Bill Skinner - Wilbur Eugene Skinner "Bill" Wilbur Eugene Skinner
Bill Skinner - Wilbur Eugene Skinner "Bill" Wilbur Eugene Skinner Vicki Skinner's Daddy - "Bill" Wilbur Eugene Skinner
Nov. 5, 1931 - Aug. 18, 1963 (age 32)
(pic - 1958-ish)
Military History of Capt. "Bill" Wilbur Eugene SkinnerHe first was drafted in 1953 & chose the U.S. Naval Cadet (NAVCAD) Pilot Training Program at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida where he learned to fly A4 Skyhawk jets.
After he completed flight school, he had the choice of remaining in the U.S. Navy as a pilot or transferring to the U.S. Marine Corps. He chose the Marines.
He served 18 months overseas in Japan around 1958 and 1959 and then was transferred to the Naval Air Station Whiting Field in Milton, Florida.
After some time, he was transferred to Beaufort Air Station - Squadron VMA 324, Beaufort, South Carolina.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, Billy and his air unit (VMA 324) were stationed in Key West, Florida, only 90 miles from Cuba, ready to attack Cuba if the Russians didn’t withdraw their missiles from Cuba. Russia did remove their missiles, combat was averted, and Billy’s unit left Key West.
In July 1963, his Squadron VMA-324 (out of Norfolk, Virginia), was assigned to the U.S.S. Independence aircraft carrier and he was deployed to Europe.
His last mission was an annual NATO exercise on August 18, 1963 where he launched from the deck of the Independence in Bay Biscay - west of France and east of Spain. After doing some war simulation exercises he called in to the military Air Traffic Controller (U.S. Air Force Air Traffic Controller mis-set the range on his scope which caused him to miscalculate/misread the radar & led him down below the cloud cover in the mountainous Ballon d'Alsace area near the Swiss, French & German border (scene to MANY MANY plane crashes as well as on the Tour de France bicycle run route) which was within a 20 miles radius closer than the controller thought. Unfortunately there was a mountain ahead and when he realized it, the plane had clipped the tops of the trees which caused him to loose balance. He bailed out but because of the angle, was thrown into trees which caused him to die on impact and the plane crashed into the mountain.
(we heard the air traffic controller sadly had a nervous breakdown from that).There was big problem with low fog in that region and because of this they ended up losing 3 A-4C's and 2 A-4B's with 2 of the pilots dying just a couple weeks into that deployment.
http://a4skyhawk.org/4e/vma324/vma324.htm
(in 1984 his brother Robert "Bob" Skinner found the crash site thanks to a local Herve G___ & in 1985 his daughter Vicki Skinner visited the site with Herve & found some small broken up parts from the plane)
