CDR. Edward Frankiewicz USN (Ret) 23 February 2000 Brian Shoemaker
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CDR. Edward Frankiewicz USN (Ret) 23 February 2000 Brian Shoemaker Interviewer (Begin Tape 1 - Side A) (000) BS: This is an oral history interview with Commander Edward Frankiewicz, taken at his home in San Diego, California, on 23 February 2000. The interview is being conducted by Brian Shoemaker as part of the Polar Oral History Program being conducted by the American Polar Society and the Byrd Polar Archive of the Ohio State University supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. EF: Born 1919, in the most beautiful town in the world, Rutland, Vermont, and the population of 17,000 people then and it's still 17,000 population. And it was a great place for a youngster to grow up in. We had skiing and tobogganing and sliding and fiShinng through the ice. And in the springtime, we'd go trout fiShinng in the brooks and streams of Vermont. And, of course, in the wintertime, fiShinng through the ice was great. And then, of course, camping out, and hiking, and climbing mountains in the summertime. And in the fall of the year, shuffling your feet through the beautiful leaves that would accumulate on the ground. I was graduated from the high school in Rutland, and then went to a coeducational business college called Bay Path Institute in Springfield, Massachusetts, at the completion of which I got a job in a chemical factory in Waterbury, Connecticut, where I found out that the American Legion in Stratford, Connecticut, was sponsoring this CPT Program - Civilian Pilot Training Program. And I entered that and there were about 200 of us students. The object of it was to be instructed in navigation, aeronautics, aerodynamics, airframe, radio and the like to prepare you for the private pilots written exam that was sponsored by the FAA, or CAA at that time. And of the 200 students, most of them were engineers from Sikorsky Aircraft Plant at Bridgeport (Stratfort) Airport, right across the street from Bridgeport Airport. And the 10 top grades in that course were given flight scholarships that would give you your private pilots license. And I was one of the ten. So that's how I became interested in aviation. And then they followed, the next course came unexpectedly. It was called the secondary course which we flew in bi-planes - twin cockpits, goggles, helmet and the scarf around the neck - and we did aerobatics. That course was 20 hours about of aerobatics. BS: Which year was this? EF: Oh, that was 1940. And then the third course that the government sponsored in that CPT Program was a cross-country. That was in a Stinson Reliant, beautiful aircraft. And we flew all over New England on cross-country navigational courses. And then the final course - the fourth course - was a flight instructors course. At the completion of it, we were checked, written, by FAA and thus we were able to be qualified as flight instructors. At the completion of that, we were given commercial pilot's ratings for FAA. So I not only had a private pilot's license, but a flight instructors rating and a commercial rating. And at that time, we found out that Pan American Airways, this was now in late 1941 - Pan American Airways was interested in accumulating pilots for their African Division that they were going to open: Pan American Airways Africa Limited. And we went down to the Chrysler Building in New York City and yes, the four of us from Bridgeport Airport, we were hired as pilots. (50) And we went to Miami in early January of 1942. And we went through their Pan American pilot training program and were sent to Africa and were stationed at Accra on the British Gold Coast. And we flew up and down the coast, the west coast of Africa, and across Africa of course, and to Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and to Egypt, Arabia, Iraq, Iran, and India. It was a glorious experience for us youngsters. In very late '42, our forces invaded Northwest Africa and it became too dangerous for us to fly because of German activity. And so I resigned from Pan Am and my buddy and I, we went to join the United States Navy. We wanted to become fighter pilots and the Navy said, "Yes, we sure need pilots already trained." But they said that, "If you want to become a fighter pilot, we've got to send you through extensive training. But we desperately need transport pilots and you already are a transport pilot." So we joined the Navy on that basis and became early members of Naval Air Transport Squadron VR-1, the first air transport squadron. And very rapidly, I became a plane commander in an R4D type aircraft which are DC3s and then early, I became as a very young lieutenant junior grade, I was flying four engine aircraft across the North Atlantic and that's where I got my first real experience on cold weather flying because those North Atlantic storms were pretty vicious. BS: Icing? EF: A lot of icing, a lot of snow. One thing that we used to do when, say, a senator or admiral came up into the cockpit, on night flights and if it were snowing or on instruments we would have a powerful hand held Aldis light in the darkened cockpit to check on the amount of snow falling or ice buildup on the windshield and leading edge of the wing. We would place the Aldis light against the windshield or side cockpit window and press the "on" switch. The light reflected by the snow, accentuated by the speed of the airplane was a startling sight, scaring the dickens out of the uninitiated. Incidentally, throughout all of World War II, we never had an accident in our four-engine aircraft across that North Atlantic. BS: What aircraft was that now? EF: Pardon me? BS: Which aircraft was that? EF: R5D - DC-4. BS: R5D. EF: Douglas DC4 - a wonderful, wonderful airplane. Just like the DC3 was a wonderful airplane. So, that was where I got indoctrinated into cold weather flying was in VR-1. Although in the United States, in the wintertime on a lot of the flights in New England, you got plenty of icing and snowstorms and instrument flying and instrument landings and the like. So . I was stationed at Hutchison, Kansas, in the Advanced Training Command on PB4Y2s - four engine Convair patrol aircraft because I had just come back from the Korean War with VP-28, flying the same type of aircraft. So it was a pretty easy tour for me when I heard about VX6 wanting pilots and so I flew to Washington, DC, was interviewed by Lieutenant Commander Pendergraff, I believe it was. One of Ed Ward's assistants. BS: Which year was that? EF: 1955. And when we landed at Anacostia on the outskirts of Washington, DC, it was in a mild blizzard. But then the blizzard intensified while I was being interviewed by Pendergraff, and he asked what was our intentions about going back with regard to the blizzard and I said, "It's a blizzard, you know. There's nothing new about those. We're ready to go back, we'll go back." And so I think I made an impression upon him so we were indoctrinated into VX6 - got my orders very shortly thereafter. And we reported to Naval Air Test Center at Pautuxent River, Maryland, where VX6 was being formed? BS: Had you flown to Thule before that? EF: What? BS: Had you ever flown to Thule or any of the northern bases - the DEW-line? EF: No. I never had. But I had flown many times to Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Scotland. (100) BS: You weren't involved with any of Ed Ward's work up in Alaska. EF: No. Never had that. BS: So you didn't know Ed 'til then. EF: No. But I did meet him in the squadron. BS: And when did you get married? EF: 1946. BS: Right after the war. EF: Yeah, to a Texas gal - Fort Worth, Texas, gal. Best thing I ever did, 53 years ago. Anyway, it was very hectic forming VX6 because we had several aircraft to get ready and all of them were specially configured. The deHaviland Otter - the UC-1 ski equipped and the helicopters and the HO4Ss and the R4Ds were specially configured with skis and dump chutes and fifteen stations for JATO bottles and the radar and so on. And I was assigned to the aircraft maintenance department. And that is always a hard working outfit of any squadron. And anyway, I think it was October, 1955, that we departed for New Zealand and Antarctica. And we made it in stages. We flew from Pautuxent River to Sioux Falls, Iowa. Spent the night there then into Whidbey Island and because the winds were so strong that we could not fly from San Francisco, Alameda, to Hawaii, so we had to take the circular route, so we went from Whidbey Island, Washington, to Kodiak, Alaska, to Adak, Alaska, and then down to Midway and then over to Barber's Point on Oahu, Hawaii. From there to Canton Island, to Fiji - landing in Fiji - Auckland, New Zealand, and Wigram Field in Christchurch, where we regrouped and gathered everybody and prepared for the launch south. BS: All the R4Ds flew that route? EF: Yeah. No, we had only in Deepfreeze I, we had two R4Ds and two UF Grumman, UF Trifibian aircraft. They were sea planes with hulls and of course, the wheels that made them amphibious.