with VP-28 as an AT1. I was a part of the cruise book…where I met Ernie Grim ADR1. After my VP tours I was stationed at Hickham AFB to a research and develop outfit called N.A.P.O.G. Can't tell you what it means…have to killya. I detached myself after 15 years 9 month to become a minister. Best move I ever made. I still remember the great and not so great men who shaped my young self those few years of my life. AE1 Eck are you out there?...I served with VP-28 based at NAS Barbers Point, Hawaii (Circa 1962). We deployed to NAS Iwakuni, Japan in November that year.. CDR L. A. Kurz was CO and CDR R. T. Folsom XO. I was an AT1 and part of the Crews Book staff. I recall redrawing the Squadron Logos (the one Axing the sub and the one just below and to the right of it). I drew up Crew patches as well and the guys had them stitched. I got of flight status before we went to NAS Iwakuni, Japan. I got trash canned to Pubs and Electronic Material Changes as punishment. The three things that could fail us at ORI was these two and something else - don't remember the third. Go figure. I was banished to a most sensitive job. We were four years behind when I took over. It took me four years to get caught up. Any body remember that November NAS Iwakuni, Japan trip of 1962?..." [BIO Updated 22NOV99 | 04MAY99]

I served in VP-28 from October 61 until July of 64 as a AT1. I spent most of my tour doing penance because I quit flying as a crew member. Flying was really lousing up my family life….I had four children that wondered who I was when I came in after all that "preflight/post flight work-untill-its-fixed" mentality required of an air crewman. I preferred to work at AMD…I had spent so much time in all those Electronic schools "A"…"B" and fleet level "C" schools), I just wanted to let it all sink in. Flying was not my thing anyway. The stale cigarettes and dry ham-n-cheese sandwiches didn't help either. I was "trash canned" to the dungeon of shop activities…I was put in charge of keeping all the Electronic Material Changes and shop Publications up to date. They were four years behind on all the revisions. It turned out to be important
work. The technical publications were a mess….I would spend entire eight hour days just going from one stack of revisions to another to bring a book current. We had a lot of anti sub warfare stuff to install in the aircraft as well. Aircraft would come back from O/R with none of the changes incorporated. Most of the physical installations were ECM antennas and related fixtures. As in every squadron, we played musical chairs with all these parts and tracing them down by serial number and Bu numbers was a nightmare. It took me the rest of my tour just to barely get caught up. Oddly enough, of the four things that could cause us to crash and burn during Operation Readiness Inspections…two were the things I was responsible to shepherd.

During my first hitch I spent some time as ships company at the "A" school facilities in Memphis Tenn. From there I went to Whidbey Is, Washington to VP-2. I flew as second radio in YC-2, the XO's aircraft. The big moment in my tour there was when I re-enlisted as an E-5 with "over four" (6 month extension so I could go on deployment) and walked from the "pay" window to the "deposit" window of the bank where I cashed my reenlistment check,….$1400 cold cash in my hand…heart beat very irregular….breathing labored…thought I