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John Newlin

John Newlin flew the McDonnell F3H Demon and the F4B Phantom II. He also accrued flight time in the Chance-Vought F8D Crusader and the Grumman F-14 Tomcat. He retired from the Navy in 1980.

The author and Dick Anderson (left and center in news clip) were trained to fly the F3H Demon, but it was a rented Mooney Mk-20A—one with an unreliable fuel gauge—that bedeviled them.

Too Busy to Be Scared

Two fighter pilots’ vacation in a Mooney turned into an unanticipated adventure.

The Case of the Runaway U-2

And the time I almost had to shoot down one of our own.