“I would do it over again in a heartbeat. It was the people along the way that made it great!
My claim to fame is the shortest flight in an F-100: approximately 2 minutes. I ejected on takeoff, Nellis AFB, NV 18 Nov 1960. Observed by: Ralph Hoot Gibson”. I retired as a Major General from the United States Air Force on June 1, 1987. My wife Delores Ann (Cramer) and I have four daughters, all married, 14 grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren. I spend my time playing golf, gardening, and visiting with family and friends.”
After retiring from the USAF, Russ started Violett Consulting and as Director assisted the Business Development and Marketing divisions of several U.S. companies in developing support for their products in the Middle East and in the US. These firms included McDonnell Douglas Company, Grumman Melbourne Systems Division, Newport News Shipbuilding, STV/Lyon Associates, Daniel, Mann, Johnson and Mendenhall, and TechMedia Corporation. Earlier clients included Stone and Webster Engineering Corporation, Lear Siegler Management Services Corporation, Applications Group International, Burdeshaw Associates, Inc., Aerospace Technologies Group, Inc., and Spectrum International Associates. He continued Violett Consulting until his retirement in 2003.
Russ Violett – Caterpillar Story
Here is my story of what happened on my ejection.
18 Nov 1960, 13:43: the time of the ejection. I was a student in training at Nellis. I was added to the schedule when four guys came out of a briefing room for an afternoon Dart mission and one of them ran and threw up in the waste paper basket at the duty counter (a bachelor who stayed out all night and came in late). The flight lead, an exchange Canadian with a call sign of “Maple” said to me, get out from behind that counter, you are now number two, same briefing as your flight this morning, suit up, we are heading to the aircraft now, any questions. “None Sir”. I found myself on the left wing of lead taking off on 02 at Nellis (now 03). Carothers used his hands and head a lot as an IP, his hands and head were moving all the time it seemed. After we released brakes and had rolled a couple thousand feet, Nellis tower called, “Maple Lead, Nellis Tower”. Maple responded with “Standby Tower” and we continued, everything still normal with me glued on his left wing. His hand appeared with the palm up moving upwards indicating he was to raise the nose for takeoff and then immediately after that a big head nod for gear.
As the gear came up, Maple said “Nellis Tower, go ahead” and that’s when things got exciting. “Roger Maple lead, be advised your number two man has fire coming out of the left side of his fuselage” and I said, “Jesus Christ, that’s me.” Maple yawed his aircraft for me to spread it out. I did and looked at the instruments, all appeared normal except one which read “Fire Warning” and at the very least, said “Wow!” About the same time, Maple said, “Jesus Christ, get out of it”, the aircraft had shuddered from an explosion, and was rolling to the right into lead while we at about 200 feet above the runway. I stomped on the left rudder, the aileron did not seem to be responding, the aircraft rolled left slightly and the nose kept coming up, I blew the canopy, by pulling up the ejection levers in this “C” model, (811) with my right hand. I had my left hand on the throttle and still in afterburner and was pushing the throttle through the instrument panel as I tried to get some more altitude.
As we went through about 6-700 feet over the end of the runway, the rudder would not hold a level position and when I could not find the ejection trigger with the left hand, I fired the seat with the right trigger. Lots of noise- reached for the lap belt, it was gone, threw the seat away and then quiet, the helmet rotated 90 degrees in the process, straightened it, canopy okay, the seat came by, other bits and pieces, I see the smoke from the aircraft crash between Nellis and Storage site, then hit the ground hard. But okay. The wind was blowing about 25 knots, went for a ride, finally collapsed the chute, disconnected, sat down on the ground, laid back, hit my head on a piece of shale, started bleeding like mad, the chopper arrived, they were sure I was mortally wounded, went to the hospital, all okay, flew the next day and then sent on leave for a week. -Russ Violett
