I heard the stories about Hoser's Vietnam adventures when working as a Marine in the Pentagon in 78-79 timeframe. Seemed like
everyone had a Hoser story and each one was more outrageous than the last one. Even the A-7 and A-4 drivers in the office has Hoser Stories and they ranged from fishing with hand grenades to daily trying to shoot a bell in a church over North Vietnam on his way to feet wet or chasing Rent-a-cops at Mt Mugu and pulling them over (they objected to his mining of rifle range impact area for lead for one of his gun related projects).
Those same storytellers convinced me to go Navy since Marines were so backed up trying to get guys to flight school. Shortly afterwards, I raised my right hand and was sworn into Navy and ended up in VF-101. When I finished the FRS, my new squadron sent me back to 101 to be the first TARPS RIO trained there along with a pilot. The pilot was teamed with a former Vigi RAN and would fly with him and me alternately as we validated the Syllabus. I was crewed with Hoser, the legend, who had just arrived with much anticipation with mandate to teach Tomcat drivers how to shoot the gun (another epic Hoser tale).
I had just flown with many legendary Tomcat drivers while progressing through the RAG, but Hoser was something else. He whipped the Tomcat around like it was a WWII fighter. Most of the TARPS syllabus was low-levels so I got to appreciate his eyesight and crew coordination skills. He is simply a warrior's warrior and
everything he undertakes, he does at full throttle.
Great story about Hoser. Trust this: Hoser's S-2T is the best-looking Stoof that ever flew. Somehow, he made the ugliest naval a/c ever actually mean-looking by adding turbo-prop engines, a pointy nose & a new paint-job.
Hoser sent me this picture of himself in his S-2T and I agree that it's one fine looking ride.