Launching off the front end of an aircraft carrier on only one engine is considered poor headwork by those who have gotten used to having two. It just about guarantees you a single-engine landing at the other end. Most of the time.
It’s a stranger notion still when you combine it with low altitude attacks against targets defended by AAA.
People did it all the time. Sometimes they got shot down:
As a second-tour pilot with Attack Squadron (VA) 97 in the USS Constellation (CVA-64), I felt like a seasoned combat veteran—but not invincible. I can remember writing to my wife and describing the eerie beauty of flak and tracers against the sky on night missions and the paradox of doing something that had become “routine” despite the inherent danger.
Well, maybe I felt a little invincible. But any of those feelings came to an abrupt end on 3 April 1970.
I’m pretty glad I don’t have any stories like Harry Hoffman.
Having been in the woods, all tall and dark, I can certainly relate, to a certain extent. No one was trying to find me so they could play games with my one and only precious body. The only thing in danger, for me, was my pride, since I was the victim of a “snipe hunt” scam.
Yeah, go ahead and laugh. I was 13 and ignorant. I know a number of 20 somethings that got caught in that one (it also used to be a favorite spring training stunt as well).
Still, scary just thinking about it. Kudos to the Army pilots as well. Not surprised the AF didn’t come. It took those Warrant Officer pilots to show up the AF.
It’s always disconcerting for someone my age to see a contemporary die so relatively young–hits too close to home and all that. I’ve had several friends, college class-mates and fraternity brothers–both male and female, some a decade younger, die before their time in the last few years. It all brings back the old saying of my parent’s and grandparent’s generation: “Here today–gone tomorrow.”
Losses in combat, while never pleasant, are to be expected and one learns to steel one’s self against them. Early deaths due to disease or accident seem to me to be far more tragic. Go with God Harry Hoffman–you lived a meaningful life dedicated to service and your fellow countrymen–one ended all too abruptly.
Nice find, good link. 225 combat missions in Vietnam. Pilot, then Doc (flt surgeon, Test Pilot). Loved the moment of clarity (WT% am I doing here?) uttered aloud. Many thanks to all the Harry Hoffmans past and present.
Glad there are no stories, true. But would that we could.
Single seat, big meat. A tip of the cup to ya’, Dog.
Just finished reading the story in the magazine. Awesome story, awesome life. While reading it, it stood out to me that while in the chute, he grabed his PRC and talked to his wingman to let him know he was okay and in one piece. Good headwork.
Great story.
Those are important thoughts about the two engines for carrier ops. When you now have a fast jet community that has been two engine for so long…. it will be interesting to see what happens if the F-35C finds it’s way to the fleet.
Great story. The narrative of his time after ejection reminded me of another one published by the Naval Institute Press.
Lt. Cliff Judkins traveled 15,000 feet to the ocean below when his chute failed to open after ejecting from his Crusader. He also talked about his moment of clarity, not knowing if he would survive.
While recuperating in the hospital, the USMC demanded that he give account for the .38 revolver lost when he hit the ocean.
SJS may well remember this one. Eisenhower BG looking for us in the FID BG -fresh from the “First Battle of Sidra”- as we chopped out of the Med late August ’81, enemies prior to joining up and being friends united in the pursuit against Communism all the way up to the Kola peninsula in Ocean Venture ’81 .
Of course it was stormy. Really. Seriously stormy. The inconsequential storm tossed vessel that I was aboard, deemed worthy of sacrifice for the mighty carrier, was well out on the threat axis. Well, a good ~700 miles or more from his warm and cozy mother -and also a very long way from that mother we had been following/avoiding for the past few months- there he was. A lone SLUF showed up on the -49 and eventually found us.
If something happened, we were his only slim hope.
Brave man that…Or just plain crazy.
What a great story! Never had to make a “nylon approach,” but many of his recollections (the beauty of tracers at night, the way your mind goers still and decisive in extremis, wondering,”What the #%@% am I doing here?”, etc.) were a tip toe through the tulips for me.
I had an extreme dread of spending the night in the jungle like that. Could feel in my bones the relief he felt when the choppers hove into view. What incredibly gutsy helo pilots.
Thanks Col Hoffman for sharing this with the world and vaya con Dios.
Re the commentary over the joys of two engines vs one. One very very cold late January afternoon I was on a radar vectored approach to NAS Glenview(Chicago) in my sweet A4. O’Hare approach control was really busy, and never in a good mood, when they told me to “turn right to 060 degrees we are going to swing you out to the east to avoid O’Hare traffic”. I answered “negative on the vector, that will take me well out over the lake”. “So what”, was the reply. “I’m single engine”, was my reasoned reply. “Is it still running”, was the sarcastic comeback. “If so, expedite your turn to 060 degrees and be sure and call me if it quits” That was the last time I ever thought about two engines.
Interesting life stories make interesting people, and we miss them all the more for that. Thanks for finding that gem.
Take a peek at the air losses from the web site below and thank your stars we aren’t in that arena again. Some truly depressing stats like VF-111 off Midway losing 2 skippers within 3 weeks. Gives new meaning to Harry’s comment of “routine” despite inherent dangers.
http://usn-ac-japan.hp.infoseek.co.jp/airloss/a-7.htm
Was told a tale by a fellow “commuter” -ex-Hornet driver- some years back about how one of his engines blew up one night south of France. That in turn caused the other to fail in short order.
He too had one of those “whiskey-tango” epihanies, and a fairly long swim while injured as well.
So, just goes to show that if Fate comes Hunting you, its hard not to get bagged.
G-Man/
What I zeroed in on was the LtCdr from VFA-56(Midway) who was downed twice; second time KIA. Sometimes dodging the golden BB once just isn’t enough. I had a class-mate of mine in plt tng who was assigned with me to the 366TFW (67-68) at DaNang (diff. Squadrons) who was downed 3 times in 1st 90 days going North–and recovered each time–Wing Co sent him home credited with full tour.
The story of my friend’s 3rd shoot-down is a classic. He was in the back-seat of the 389th’s SQ CO when they were hit during a strike on some NVA Arty positions just north of DMZ. They punched out feet wet just south of NVA-controlled Tiger Island. As they were thrashing around in H2O with SAR Jolly Green overhead, and under fire by field arty lobbed in from Tiger Island, a lucky arty shell hit the tail of chopper and the damn thing LITERALLY FELL ON TOP OF THEM. Luckly they both had retained helmets and dove as deep as they could and survived crash. So now there they and full crew of the Jolly were all thrashing around together with arty shells still falling. Eventually all got picked up and back to DaNang. I happened to walk into the O-Club after a morning body-surfing at China Beach (was off sched) and saw crowd gathered round–lo and behold there was Sammy, still in dripping wet flt suit downing several cold ones–much back-slapping, etc. “Virg, Watson (WingCO) is sending me home!”, he gleefully greeted me. (I was glad to see it as he had a wife and kid, unlike reprobate batchelors like myself.) For him, the third time was the charm–not many in those days could say that…
Virgil,
They probably just ran out of people willing to share a bird with him…
“Launching off the front end of an aircraft carrier on only one engine is considered poor headwork by those who have gotten used to having two. It just about guarantees you a single-engine landing at the other end.”
As Dirty Harry would say, “A man’s gotta know his limitations”. The guy who needs two engines around the boat probably also needs an NFO…
… and probably AIN’T “the meanest sunuvabitch in the valley”.
Not that there’s anything WRONG with that…
After looking at that loss list above, the cold question was “What’s the record for loss for modern A/C (as a percentage)?” That A7 list just seems to go on and on. I noticed it stopped in 1972 (I was on the America when we lost one later on the 1974 cruise). Call it morbid curiosity.
Our Whale Det shared a RR back in 68 with VA-86 who flew early model A-7s. After numerous losses in a short timeframe, we put a sign on the RR door: “Please don’t walk through the ready room in your wet flightsuit.”
A guy I fly with at the airline is a really good guy (read: he buys the beer at least 1/2 the time), and I always enjoy our trips together.
The first time I flew with him, it comes out that he was a Corsair guy. “Have you ever seen plat tape of the guy that goes off the angle at low-speed, ejects and his chute swings him back into the angle?” he asked. “I have.” I replied, remembering and wincing at the sight picture.
“That was me.” He goes on to tell the story, then tells me he ejected from three different A-7′s in his career. (BTW, he didn’t do 20 either). Kind of smelled like BS to me, so I called a guy who knew of him back in the day. Conversation went:
“Hey CT, it’s Nose. Do you know a guy named *****?”
“Yeah I know him, don’t fly with that guy, he jumps out of every f***ing plane he gets into!”
Rumor confirmed, three rides in the silk. No thanks.
Nose,
So what was your ex A7 compadre called? Twitchy?
GEO6
Aircraft Targets at Pt. Mugu we had Ensign NOLO (No Onboard Live Operator). Poor guy had a long history of not bringing the jet back. Seems some trigger happy fleet guy was always blowing the back end off of his jet, sometimes with some pretty spectacular results.
One time out of China Lake he’s trolling around minding his own business, when some miscreant Hornet looses an AIM-120 at him. Viper hits tail, tail departs jet, jet pitches up and trails an orange plum of burning fuel for about 5,000 ft. Jet explodes. Spectators driving up US395 called to report a ‘burning jet that just…well, it exploded!’. “Uh, yes Maam. We do that sort of thing all the time. Your tax dollars at work and all. Thanks for being so observant.”
Somehow Ensign NOLO always came back for more. Worst flight record in NavAir history…best survival record in NavAir history. What a character…
On a serious note: Grateful for guys like Hoffman. Like Virg, I’ve seen a good many of them go early, and miss their company.
JoeC,
If I were a betting man, my money would be on the F-105.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-105_Thunderchief
382 lost out of 833 built.
Including combat losses, F-8′s had an attrition rate of over 50%. Not a good day at the races…
XBradTC
FYI, highest losses by far went to the F4, all varients, and three services. Next was the thud. The A4s were the highest losses in the Navy/Marine branch. The A7′s lost 100 aircraft, 55 to combat. The A4′s lost 283, 195 to combat. On the Midway in 65 we had two A4 squadrons. We lost 25%. It wasn’t fun.
BillC, I was thinking more in terms of combat losses as a percent of the total production. Of the 382 lost Thuds, 62 were operational, meaning 320 lost in combat. That’s about a 45% loss rate, over what? 8 years? And there were only two wings flying at any time for a total fielded force of about 140 birds.
During my Dad’s time as the A-6 RAG CO, he visited 14 wives to tell them their man wasn’t coming home. Not fun.
Thanks for the link Lex- great story. I’ll bet his new nickname was Houdini back at sheep. Based on his post event life he carried out his side of the bargain with the Lord . RIP Harry.
A PRC-90…..gee… it’s awful to think how old I am.
Sid,
700 nm? Wow. Ain’t that sumpin’ compared to light attack…..Er…. I mean Strike Fighter’s, of today.
Stories above remind me of the “Black Ace”. I think Lex had a story/discussion on that topic several years ago. Anybody ‘member that?
b2