Sam Beaver

Born in Riverside, California 1957, he joined the US Navy in 1975. Attended Aviation Ordnance "A" school at NAS Millington in Millington, Tennessee in 1976, that same year he attended F-14 Tomcat Armament training at Fighter Squadron 124 , VF-124 "Gun Fighters" based at NAS Miramar, San Diego, California. After weapons training in San Diego he received orders to Fighter Squadron 14, VF-14 "Tophatters" based at NAS Oceana, Virginia Beach, Virginia deploying on the USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67). While at NAS Oceana he was involved in an accidental shooting on 12/10/78. In early 1979 after recovering from his injuries he received orders to Fighter Squadron 41 , VF-41 "Black Aces" deploying on the USS Nimitz (CVN-68), during that summer there was the filming of "The Final Countdown". He had two scenes in the movie, one scene he is the middle crewman as two other of his ordnance crew are loading an AIM-9 Sidewinder missile on an F-14 Tomcat in the hangar bay on USS Nimitz, in another scene during the weapons breakout commotion he is filmed shouting "get out of the way" while steering an AIM-54 Phoenix missile on a yellow transport skid to be loaded in defense of the impending attack. Unfortunately these two scenes appear to be edited out of the final release of the movie but were seen in the movie when it was shown to the USS Nimitz crew over the ship's CCTV system before its release to the public. Also, while in VF-41 he was given the rare opportunity to fly backseat in a Black Aces F-14, "Fast Eagle 104". The pilot on this flight CDR Nick Delello would be killed at sea during the USS Nimitz Mediterranean cruise on 11/03/79. He left VF-41 on 09/10/79 and coincidentally received orders back to NAS Miramar as an F-14 Armament Instructor himself with VF-124 Gun Fighters. After this tour as an F-14 Armament Instructor in 1983 he went on to yet another F-14 Tomcat fighter squadron, VF-211 Fighting Checkmates. From VF-211 it was back to Shore Duty in 1996 to Great Lakes, Illinois at Recruit Training Command as a Navy Boot Camp Drill Instructor (Company Commander). Due to his many successes at RTC Great Lakes he was promoted to "Chief Petty Officer" (E-7) in September 1988. From RTC Great Lakes he reported to F-14 Fighter Squadron 11, VF-11 "Red Rippers" deployed on USS Forestall, CV-59. Transferred from VF-11 during Operation Desert Storm to USS America as the Leading Chief Petty Officer of the G-1 Weapons Division. After the war he received assignment to the Joint System Program Office at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida as the Fleet liaison for the AIM-120 "AMRAAM" missile system where he retired from the US Navy in May 1996.