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
Hondo–just out of curiosity, if you need/want my info, I’ll be more than happy to send it along so you can run an FOIA, just to see what goes where.
Including my dolphins.
@49
No. The Navy doesn’t award air medals in peacetime even though the criteria always had a provision for meritorious achievement involving flight. During the Cold War the USAF crews flying the same mission profiles as USN crews in coastal areas were getting air medals while the sailors got thanks for doing our job.
OUCH! Joe PS that means the Marines would not have had the thank you passed on to the aircrews. Joe
“John Bolan”?
Wonder if he’s related to Mack Bolan?
@22 Jorge, I got an “honorary Submariner card” on my first run as a “spooky spook.” Given out by the skipper to all of us “non-qual pukes.”
Now, I don’t know a damn thing about this Spodofora guy, but I was the XO at NSGA Groton and I can tell you that subsurface CTMs bust their balls. They worked like dogs. The deployment was their rest period. IF they did their job right during the install, they slept the entire deployment (or drank coffee like PO Spodofora). The CTMs that worked at Groton spent most of their lives on a boat installing gear or on the road driving the gear to Norfolk.
I’m going to have to put my feelers out on this Spodofora guy to see what his real story is.
@52 FOD (nice handle by the way), we used to laugh at the RC guys about all their air medals. And how about the “Combat Crew” badge that they wore? See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_crew_badge
We were MERCILESS with them on that one.
We used to have some USAF guys fly with us on EP-3s. We flew our 10.0 and landed back at homebase. First, the MSGT wasn’t happy that he had to do a post flight report (they handed off their mission material to ground pounders who took care of business).
But…he was really taken aback when I told him we had a “3 for a 5” preflight the next morning.
“WHAT?!!!!! I have to fly TOMORROW?!!!!” Pretty funny. Actually, he was a good guy. Just not used to the USN way of working.
NHSparky, you had strawberry ice cream underway? Damn fast boat guys.
Well, it kinda LOOKED like it. Might have been leftovers from the wet bags. When we were on station, we put the TDU cans and wet bags in the freezer and shot them on the way back, so there’s that…but then they were floating for a while because they were frozen. Once they thawed (in 30 degree water) they sank okay, but the OOD and lookouts were getting a pretty good laugh out of it.
@53 Joe, We had Marines flying with us. Same deal. Aircrew wings, no air medals.
@56 Mustang, yep. sounds like Mildenhall. (Could be Atsugi I guess, if you were a PACFLT guy)
@MustangCryppie I have zero (except one guy from Groton) problems with any of the M-branchers I rode with. This guy seems like the type that would have sat on their butt tho.
@60 Oh, I wasn’t jamming on you. I just wanted to set the record straight for everyone else. When I was a “damn operator,” I used to wonder what the hell these Matmen did for a living. On my first run, the matman slept in his rack for 12 hours, then moved to the bow compartment and slept for another 12! I was very, very impressed that someone could sleep that much.
So, when I got orders to NSGA Groton, all my shipmate operator types asked why the hell I wanted to go there, that I was headed to a tour in Sleepy Hollow. So, I was triply surprised when I got there and saw how much they worked. It really is pretty incredible.
Have a great New Year all!
@59 FOD, it was Okinawa. The 6990th guys let us VQ-1 folks do our post mission stuff in their spaces. I’m PACFLT through and through.
@61 and @62 Those are actually from MustangCryppie. Different computer, former handle!
I have no clue what you Navy guys are talking about. But it sounds damn cool whatever it is.
So is this dude legit or not?
Unable to fully understand from this post being that I was not Navy.
@GT I think so. Aviator? Check. Hunting subs? probably check.
@Mustang I would have been an M-brancher like my dad, but I couldn’t figure out the doohickeys when I was helping with building those old Heathkits 🙂
@65 GT and 66 Jorge… Here’s the bottom line as I see it.
The claim has four elements, (1) Joined the Navy (2) aviator (3) electronics specialist (4) 1500 flight hours chasing submarines.
(1) is true.
(2) is possible to probable – he was in a aviation rate and a squadron. Problem is his FOIA doesn’t show an “aircrew” designation.
(3) true
(4) if (2) is true, then this is probably true too.
The question to ask is “was he a flyer or a ground pounder?” Can’t tell from the info at hand. Has anyone contacted squadron mates?
He is not a pilot…….never has been. I know him, and he lies about anything !
Hey, I think this guy may be legit. AT’s were often in-flight technicians on P-3’s/P-2’s. He was in VP 21. I think it is likely he actually was aircrew. 1500 flight hours is about right for a 3 year tour.