Wickendoll left the University of Kansas during his last semester to join the Navy.  He started his naval career prior to WWII as VF-10 “Grim Reaper” fighter pilot.  During the Battle of Santa Cruz, his team prevented the Japanese dive bombers from striking their ship, the USS Enterprise.  He flew a total of 45 combat missions, before returning home to train new pilots.  Wickendoll helped form a new flying group that he named the Blue Angels.  He was one of the four original pilots preforming air shows all over the US.   He left the Blue Angels to join the highly classified test programs which were the precursors to NASA’s Project Mercury. Wickendoll test flew the first carrier-launched aircraft capable of delivering a nuclear warhead. However, the aircraft malfunctioned resulting in his death in 1951.