Log Book Details Chapter of Museum Skyraider’s Service

The aircraft displayed in the museum not only serve to represent the histories of the types flown by naval aviators over the course of more than a century, each has its own story.  In most cases the museum’s files hold very little information about the individuals who manned the cockpits of the aircraft in the collection or specific missions they flew.  However, on fortunate occasions, we receive donations that tell the tale of a particular aircraft.  Such is the case with the Aviators Flight Log Books of Captain Charles W. Hartman, USN, which detail flights in the museum’s A-1H Skyraider while it was assigned to Attack Squadron (VA) 25 flying combat missions over Vietnam from the deck of the carrier Midway (CVA 41).  Hartman, then a lieutenant (junior grade), had an eventful cruise highlighted by a June 20, 1965, engagement with a North Vietnamese MiG-17 in which he and squadronmate Lieutenent Clinton B. Johnson shared credit for a kill, a rare shootdown of a jet by a propeller-driven aircraft.  Here are the log book pages covering that cruise, each entry for Bureau Number 135300 representing a flight in the A-1H Skyraider displayed in the museum.