Thomas Workinger: Flying Midshipman to Flying the ‘Friendly Skies’

By David Adams, Honor Flight Chicago Veteran Interview Volunteer

Thomas G. (Tom) Workinger was born in 1928 during the Great Depression and grew up and attended school in Terre Haute, Indiana. He “watched” as World War II engulfed the planet. As Tom remembers so very well, “I was a senior in high school when I told a Navy recruiter, I wanted to join the Navy Radar Program. The Chief recommended that I finish high school and was I interested in flying? I said YES, I had built model airplanes. From home in Indiana, he sent me to Chicago to take the exams and be sworn in as an Airman Apprentice in the Naval Aviation College Program. I went to Purdue University for two years, then reported to Pensacola in July 1948. I took engineering the first year but transferred to air transportation engineering the second year because there were 9000 GIs taking engineering and I figured I would get a lot of college credits from the Navy in aviation courses. I graduated from Purdue with a B.S. in Air Transportation in 1955 and joined United Airlines as a pilot.”  

Regarding Tom’s flight training, he writes, “After going through Basic Training in the SNJ trainer plane, I was fortunate to draw one the few slots to fly the F8F Bearcat in Advanced Training. I was the only midshipman in the flight with four officers. After getting our wings on May 4, 1950, I was ordered to VF-12 in Jacksonville, FL. We midshipmen were finally commissioned as Ensign USN in August of  1950.” This was four years after he signed up. As Tom recalls, “We were just getting the hang of being fighter pilots, qualifying in aerial gunnery and the like when the Korean War broke out.”  At that juncture, he and two fellow Ensigns were ordered to VC-62, the Fighter Photo Squadron at Norfolk. Tom recalls that “In March of 1951, the three of us found ourselves as photo/recon pilots on the USS Oriskany flying F8F-2Ps.”  The photo squadron serviced all the carriers. Tom has the vivid memory of “all our friends in Air Group One immediately informed us we were going to be “camera”kazis and greeted us by calling out ‘Click-Click’.” 

Concerning his photo/recon assignment he remarks that “I was delighted to find they left two 20 mm [cannons] in the F8F-2Ps, and the Sixth Fleet thought so much of our four plane detachment, that they made us fly high cover for the gas-tank laden Corsairs and ADs. We managed to get 73 carrier landings apiece without an accident on the Oriskany. One month I logged 55.7 hours from the “boat” including one 5.0 flight searching for two Banshee pilots who got lost and ditched successfully.” Tom had two cruises into the Mediterranean on the aircraft carriers USS Oriskany (CV-34) in 1951 and USS Wasp (CV-18) in 1952.

The Korean Armistice Agreement, signed on July 27, 1953, ended hostilities. Tom recalls that “many of us flying midshipmen left active duty after Korea and completed our twenty or more years in the Ready Reserves. Since I was a Reserve LTJG, I requested release from active duty in June, 1953.”  Tom continued his Naval flying career at Naval Air Station (NAS) Glenview.

In his oral history he recites: “I was delighted to find that NAS Glenview was still flying Bearcats and Corsairs [Vought F4U]; but soon we were transitioning to [Grumman] F9F Cougars. Seven years later we were given the beautiful FJ4B [North American FJ-4B Fury], but had to turn them in after a couple of years because of reduced wing life. Last came the A4s [Douglas A-4 Skyhawk]. One of the greatest thrills of my life was requalifying on an Essex class [carrier, the USS Lexington (CV-2)] after 15 years.  Of course they had changed the approach and added a runway, but we had a lot of fun with the LSOs by asking for RadFac charts and when do we get the SLANT or HIGH DIP? Two of us former midshipmen got a chance to fly in a couple of air shows with the AIR BARONS, the NAVAL AIR RESERVE Flight Demonstration Team. We acted as substitute wingmen in the 1967 to 1970 era.” Tom retired in 1972 from the Naval Reserves at Glenview NAS with the rank of Captain. 

After his release from active duty, he joined the United Airlines pilot ranks in 1955 and retired in 1988 at age 60 as a DC-10 captain based in Chicago. He is an active member in the Lions Club and has volunteered as a tour guide for over 30 years at PIMA Air & Space Museum in Tucson, AZ. He was a United 727 tour guide at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago and is a life member at VFW Post 4600 in McHenry, Illinois.

Tom married Beverly, a Chicago-area girl, in 1956 and they have a son and a daughter who have two sons each. Besides the four grandchildren they also have five great-grandchildren.  He says perhaps more than tongue-in-cheek, “when my grandsons ask what I did in the war, I tell them I fought the Battle of the French Riviera. (Those Bikinis were fierce.)” Over the years Tom and Beverly have lived in Kona, Hawaii, Tucson, AZ, and Hillside, McHenry, and Crystal Lake, IL. 

Thank you, Tom, for your dedication and distinguished service. Enjoy your special day of honor in Washington D.C. with your comrades in arms!  This will surely be a splendid welcome home.