Association Officers/Board/Staff

The Beginning!

In 1993 the Skyhawk Association was started from names on a clipboard.

M. Davis "Whizzer" White, DDS Association Founder Past NHF Historical Liaison and Program Coordinator Past Association President Past Association Director Past Association Events Director Past VA-94 Squadron Duty Officer.	Otto E. Krueger Past Navy Coordinator Past Association President Past Association Director	Asahel D. "Bud" Southworth" Association Webmaster Emeritus Past Association Director. .
R.R. "Boom" Powell Past Association Director Past Association Treasurer	Bob Rahn - Test Pilot Bob took the very first Skyhawk into the air.	Wynn "Captain Hook" Foster Coronado, CA Past Association Secretary Past Association Director Past Association Newsletter Editor Past VA-163 Squadron Duty Officer.

"Whizzer", the "Founder":  (BIO)

"It was an interesting beginning. It began with an idea, and a check that Cal Shoemaker wrote (for $500.00) to get the thing off the ground."

Captain Hook:
The Association began as an idea and a clipboard. During the 1993 Tailhook convention in San Diego, M. David "Whizzer" White, DDS, of Bossier City, LA, put up a small sign at a table in the exhibit area. The sign said merely "Are you interested in starting a Skyhawk Association? Sign up here." At the end of the three day convention, the sheets on the clipboard contained 136 names.
Throughout the following year (1994) an undetermined number of "members" were "signed up." Unfortunately, only fragmentary records were maintained and many who signed-up were subsequently "lost." At the September 1994 Tailhook convention in San Diego, about 80 individuals attended a "Skyhawk" luncheon. Following the luncheon, a preliminary organization took place, with "Whizzer" White, Harry Gann, Wynn Foster, and R.R. "Boom" Powell "elected" as President, Historian, Secretary-Newsletter Editor, and Treasurer, respectively. Annual dues were established and bylaws were mentioned, but no further action was taken at that time. It was agreed that the next membership meeting would "piggy-back" with Tailhook '95 at the Nugget Hotel in Sparks (Reno), Nevada.
The first Skyhawk Newsletter was published in March 1995.
Bylaws, patterned after those of the Tailhook Association, were drafted during 1995 and, with the assistance of member-attorney Roger Maino, necessary actions were taken to incorporate the Association. At the 9 September 1995 meeting at the Nugget Hotel in Sparks, NV, the Association was formally incorporated, with five members (Foster, Powell, White, Jack Woodul, and Hugh Magee) elected as Directors. By consensus, it was agreed that the Board of Directors would meet twice a year, in January and in conjunction with the Association annual membership meeting.
The 1996 annual membership meeting "piggy-backed" with the May ANA-Naval Aviation Museum convention in Pensacola, Florida. The 1997 and 1998 annual membership meetings were held in Sparks (Reno). NV, in conjunction with the annual Tailhook conventions. The 1999 annual membership meeting was held in Pensacola, FL, in conjunction with ceremonies for the retirement of the Skyhawk from service in the Naval Air Training Command. The 2000 and 2001 annual membership meetings were held in Sparks (Reno). NV, in conjunction with the annual Tailhook conventions.
The paid membership of 403, as of 01 January 1996, grew steadily to 791 as of 01 January 2002. Beginning in 1998, the Association was sufficiently solvent to allow offering of a complimentary one-year membership to each Student Naval Aviator upon graduation from VT-7 at NAS Meridian, MS, the last training command squadron training with the TA-4J Skyhawk. A total of 70 complimentary memberships were accepted through June 1999, when training command TA-4J operations were ended.
"Puresome", on his recollections of the birth of the Association:
My first recollection of a formative meeting was in San Diego in 1993 at the first TAILHOOK REUNION after the festivities of HOOK 91. Not many of the faithful were there. I somehow found out about the lunch meeting, went, and signed on to help carrying groceries or whatever. CAPT Hook was one of the first Board Members and always counted our beans and kept us honest about bylaws and stuff that the rest of us allowed as necessary, but stood in the way of sea stories. Bud Southworth, Boom Powell, and Ernie Laib did important work at our Reunions, along with our other presidents, Otto Kruger and Tom Brown.
"Whizzer" was heavily involved in the "Skyhawk Tribute" and CNATRA Skyhawk Retirement Ceremony at Pensacola, June 25 to 27, 1999. Lots of folks got involved in attending VT-7 winging ceremonies at Meridian, where SA gave plaques and memberships to the graduating Skyhawkers. The kid, here, got to VP it and mediate sword-fights some.

A DECADE TOWARD A-4’s FOREVER

M. Davis White, DDS - June 2004
Its been almost eleven years since the 1993 Tailhook Association when I asked, "do you think anybody would be interested if we ...?"
Our Skyhawk Association is not quite to the point of – "and now you know the rest of the story" but we are taking a good run at it. How do you sum up ten years of Association? You don't – the Association has been and will remain a work in progress.
Its 21 June and I'm putting this last epistle as SA President through one more enema before sending it off to Margaret Bone. Anything significant about June 2004? How about it being the 50th Anniversary of her first flight. Take a minute or so to wish our little lady a Happy 50th. Fifty years ago tomorrow (22 June 1954) she tucked her skinny legs and tiny feet in her wheel wells and made the houses little for the first time. Bob Rahn, super guy and one of the first members of our Skyhawk Association was her pilot. Bob, along with almost all the early Skyhawk pioneers – Heinemann, Gann, Hubbard, Bloom have, since that first organizational meeting in San Diego, been called home. However, their contribution to the design, development, history, testing and lore of the A-4 is recalled every time you see one take off out of ATSI in Mesa, AZ, sitting quietly on a stick off I-20 north of Pensacola or a neglected hulk laying on its side in a desert boneyard. Depending on your experience with which model – the conversion of JP to heat and noise with the “Charlie”, the restrained speed on takeoff of the Super Fox to the introduction of high tech in the “T” with nose wheel steering – one needs only to close your eyes and remember.
Cal, Jay, Bob, Captain Hook and I were standing around the Skyhawk Reproductions booth at the 1993 Tailhook talking about the A-4 when I suggested the idea of a formal get together at the 1994 Tailhook meeting. We could do our best to contact as many as we knew who flew, maintained or whom we knew had an interest in the A-4 (I think the phrase we agreed on for the 94 meeting was "ONE GETS TEN"). My son, Danny, put a tablet on our booth table and before the day was over 136 signed up. BTW the original tablet with the names can be seen on the website – if I can remember to mail it to David. Before we left Cal Shoemaker handed me a check for $500.00 to get things started. We had more than a few - we had a beginning!
Test pilots Cal Shoemaker and Gordo Gray are still around and memories are still fresh enough to share with us. Part of my new job will be to head up the newly formed NHF Historical Liaison and Program Coordinator. This means I’ll be asking Gordo and Cal to be part of a luncheon program within the next couple of years. BTW the last production model (both Cal and Gordo flew it) is on display in the Museum in PNS – side number 812. If you're in Pensacola be sure to go by, check her out and pat one of her wingtip lights. There are still some 160+ Skyhawks on active duty with countries around the globe; however, with the stand-down of VC-8 there are no active duty USN squadrons with a Scooter on their flight line.
The 2004 luncheon in Reno will be about Association business - a COC and introduction of a new project having to do with what can be done about/with your "stuff" after you've taken your last cat shot, your wife is tired of moving it around to make room for grandbaby treasures (first stool, finger paint pictures, pictures of kids sitting on Santa's lap screaming and so on). The Naval Historical Foundation (NHF) in the Navy Yard has graciously agreed to be the repository for the Skyhawk Association objects d’Art. We will go over the procedures for submitting flight gear, maps, misc. gear associated with the A-4’s conventional and "special weps" mission on the website (www.a4skyhawk.org) at Reno and in the next Newsletter. I'm really excited about this because we have already lost too much of our history because of our limited options for storage. We can thank the only real "Chief" in the Association, Admiral Jim Holloway, for laying the groundwork on this one. All I had to do was ask.
Well, it had to come to an end sooner or later. Fortunately, for me, it came later. I met your incoming President, Bob Hickerson, for the first time at the Mid Year Board Meeting in San Antonio. He's one of those dudes you take to immediately. On top of having probably the most time in the A-4 (4500 or so hrs) he shares the emotion each of us has for the Scooter as well as the aims of the Skyhawk Association. With Bob and his slate of incoming candidates for the Board most if not all of the initial aims of the Association will be a reality. Earlier it was a matter of conditions or lack of equipment but this crew has the enthusiasm of San Diego 1993. Bob will also be the first incoming President with a two-year responsibility rather than year to year. Kind of like finding a bass who waited too late to try and throw the hook?? Its been a wonderful run but its time I step down and scratch out another direction for the Association by preserving the items that make up Skyhawk history. This will insure longevity for the Association with hands on access envied by other groups but expected from those who make up A-4’s FOREVER.

Whiz
June 2004

Some Past Directors: Atwell, Bloore, Blosser, Brannon, Brown, Caldas, Cole, Cooney, Eberhardt, Mike - 2007-2018, Elser, Egen, Frommelt, Gabbard, Gilchrist, Green, Hickerson, Hubbard, Jobin, laib, Langworth, Linder, Foster, Powell, Magee, Moriarty, Ravgilai, Sapp, Southworth, Turpen, Weber, White, Williams, Wolf, Wondergem, Woodull.

Website Emeritus: Asahel D. "Bud" Southworth.

Original Association Webmaster submitted web site at the 1997 Winter Board Meeting.The Skyhawk Association is forever grateful for his years of dedication, and the countless thousands of hours he devoted to designing and building the original Skyhawk Association web site. Bravo Zulu Bud!