John G. Lambert, 17 years old, joined the US Naval Reserve and served aboard the (Essex Class) aircraft carrier USS Bon Homme Richard, CVA-31, in 1965-1966 on a West-Pac for 9 months, as an Avionics Technician in VAW-11. With keen interest in the sea, he surfed on the west coast, and later became an advanced scuba diver. Hobbies were diversified from boating to water skiing, snow skiing and photography. He learned to fly in 1970, then purchased plans, and built his own plane, a Burt Rutan designed VariEze. He test flew & raced it, and flew it from coast-to-coast and border-to-border. A member of the EAA, he headed up a experimental aircraft builders group in San Diego for a number of years, and became both active with (and historian of) an experimental aircraft racing group. With his background in the navy, and aviation, he wrote a book on the history of the WWII aircraft carrier USS Independence, CVL-22, at the request of the ship's Reunion Group. The book has involved approx. 9 years of research, with trips across the nation to places including NARA - The National Archives in College Park MD, and NARA San Bruno CA, the Naval Air Museum in Pensacola, Tailhook Association in San Diego, to name a few. First released in 2011, with file changes made since for inclusion of additional historical data and photos. John was invited to join Dr. James Delgado on the joint NOAA / Navy / Boeing / Coda Octopus mission to obtain 3D side scan sonar images of the USS Independence on the bottom of the Pacific off Half Moon Bay California in 2015. The image provided by NOAA now on the book back cover. The following year John was invited to participate as a "Scientist Ashore" on Bob Ballard's mission with his vessel "Nautilus" to live stream video and photograph the ex USS Independence on the bottom for four days.
