The Jet Flown by the Stars
Over 78,000 sorties the Navy and Marine Corps Panthers were indispensable in Korea. Navy and Marine Corps Reserve pilots, many of them just regular guys who fought in World War II and called back to active duty, flew many of those sorties. But some of them were a little more well-known. Marine Corps Reserve (USMCR) Captain Theodore S. “Ted” Williams of the Boston Red Sox flew CAS missions with VMF-311 Tomcats. Future Astronauts Neil Armstrong (Navy) and John Glenn (Marines) flew Panthers during the Korean War too- Ted Williams was his wingman at one point.
Aerial Victories Credited to Panther Pilots
Navy Panthers shot down a pair of Yakolev Yak-9s on July 3rd 1950. At that point the majority of available Navy and Marine Corps jet fighter-bombers were Panthers. Air Force F-86 Sabre jets deservedly received much of the publicity for shooting down MiGs over Korea, but the Navy and Marine Corps Panther pilots were usually busy destroying high (and low) value targets or escorting the propeller-driven Douglas AD Skyraiders and Vought F4U Corsairs who were dropping things that went boom on the Koreans and Chinese. But Panther pilots managed to shoot down a total of seven MiG-15s during the Korean War. Irony yet again: Those MiG-15s were powered by an unlicensed reverse-engineered copy of the same Rolls-Royce Nene turbojet engine as the one powering the F9F-2, F9F-3, and F9F-4.
Williams Bags Four MiGs…in Secret
During one very memorable engagement Naval Reserve Lieutenant Elmer Royce Williams of VF-781 Pacemakers flying an F9F-5 Panther shot down four MiG-15 fighters during a single dogfight over North Korea. Williams was a part of Carrier Air Group 102 (CVG-102) flying from the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany (CVA-34) at the time. The engagement took place over Hoeryong on the Tumen River not far from the Soviet naval base at Vladivostok. It was not acknowledged until 40 years later that the four MiG-15s Williams shot down were piloted by Soviet Naval Aviation pilots. Williams’ tally of four victories in a single jet engagement has never been equaled since.
Panthers Cycle Through Training Roles and the Reserves
After the conclusion of the Korean War the Navy continued to develop more advanced jet fighters. As a result many Panthers ended up flying with Naval Reserve units around the country. Others went to Advanced Training Units for jet transition training, often painted with garish red and white stripes over the new Navy/Marine Corps grey and white paint schemes that went into effect in 1957. Later still Panthers became both remotely-piloted drone aircraft to be expended as targets as well as drone controllers. Panthers equipped with cameras (F9F-2Ps and F9F-5Ps) took pre- and post-strike photographs of targets for analysis back aboard. But by 1962 Panthers were retired from active Navy and Marine Corps service.
With the Team and Movie Stars
The Navy’s Blue Angels flew Panthers when they weren’t flying combat sorties in Korea as the core of VF-191 Satan’s Kittens. The Blues went back to flying shows in their Panthers until 1955. They switched to the new swept-wing Grumman F9F-8 Cougar. But that, as they say, is another story. The only foreign operator of the Grumman F9F Panther was Argentina. The South American nation took on 28 former US Navy F9F-2Bs and flew them between 1958 and 1969. They saw land-based service only. Grumman built a total of 1,382 Panthers (all variants). Only a single flyable example of a Grumman Panther remains today. Panthers and the aircraft carriers USS Kearsarge (CVA-33) and USS Oriskany (CVA-34) also starred in the 1954 Paramount movie “The Bridges at Toko-Ri.”
Ramp Strike!
On 23 June 1951 CDR George Chamberlain Duncan, commander of VF-51 Screaming Eagles, attempted to recover aboard the USS Midway (CVB-41) flying Grumman F9F-2 Panther BuNo 125228. The carrier was conducting carrier suitability tests in the Atlantic Ocean. Duncan’s jet dropped below optimum approach altitude too close to the ramp. The Panther struck the rounddown and broke into several pieces- most of them en fuego. The forward fuselage rolled up the deck and ended up well away from most of the flaming jet fuel. Duncan was fortunate indeed to walk away with only minor burns. Over the ensuing years the footage of this mishap has been used in several movies, among them the 1954 MGM film “Men of the Fighting Lady”, the 1976 Universal film “Midway”, and the 1990 Paramount film “The Hunt For Red October”. Here’s the footage uploaded to YouTube by Aviation History Archive.
[youtube id=”-KTtVdhcPCE” width=”800″ height=”454″ position=”left”]
My boyhood idol and later in life a dear friend; Corkey Meyer did the first flight in the Panther as a Grumman Test Pilot. He shared many stories about the Panther and its’s development. I was also blessed to have a friend in John Verdi who flew the Panther in VMF-311 and checked out both John Glenn and Ted Williams for combat when they joined the squadron. Have a thousand stories between these two about the Panther.
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