By Gary Rice
NADEP NEWS Editor

They are the last of a dying breed, the last seven A-4 Skyhawk jets in use in the fleet today. Flown by Fleet Composite Squadron Eight (VC-8) based in Puerto Rico, they fly as the aggressor squadron for Top Gun, the Navy’s elite jet fighter training school. With a career of service behind them that spans half a century, they are an integral piece of American military history. They’re pretty to look at now, too, with their colorful new paint schemes in shades of either blue or brown.

And they were painted at NADEP Cherry Point.

“The squadron wanted no one but us to paint them,” Cotton Whaley said. “They know we have a world class paint facility.”

Whaley, an aircraft planner and estimator in the NADEP Industrial Business Operations Department, was contacted by VC-8 representatives in 2000 about painting their A-4 aircraft. They wanted NADEP artisans to come up with a new tactical camouflage paint scheme for the planes, which were at that time a plain sky gray with a large red star on the tail. Whaley contacted U.S. Naval Air Forces Atlantic Fleet (AIRLANT) to make sure he was authorized to proceed and then spent months organizing, coordinating, and planning the painting project.

“We hashed it out here at the depot and came up with an idea,” Whaley explained. “Then, we sent our plans to AIRLANT, and they approved the color schemes. Four of the planes were painted dark blue on light blue, including the final one, and three were painted brown on tan.”

As an aggressor squadron, VC-8 aircraft simulate enemy warplanes and are painted with foreign markings. The squadron’s mission is to provide combat training for Top Gun aircrews by flying against them and engaging them in dogfights during regular training exercises. Their first Skyhawk was inducted for painting on Dec. 4, 2000, and the seventh and final one was inducted on Feb. 19 and departed on March 25.

“Painting an aircraft is a pretty involved process,” Aircraft Mechanic Dennis Butterfield said. “It has to be done by people who know how to do the job right.”

Butterfield played a key role in the success of the A-4 painting project and helped to procure much of the support equipment that was needed to do the job. As the project support mechanic, he performed mechanical work on the planes as needed during the painting process. He is one of the few people remaining at the depot who knows very much about working on the Skyhawk. NADEP initially acquired an A-4 maintenance program in the late 80s and began repair work on its first Skyhawk on Jan. 31, 1989; but the program concluded in 1996. As a mechanic, Butterfield has more than 30 years of military and civilian experience with a variety of A-4 models, and he has serviced A-4s in many different locations, including Vietnam.

“Once a plane is inducted, it is prepped for painting,” Whaley said. “Then, it’s stripped down to the bare metal and treated for corrosion, primed, re-painted, and serviced. The whole process takes about 21 calendar days.”

“It was a lot of fun painting those planes,” Bill Jackson, Aircraft Painter, said. “I used to paint jets when I worked in Norfolk, and this project reminded me of those days. Painting the color schemes was a bit more difficult than usual, but it made me realize what we can do here when we’re given an opportunity like this.”

“It was definitely different than what we normally do,” Jim Kanuck, another of the A-4 painters, said. “It was more like doing a custom paint job. In addition to the regular preparation time, it took six guys about two hours to do the actual spraying on each plane. We had to paint the lines of the camouflage scheme freehand, and when the lines from each side came together, they had to match. It was an interesting challenge.”

Whaley explained that these seven planes presented another special challenge to the painters that they don’t usually encounter. Most aircraft have their engines removed when they’re painted, but these had to be painted with the engines in. That meant they couldn’t be thoroughly cleaned, and there are always engine hydraulic fluid leaks that make painting more difficult.

“But the guys in the Paint Shop were able to handle it,” Butterfield said. “They opened up the panels and put absorbent rags where they knew the fluid could leak, and they were still able to do a great job.”

Whaley agreed. “NADEP Cherry Point has established a reputation in the fleet as a top-notch maintainer and painter,” he said. “It says a lot about the depot that we got this job based on our reputation. We weren’t the closest depot to VC-8, but they called on us because they knew we would deliver the result they wanted.”

Butterfield said that these final seven A-4s will continue to fly on active service for about two to five more years, and then they too will be gone. He says he was thrilled to have had the chance to work on his favorite aircraft one last time.

“It’s quite an amazing aircraft, and I hate to see it go,” Butterfield said. “The Skyhawk proved that bigger is not necessarily better when it comes to combat aircraft design. It showed that small and simple are qualities that can be used effectively.”

The A-4 was originally designed in the early 1950s for one-way nuclear delivery and was first flown in 1954. For several decades, the Navy and Marine Corps used it as a carrier-based light attack aircraft. Though it was not designed to break the sound barrier, it was a real workhorse below 3,000 feet and was ideal for close air support of ground troops.

“But it has simply outlived its usefulness,” Butterfield said. “The wings just couldn’t hold up to so many years of stress and are too costly to repair. I always loved working on the A-4. I wish we still had 500 of them in the fleet.”

“The squadron was very happy with our paint scheme and the job we did,” Whaley concluded. “We sent seven beautiful aircraft back to Puerto Rico, and being painted like they are is an appropriate way for them to go out.”

Photo Caption #1: Members of the NADEP Cherry Point aircraft stripping and painting team pose in front of an A-4 Skyhawk jet they painted in March at the depot. The plane’s new tactical camouflage paint scheme was developed at the depot and applied to the last seven A-4s in the Navy. (Photo by Larry Conley)

Photo Caption #2: Aircraft painters Bill Jackson (left) and Jim Kanuck prepare their spray paint equipment prior to starting a job in the NADEP paint hangar. (Photo by Gary Rice)