Blue Angels Pilot: John Miller (1976 - 1978)

the the airshow business is something that you don't reach the pinnacle and learn everything you need to know by the time you fly the first air show as a matter of fact I would say you're learning about the air show business the whole time you that you're on the team [Music] I wanted to be an aviation I think all my life my father who was in the Army Air Corps he was a mechanic in the Army Air Corps and so he had a love of airplanes and because of that at a very young age I think he just inculcated that in me as well and was on my senior year in college that the Navy recruiter came by and I had a preference for the Navy anyway because I think I always wanted the challenge of flying off of aircraft carriers I took engineering in college so it was fairly easy for me to take the aptitude test of the Navy gave out and even though I graduated that year and started working at General Electric a little bit later on went down to the old Brooklyn Naval Air Station that's where I enlisted in the Navy once we got our wings you were assigned the fleet aircraft that you were going to fly and I actually chose a-sixes out of flight training in God a-sixes I flew 181 missions in Vietnam we didn't fly the last combat mission until January of 73 one of my squadron mates was dick SRAM dick is the one that actually got me interested in the Blue Angels because dick was the pa-o and I think events coordinator on the team 69 70 71 dick was a encyclopedia of aviation knowledge and everything and so all of junior officers really enjoyed talking with him he was a great guy and he's the one that actually got me interested in applying for the team I was selected in 1975 reported to the team in October that year and after reporting to the team soon after that they told me that I was going to be training as number six the opposing solo and of course just being selected on the team you know you're over the moon and you're very excited and honored to be selected but if I could have chosen any position I wanted to fly it would have been that position when I was selected Denny Sapp who was was number six in 1975 became the lead solo so he trained me and the very first thing that then he did was he gave me a packet of accident reports he said I want you to read these accident reports because if there is somebody that is going to hurt themselves or be killed it's probably going to be you number six so I want you to be very mindful and listen to me and everything that I tell you to do and he got my attention and it was it was it was a good way to get started the first season 76 was I will say that that was probably the most fun that I had and the reason why I'm saying that is because as opposing solo the lead solo is pretty much responsible for everything and therefore if something went a little bit of Miss normally the lead solo was the person that was blamed for it and I can remember in one specific case who we were doing a show in Roosevelt roads Puerto Rico and it's number six the first thing that she did on takeoff was the low transition a clean roll and then pull up in into a half Cuban eight and I came back after the air show and I had a little bit of of a tree branch or a little bit of a pine smell in one of my landing gear doors so the maintenance officers is you know comes over and says hey you know you know Johnny's got some you know tree limbs or something or in his landing gear door Denny you're flying too low no well it wasn't Denny's fall at all it was my fault I'm the one who did it but he got blamed for it so you know is it was just one of those little anecdotal things that happened during the year but you know I thought it was it was fairly amusing after the 1976 season it's it's time for the lead solo to leave the team and then the posing solo then ramps up and becomes a lead solo to then train the new solo pilot who's going to take number six well Niall Kraft was was selected the same the same year I was selected so we were both selected at the end of 75 and and came onto the team I had a very good rapport with Niall and that's important to have a good rapport when there are just two of you working together so he wanted to become opposing solo and I said sure I be great to have you as opposing solo and you know we started working on the on the season there's one maneuver that the the diamond did that I mean I can remember the first time I saw it back when I was na s Oceania when the Blues came there to fly showin f-4s was the line of breast loop and the line of breast loop of course you're looking 90 degrees from where the airplane is pointed and you know you're trying to fly you know perfect formation and do this loop and the diamond used to always complain that that was their hardest maneuver so in the beginning of 1977 when we went out to practice I would have Niall fly a loop and I would practice flying on his wing flying line abreast to say hey you know is it is it possible for a solo pilot who doesn't fly as much formation is it possible for a solo pilot to do this well enough so that we can make this an airshow maneuver and as it turned out you know I practiced it I said you know I you know I think this is this is very workable so in 1977 we added the fifth airplane to the line of breast loop it wasn't a harder maneuver it and adding one airplane made it look like there were a lot more airplanes in the manoeuvre the training was going well for 1977 we were supposed to do a our first over the field practice so the two solos doing all the opposing maneuvers we've gotten that down we're gonna do the over the field practice and on the taxi out something broken Niles Jett and he couldn't do it so I was I did a single solo practice over the field and after that over the field practice I needed to fly back to DFW to meet with the Southwest Regional Manager of the FAA because we were trying to put together the air show in in dallas-fort worth so it was a long day because we had done the over the field practice flew back to DFW and on my arrival back it was it was dusk it was not completely dark but it was just getting dark and as I got out of the jet the boss Casey Jones was there to meet me and he was stolen his flight suit which was extremely odd so what's the boss doing out here meeting me and of course I got down out of the aircraft and he said that Niall was killed and of course the first thing going through my mind was well what did I say what didn't I say what could I have done you know to perhaps prevent this anyway a real terrible accident terrible for all of us on the team and then we were about three weeks away from our first scheduled show so we went through the what ifs of what we could do and it boiled down to there was one option and that was having Vance Parker who was on the team the year prior as the lead solo have him come back so and I offered him I said look Vince if you want to be lead solo again you could be lead so I'll be opposing so I just wanted to have the dual solo show so Vance Vance came back to the team and he was very nice he said no this is your turn to be lead so I'll be opposing solo and he was a just an outstanding aviator and and within three weeks I mean we went out there and and it took us about a week to get the the solo routine down and then we put it all together and put the Delta get together and we opened the season on schedule [Music] obviously seventy-seven got out to about the worst start that we possibly could but the team gelled came together very well you know and I think we had it was it was a very good year for air shows for us because we had a second-year boss Casey Jones was in the second year and then having bands come back with all the experience that he had we had a really high success rate of making really good opposing hits and flying the air shows so one thing that we all did on the team is we were all striving to fly the perfect air show now I will say sometimes you know it's kind of like the asymptotic curve you're getting closer and closer and closer to it but you never quite get there but there were some times where we got very close to flying the perfect air show [Music] the problem that that that the team faced at the end of 77 was I was I was supposed to leave the team get orders elsewhere but Vance needed to get back to Miramar and his fleet squadron so with that happening the question was well okay who is going to train a new solo pilot in 1978 no after shortly after I think the or maybe before the show season end ended boss Jones called me into his office and asked me if if I would be willing to extend for a third year [Music] bill Newman came on board is the new boss and winter training I think went pretty well of course and I will say this that I think that the winter training is always a little bit more difficult with a new boss because I mean that is the most important position on the team because the boss sets everything flies all of the maneuvers communicates with the wingmen and and how he does that and how well he's able to do it really has a tremendous marker on the success of the team as the season goes along also this is this was my first year to nurture the opposing solo pilot along so as you get further and further into the year you you want to look at it in the context okay this person is going to be the lead solo next year you know I want them you know to understand and be able to do things properly and be able to nurture and bring along the opposing solo pilot my curtain and I had a very good relationship you know we spent time together you know even away from in the show sites and when we were back in Pensacola so he was he was a great guy he was like he was a you as a friend of mine even aside from everything else that we did and all the times that we were together and work together on the team we we had finished a very successful show we had a great show up to Point Mugu and we were going to fly down to Miramar to do arrival manoeuvres and for some reason the night before I got some sort of a bug and I mean I had a fever and I you know I just I was I was not feeling well at all and we in the brief you know we briefed the fact that probably Mike was gonna have to do single solo arrival manoeuvres because I told him I says unless something changes very soon I just I'm not well enough to be pulling G's or doing anything else in the airplane as a matter of fact it was hard for me just to climb up a ladder and get in the airplane we briefed standard arrival manoeuvres you know I talked specifically but to Mike about his responsibility to set all the altitudes for all the maneuvers because obviously didn't have the lead solo to sit said his manoeuvres on it was the afternoon and when it came to horizontal rolls he was doing it pointing west and at that time of year is the sunsets out there if there's a little bit of haziness well anyway Mike Mike tried to do five and I think he had a drop tank on the airplane which might have affected the roll rate just a little bit plus the haziness that he when he finished the fifth roll he actually got upright but he had set up a significant sink rate and you know hit the runway so I was orbiting right behind the crowd when this happened and so of course you couldn't look down and you see the whole thing and it was it's it was almost a surreal moment watching that it was it was a it was a very tough time and you know losing losing you know two opposing solo pilots was was was really really hard to swallow it was very difficult and but you know it happened and and you know there's no going back there's no changing it or you know there's there's there's just nothing he can do and just have to live with it and I was obviously very privileged to be selected I worked very hard at my craft while I was there and but there was always an understanding that you know I was selected but there could have been any number of other people selected for the position so doing that job was a privilege and you just do it to the best of the ability and and you're there to really represent the Navy represent Naval Aviation and the people that came before you and hopefully to inspire young people who watch the show to want to become a part of it in the future I'm very heartened by the fact that the team is what now in its 73rd year and going strong and and it's it's a great ambassador it's a great ambassador for the Navy for Naval Aviation and so I look at it as my my time on the team is is as as being a part of that as part of being part of the team and again it's a continuation and trying to do it well and once you leave the team it's it's time for other naval aviators to step into those positions and continue on the tradition that's been you know has been maintained through the years [Music] [Music]

Channel: Blue Angel Phantoms

Views: 29,917

Keywords: Blue Angels Pilot, John Miller, A6, Fighter Jet, Blue Angels History, Blue Angels, Fighter Pilot, Blue Angels Crash, Blue Angels 1976, Blue Angels 1977, Blue Angels 1978, Miramar Crash, Dan Keating, Mike Curtin, Nile Kraft, Vietnam, USS Saratoga, 1976, 1977, 1978, Blue Angels A4 Skyhawk, A4 Skyhawk, El Centro crash, El Centro, Blue Angels El Centro, Blue Angels Accident, Casey Jones, airshow, air show, dick schram, al cisneros, don simmons, vance parker

Id: T_oGoin24OI

Length: 18min 28sec (1108 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 12 2019