“Because of approach speed and scan, you had to work your ass off. But I liked the F-8 because it was challenging and you felt really good when you had a good landing,” CAPT Bill Switzer, former US Navy Crusader pilot
Presented below is the opening section of an interview with CAPT Bill Switzer on carrier landings in the F-8, F-4, and F-14, USN (Ret.), conducted by Dave Baranek.
CAPT Bill “Striker” Switzer, USN (Ret.), was born in Illinois and raised in rural West Virginia not far from Charleston, the state capital. By today’s safety-minded standards, his childhood was remarkably rough-and-tumble, but those early experiences helped shape the fighter pilot who would go on to survive combat and stand out as a Blue Angel. At age 8, seeing two P-51 Mustangs firmly set his ambition to become a fighter pilot. Although the road was not easy, that dream kept him motivated, and a Navy recruiter’s talk during college put him on the road to earning his Wings of Gold. He completed AOCS in 1965.
Switzer went on to become a Navy fighter pilot whose career included more than 150 combat missions in Vietnam in the F-8, two years flying the F-4 with the Blue Angels, and command of an F-14 squadron. He also served as an air wing commander (CAG) and later became one of the first “Super CAGs.”
Before fly-by-wire systems and digital flight controls existed, U.S. Navy fighter pilots had to fight heavy controls and turbulent conditions to bring both themselves and their aircraft safely home. Switzer logged more than 6,000 flight hours and over 1,150 arrested landings in three iconic fighters—the F-8, F-4, and F-14. Here’s what he has to say…
As Switzer was completing Navy pilot training in March 1967, the most sought-after jets were the A-6, F-4, and F-8, and he said choosing the F-8 was “a matter of pride.” Finishing near the top of his class, he asked for Vought’s single-seat fighter and was sent to the F-8 RAG at NAS Miramar [note #1]. There, he was labeled a “must pump” and given accelerated training. Just two weeks after completing the RAG, he was flying Vietnam combat missions in F-8Es with VF-191 “Satan’s Kittens” aboard USS Ticonderoga (CVA-14). [note #2]
After flying over enemy territory, Navy pilots still had to face the challenge of landing on a carrier. A well-known 1970s recruiting film said that the most intense moments of a combat flight came during the night carrier landing at the end. Switzer had to manage the F-8’s relatively high landing speed as well as the Ticonderoga’s flight deck, which was much smaller than the one he had trained on in the RAG. As Switzer put it, “You don’t think about that, you just fly the ball. We had antiquated instruments compared to today’s aircraft and no head-up display. You just scan, scan, scan.” He was referring, of course, to the standard Navy landing scan: meatball, line-up, angle of attack. [note #3]
“I had some problems early on from spotting the deck, looking at the flight deck instead of maintaining that scan. My CAG and LSO went over the basics with me and I ‘got it.’ After that I had some of the best landing grades in the air wing.” [note #4]. During this period, Switzer was building the habits and skills that would benefit him throughout the rest of his career.
“I can’t say enough about the scan. Because of approach speed and scan, you had to work your ass off. But I liked the F-8 because it was challenging and you felt really good when you had a good landing.” This mindset helped foster the close camaraderie among F-8 pilots and reinforced their reputation for pride, confidence, and strong performance.
Switzer remembers that the squadrons pushed their F-8s hard, which sometimes resulted in mechanical problems. “We occasionally had to use the RAT (ram air turbine for auxiliary electrical power), and if it happened at night, it gave us only partial lighting, so that made things even more interesting.”
In closing, he notes that because Ticonderoga was a smaller carrier, it pitched and moved much more than the larger carriers. “You’re concentrating on your scan, flying the ball, and then it disappears! The LSO would say, ‘Keep it coming.’ And you trusted them so much, you kept it coming.”
• Notes:
The author wishes to thank former squadronmates Rob “Preppy” Thompson and Paul “Nick” Nickell for their help with the research, as well as Jon “Hooter” Schreiber for his editing assistance.
- 1. RAG stood for Replacement Air Group, an older designation that was officially changed in 1963. The updated term became FRS, meaning Fleet Readiness Squadron, but the nickname RAG remained widely used.
- 2. This article uses whichever ship designation—CVA or CV—was current during the period being described.
- 3. “Meatball” is the informal name for the Navy’s Optical Landing System, which is installed to the left of a carrier’s landing area.
- 4. CAG was the informal title for the air wing commander, a carryover from the earlier term “commander, air group.” LSO stands for Landing Signal Officers, who are positioned beside the landing area and supervise all carrier landings.
Author Dave “Bio” Baranek served as a RIO in the F-14 Tomcat and logged 2,500 flight hours. He commanded VF-211 from August 1997 to August 1998. Published in 2020, his third book, Tomcat RIO, recounts this story along with many others from his career and includes dozens of his photographs.
