Jack
October 7th 05, 06:02 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/06/AR2005100602034.html
Capt. George C. Watkins; Navy Test Pilot
By Matt Schudel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 7, 2005; B06
Capt. George C. Watkins, a record-setting Navy test pilot in the 1950s
who later served as a White House social aide to three presidents, died
of a heart attack Sept. 18 at a hospital in Lompoc, Calif., where he
lived. He was 84.
Capt. Watkins, who had no intention of becoming an aviator when he
entered the Navy during World War II, had a dashing career as a test
pilot, setting records for speed, altitude and number of landings on
aircraft carriers. Late in his military career, he was an adviser for
the World War II movie "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and flew a Japanese plane in
the 1970 film.
After graduating from the Naval Academy in 1943, he planned to be a
shipboard naval officer, and he served in the Pacific during World War
II as a battery turret officer on the battleship Pennsylvania. But when
the Navy, finding itself short of pilots, issued a call for aviators,
Capt. Watkins quickly volunteered. He received his pilot's wings just
after the end of the war.
In 1950, he entered the Navy's test pilot school in Patuxent River,
where two of his classmates were future astronauts John Glenn and Alan
Shepard. Capt. Watkins served in the Korean War as a fighter pilot
before resuming his career as one of the leading test pilots of the
fearless and swashbuckling generation chronicled by Tom Wolfe in the
book "The Right Stuff." His fellow aviators called him "Gorgeous
George."
Capt. Watkins was the first Navy pilot to exceed both 60,000 and 70,000
feet in altitude. On a single day in 1956, he set a speed record of
1,220 mph and an unofficial altitude record of 73,500 feet. In April
1958, he piloted his Grumman F11F-1F Super Tiger to two altitude
records in three days, topping out at 76,939 feet and returning the
record to American hands after an absence of 14 years.
When Glenn and Shepard were chosen for the new Mercury astronaut
program in 1959, Capt. Watkins was left behind because he was an inch
taller than the 5-foot-11 height limit. In 1961, according to Capt.
Watkins's wife, he was asked to command the Navy's precision flight
team, the Blue Angels, but his orders were canceled when the Cuban
Missile Crisis heated up.
For much of the 1960s, Capt. Watkins was stationed at the Pentagon in
the Strike Warfare Division. Among other duties, he was a social aide
at the White House under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B.
Johnson. He helped at White House functions, organized reception lines
and assisted in other preparations, including plans for Kennedy's
funeral in 1963.
In 1965, when Capt. Watkins became commanding officer of a supply ship
off the coast of Vietnam, he promptly ordered the helicopter supply
drops to be made at night, which soon became common Navy practice. He
later worked at the Navy's information office at the Pentagon and
resumed his duties in the White House under Johnson and President
Richard M. Nixon.
One of Capt. Watkins's more unusual military assignments came in 1969,
when he provided technical support for the making of "Tora! Tora!
Tora!," which reenacted the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He
led efforts to find Navy ships and vintage propeller planes for the
movie and recruited Navy pilots to fly the old aircraft. He appeared in
the film as a Japanese pilot landing a fighter (actually an American
plane refitted in Japanese colors) on an aircraft carrier.
During his 30-year career, Capt. Watkins had an unrivaled record of
aviation achievement. In 1962, he became the first Navy pilot to make
1,000 landings on aircraft carriers and eight years later, he was the
first to log 10,000 hours behind the controls of Navy aircraft.
By the time in retired in 1973, he had flown more than 200 aircraft
models, made 1,418 fixed-wing landings on 37 aircraft carriers and
accumulated more than 16,000 hours of flight time. He had to eject only
once, when his fighter plane skidded off the edge of a carrier's deck.
His decorations included the Distinguished Flying Cross and the
Meritorious Service Medal.
George Clinton Watkins was born March 10, 1921, in Alhambra, Calif.,
and grew up in nearby Pasadena. He attended a military prep school in
San Diego and the Citadel in South Carolina before entering the Naval
Academy. (He was a member of the class of 1944, but graduated a year
earlier in an accelerated wartime program.)
After his Navy career, he operated a landscaping company in Virginia
Beach and became drawn to the sport of gliding. In 1982, he returned to
Patuxent River to pursue his interest.
He lived in Arizona from 1985 to 1987 before moving to Santa Monica,
Calif., where he ran a school for glider pilots. In 1998, he moved to
the central California town of Lompoc, where he taught glider
aerobatics and flew his custom Fox glider in competitions, once taking
second in a national contest.
A heart condition grounded Capt. Watkins in 2003, after he had spent
more than 21,000 hours in the air on more than 26,000 flights.
Survivors include his wife of 26 years, Monica Watkins of Lompoc; and
two brothers, John Watkins of Pasadena and retired Navy Adm. James D.
Watkins of Annapolis, who was chief of naval operations from 1982 to
1986 and secretary of energy under President George H.W. Bush.
Capt. George C. Watkins; Navy Test Pilot
By Matt Schudel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 7, 2005; B06
Capt. George C. Watkins, a record-setting Navy test pilot in the 1950s
who later served as a White House social aide to three presidents, died
of a heart attack Sept. 18 at a hospital in Lompoc, Calif., where he
lived. He was 84.
Capt. Watkins, who had no intention of becoming an aviator when he
entered the Navy during World War II, had a dashing career as a test
pilot, setting records for speed, altitude and number of landings on
aircraft carriers. Late in his military career, he was an adviser for
the World War II movie "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and flew a Japanese plane in
the 1970 film.
After graduating from the Naval Academy in 1943, he planned to be a
shipboard naval officer, and he served in the Pacific during World War
II as a battery turret officer on the battleship Pennsylvania. But when
the Navy, finding itself short of pilots, issued a call for aviators,
Capt. Watkins quickly volunteered. He received his pilot's wings just
after the end of the war.
In 1950, he entered the Navy's test pilot school in Patuxent River,
where two of his classmates were future astronauts John Glenn and Alan
Shepard. Capt. Watkins served in the Korean War as a fighter pilot
before resuming his career as one of the leading test pilots of the
fearless and swashbuckling generation chronicled by Tom Wolfe in the
book "The Right Stuff." His fellow aviators called him "Gorgeous
George."
Capt. Watkins was the first Navy pilot to exceed both 60,000 and 70,000
feet in altitude. On a single day in 1956, he set a speed record of
1,220 mph and an unofficial altitude record of 73,500 feet. In April
1958, he piloted his Grumman F11F-1F Super Tiger to two altitude
records in three days, topping out at 76,939 feet and returning the
record to American hands after an absence of 14 years.
When Glenn and Shepard were chosen for the new Mercury astronaut
program in 1959, Capt. Watkins was left behind because he was an inch
taller than the 5-foot-11 height limit. In 1961, according to Capt.
Watkins's wife, he was asked to command the Navy's precision flight
team, the Blue Angels, but his orders were canceled when the Cuban
Missile Crisis heated up.
For much of the 1960s, Capt. Watkins was stationed at the Pentagon in
the Strike Warfare Division. Among other duties, he was a social aide
at the White House under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B.
Johnson. He helped at White House functions, organized reception lines
and assisted in other preparations, including plans for Kennedy's
funeral in 1963.
In 1965, when Capt. Watkins became commanding officer of a supply ship
off the coast of Vietnam, he promptly ordered the helicopter supply
drops to be made at night, which soon became common Navy practice. He
later worked at the Navy's information office at the Pentagon and
resumed his duties in the White House under Johnson and President
Richard M. Nixon.
One of Capt. Watkins's more unusual military assignments came in 1969,
when he provided technical support for the making of "Tora! Tora!
Tora!," which reenacted the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He
led efforts to find Navy ships and vintage propeller planes for the
movie and recruited Navy pilots to fly the old aircraft. He appeared in
the film as a Japanese pilot landing a fighter (actually an American
plane refitted in Japanese colors) on an aircraft carrier.
During his 30-year career, Capt. Watkins had an unrivaled record of
aviation achievement. In 1962, he became the first Navy pilot to make
1,000 landings on aircraft carriers and eight years later, he was the
first to log 10,000 hours behind the controls of Navy aircraft.
By the time in retired in 1973, he had flown more than 200 aircraft
models, made 1,418 fixed-wing landings on 37 aircraft carriers and
accumulated more than 16,000 hours of flight time. He had to eject only
once, when his fighter plane skidded off the edge of a carrier's deck.
His decorations included the Distinguished Flying Cross and the
Meritorious Service Medal.
George Clinton Watkins was born March 10, 1921, in Alhambra, Calif.,
and grew up in nearby Pasadena. He attended a military prep school in
San Diego and the Citadel in South Carolina before entering the Naval
Academy. (He was a member of the class of 1944, but graduated a year
earlier in an accelerated wartime program.)
After his Navy career, he operated a landscaping company in Virginia
Beach and became drawn to the sport of gliding. In 1982, he returned to
Patuxent River to pursue his interest.
He lived in Arizona from 1985 to 1987 before moving to Santa Monica,
Calif., where he ran a school for glider pilots. In 1998, he moved to
the central California town of Lompoc, where he taught glider
aerobatics and flew his custom Fox glider in competitions, once taking
second in a national contest.
A heart condition grounded Capt. Watkins in 2003, after he had spent
more than 21,000 hours in the air on more than 26,000 flights.
Survivors include his wife of 26 years, Monica Watkins of Lompoc; and
two brothers, John Watkins of Pasadena and retired Navy Adm. James D.
Watkins of Annapolis, who was chief of naval operations from 1982 to
1986 and secretary of energy under President George H.W. Bush.