10/12/2023
Lt. Col. William L. Waters, a.k.a. Uncle Muddy (fourth from the left, back row) commanded HMM-164 for a period of 27 months. A typical command assignment is 12 months, but Muddy was a smooth politician with a remarkable wartime record, and he was gonna keep command until he retired. As usual, he got his way.
When I arrived at the squadron Uncle Muddy and other decorated war heroes were training the next generation of pilots. Uncle Muddy and the other wartime pilots were crazy wildmen behind the wheel, which lead to all kinds of sporty flying.
During the war Uncle Muddy was awarded a Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, a Single Mission Air Medal, 54 Strike Flight Awards, a Navy Commendation Medal, and many RVN awards for his three tours of duty in the Republic of Vietnam. They don't award Air Medals for putzing around, they are awarded for in-flight heroics, like flying into the cross fire to extract friendlies.
Uncle Muddy also flew Presidents and Astronauts as the big cheese at HMX-1. He was awarded the Presidential Helicopter Service Badge for his tour in HMX-1 and the Meritorious Service Medal for his tour at the Naval Air Pacific Command (COMNAVAIRPAC). He flew Presidents Nixon and Ford and he flew astronauts' Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin of the Apollo 11 crew to their ticker-tape parade in New York City.
This was the guy that grabbed ahold of a peacetime squadron after the war and was dead-set on having fun with it. We had a tendency to color outside the lines and bend rules, wherever we went.
