Flight to Israel. Page 35 of the Spring 2006 issue of "The Hook" asked about the “unsubstantiated but frequently heard story (that) VA-45 Det 1 flying A-4L (reworked Charlies with a hump) Skyhawks on board” Roosevelt in 1973 delivered same to Israel. Perhaps VA-45 delivered some of the 65 A-4s which were sent between 1971 and 1973, but I believe the ones which arrived in Israel were all Echos. There were 29 flown there in October of 1973 and the following is how I remember a part of that delivery. It was an AOM in early October 1973 when the skipper of VA-127 asked for volunteers to fly a special mission which would involve some danger. Nearly all of us instructors raised our hands. He proceeded to brief us on the general scope of the flights which was to deliver A-4s to Israel. Cdr. Tulley had some of the details, but he said all he knew for sure was we were to fly many of our own aircraft to Norfolk and we would receive further briefing there. Pack for a week he said. VA-127 had been the instrument training squadron in Lemoore for quite some time. The A-7 drivers on their way to VA-125 or VA-122 were obligated to make a stop and fly our TA-4s under the bag to sharpen their scan (or humiliate these newly minted naval aviators). VA-125 switched from an A-4 RAG to an A-7 RAG when the powers that be decided no more A-4s would be going on cruises. Of course A-4s kept cruising, so VA-127 became the A-4 RAG to train pilots for each successive “A-4 Last Annual Cruise”. We had quite a cadre of fleet experienced A-4 pilots who taught tactics and CQed all sorts of junior and senior pilots who were slated to fly the Scooter on various 27C carriers still floating about in WestPac. When we became the RAG we got the latest version of A-4Es and Fs including the P408 powered model which the Blue Angels flew after being “trained” at VA-127. Some of our flights demoing asymmetrical slat extension for the Blues were quite colorful, but that’s another story. On October 17th we manned aircraft for the one stop hop to NAS Norfolk. Before doing so, we were issued new flight suits, flight jackets and parachute bags without any patches or insignia on them. The scope of the operation became more apparent when we saw how many A-4s were parked outside the Rework Facility there. Before long we were invited into a large briefing room where an Admiral took the podium and looked out at a small sea of JO faces. He gave us the plan and we asked a bunch of questions. We had another day or so while the Rework Facility took out the electronics we did not want to hand over to the Israelis. They also painted out all the markings on the A-4s except for the single star & bar on each side of the aft fuselage. The plan was to launch in flights of 12 for the Azores with two KC-135s – one pathfinder and an extra to tanker us and then return to the East Coast. The flight from Norfolk to the Azores turned out to be my longest A-4 flight at 5.5 hours. We spent the night in Lajes and managed to find the O’Club. Meanwhile the maintenance guys had to try to straighten out a fuel probe or two which became slightly bent during our refueling with the 135s. The drogue on the 135s did not retract like the one on our buddy stores and some of the training command ploughbacks who had joined us had never refueled from anything. They fixed the bent probes by doing some pullups with a few of the heaviest guys. Next day we launched with loaded guns – the infamous A-4 20 MM. It held a couple of hundred rounds I think, but usually jammed after two – one each side. We were to rendezvous with a bunch of C-130 Marine tankers just outside of Gibraltar. To do so we of course had to descend and slow way down. As we passed by Libya an unnamed JO decided to make sure his guns actually worked. Of course he had to break right and pull up so as not to waste the rounds for the test. We were heading for the Roosevelt off the coast of Italy. Aboard Roosevelt we were lucky enough to have another admiral brief us on the final leg of our mission. The most important part of which we all listened to very carefully. Israeli F-4s would escort us from their ADIZ to the intending landing field. We thought Wahoo! – some fighters to eat for lunch. In those days the only time an F4 was nearly invisible was when he was in burner and then he was out of gas. Anyway we launched and let the F4 find us and we landed without incident. I landed last because there was some doubt as to the status of my tailhook. The dashpot did not keep the hook from bouncing (that was the reason for my bolter the night before on Roosevelt – that’s my story and I’m sticking to it), so by the time I landed the first two or three aircraft already had the stars & bars painted out and the Star of David as a new marking. When I was taxiing in I saw several gun emplacements with laundry hanging from the AAA barrel. Around the emplacement was a family (No shit – kids were playing in the yard). It seemed to me a family was assigned to provide the manning for this defensive piece of the war. No wonder the Israelis fight so hard – they literally were totally involved. Next stop was the O’Club. Yep the Israelis followed our USAF flying brethrens’ lead and built the club before the runway. Our short stay at the O’Club was surreal and welcoming and thankful. As we ate the food they laid out for us and did our best to drink all their booze and we chatted with the pilots of the local squadrons. One guy said excuse me in the middle of a conversation and said he had to go brief for the afternoon launch. He had been drinking iced tea. Of course the same guy who took a shot at Muammar Khadafi tried to bribe one of their guys to take him in the back seat of the TA-4 they had. He would have had a better chance if he had been drinking iced tea like they were. We were then bussed over to climb onboard an empty C5 for a free ride to Maguire AFB. After several hours we all woke up and wandered about the aircraft a bit. Some of us ended up hitting baseballs in the cavernous empty space which likely had held needed supplies to prosecute a war just a few hours before. We all made our way home from Andrews by comair and enjoyed our brand new leather jackets. For some reason we did not consider the implications when we were issued new gear without any markings. Thankfully no one had to land someplace embarrassing. Sure enough we were home one week after we left. "Boom" Powell"