PURESOME REMEMBERED

That fluttering sound you detected on May 20 was the flapping of wings greeting a new arrival far-far above the contrail level.

 

Commander Jack D. Woodul, USNR (Ret) died at his New Mexico ranch after a prolonged illness at 85.  He left a huge gap in the lives of his beautiful, talented wife Carolyn, their two sons, and thousands of admirers.

 

Jack Woodul was an intriguing mixture.  He was of medium height, compact and muscular with a perpetual gleam in his eyes.  He’d been a devoted marathoner until his knees gave out.  

 

On the outside he was wry, humorous, and personable.  On the inside lurked Youthly Puresome, naval aviation’s Everyman Junior Officer, the sort you want beside you in a food fight, fist fight, or dogfight. 

 

In some 35,000 hours aloft, Jack flew a wide variety of aircraft.  He went to war in A-4 Skyhawks aboard USS Independence in 1965 and resented the hell out of the U.S. Navy for denying him a second helping.  So he went Reserve, flying Crusaders and Phantoms when he wasn’t working his way up the Delta (“Grits Airways”) ladder from flight engineer to transoceanic jumbo jet captain, rated in five airliners.

 

I flew with Jack twice, in his speedy Bellanca (dubbed “Giuseppe,” you can look it up) and his overpowered Air Cam that jumped off the ground although Jack insisted he got nose bleeds above 50 feet. He was a smooooth pilot.

 

Jack’s Navy service included a tour as an A-4 instructor at Jacksonville, Florida, where he trained a wide variety of pilots.  They included future Senator John McCain (Jack was unimpressed) and the first class of Israeli Skyhawk pilots (Jack was highly impressed.)

 

Jack conceived Youthly Puresome for a twenty-year feature in The Hook, quarterly journal of the Tailhook Association.  He and I received our lifetime achievement awards in 1998, the year our World War I epic was copyrighted. (Read on for more details)

 

At annual Tailhook meetings Jack held down the Skyhawk suite, a “ready room” for convivial gatherings whether attendees had flown A-4s or not.  The variety was exceptional, including regulars Captain Royce Williams who received a much-belated Medal of Honor early this year at 101, and the colorful Commander Bart Flaherty, a former State Department operative whose foreign relations began in the rear cockpit of a Phantom over North Vietnam.

 

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Jack’s fellow warrior and soul mate is Roy “Shadow” Stafford.  He set a near-unique record, transitioning from enlisted Marine infantryman in Vietnam to RF-4 Phantom aviator.  His Black Shadow aviation shop in Florida provided world-class restorations to the museum community.  He recalls:

 

“Naval Aviation has lost an incredible Brother. For decades he brightened our lives with tales that made us laugh… at ourselves and others. He was irreverent…yet intuitive about things in life that most of us could relate to.  As long as we live, we will all remember the ‘Tales of Youthly Puresome.’ 

 

“I am deeply saddened, for I have also lost a dear friend.  A man who encouraged me and would always take the time to share his wisdom and knowledge. He was like a big brother to me.  I will forever be grateful to Barrett Tillman for introducing us to each other. It was a true life blessing.

 

“We all have our ups and downs in this thing called life… but in some of my darkest times… he never failed to make me laugh. Oh dear God, what a blessing… The Man made me laugh… he made me LAUGH! Again, what a blessing it was to open The Hook and read his latest gift.  I might add that besides the humor, each gift contained a little nugget that only us Naval Aviators could relate too. That made it even more special. He was truly unique and one of a kind!

 

“To his family, thank you for sharing him all these decades.  I know he was proud of you and loved you dearly. 

 

“God Speed Puresome.  We will always remember you and be a little jealous that only “The Big Guy” will be enjoying your tales first hand! Until we meet again… All the Best! Thanks for the memories!

 

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From another longtime colleague, Lieutenant Commander Rick Morgan of the EA-6B Prowler community:

 

“Heard this morning that my good friend Jack Woodul has passed. Jack was from Portales, and a New Mexico ROTC grad who became a Naval Aviator.  He flew A-4s with VA-86 in Vietnam and then left the regulars to work with the Reserves in F-8s and then F-4s, all this while he rose through the ranks at Delta to become an international pilot in 767s.  

 

“Jack was a one of a kind; a friend from the first meeting (Hook '96) and well known from his work in The Hook as "Youthly Puresome", which covered his many adventures in the business. 

 

“His wife Carolyn has movie star good looks and is a beautiful person. They were married before ROTC midshipmen were allowed to have brides and hid it from the Navy.

 

“He was big on nicknames.  Carolyn got hers when he was feeling playful as an airline captain and she was wearing her new mink coat with a cabin announcement after landing. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, we are pleased to have on board that famous Italian movie actress, Tunita del Mundo. She's wearing a mink coat in first class. Be sure and say hello.’

 

“I feel like a better person knowing both of them and will miss his wit and opinions in E-mails and other correspondence. He represented everything I love in Naval Aviation.” 

 

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With our unindicted co-conspirator Commander R.R. “Boom” Powell, Jack and I conducted a years-long project to produce a World War I novel, Duel Over Douai.  Email evidence indicates origin around 2009, e-published in 2021 and the print edition in 2024.  

 

https://www.amazon.com/Duel-Over-Douai-novel-aviation-ebook/dp/B09KXBVKCP

 

Aside from our collective aviation experience—Boom had flown Great War replica aircraft—we cast each of ourselves as characters in the novel.  Boom was the Brit, I was a German princeling, and Jack was George Armostrong Cody, a Texas mankiller who fled to the European war via Canada.

 

Jack’s character was self-descriptive when Cody told an obnoxious Brit, “I am no gentleman.  My mother taught me to read and write.  My father taught me what it was to be a man.  I have lived a rough life, but it is important to do what is right…You don’t abuse machinery or animals, and you take care of those you choose to run with.”

 

In person and in print, Jack described the warrior aura of Little Bighorn: ghostly trumpet triplets wafting on the wind that rustled the long grass where Yellow Hair died with his command.

 

He was especially fond of animals, from his flock of “goatlets” to large canines (“Buddy Moose Dog” et al) plus horses.  He guarded them all with a Winchester .30-06 zeroed to several rocks on Rancho Delmundo.

 

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Jack was warrior down to his DNA; he declared himself “De Portales Gonsleenger.”  His family provided combatants to America’s wars “because that’s what men do.”  His father Parker, an Army colonel, was wounded in Italy.  An uncle (also Jack D.) was a B-17 gunner who froze to death in the English Channel in 1944.

 

In that regard, Jack identified with Gary Sinise’s “Lieutenant Dan” in Forrest Gump.  Moreover, Jack’s arrival in Valhalla must have been a bittersweet experience after leaving his earthly realm.  It’s intriguing to imagine those among the reception committee.  His father and uncle; George Custer and Crazy Horse (callsign of a Navy Reserve colleague); Captain Wynn Foster (“Captain Hook”); Captain Steve Millikin (Silver Star helicopter pilot and Hook editor), and USS Independenceshipmates amid other Navy losses.

 

And imagine Jack’s devoted mother with world-class bicyclist brother (“Beel the heepie boy” consultant to Kevin Costner’s American Flyers), and so many others.

 

He remains irreplaceable.