The Spoonpluggers Forum

Actually I did 3 years, 9 months, and 13 days on the aircraft carrier Lexington CVA-16. I was a plane director (yellow shirt) in V-1 division on the flight deck.
Most of the time I was back aft on recoveries picking them up at about the 3rd wire (the arresting gear cable) and then bringing them to the forward elevator and striking them below. On launches I was back aft again bringing them forward to the cats (catapults) where the Air Bos'n would supervise them being hooked up properly.
I took my wife to see that ship about 10 years ago as it was a museum sitting in drydock at CorpusChristi Texas and I was amazed to see how much bigger it had seemed to grow from the time I was 20 and running up and down that flight deck all day and half the night in that 115 degree heat off the Phillipines. Funny how the years seem to do that.
Enough for the "old sea stories"...
Regards,
Douglas

Interesting break from the fish stories.
One suggestion:
Stories like these should be shared over a bar counter with the bottle close at hand. Think the "pub". Harry pours a decent drink and the price ain't bad either.

To whoever runs this place...good idea to move this Navy story of mine into the "PUB". I dont know how to do stuff like that.
Regards,
Doug Bush

Good to see your scary story. I would have probably jumped also.
Harry! Give Doug one on me. Give him his choice of the medium to lower priced brands. As some wise person once said "It's not the gift but the thought that counts!"

Lets hear some more weird fishing stories.....

Douglas, Bravo Zulu! Small world.

I served aboard Independence CVA 62. Asst. Flight Deck Officer. We'd have some stories to swap, e.g. first launch of an A3J Vigilante w/afterburners lit outran the cat; cat slammed into the water brake and damaged it. We lost the use of it for the whole Med cruise.

I cant imagine what it must be like to be up there in that zoo with all the cats they have launching, even during recoveries nowadays.
The Lexington was the last of the Essex class carriers and we only had the two down the main deck and none off the angle.
I was on it from 1956 through 1959.....Eisenhower had us over there in those Formosa Straits on patrol while the reds were blasting Quemoy.
We were out of SanDiego and would always go up to San Fransisco to pickup the squadrons out of Alameda or Miramar before heading to the "rising sun".
Did that WesPac cruise.....so many times.
You were lucky to be an officer, with your quarters in the "green country" and the real beds, etc etc. Were you a mustang? or did you get your commssion out of college....I know its all about the education. If I did it again there is no way I'd be anything but an officer. They say jump and we say "how high, sir".
Although, those officers on that flight deck work just as long hours as the white hats when that thing is spitting out those planes. They're not sitting on their butts during air ops, thats for sure. (While the "Engineering Officers" down below are playing acey-deucy all night)
Here's one for you. Our compartment was back at the fantail right under the first wire. One night during ops I am off duty and I stick my head out into the catwalk and here comes a F4D on a long final and somehow or another the meatball has gotten out of adjustment and he hits too far back on the fantail, tearing out the bottom of the plane, fire is going everywhere, parts flying, but he floorboards it down the deck, off the angle, goes straight up and ejects.
Well, they get the spotlights on him floating down and the tin cans are right off the port side for rescue and everything is going great for a rescue. He hits the water, gets out of chute, gets in his raft, the spotlights are on him and then the tin can thats going to pick him up RUNS OVER the poor guy and he dies in the screws!
The entire flight deck was in stunned shock! They recovered the rest of the planes and shut down ops for the next day. Then when we get into Okinawa, here come the investigators, etc etc etc. I guess the LSO in charge of that mirror got reamed and no telling what happened to the captain of that tin can..probably busted down to j.g. and sent to a thousand years of shore duty in some place like Olongopo (Subic Bay).
Biggest SNAFU, I ever saw.
Regards,
Douglas

Served aboard the U.S.S. Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVA-42) during 1960 in V4 division (fueling crew). The Roosevelt was one of only three Midway class carriers ( Midway CVA-41, Roosevelt CVA-42 and Coral Sea CVA-43. Coral Sea was supposed to be CVA-42 but when FDR died they named the 42 for him.

My most memorable experience came on my first day working (orientation) on the flight deck. A couple of days earlier I caught up with the ship in Barcelona Spain after an interesting flight from Morocco in a C-119 (Flying Boxcar). This first day I spent a lot of my time watching the F8U Crusaders land aboard as they landed hot and missed the wires pretty regular. I was standing on the port side of the flight deck, up forward watching the Crusader recovery, when one of them attempted to catch a wire, kinda bounced from side to side and came off the angle. Sounded like the engine was unwinding and I saw no evidence of going into AB. Aircraft hit the water right in front of me, pieces flew all over and the survival dye marker was showing in the water. By the time the aircraft reached the aft end of the ship, only the tail pipe was showing. I remember the plane guard tin-can was a long way off.

Speaking of tin-cans, they used to come along side to refuel off us and air ops ceased for a while. We are in rough seas, the cans bow is coming completely out of the water, we're standing on the edge of the flight deck looking down on those guys and the ships band was playing on the Captains forward cabin patio. We're standing there laughing at those guys and they're doing their best to keep from being washed overboard. What a circus.

Ron

yOU GUYS SHOULD'VE THROWED some spoonplugs over the sides

Ron,
you must have been over in the Med about the same time as the Independence. I met the ship in Cannes in September '60.

We ought to move to the Pub with Dougles and sit around the Charlie Noble to tell the rest of the sea stories. Did you experience Sea Bats?

jwt

Actually, that's around the time we were relieved by the Intrepid. We got back to Mayport just in time to ride out Hurricane Donna at sea. After loading a bunch of greenies out of boot camp, we pulled out so we wouldn't wind up as a Naval Air Station. Really felt sorry for the little wooden mine sweeper types that pulled out with us.

Everything was buttoned up pretty good but water was still getting into the hanger bay. When going to chow you had to time the roll of the ship or get wet.

Every 15 min. they would announce to stay clear of all weather decks, sponson decks, etc. That night, a friend and I snuck out the hatch at the far aft end of the port catwalk. We peaked over the edge of the flight deck and saw that the island had one big light on. When we saw the wave break over the bow of the ship, that was enough.

We got tore up pretty good and spent the next three months in dry dock at the Brooklyn Naval Yard. Man I'm telling you, liberty in Manhattan. A sailors dream.

Ron

I was in one of those typhoons on the Lexington where you had to strap yourself in the bunk and when I tell people about seeing waves come over the bow of that flight deck, they always say "noooooooo way". As well as I can remember its 56 feet from the flight deck to the water in calm seas.
But you've seen it yourself, so you know how vicious that ocean can get.
Regards,
Douglas