January 19, 2021 What's in a Name?

The Liberty Gazette

January 19, 2021

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

What’s in a name? That depends. Your birth certificate may reflect a family name or a compromise of your parents’ preferences. And there are nicknames, some of them affectionate. Those are usually the ones you get from your parents, too. Some are not so affectionate. Those you probably get in school. And there’s a different kind of nickname. In military aviation, it’s a callsign, and for some, there’s a story behind the naming—not always printable, but we did collect a couple we could share. 

Our friend Tom Gallagher was a Naval Aviator. Tom is a tall, strapping young man. Neat, clean, professional, no slouch. He piloted Navy P-3s. He and some friends also had an open mic band on the side and gave themselves ‘80’s rock star stage names. His was “Tommy Günz”. When his squadron found out about it, everyone started calling him Günz. He’s not unhappy about it at all. It could have been worse. He says, “The best callsigns are the ones that happen organically, but often they give you one right when you get to the squadron, and it’s kind of forced.” In Tom’s case, they tried to name him “Sledge” at first, in reference to the smashing watermelon act of the comedian mononymously known as Gallagher. Fortunately, that moniker didn’t stick. It wouldn’t fit a lean, muscular pilot who plays ukulele on the side.

Tom says callsigns are not as common in the Navy as they are with Air Force jet pilots. Fortunately, we were able to draw out a story from one of them. And a U2 spy plane pilot at that!

Zach Johnson, a close family friend, is #887 of 1,060 U2 pilots to date, since 1955. Rarer than callsigns in the Navy. While on his first deployment, Zach went to set up his Skype account so he could talk with family back home. Not one to use the proverbial first-name-dot-last-name approach, it became a bit frustrating as every username he picked was taken. After many failed attempts, he had an epiphany: “JetJok”. He’s short like a horse jockey, confident like a football jock, and flies jets. It was perfect, and it was available on Skype. Finally, he could communicate with friends and family. 

“Then one day all the guys had these patches on their flight suits that said JetJok,” Zach explains. “Young and naïve, I thought it was cool and asked if I could get one. Little did I know they were all silently snickering at me the whole time. But no one let on it was a joke—yet.”

The next day, as Zach was returning to base in his U2, he radioed back to Dragon Ops. “One hour out, Code One.” He received the weather update as usual, and after a slight pause, he heard a raspy, drawn-out, ‘Jet…Jok’. In that instant, it was all clear, and the greeting at the bottom of the aircraft’s stairs was all smiles and laughs as they welcomed “JetJok” back to earth. 

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