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RADM (ret) Guadagnini

FormerRecruitingGuru

Making Recruiting Great Again
I saw on LinkedIn that RADM (ret) Mark Guadagnini passed away over the weekend.

I remember him talking to my NROTC unit when I was a young lad and remember a bit of his leadership lessons that carry over to this day.
 

insanebikerboy

Internet killed the television star
pilot
None
Contributor
That’s sad to hear. I met him when he was CNATRA, me a LT(j.g.) learning to fly the TH-57. Spoke to him a few minutes and he was like ‘call me Guad’. Was a really down to earth, good dude. ?
 
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taxi1

Well-Known Member
pilot
Damn, Very sad to hear, but thanks for the tipper.

A million years ago while still a civilian in college I played volleyball on a USVBA team at a high level, and two of our players were guys who were stationed at NAS Oceana flying A6s, Dave Buss and Guad. They both played at the USNA. Overachievers, Dave went on to be the Air Boss for the Navy, and Guad to CNATRA.

Wished I had connected this past year.
 

TF7325

Well-Known Member
pilot
Contributor
4E983C9B-1FD2-4C47-A40E-2CD2D4688F48.jpeg
He was at our winging ceremony back in April. Sad to hear he has passed. Fair winds and following Seas, Sir.
 

Gatordev

Well-Known Member
pilot
Site Admin
Contributor
I'll have to search, but I think he holds the record for highest ranking active-duty member to post on AW.

I believe you are correct. I think I still have a PM from him somewhere in the ether, as well.
 

MIDNJAC

is clara ship
pilot
Didn't he have a son who went aviation? I wanna say he was in Meridian around when I was (2009 ish).
 

Brett327

Well-Known Member
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
I remember talking to him on the ship right after his son got booted from USNA, or flight school, or whatever. Now that I think about it, there seemed to be some kind of drunken/disorderly incident where his kid invaded someone's house in Annapolis and caused a ruckus. Don't recall the specifics, but there was an awkward moment related to that. Maybe he had more than one kid in the pipeline.

My biggest take-away from him being our CSG during that cruise was that he prohibited mid-cycle fly-bys for some silly reason, like we should be using that gas to "train." Way to suck the fun out of Naval Aviation, Pops. Bottom line, he was pretty much a douche.
 

JustAGuy

Registered User
pilot
While it sucks to hear about someone passing away especially earlier in life than should be...
My biggest take-away from him being our CSG during that cruise was that he prohibited mid-cycle fly-bys for some silly reason, like we should be using that gas to "train." Way to suck the fun out of Naval Aviation, Pops. Bottom line, he was pretty much a douche.
...this is very much true. Got to interact with him personally on a number of occasions during this time period and it was almost baffling some of the things he would say. The best was (paraphrasing) "Well why don't they just point the nose at the water and squeeze off a few rounds before heading into country to make sure the gun is working?" CAG honestly didn't even know how to respond....
 

insanebikerboy

Internet killed the television star
pilot
None
Contributor
. The best was (paraphrasing) "Well why don't they just point the nose at the water and squeeze off a few rounds before heading into country to make sure the gun is working?" CAG honestly didn't even know how to respond....
Any context? I ask because that’s exactly what we did before every combat flight, both overwater and overland, with crew served weapons in the helo.
 

MIDNJAC

is clara ship
pilot
Any context? I ask because that’s exactly what we did before every combat flight, both overwater and overland, with crew served weapons in the helo.

1) you can't necessarily just shoot the gun into a random spot in the open ocean, not to mention gas is often way too tight to just drop down to a few thousand feet, do a clearing pass somewhere, and do a strafe, then climb all the way back up onto the blvd.
2) we only have 400-500 rounds total in that gun (depending on variant) and they shoot at 4-6000 rounds per minute. Wasting them on a combat sortie where you could need them later is dumb.

I've probably omitted other reasons it is dumb, but those are a couple for context.
 

JustAGuy

Registered User
pilot
Both good reasons, but also reloading a 20mm is a bit different than crew served weapons and we were at a severe shortage of working loaders. You need two loaders, one to download what remains of the belt, and the other one with a full belt. Then you have to download the partially fired belt and reassemble it into a full belt.

All of which was untenable when jets were coming back from missions, turned in one event, and going right back out.
 
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