JOHN TUCKER 'CHICK' HAYWARD USN VICE ADMIRAL Admiral Hayward was born in New York. As a youth, he was a batboy for the New York Yankees baseball team. When he was 15, he lied about his age and joined the Navy after being expelled from military school for disciplinary reasons and dropping out of high school. But later he was such an exemplary seaman that he was one of the few enlisted men accepted by the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. As a pilot in World War II, he fought in the Solomon Islands and New Guinea campaigns. The squadron he commanded destroyed 43 Japanese ships, including three submarines, and damaged 54 other ships. Hayward's record of 13,200 flight hours was the highest ever achieved by a flag officer. In 1944 he joined the Manhattan Project, the wartime effort to design and build atomic weapons, and was assigned to the China Lake Naval Ordnance Test Station in California, where he helped develop the implosion components of the plutonium bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Partly in response to the bombing of Nagasaki, which took place three days after the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, the Japanese surrendered, ending World War II. After the war, he went to Japan to study the aftereffects on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. In 1946, he was in charge of the first attempt to photograph a  nuclear explosion on the Bikini atoll at 800,000 frames per second. In 1948 he became the first Commanding Officer of the first US Navy Heavy Attack Composite Squadron, VC-5. In the early 1950s, he helped plan atomic weapons laboratory work at Los Alamos and Sandia. He also worked on the foundation of the Livermore Laboratory program in 1952 in close collaboration with Dr. Edward Teller. Over the years, he had worked on systems for ground- and air-launched rockets and became a pioneer in the development of weapons used to fight submarines. He also commanded the first nuclear-powered task force in naval history, leading the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise.  Admiral Hayward served as president of the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, from 1966 until retiring from active duty in 1968. He later worked for General Dynamics as a vice president for international programs. His Navy decorations included two awards of the Distinguished Service Medal and the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal. On Sunday, May 23, 1999, Admiral Hayward died at his home in Atlantic Beach, Florida. He was 90 years old. He had lived in Atlantic Beach, Florida since 1957. Admiral Hayward was survived by a sister, Marjorie Madey of Baton Rouge, LA; a son, John T. Hayward Jr. of Newport, RI; daughters, Jennifer Bramhall of Oakland, CA, Marion Pontzer of Sterling, VA, Victoria Hayward of Neptune Beach, FL and Shelley Klein of Fern Park, FL; 22 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren. -------------------------------------------- Hayward, John T, b. 11/15/1908, d. 05/24/1999, US Navy, VADM, - Section 3, Grave 1897-ALH, buried 06/14/1999 In Arlington National Cemetary Hayward, Leila Marion, b. 09/29/1910, d. 02/14/1998, US Navy, PHM2, Section 3, Grave 1897-ALH, buried 02/25/1998 in Arlington National Cemetary -------------------------------------------- credits to news articles and Bill Borklund, Admiral Hayward's biographer. ======================= CAPT. PAUL STEVENS - VC-8 - 1ST CO, VAH-1 I do remember the early days of Heavy Attack though did not enter until 1954. However, as Whit Wright and I were good friends I keep up with the happenings somewhat closely. I was Whit's X.O. in Bombing 104, second tour, WW II. Then Captain John Tucker Hayward was an outstanding officer and aviator. Too bad the other pilot who tried to land the P2V aboard was not quite up to the talent of J.T. Hayward.   Even so in the push to get an atomic delivery for the Fleet it was necessary to take actions that were a bit on the wild side. It did pay off and we still have an organization called Naval Aviation. There was an outfit at this time that was dead set to do away with Naval Aviation. By the way the Truculent Turtle is still at the Naval Air Museum Pensacola. Do keep the "Old Days" alive. I find it very interesting. Paul Stevens stevensp@bellsouth.net ====================== HATU SANFORD FLORIDA I remember the two P2Vs that were configured for carrier operation.  I am doing some research, but in late 1956 HATU (Sanford) had two P2Vs, I can't remember their whole bureau numbers, but the last four digits were 2949 and 2969.  These aircraft were configured with ASB-1, the bomb bay was widened to carry a "shape" and they had a tail hook. In HATU you were trained as a "Heavy Attack Crew" and each crew member knew the others job. They used these two aircraft to fly a three leg mission with a ron at each target.  The first leg was from Sanford to Santa Clara, Cuba.  On this leg you had your standard crew configuration, Pilot ,Pilot B/N, B/N and Third Crew, Third Crew.  We had our "T" -- time chart and part of the grade was how close you came to bomb away. We could only use celestial navigation and ASB-1.   The instructors would throw us problems like take away our sextant, or simulate single engine or a weapon problem.  I remember so well we were at 5000' and about 100 miles from target and it of course was at night so we were supposed to have our O2 on, well the mask was getting in my way, so I took it off and got a down for the flight. My nav was right on and the time was just a minute or so off but that didn't count.  (I later got that "down" removed when the board president asked me what made me think I could violate a Navy regulation.  I told the Captain that I had lived my whole life at 5000-9000 feet west if Denver so didn't think I was going to die.)  The second leg was from to Burmuda, the b/n was the pilot and the third crew was the b/n and the pilot was the third crew. The last flight was from Burmuda to Sanford. SAC wanted all the budget for strategic air defense.  Their idea for the Navy Air was to be a coastal defense.  So the Navy made some demonstrations to Congress.  The first was the non stop non refueled flight of the "Truculent Turtle" from I believe Sidney Australia to Norfolk, VA.  Nearly 14,000 miles.  The next demonstration was '2949 a flight off the Midway with a "shape", east of Norfolk.  There was four feet from the scupper to the left main mount and four feet from the right wing tip to the Midway's Island.  Remember the Midway was still a straight deck. The mission was to Rio De Janeiro and return to the Midway. The '2949 made a break and turned into the grove, however the Midway's Captain would not let her land, he had the aircraft crane and all of the "yellow gear" in the landing area, so '2949 had to divert to NAS Norfolk.  To my knowledge the P2V never landed on a carrier. Ralph Feeback - Rsfmfp@aol.com (Ed. note: two photos of BuNo 122969, one JATO launch and one on the Coral Sea, are at http://p2vneptune.org/p2v3c.shtml)