Comments on: Poor Old Hellcat

By: SCOTTtheBADGER

SCOTTtheBADGER — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:16:15 +0000

The carriers were two former excusion ships, the Greater Buffalo, and the Seeandbee, which were sliced off at the main deck, and had flight decks built upon them. There were used only for Carrier Qualifications, and had the rather nice advantage that they sea they sailed was almost 100% U-Boat free, and those that were there, were ours, heading from Manitowoc, WI, where they were built, to the Chicago Sanitary Canal, the Illinois River, the Mississippi, and eventually, the Gulf. To my knowlege, the USS SABLE ( ex Greater Buffalo ), and the USS WOLVERINE, ( ex Seeandbee ), were the only coal fired, side wheeler carriers ever made. The SABLE was the first USN CV to have a steel flight deck.As I noted above, Navy Pier in Chicago is named thus, because that is where the carriers docked.

Plane Guard duties were done by USCG patrol boats, I want to say 85 footers, and the planes came from NAS Glenview. One of the pilots to CARQUAL on SABLE was LT(jg) George Herbert Walker Bush.

By: Erich Strong

Erich Strong — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:01:55 +0000

The Hellcat was found in Lake Michigan but this one came in low and slow and lost lift landed on the carrier deck and went over the side. I must have missed something. What carrier was in Lake Michigan at the time and how did it get there? I know there was a sub base there called Great Lakes which is still there today and subs could sail a canal that paralleled the Saint Lawrence River. Was this deep enough to take a deep draft ship like an aircraft carrier and if so how did it get into Lake Michigan?

By: SCOTTtheBADGER

SCOTTtheBADGER — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 10:38:26 +0000

Every now and then, a C-5 comes trundleing over, and when I se it, my first thought is, ” Now just hold on, they can’t do that, nothing that big can fly! “

By: MaxDamage

MaxDamage — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 07:18:44 +0000

Scott, you bring back memories for My Good Wife. Her father was stationed there, and she and her family have grand memories of the place. The 130′s were a common sight and one that she as a kid looked forward to. Myself, it was BUFFs out of Offutt just south of Omaha, NE — they used to fly over the place when the wind was from the north and I used to lay on the snow in my coveralls and just watch them climb away and wish I were aboard one of them.

My Good Wife sends a message. Her father told her that if she sees a C-141 overhead to duck and pray, for some day God will look down from His firmament, spot that aircraft, and smite it down because obviously nothing that large can fly.

Ya know, there used to be a time when military aircraft flying overhead were the sounds of freedom and not a brash example of taxpayer dollars spent on making noise. I’d like to go back to that time, personally.

– Max

By: oldskydog

oldskydog — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 07:18:02 +0000

“What appears to have happened is that some crated birds were unboxed then bulldozed into unrecognizable piles of scrap, then buried some distance from what’s now Andersen AFB.”
I believe that location was at NAS Agana. While I was stationed there in 69-70, we were unable to do a compass swing on the ground so we had to do it inflight using the sextant. We were told that the reason was that many aircraft were bulldozed under nearby, making the compass rose unuseable.

By: steveH

steveH — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 07:09:42 +0000

Another of those Wildcats, an FM-2, is about 50% restored, sitting in the hangar deck of the U.S.S. Hornet up at Alameda. It’s in surprisingly good condition, all things considered.