Throw Back Thursday

LtCol H.W. Blot the CO of VMA 231 aboard the USS Nassau

We never would have been approved to fly the Harrier as a civilian airplane, unless we had flown them in the Marine Corps.  This is a photo aboard the USS Nassau, LHA-4, with VMA-231, around 1982-3.  I don’t know the exact date but this was one of the multiple shipboard deployments I made with that squadron.  Because of the pilot’s unique helmet design, we know this is LtCol H.W. Blot, the squadron Commanding Officer.  He later retired as a Lieutenant General (3 stars), and still offers advise to us from time to time, from his experience.

Because of this and other training, and my later experience as a test pilot and maintenance officer, the FAA trusted us to fly the SHAR, with some very strict limitations.   The SHAR we fly is basically stock on the outside, but has been completely demilitarized on the inside to comply.  It has no radar, no weapons system, and no mission computer.  Instead, it has a civilian GPS, civilian radios, and civilian avionics.