Firstly I will explain a bit about myself, I was a Warrant Officer in the RAF and retired 6 years ago. I have a passion for AEW aircraft derived from my 5 years at RAF Waddington working on two tours of duty with the E-3D AWACS fleet based there. The book about the history of AEW Aircraft is a project that Sergio (who lives in Brazil) and I have been working on now for over 4 years, initially adapting Sergio's Brazilian text from a Portuguese language version into English.

In the last year we have found a European publisher who is as enthusiastic as we are to produce the book but with an emphasis on narratives from the actual Aircrew members who took part in the AEW missions. We are not writing this book for financial gain as the royalties for each copy will amount to coppers that will be split between two people and will barely cover our paper and ink cartridge costs after tax . The reason we are writing it is to tell the true story of AEW development and to ensure that the guys and girls who spend or have spent hundreds of hours staring at PPI’s get the full recognition that they deserve for their dedication to duty and their efforts to complete their mission.

Incredibly there are very very few books out there that cover this subject and those that exist mainly concentrate on the technical aspects and do not cover the human or historical elements at all. Our aim is to correct this and to try and tell the complete story for the first time. We realise that time is of the essence in several respects, primarily because many of the guys from the very early days in WW2 who flew the ACI Wellington and the crews who flew in the PB-1W’s in Korea are no longer with us. In addition our publisher is very keen to get the book completed and out in the shops because he knows that a hole in the market exists

The early operational story of the E-1B's of the U.S Navy hasn’t really been told from the crews perspective, there is a book written by an American author Edwin Leigh Armistead called “AWACS and Hawkeyes” which is very good at describing the development of the aircraft as an aerial AEW platform from the Navy perspective but doesn’t have any input from the aircrews themselves or any detail on the operational deployments.

The marvellous thing about your website is that it has personal accounts from Aircrew who actually flew the missions. Sergio and I are hoping that some of the contributors above who actually flew missions on the Willy Fudd would be willing to let us use their accounts in our book as examples from the Aircrew of their own stories. Of course any contributor to the book will be fully credited in the Acknowledgements section and in the Chapter itself.

So we would be grateful if you could consider our request and if any you agree to contribute then please send us a written e-mail back with your accounts and if you have any your personal photographs of your aircraft if any are available and you are willing for us to use them. We both thank you in advance and hope to hear from you soon.

Ian Shaw - ian.shaw1@btinternet.com

I was in RVAW-120 (Norfolk)from '70-'72 in airframes shop working hydraulics, mostly at night. Great bunch of guys, great fun till Bruce signaled fold wings on me and caught my face and hand in the jury strut door on an E2. Went on just about every carrier during that time for qualifying. Loved the flight deck work. Grant Brower was the best bud a guy could have.

my frist station in 1967 until 1971.vaw 121 had just began i was trained as plane captian, gas station attendant.i was with giddings,curtis,brehmer,kain,as plain capt.i was on the randolph,shangrala,york town,wasp,i once hopped a flight from nas to new orleans. 18 hrs of pleasent flight.

I think I'm the last active duty guy to ever qualify as an FT on the Fudd. VAW-78 at NAS Norfolk, 1977. (yep that was a reserve unit). Not really a platform story but...Our call sign was Alpha Foxtrot and side number. Close Encounters of the Third Kind had just opened at the theaters and in the opening scene some airline pilots are reporting a UFO. The scene is in LA Center and in the background chatter I hear a controller say "Alpha Foxtrot 703 turn right to heading 340 and maintain altitude". I about went nuts. The rest of the audience was wondering what I was so excited about. Only trained aircrew could have picked that out of a whole bunch of background. I wish I could still hear that well, we soon transitioned to E2s and my hearing was never the same since. (AT1 USNR Ret.)

I too served in VAW-121 as a Plane Captain on the E-1. Was assigned to Det-18 on the USS Wasp in late '67 thru 1968. Made the cruise to GITMO in '68. Left the squadron for AD "A" school just before the Detachment deployed to the North Atlantic. Was sorry to leave behind a lot of good people.

served in vaw 111 det 6 then to rvaw 110 det 6 from 1972 to1975 on the USS ORISKANY WOULD LOVE TO HERE FROM ANY FELLOW FUDD MATES FROM THIS TIME

I was also in VAW 121 and on the Wasp when Godfrey and Kane took the barricade. I was up on the island when the plane landed. I have an 8m movie of it. I was an ATR2 aircrewman and a flight deck troubleshooter. I was in VAW-121 Det 18 (Wasp) from 67-69.

I wasd in VAW12 in the early 60s then went to VAW11 in 64 and we had AD5Ws and E1Bs.In early 1964 we got our first E2As.I stayed in VAW11 until 1978 when the squadron broke up into about SIX different squadrons.I STAYED IN RVAW 110 UNTIL EARLY 1968.Then i went to VAw111 AND MADE two VietNam cruises with the the USS Hancock CVW21. The rest is history.

After graduating from ADR "A" school, I was assigned to VAW 121 in Norfolk in 1971. One of my first jobs given to me was to go over to RVAW 120 and get a bucket of "Prop Wash" so we could clean the props. Boy was I easy. One of the other new guys was sent all over the base to get a replacement "Key" so we could start the damn thing. They told him the Squadron lost the original. We had a lot of fun and I sure enjoyed working on those engines. I still remember replacing that damn CSD gearbox. What a pain in the ass that was. I was only with VAW 121 for a short time due to our Decommissioning, but I sure had great memories. Unfortunately I not only got to have my Squadron Decomissioned but also got to take the last cruise on the USS Wasp. It didn't last very long. If anyone from VAW 121 has any pictures, please contact me. I don't have any and would love to have some to add to my photo album of my Naval Career.

I was in RVAW-120 from 1970-73 working on the FUDD and Hummers. Loved the E-1B, great little airplane. I flew in them as a Maint. Aircrew. We had to take a pair out to the USS JFK when the E-2's were all down for prop problems so the ship could do their ORE. 2planes to replace 4 and we made all our commitments. Good old reliable product from the Grumman Iron Works.

I flew in one of the first two WF's delivered to the Navy at Patuxent river sometime in 1959. We had a marine radar operator who did most of the testing on the radar. I was attached to Electronics Test division of the Naval air Test center from October 1957 to October 1959.

I was a flight tech with RVAW-110, NAS North Island, from 1968 to 1970. We then flew the the E1B. Can anyone please provide me with the tail letters and nose numbers for our squadron aircraft at the time?

Any other Marines besides me ever fly the E1?

I flew, as an NFO, with the second last active detachment on the west coast off the Coral Sea, and as noted above, the E-1B was not an exciting plane compared to other carrier aircraft. However with that said, it was a stable and extremely reliable AEW platform and a "bird" that got the job done with little fanfare or sophisticated systems. In fact in the early/mid 70's while Grumman was still de-bugging the E-2 airframe and systems, many of the tactical squadrons preferred working with us versus the E-2's simply due to our reliability to meet carrier ops commitments. Even in it's closing days the E-1B served well during Operations Eagle Pull, Frequent Wind and the Mayaguez Recovery. Farewell to Fudds, simplicity at its best!

I flew the "Fudd" at VAW 12 from 64-68. Boring airplane, but great people...

I was a flight tech on Nas North Island RVAW 110, 1969-72 and worked on the radar. The radar had 1 Million Watts of power! A great airplace.

the e1 was a modified c1a trader, i worker on the proto type at quonsit pt in the early 70's it carried more fuel than tha s2 tracker. the tracker, trader, and tracer were similar aircraft but the s2 was not modified to a e1.

Bill ( Skids- another story ) Godfrey lost an engine over the North Atlantic off 'Wasp' during the late sixties. The venerable ( PIG ) steadily lost altitude coming back to the ship for recovery until it got into ground/water effect and mercifully it stabilized at about 30 feet- 20 feet below deck level and unable to climb. Bill had a hard time hearing the radio transmissions as he had the overhead hatches open so he closed them. Eureka!! The E1 climbed a bit, enough to get above deck level and make shallow turns. Bill established a long straightaway, at near full power and on getting the cut signal, the aircraft swerved a bit and his left wing impacted the left pylon and knocked about six feet off. The plane was trapped in the net and all was well. OK (a little left for lineup) barricade.