In b2′s time, in other words -
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye6WeW6zYIk[/youtube]
I really do prefer the angle deck (with thanks to Kim P. for the video link)
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28 comments to Flight Ops – WW II style |
Targets of Opportunityblog advertising is good for you Credo"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones "Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra" "And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche "A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke “You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier "Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas "Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex Amazon AssociateFor the Effort!Winnar! Subscribe CategoriesPagesTagsacademy
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This should be mandatory viewing for all those who choose to whine about their hard lot in life. Thank you, Lex. Watching the flight deck crews working with little or no protective gear and sometimes in their scivvies, the pilots returning from a mission-maybe to land-maybe to overshoot the deck by not many yards-or worse, land and then…There aren’t enough words in Roget’s under “contempt” for those who don’t remember those Troops and our Troops today, or who only remember them for the all-too-brief seconds they’re on the evening news. Please continue to inspire we who do want to help our Military endure what they must while deployed and support them even more when they return. God Bless and keep you from Veritas et Fidelis Semper.
My heart was in my throat the whole time. I can’t tell you how much I admire what you and your fellow aviators do.
Ah yes, back when you used the rudder pedals for something other than a foot rest…
- SJS
How about those studly Paddles in just their shorts? How did they expect anyone to land while laughing that hard?
Wow – would that really be representative of how many they lost v. successful landings?
I like the twin 5-inch (or maybe 3-inch) gun turrets in front of the carrier’s island, you don’t see that anymore.
Michelle – absolutely so. IIRC, before the Navy entered the modern age of angled decks, steam catapults and NATOPS (standardized training and operating proceedures), the mishap rate was an unholy 48 mishaps per 100K flight hours (and that might even be too low – some of these synapses don’t synch like they used to…) and today we’re down around 2 or 3 and the anxiety meter pegs out when it approaches 10 mishaps per 100K flight hour.
Highly recommend the following books to get a sense and flavor of what it was like to fly then: “Shattered Sword” and “Clash of the Carriers” – the former for its coverage of Midway, esp. of IJN ops and the latter, for CVOPS later in the war with the fast carrier task groups. I remain in awe of what my predecessors did with the (in our view) antiquated tools and concepts available.
- SJS
What a great reminder that the F4U was a a truly unforgiving bi**h to bring aboard. In fact, there was footage of a Brit trapping in the montage. They did it operationally before we figured it out. Some great shots of finding the barrier, but I guess that was before the arrival of Tillie in the fleet.
Almost takes us back to iron men and wooden hulls.
Marine6 Sends
I remember seeing footage like this when I was younger and thinking: WOW! Those guys were fighting WWII!!! COOL!!!!
Now I see this footage and think: how many guys did not make it back from the strike? How many more empty bunks are there going to be onboard tonight?
When I was riding the Enterprise last year, I had the same type of thought. Sitting in the dirty shirt WR, I thought of what it must have been like launching combat operations during Viet Nam.
And how many guys did not return…
bullnav,
And that’s the hardest part of all. Reckoning the cost of doing what they did and we did and others will do.
The hardest job is not so much that of the aviator who flies the mission, or the aircrew in back, or even of the ground crews paitiently waiting for their return. It’s that of the Commander who must give the orders that may result in some not coming back.
It is his mind which must compose, and his hand write down, the words that no one wants to write, nor to read. In the end, history will give the credit of his squadron’s success unto him, and those gallant sailors will be “his” boys. But those who read the history will not long reflect on the cost to him that each success came with. That with each “aircraft” lost, there was a name or names to go with it, and with each name listed, a small part of that commander’s heart was buried there as well.
It’s the double-edged sword of command.
Respects,
I have aways been awed by the men that flew from those ships and the cost of doing so. Hooah. A trip to Charleston had me spending much time on the Yorktown. The nice folks let me a lot of the ship that most visitors don’t get to see. This old soldier was honored to see that monument to the US Navy and carrier aviation.
As for B2, were you in Wildcats, Dauntlesses or Devastators?
GEO6, Acting on a standing request from B2 to answer queries on his behalf at this time of day(two hour daily naps…its an age thing) it is my understanding that he flew the Sopwith-Camel. Best
AW1- Well said. Humbling images and words formed from a thoughtful perspective. US Naval Air is an incredible legacy.
Again, go read Barret Tillman’s “Clash of the Carriers” and in particular, the late afternoon, 300+ nm strike launched against the Japanese carriers. The guys knew they would be attacking at dusk and faced a long, arduous return to the carriers for a night recovery. Humbling stuff indeed…
- SJS
SJS- Concur. Shattered Sword was one of the best books I have ever read on the subject. Snake- Too funny, I would laugh except an occasional reader sez she has a picture of me in the turret of a Renault.
Nottun like being electronically stimulated on sumping I can’t see! I’m “big brothered at work” by EDS & da Nav (I wonder how Lex does it ???) and I’m dial-up at home. Sorry. I keep telling y’all I’m a dinosaur..
That being said I know when I’m being hit by an electronic cattle prod alright…
here I is:
“In October of 1911 Lt. Ellyson USN and Lt. Badbob USN took the Navy’s first airplane the A-1 Curtis hydroaeroplane, for an early sea trial. They lifted off from Annapolis, flew south along the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay. They put down near the Cedar Point lighthouse, pulled the plane on the beach and repaired the carburetor, and then flew south on to Smith Point, Virginia.” Here I am:
http://www.aerofiles.com/curt-AH8pilots.jpg
Sure I was #2, notice how I’m fighting for da controls, but heck- at least I collected all that flight pay Snake!
b2
Great footage collection! You would think that the idea of a more protective headgear would have come about sooner. Men of Steel indeed!
now for a technical question, at about the 4:26 minute marker [reading on the video] Paddles seems to be trying to kill a bee. What exactly is that signal he is tossing out there, or is that dance for the camera? It seems a bit technical, something unwritten, like ‘you are going to hit the island!!!!’
GEO6, A Tread-Head eh, a noble group… indeed…I too was a Tread Head for a time in the way back… before I went over to the dark side. Tanks were my first love…never really forgotten full of fond memories of roaring tracts,clouds of dust, exhaust fumes, busted shins and knuckles and of course good friends. A time that is never really far from my thoughts even today… although, truth be told, the somewhat more than modest hearing loss I suffered in my left ear when I was a FNG butter bar, night firing tank range safety officer at Knox could account for it. Best
Snake,
yeah, I too was trying for an armor comission back in the day. Went to basic at Ft Knox. 2nd sqd, 2nd plt, B13-4. Sgt’s Marincheck & Cibolski. Ya can’t ever forget that stuff.
The tank gunnery range was where I first learned what the word ‘violence’ really means. M48′s were still awe-inspiring up close and all that…..
Respects,
Tim, Snake, Yup. Nothing sez I love you like 70 tons of steel and sex appeal.
re: Nothing sez I love you like 70 tons of steel and sex appeal.
Oh. I don’t know. There’s a certain kind of tough love that comes in 548 rounds of 20mm armor-piercing incendiary going downstream at 2000 rounds per minute. Not mention laser-guided bombs with steel nose plugs. And IR Mavericks. And…
But I digress.
Lex,
yes, but we reserve the gifting of those special things for our enemies…. usually…
Respects,
Yeah, what he said!
As I was watching I was admiring the forces involved with catching the wire. Also wondering how many planes broke while landing, like in two by losing their back half of the airplane.
Then I saw it and said, wow.
Heart stopping.
P-3 Wife,
And today, the landing speeds are significantly higher than back then. The stopping is almost as exhilerating as the launch. More so after nightfall. Very much more so…….
Respects,
“…20mm armor-piercing incendiary…” Pish!!
Nothing shows you really care like APDS, unless it would be APFSDS … 17lbs and 1700m/s to impress.
Cheers
Lex,
You know, I’m up for Dept. Head this year, and have to put in my request for what coast, expeditionary, Japan, etc., I would like. Thought about going expeditionary, as that’s where the action is.
Until this. Ah, the Boat. The home we love to hate. Mom. I feel the overwhelming desire for more traps.
AW1 Tim,
True, so very pretty at night.
But at least today’s planes are built to take those kind of stresses.
Must say, I’m definitely a watcher when it comes to this. I have no desire to be an actual doer of such.
Tip of the hat to you fellows.