Unlucky 1706

I do not know why things just suddenly bring back memories, but this one hatched out today. Before my first cruise on the Kitty Hawk we were out at sea doing a race track pattern between San Diego and Los Angeles (a hundred miles off the California coast). The idea was to acclimate flight deck newbies and to train pilots to land on aircraft carriers before we were in a combat zone.

There was a guy I knew in our squadron who was an enlisted radar operator in one of the squadron’s E-2a aircraft (which is what I worked on in those days.) The plane had a crew of five, pilot, co-pilot, two combat information officers and one enlisted radar operator/technician. The plane was airborne and just before dark it was coming in to land on the carrier. I was sitting in a second plane listening to the LA radio station with WolfMan Jack spinning the turntable with the best rock and roll and commentary ever. The pilot turned over the controls to the co-pilot to practice his landing on board the ship. The co-pilot hit the deck too far off to the left (port) side of center of the arresting wire. Instead of the wire catching the tail hook and stopping the plane, it sent the plane careening over to the port side and into the steel safety net designed to keep flight deck crewmembers from falling overboard. The landing wheels caught in the net with the rear of the plane over the deck and the front end of the plane hanging 80 feet over thin air. (Had he landed too far off center to the starboard side, I would not be writing this post.) The plane was stuck in the steel net for a second (that seemed like forever) and then the plane rocked forward and the arresting wire slipped from the tailhook. The plane cracked like an egg and fell into the sea. The pilot and the enlisted radar operator got out of the plane and were rescued, while the co-pilot and the two radar officers never got out of the plane. The enlisted man had his legs sliced open by the jagged metal skin of the plane as he broke loose from his harness and floated to the surface. The rescue helicopter (always airborne during landing operations) was right there to pick up the two survivors.

That same enlisted guy was on shore patrol duty in Olongapo P.I. later on during the cruise when he and his shore patrol partner were called into a bar there to break up a scuffle between a bar girl and a sailor. He went in, thinking his partner was right behind him (as he should have been). He turned to the sailor to shove him back out of the way. His shore patrol partner should have had his back, but did not. He heard a crash of glass breaking and as he turned around; the girl cut him with a broken beer bottle from his forehead down to his chin, barely missing cutting his eye out.

I saw the first story happen and he relayed the second story in the shop on board the ship. I never heard what if anything happened to the derelict shore patrol partner who really caused my squadron mate to get cut up by not doing his duty and backing up his partner. My squadron mate was lucky in that he was a smart, handsome guy who seemed to be in a great navy occupation, but even the luckiest guy has a few unlucky days, even months and sometimes an entire cruise.