VP-6 Insignia 1950

PATROL SQUADRON SIX

VP-6

“The World Famous Blue Sharks” (1943-1993) PATRON SIX

VP-6 crew 6 1968
VP-6 crew 6 1968

VP-6 crew 6 1968

Back row, left to right: Position 1. Jim Furness AX3 2. Leroy Poplin AO3 3. Rodger Norris ATR2  4. "Stash" or Stan Stachekevitz? ADJ2 Flight Engineer (I’m not sure at all that’s him or how to spell his name), 5. Bruce Leach  AM2 Flight Engineer (I’m still in contact with his brother) 6. no recollection (Memory came up empty) 7. Kevin McHale AX2 (Absolutely sure as his brother lived across the hall from my wife at the time of the incident!) 8. Not sure. I think this is Fitzpatrick.

Front row, left to right: Kneeling are left, Ltjg Jones, Navigator and Lcdr Jones, PPC and Pilot and at the controls at the time of the incident. Both survivors. The two right are unknown.

Rodger, Kevin and I all went through Memphis, North Island, SERE and Moffett together. They wanted to stay in the Navy and took the PO 2 exam. I was the "bad boy" of the group and as I knew I wanted to get out and go back to school, I didn’t want to be tempted by an extra few dollars a month. I didn’t go to take the test with them that day.  I didn’t go with them on their final day either. I left the crew on April 1 primarily to get some experience in the avionics shop in order to find it easier to find a job when discharged at the end of the year. P.J. Lewis took my place and survived with burns on his hands and face and a cut above his eye from the ECM camera. "Stash" left the crew the same day for the same type of reasons as I. I see Mark Pavlow from time to time while on business up in Wisconsin. He lives near Appleton and still has some bone chips wandering around in his lower extremities from passing through the disintegrating fuselage and the impact of hitting the water at about 180 mph. Remembers suddenly not having an airplane around him as he flew through the air... As for me, I’m still playing around with weird underwater sound phenomena and other esoteric technical stuff.

Jim Furness
Julie/ECM & Radar/Mad VP6 66-68

This photograph was taken shortly before Crew 6 was involved in a mishap off the coast of Okinawa (6 April 68).

Eight crewmembers, were lost:

LT F.L. Cornet

LT R.S. Stolz

AMS2 B.C. Leach

AX2 K.P. McHale

ATR2 R.A. Norris

AO3 L. Poplin

AN R.W. Fitzpatrick

AN P.E. Hart


Surviving were: LCDR Jones, LTJG Jones, and Petty Officers P.J. Lewis, and Mark Pavlow.