John Bolan; aviator phony
Someone sent us their research on Bern, NC realtor John Francis Bolan who claims that he was an “aviator” in the bio and he logged 1500 hours chasing Soviet subs. He must’ve been flying those aircraft from his supply room, because that’s what he did in the Navy. I know the AT rate in the Navy is for Aviation Electronics Technicians, the NTC means Naval Training Center, I think, the rest is all Greek to me. But I understand aviation supply just fine.
Whether he was an aviator or not had nothing to do with his job as a realtor, so he added it for his own ego – not for the job enhancement aspect. Maybe some of you folks in the damper services can decipher that gobbeldy gook. Thanks to one of our readers for the research.
Category: Phony soldiers
I’d call this one legit, John. AT’s flew as In-Flight Technicians in P-3 Orions, and as Sensor Operators on earlier on P-2 Neptunes. He did tours in VP-21, a Maritime Patrol squadron which flew either type A/C depending on the time frame. Also.
Now I’m not an Airedale so I’m not going to guess TOO much, but this guy doesn’t even look like he went to aircrewman school down in Pensacola, so he wasn’t even that.
From what I can quickly find, VP-21 was flying the P-2 Neptune in 1958, which isn’t a bit surprising, as the P-3 Orion wasn’t in full rate production until 1961.
Barring the absence of Naval Aircrew Candidate School listed, I’m thinking he was a ground pounder and not an Inflight Tech -IFT.
He went to school at NATTC in Norman, OK, after recruit training at Bainbridge, MD, then was assigned to a patrol squadron in Maine, and transferred to a patrol squadron in New York. He was probably part of the air crews on the early version of the AWACs planes, which were started in 1944 on an Avenger torpedo bomber airframe.
@2 Look at the timeframe, NHS. We’re flying P-8’s now, ferpetessake.
Bottom line–kind of like being on the tender for several years and pretending to be on the boat off the coast of Vietnam (right, Spodofora?)
Ed–the Navy has been looking for a replacement for the P-3 since the mid-1980’s, and only decided on the P-8 in 2004. If what I looked up is correct, they’ve only built 15 so far.
Hey, Big Navy moves slow, but that’s friggin ridiculous.
@5, close Ex-PH2. VP-21 Moved from NY to ME, and de-commed there in 1962. One of their birds graced the front gate on static display when I was there in the ’90’s.
@4 Wasn’t any NACCS in 1954, NavyE9r.
@8 VP-16 is deployed out West with the P-8 as I type this. I help test the acoustic subsystem here in Pax River, MD.
Awesome. But it’s still going to take 7-10 more years to replace all the P-3’s, correct?
Sparky- Spodofora still spews crap. Besides his ‘classified records’ and flaunting his ‘honorary’ Submariner card as his cover story his other urban legend he is the co founder of RONJON Surf shops with Ron DiMeanna. Lol took a one minute call to find out that was a total lie….
@11 2019 is the published date, but schedules are funny things.
@12 – I once drank a sub sailor under the table at Great Lakes on a bet. It was the fall of 1972, and I was collecting sea stories. He put his dolphins on the table. Then he went under the table, so I picked up his dolphins.
Does that make me an ‘honorary’ sub sailor?
I did give them back to him.
“Honorary” submariner? Did he do 60-90 days of “honorary” cranking? Did he scrub “honorary” shitters and bilges? Was he an “honorary” nub dink POS non-qual loser? Did he get his ass reamed in an “honorary” board, with “honorary” lookups?
Seriously, it’s shit like his that makes me want to throat punch someone. I’d love to know who gave him that little trinket.
From the looks of things, they deployed to Iceland, the Med, North Atlantic. I believe its legit… plenty of opportunities to hunt the HEN series Soviet boats. Calling yourself an aviator is a little of a stretch, since it implies pilot, but maybe he never heard “aircrewman”
Spodofora is a real life Walter Mitty. Decorated War hero, inventor, big game hunter, environmental engineer, entrepreneur…
Jorge very well could be right.
He doesn’t even have a sea service ribbon!
Spodofora that is..
@16 The division of labor in most multi-seat Navy aircraft usually fall into Pilot and NFO (Officer), and Aircrew (Enlisted) duties. The term “Naval Aviator” applies to all.
Spodofora… oh yeah, the spooky-spook M-brancher. Definitely
a (sub) rider type, but all he had to have done was drink coffee on the mess decks waiting for operator types to break the equipment. Weeeee. If one of the boat crew gave him an “honorary submariner” card, then they were f-ing with him.
You should see spodofora’s school hall of fame bio.. surprised universal pictures hasn’t approached him for a movie deal.
But the AC badge was created in the 1940’s. Funny how there’s no mention of that in his FOIA.
@AW1Ed – 10-4. I’ll defer to you on that one.
There is a youtube tribute to spodofora: http://www.johnspodofora.com
And Jorge–I’ve got more time on the shitter at test depth answering a backing bell eating strawberry ice cream while rubbing one out than Spodofora has on a boat underway.
@23 Master Chief- Link please?
@19–the Sea Service Deployment Ribbon came out in 1974.
Hmmm, wonder if my dad (M-brancher) knows Spodofora. He was stationed here in P-cola (Corry Station) at the same time my dad was.
@Sparky – Yep, I agree, lol
I know lots of good M-branchers, both before, during and after I was in. They are certainly good and figuring out some of the craziest equipment problems. But this guy reeks.
I’m with AW1 on this. Probably legit.
Most of the airdales I flew with in VQ and other squadrons were ATs. Even if he wasn’t an IFT, he could’ve been a radio op or a sensor op.
The only thing missing from the FOIA that I would expect to see is the Naval Air Crewman (NAC) designation. Also, re the bio, most modern enlisted flyers refer to ourselves as “aircrew”. Officers are aviators. (Was it different in the 1950’s?) That said, we’re all part of naval aviation.
1400 hours in a four year enlistment? Assuming a year in school and three years flying, just under 500 hours a year is not unreasonable.
Actually, AW1 Ed, The term “Naval Aviator” applies only to pilots. Navigators, TACCOs, etc, are “Naval Flight Officers” and the rest of us are/were Aircrew.
It’s very possible that this fellow was an aircrewman on P-2 Neptunes, as the “AW” rate wasn’t around until 1968, IIRC. AT’s were usually In Flight Techs or IFTs, with AX’s being the Sensor Operators, but that was always a bit of a fuzzy line until the “AW” rate was instituted.
It’s also possible that this fellow was assigned to AIMD or the Avionics Shop in the squadron, only going aboard the aircraft for the occasional hop or to fix something on the ground. The best way to actually find out would be to locate a VP-21 Cruisebook from that period. It’d have pics of all the different aircrews, the shops, etc.
So yeah, this guy is definitely embellishing his service with the term “Naval Aviator”. He was an Aircrewman, or as all of us in the Aviation rates were also called, an “Airdale”.
He just probably figures no one else is around from those days to counter his claims, or knows enough to say “wait,… what?”
Jorge: Comsubflot2 in SC,then NIOCs in PRico and Panama 66 73.
@28 No link I was only sent a pix of the bio.
Who pulled the SS1-2 floor heater element CB and woke the ‘dub’ up? Lol gotta love your FEs..
Also, I should have added, the Sea Service Ribbon was brought out in, I believe, 1978/79.
Aircrew Candidate School also was formed at about the same time. When I went in, we went to boot, then the “AW” A school, followed by the Replacement Air Group, or RAG. It was at the RAG (in my case, VP-30 down to Jax) where you went through the water survival courses, swim quals, etc. So there were all sorts of ways of flunking out of the rate back then.
Jorge: got an email that I can send you his records?
@Master Chief Yup… when we deployed way back in the day, we were attached to COMSUBPAC or COMSUBLANT, not the boat itself. Not a surprise that the entry is for the Flotilla command. Eval would read “Atlantic Fleet Combatant Unit” or something like that.
Of course, he may NOT have been deployed, but was attached to flotilla comm center to fix their crypto gear.
Never mind. I see NHSparky noted the Sea Service Deployment Ribbon came out in 1974.
Sure, just no PII… don’t need that trouble :-). My spam catcher is zorfwaddle (at) netscape.net… I’ll watch for it.
@33 Tim, you’re right, blame my CRS Syndrome. But I still say NFO really stands for “Self Loading Baggage”.
Jorge: sent
I love it when my Navy brothers and sisters lay into one of their own. The Navy stuff is akin to latin to me…I kinda get most of it but…
@41 Ed,
Yup. I always loved hassling the NFOs with stuff like “Well, Sir, if you were good at math you’d be an AW”.
Of course, you remember how it was: Anytime we gained contact on a Soviet boat (or anyone else’s really) there was a steady stream of pilots & NFO’s coming back to the SS1/2 station to listen in.
Like I said, I agree with you. This guy might be legit, BUT….. my big concern is where is the entry for his Aircrew wings? That should be listed in there somewhere if he was actually assigned to an aircrew at any position.
@44-AW1Tim, if he doesn’t have ‘aircrew’ or ‘aircrew wings’ listed on the FOIA, then isn’t it more likely he was part of the ground crew? Not maintenance, but someone on the receiving end of reports from the inflight crew, or something?
@27
Pics or it didn’t happen.
I think qualifications/warfare devices are listed on a different section?
Jorge
Jorge: don’t think so. They’re technically a military qual badge also (like Parachutist) and if present in the records are typically are listed under awards and decorations on a FOIA reply.
Does the navy also award air medals along with the aircrew wings like the Marines Corps ? Joe
@Hondo Roger that. Just checked my DD-214. Block 13 has my “Enlisted Submarine Warfare Insignia”
So, maybe he never qualified, but that seems a little strange to me. Communities are pretty adamant that you qualify.