220407 Sentinel, At Sea 1966

Jet Blast
This incident happened aboard the USS Kitty Hawk as we headed out on a cruise.

This story is true and brought about a change in Navy safety policy. It was fall of 1966. We had been out at sea for a few days and were headed over to the gulf of Tonkin to join the carrier task force operating off the coast of Vietnam. It was my first cruise, along with the first cruise for many more young sailors. I was eager to get more familiar with the ship, not knowing what to really expect when we hit the war zone. I was walking across the hangar deck and headed in the direction of an A4 Skyhawk that was chained and anchored by where the number 1 elevator would go up or down when moving planes to and from the flight deck. Everywhere around the flight deck there are wire nets to catch an unwary sailor who gets too close to the side and takes that one step too many. The elevators are kept up at the flight deck level and the wire net is around the edge of the elevator four decks up from the hangar deck, leaving the hangar bay doors open with one single wire across the opening.
The A4 aircraft was anchored with chains to hold it in place while a jet mechanic ran up the engine to 100% power after doing some maintenance work. The plane captain was out in front giving the mechanic the turn to signal and watching the operation.
A pair of snipes (engine room crewmen, pale as ghosts, for they rarely ever leave the bowels of the ship) came strolling along on the hanger deck, getting a breath of fresh air. Those two new guys (barely 18 years old) had not been above deck since the Air Group came aboard and had never seen any warplanes up close, so they were gawking right and left as they walked down the hangar deck. The A-4 jet was making a ferocious roar on the hangar deck, so much so it enveloped the area and there was no way to tell where the noise was coming from. I saw the two young men approaching the rear of the plane and starting to pass behind it. At the same time, the plane captain saw them. It was like a horrible nightmare, we could see the event in slow motion, the plane captain tried to yell at them to stay clear, but the jet created a din that no voice could penetrate. The two snipes walked right behind the jet and got an instant free ride over the side of the ship. It was like a giant invisible broom swept them out over the edge and into the sea. They were gone like a leaf from a tree branch in a storm. The plane captain signaled the mechanic to shut the engine down and he took off to report the incident. Someone else had seen the nightmare unfold and called the bridge. The on duty bridge crew called “man overboard” on the 1MC and the entire ship knew about it in an instant. The ship radioed the destroyers in our battle group to pick the hapless snipes out of the water and the rescue helicopter was called to help locate the men.
As memory serves, one was picked up and the other was lost at sea. Those poor guys had no idea of what could and did happen to them. The wake of an 84000-ton aircraft carrier steaming at 20 knots is awesome enough to lift a full size destroyer up several feet from its normal level in the water when it comes alongside the carrier and the four screws that propel the carrier through the water churn up a huge, frothy, wake that fans out behind the ship. From that time on, whenever a jet turned up for maintenance in the hanger bay on any Navy ship, there is not only a plane captain up front, but two other squadron members, one on either side of the wings and a yellow tape marked danger forming a triangle between them to keep unwary walkers away from danger of jet exhaust on the hanger deck. Up on the flight deck, mechanics can fire up the engines with the tail over the side of the flight deck once the plane is chained down to the deck. There is no danger of anyone walking behind the plane.
I never knew those guys who were blasted over the side, but I think about that incident at times. It’s funny when I remember events during my navy career; I realize most of my memories are of that first impressionable cruise, the second and the third weren’t nearly as exciting as I remember them.