VC-35/VA(AW)-35
Enlisted Combat Aircrewman Roll of Honor - AVCM Gene Poole
By CAPT Ray Schultz, CHC, USNR (Ret.)
Gene Poole joined the Merchant Marine at age 16, lured to the sea by his unobstructed view of San Pedro Harbor, California as he sat at his high school desk. When his Liberty Ship, Peter Sylvester, was 900 miles west of Fremantle, Australia, cruising alone to Calcutta, India, it was torpedoed by a German U-Boat and sunk. Poole became one of the survivors but not before enduring 22 days on a lifeboat in the open sea. His group was rescued by the British carrier, HMS Activity. In 1947 Poole joined the Navy and following aerial gunnery and radio school was designated an Electronicsman. With the outbreak of the Korean War he was assigned to all-weather night attack squadron VC-35, flying as first crewman in AD-4N Skyraiders. LCDR A.C. Waldman was his pilot and AT3 Schmidt was the second crewman. They deployed on USS Bon Homme Richard and flew night heckler and interdiction flights, usually operating in two-plane sections. The leader flew at low altitude in order to discern targets along the roads and railroad beds while the wingman remained at 4,000 feet in trail, ready to pounce on the enemy with bombing or strafing runs. Crews were launched early in the evening and relieved in the middle of the night be a second section of Skyraiders. This was an effective arrangement as the enemy had been forced by daytime Allied air superiority to hide equipment then move it at night via trucks and trains. "Green Three South," known as Flack Alley, was a dreaded area. During one attack there, as they came under fire and pulled up from a run, g-force caused a fuselage door of the AD-4N to pop out, Supplies were limited so an aluminum sheet was welded over the opening allowing the aircraft to remain combat flyable. Targets included bridges, trains, trucks and troops. Poole left the Navy but reenlisted in May 1957 and continued his career as a gunner/navigator. He logged over 1,000 A-3 Skywarrior hours in VAH-13 and in 1967 transferred to VP-1 flying patrols off Vietnam. Gene Poole retired from the Navy in June 1974 as a Master Chief Aviation Maintenance Technician (AVCM) and was inducted into the Enlisted Combat Aircrew Roll of Honor in 1999 aboard the USS Yorktown Museum in Charleston, South Carolina.

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