Celebrating Al Doney

In July of 1967, Al Doney gave up his college plans and enlisted in the U.S. Navy. Al ultimately served two tours of duty in Vietnam with a VP-50 anti-submarine squadron, flying a five-man crew aboard a VP-3 propeller-driven Orion aircraft.

The crew flew 18-hour missions every other day over the Pacific Ocean, searching for submarines smuggling weapons from Russia and North Vietnam.

Al was in charge of loading and unloading the explosive weapons, the bomb, rockets, and torpedoes. He flew thousands of hours with his crew and has over one thousand combat flying hours on his record.

His crew made...