LT (jg) Angus J. Yeoman, son of Mr. and Mrs. Chris Yeoman of Bayville, received his wings of gold as a Naval Aviator at ceremonies held last week at Naval Air Station Whiting Field in Milton, Florida. Helicopter Pilot
Yeoman will report to Naval Station Norfolk where he will next qualify to fly the Sikorsky MH-60S Knighthawk helicopter. The Knighthawk’s missions include logistics support, search and rescue, medical evacuation, special warfare support, anti-surface warfare and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
The aviator’s parents are both former Navy, his father Chris, a former Navy Chief who served on gun boats as a boatswain’s mate and his mother, Tracie Smith Yeoman, originally of Highlands, a retired Commander and deep sea diver. Commander Smith-Yeoman, who retired after 24 years in the Navy, also retired last December after 12 years as the Senior Naval Science Instructor of the NJROTC program at MAST, the Marine Academy of Science and Technology on Sandy Hook.
Lt (jg) Yeoman is a 2018 graduate of Donovan Catholic High School in Toms River, and the University of South Carolina with a degree in geography, where he was commissioned into the Navy through the NROTC program.
He reported to Naval Air Station Pensacola for the Naval Introductory Flight Evaluation (NIFE) program, the introduction of flight basics, shortly after being commissioned in 2022.
In this nine-week course, like all students, he completed academic classes in basic aerodynamics, aviation weather, air navigation, flight rules and regulations, and aircraft engines and systems. Throughout that time, he was also exposed to aviation physiology through classes with the Naval Operational Medical Institute, learning about how flight affects the human body.
NIFE establishes the foundations of aviation fundamentals for aspiring aviators but is also a screening tool that tests a student’s ability to handle stressful evolutions. Yeoman learned to fly a Cessna 172, a single engine fixed wing aircraft, in this program.
Upon completion of NIFE, Yeoman reported to Training Squadron (VT) 27, the Boomers, at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in Texas where he completed Primary flight school, a 22-week course where he learned visual flight, basic instrument flying, aerobatics, radio instrument navigation, and formation flying. He also completed a solo flight in the Beechcraft T-6 Texan II, a single-engine turboprop aircraft.
The Naval Officer then transferred to Naval Air Station Whiting Field in the panhandle of Florida to Helicopter Training Squadron (HT) 18, the Vigilant Eagles, for rotary wing pilot training. This course is designed to develop student skills in helicopter flight maneuvers using the Leonardo TH-73A Thrasher helicopter, visual navigation and tactics. Completion of this course also includes an intensive curriculum of basic and radio instruments, and courses took six months and gave Yeoman the status of a trained and proficient all-weather aviator.
Yeoman and each of the 14 other military members receiving their wings of gold, including 11 Navy officers, one Coast Guard officer and two Marine Corps officers, also received their Naval Aviator numbers, designating the number of aviators in the military since the first Naval Aviator’s number was issued in 1918. Yeoman’s number is 37837.
The three-member Yeoman family has served a total of 44 years in the Navy, in addition to Commander Smith-Yeoman’s 12 years as an NJROTC instructor after her Navy retirement. With Lt(jg) Yeoman’s father a Chief boatswain’s mate, considered one of the most versatile and important positions on a Naval ship, his mother a deep sea diver and himself an aviator, the Yeomans have served the Navy and the nation on land, in the air and under the sea.
I thank them for there service and congratulate the new pilot