CREW'S STORIES
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VAH-6, Detachment "N"
Love's Flying Circus
Subject:
Bennington's 1956/1957 tour
Date:
Thu, 26 Apr 2001 12:05:21 -0700
From:
Margarita & James Stone - msjds@postoffice.pacbell.net
Reply-To:
msjds@pacbell.net
To:
bennington@uss-bennington.org
I was aboard the Bennington during the Far East tour of October 1956 to May 1957. A couple of notes about that tour are:
The type of planes that Flight Squadron VAH-6 had were (2) AJ-2 Savage's. At that time they were the only carrier based plane capable of carrying the A-bomb. Even though we did a lot of bombing practice with small smoke bombs, our main operations were in-flight refueling for the jets.
The Attached dungaree patch was for VAH-6, Detachment "N", known as `Love's Flying Circus'. `Love' was Lt. Comdr. Love, the commander of the Detachment. I was an Aviation Electrician 3rd class with this Detachment.
On our return from Australia to San Diego, we carried with us a Wallaby (a small Kangaroo). This was a gift from Sir Edward Hallstrom, the curator of the Taronga Park Zoo in Sydney, to the San Diego Zoo. A bronze plaque was cast and placed on his cage naming the USS Bennington as the donor. It would be interesting to find out what happening to that plaque.
Jim Stone
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