New Aircraft Quiz #30.

[Doug Robertson]

"Cadillac" Jack was a famous pilot who set some very unusual aircraft records and has a world airport named after him.

1. What's his full name?

2. He's considered by many to be Mr. XXXXXXXXXX. Name that ten letter place.

3. Why was he called "Cadillac Jack"?

4. What aircraft was he famous for flying? Make and model nomenclature needed.

5. What airport was named for him? Airport identifier and location needed.

I am betting this may be my toughest quiz yet. Prove me wrong!

I am using mainly past tense, but he may hopefully still be alive. As usual, full story will follow, eventually.

[Malcolm Clarke]

1. John (Jack) F. Paulus.

2. Mr Antarctica.

3. "JP is so smooth that flying with him is like riding in a Cadillac".

4. Lockheed Hercules LC-130 of VXE-6.

5. Jack F. Paulus Skiway. The South Pole?? Identifier??

Obviously, I don't win the teddy bear!

Malcolm.

[Doug Robertson]

Congratulations Malcolm,

You basically hit the nail on the head. Prior to formulating this quiz, I checked Google search and Wikipedia for various trails to the questions and came up with zip, nada. For that I commend you!

For question 5-The Jack F. Paulus Skiway is not quite at the South Pole, magnetic or geographic. Antarctica is the given location and the airport identifier is NZSP.

VXE-6 was a US Navy Antarctic Development Squadron first based at NAS Quonset Point, RI., the only squadron of its kind in the US Navy. The special ski-equipped retractable wheel tri-gear (snowphibious?) Lockheed Hercules aircraft were owned by the National Science Foundation but in Navy dark blue livery and the Navy supported them to gain cold weather survival and other special operational skills. In 1981 when Cadillac Jack retired the squadron had made 27 deployments to the Antarctic in support of the NSF's Operation Deep Freeze. Cadillac Jack made an unprecedented ten of those five month deployments, plus numerous Operation Winter Fly-In (WINFLY) which is six to eight preliminary flights from Christchurch, NZ to the main US installation on the Antarctic continent at McMurdo Station in east Antarctica.

The VXE-6 Squadron moved to base at NAS Point Mugu NTD in southern California in 1973. Cadillac Jack had been making the Antarctica trips since 1969. He flew more than 5,000 hours in the Navy; approximately half of them in the ski-equipped Hercules. The airport named after him called the Jack F. Paulus Skiway is 10,000 feet long of snow and ice. He flew in some of the most miserable conditions imaginable. He was held is such awe that when he retired from the Navy, Lockheed sent one of its top executives, Ed Shockley, President of Lockheed California's subsidiary who praised Jack for his noteworthy accomplishments. One veteran VXE-6 pilot said that "three tours to Antarctica is considered the normal, maximum assignment for any squadron member. I find it hard to imagine anyone wanting or even being able to do it 10 times." VXE-6 also operated Bell UH-1N "Huey II" helicopters over the 5.5 million square miles of frozen Antarctica continent.

Cadillac Jack retired to Montana in June 1981 as John F. Paulus, LCDR, USN Ret.

Again, I commend you Malcolm!

[Doug Robertson]

If you access VXE-6 Navy Squadron on Wikipedia, you will find an extensive history of the squadron, its aircraft and the many perils they faced on the Antarctica ice. I did not mention the squadron in my quiz for obvious reasons.

[Malcolm Clarke]

Not being an American, I naively put Cadillac Jack into my browser, failing to realise that this has quite another meaning to you folks!!!.

Having added "pilot", I came across the February 1982 edition of Naval Aviation News ....

http://www.history.navy.mil/nan/backissues/1980s/1982/feb82.pdf

..... which contained "Cadillac Jack - The Navy Honors an Antarctic Pro" together with a few more interesting articles about US Naval operations in Antarctica.

Malcolm.

[MPaulus48]

Hello! Cadillac Jack is my Dad. I never thought to Google search him as he is a very modest man who never bragged or made a big deal about his accomplishments. I did however recently while doing family genealogy and was so surprised! I immediately printed everything I found and mailed them to my Dad. He called me the other night laughing (still down playing everything) and informed me that a small bit of information that you have is not accurate. He informed me that he has flown 5,000 miles in a C-130, and had a little over 11,000 career miles with the Navy! So thank you for enlightening me that I need to start asking some questions and do some more research so that I may pass down my Dad's rich history to his grandkids! Mindy Paulus Smith

[Doug Robertson]

Thank you, Mindy, and Welcome Aboard!

Most of my information on your Father came intact from The Missile, the local newspaper at Point Mugu, CA where I worked for 29 years; and VXE-6 was home-based there during some of that time. Wikipedia was also an info source. Over eleven thousand hours? sounds far more accurate/credible for a Navy multi-engine pilot. I knew a Navy LCDR at Point Mugu who retired after 20 years with over 7,000 hours in C-130s and P-3s. The Navy jet jockeys usually had at least 2,4-500 hours after their twenty years in Naval Aviation, back in the 1970s. A lot of them stated they could only endure an hour and a half on the Martin-Baker ejection seat in the F-4 Phantoms, for example. I flew in Naval Aviation as aircrew in P-2V Neptunes in the 1950s that had 14 hour endurance with typical 10-12 hour flights.

I am happy to have contributed to some military career knowledge of your impressive Father via one of my quizzes. I wish him the traditional fair winds and following seas.

Incidentally, when my LCDR friend was at NAS Pensacola learning to fly, he wanted multi-engine duty assignment, and he drove a Volkswagen bus. All the Navy jet aviation flight candidates were buying Corvettes from the Pensacola Buggy Works-local Chevrolet dealer.