by VADM William D. Houser, USN(Ret)
Ed. Note: VADM Houser was recently asked by the author of the Tailhook Association history book, to be published in September 1998 by the Turner Publishing Company, to recall events significant in the background of the Tailhook Association. He responded with the following, in which he outlines the genesis of the convention's Flag Panel, one of the more popular features of our annual convention and the first of its kind among Navy-related gatherings. The Tailhook Association wishes to share his comments, as they relate not only to situations existing in 1972, but contemporary times as well.
I became Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Air Warfare) on 8 August 1972, coming back to Washington from a two-year tour as a carrier division commander. At that time, the war in Vietnam was winding down and the American public was fed up with that hapless struggle. The war ended just after the Christmas 1972 bombing and our Prisoners of War returned home to a vastly different society than the one they left.
Discipline, order and respect for organizations, government and society were discarded by the "new youth." They cared principally about themselves and self-indulgence. It was in this environment that the Navy and Naval Aviation found itself in the early '70s.
Not unexpectedly in 1973, without the stimulation of a threat to world peace and with the general questioning of the usefulness of military forces after the fighting (I have witnessed this syndrome after World War II, Korea and Vietnam), Naval Aviators looked longingly at the comfortable world outside the Navy. Many of them opted out for the "good life."
Naval Aviation was beginning to receive new aircraft, such as the F-14, S-3, A-6E and the EA-6B. At the same time, new weapons systems were arriving in the fleet. All were characterized as sophisticated, effective and above all, expensive. A good portion of our experienced aircrews were needed to be retained to operate this equipment. In the self-indulgent atmosphere of the times, appeals to patriotism, duty, camaraderie and other hallmarks of military organizations were ignored in favor of "do your own thing." Clearly, something had to be done to staunch the flow of trained Naval aircrews who were leaving in large numbers to join the commercial airlines.
Explanations, encouragement and even pleading by Naval leaders were not effective in convincing Naval Aviators to stay in the Navy. Letters, directives and pep talks from the local commands did not change minds. At that time, we at OP-05 decided to take the case to the target population -- the aircrews -- to find out what was on their minds. We then could figure out how these same minds could be changed.
It was decided to assemble the top members of the Naval Aviation command structure and face the aircrews as they personally presented their views to the top echelon. This was to be done at Tailhook conventions, the largest congregation of Naval aircrews available. This was made possible by support of the Navy, which authorized air transportation in government aircraft for those at remote bases.
Present on the panels were the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Air Warfare), the Deputy Chief of Staff for Marine Corps Aviation, the Commander of Naval Air Systems Command, the Chief of Naval Personnel, and commanders of the fleet aviation type commands and Marine air wings. It was quite an impressive gathering. Many of the panelists were unknown to aircrews in attendance.
The format decided upon was to have each panelist make a short presentation about those things each felt were most important. Comments from the panel were to be followed by questions from the audience, to be answered by the panelists. This procedure was quite a departure from the time honored "chain of command" under which most of us had matured.
The questions at the Flag Panel ran the gamut from high-performance aircraft and technical matters to family separations, pay and promotions. Not spared were the type commanders, who were questioned about directives and policies they had instituted or implemented.
The questions were always frank and clearly not timid. The replies were rendered in the same vein. These assemblies were more like share-holders' meetings than a military gathering, and were quite successful. A communications link was thus established between the junior operators and the top command element.
Because the fleet commands were represented, there was no feeling of being upstaged or betrayed by higher headquarters. The top brass had a good first-hand feeling of what was bothering their fleet operators. The latter received a much better appreciation of the problems facing the Navy and what was being done to solve them.
Flag Panels at the Tailhook reunion were quite effective and even popular, and continued long past the time scheduled. Because they generally were held the afternoon before the banquet, it was not uncommon to see the panelists and aviators still going at it, professionally, as guests were assembling for dinner.
Tailhook was an ideal forum for this assembly and became one of the major attractions of the convention. With the radical change in the format of the Tailhook convention after 1991 and the subsequent marginalized panels at recent conventions, Naval Aviation has lost a fine opportunity to field a first-hand discussion of problems and concerns of junior officers to the benefit of all parties. It should be re-established, as it served an important purpose and was effective. It can be so again.
Another fine feature of the pre-1991 Tailhook conventions was contractor displays with engineering personnel manning them. This contact with the makers of our equipment provided the only opportunity many of the junior aircrews had to learn about new aircraft, radar, other sensors, weapons systems and associated equipment. They also had an opportunity to discuss them with the contractor engineers who attended.
In the days when I was on active duty (I retired in 1976), the Tailhook convention was a fine professional occurrence and really got the attention of the junior aircrews.
There is no corresponding activity now, and in my opinion, one is needed.