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From Tuna to Blue Shark 1977 by Stephen Warmath
I was assigned to VP-6 as a LTjg pilot in the summer of 1977. I was to be assigned as
Assistant Public affairs Officer under LT "Hoot Gibson". During my "Welcome Aboard" interview with, then CDR. Wright C.O., we had a nice talk and at the end of the interview, he asked me if
I had any comments or suggestions. (Sidebar-My degree from Clemson was in Architecture and visual arts.) I told him I thought the "shark" on the Squadron logo looked more like a "tuna" than a
shark. He kinda looked at me oddly and asked, "Do you think you can do any better?" I responded, "Yes sir." He said "Show me what you can do."
I proceeded to do some
sketches and ultimately designed the updated shark with the rainbow spread behind it. I made a true scale color rendering of how the design would look on the actual tail of the plane and showed it to the C.O. He and
the XO, then CDR Maness,loved it. It was widely adopted by the Squadron as the new VP-6 logo. The only change was the AF guys complained at how tedious the masking of all the different colors would be on the tail of
the plane, so we opted to use only the shark on the tail, but kept the "Rainbow Fleet" color fan theme as part of the logo and maintain the smaller rainbow from the previous design for the plane.
When we went to create the master mask for the shark, it was so big, I couldn't get a sense of proportion at ground level. I ended up being lifted up in the air in a cherry picker and coaxing a AF guy on
the ground with a marker to rough out the overall shape. I then refined it some more from the ground, and when it looked right, the guys made a template. The first plane was painted and I thought it
looked terrific. Afterwards, we did an aerial photo from a formation flight to capture a picture of the new look. The plane was PC-1. I have that picture hanging in my office today. I am very proud to have been a
part of that change in the VP-6 image. The "Tuna" was now a "Blue Shark".
Stephen Warmath
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