大象传媒

This story appears courtesy of and with thanks to Robert H Allison.

While we were at this rest camp, a typhoon hit Okinawa and reeked havoc with the invasion fleet. The cruiser Pittsburgh lost it's bow and returned to Guam to go into dry dock and have a temporary bow constructed for the trip back to the states. This meant the Steamer Bay had to vacate the dry dock. We were loaded aboard and returned to the battle where death and mayhem was still in progress.
On June 15th I was scheduled for a TCAP mission. I was again in the fourth plane to do a fly away take-off. As per the usual procedure I ran up the engine for its pre-take off check. Everything was normal with no indications of any problems. On the signal from the deck officer I applied the power and began my run down the deck. About two thirds the way down the deck the engine began detonating and would not increase power. I was beyond the point of

no return and was forced to continue with an air speed that was considerably "iffy". I went off the end of the deck and the plane hung in a three point attitude but refused to climb. As a matter of fact it was settling closer and closer to the water. I had to hold the plane on a straight course to prevent a stall for as long as possible. I could look out either side and see the water licking at the bottom of the plane. I could not see anything in front of the plane but knew that one of the other carriers was directly ahead about three miles away. Not knowing how far I had traveled and knowing I was going to get wet I decided to set the plane down while I had control rather than stall and turn it over.

I pulled back on the throttle and immediately hit the water. The plane flipped on it's back and I was under water again. This time I did not have my parachute attached to the harness, came out freely from the cockpit, came to the surface and looked around. The first thing I saw was one gigantic carrier bearing down on me and not far away. I took off swimming on a course 90 degrees to that of the carrier. I was having trouble doing the crawl stroke because of the waves and the parachute harness so I took to the sidestroke. I was a little off to the side when the bow passed even with me. I saw the bow of the ship strike the plane square on. Then I looked up and saw that I was still under the flight deck but far enough to the side to see the sailors in the catwalk motioning for me to keep swimming. They knew, as well as I, that the screws of the ship would suck the water and me under the ship and through the screws if I remained too close. At that moment I must have been about 20 feet to the side. I took off doing the sidestroke again and when I passed the stern of the ship I could have reached out and touched it. The screws do pull the water in!
I was on the starboard side of the ship when it passed. I was treading water as the waves from the wake of the ship were breaking over my head then suddenly I felt something touch the back of my head. With a start, I turned around fully expecting to find that shark that I had seen two months earlier staring me in the face. But, " Saints be praised", it was a little flame on the tip of a smoke bomb that had not yet began to smoke. It had been thrown off the stern of the ship as I passed. I have no idea if it ever smoked. Regardless, I was relieved.
Swimming is not exactly easy with clod hopper shoes on your feet so I began removing them. That wasn't easy either since I was exhausted from my swim. The first shoe untied easily and I struggled out of it. The other shoe string knotted and I was unable to get the shoe off so I forgot about it. Then, looking around again I spotted a four man rubber raft inflated and floating a short distance away. I took off after it and that wasn't easy since I was dog tired. I discovered that they had thrown the raft off the port side of the ship and down wind of me so it was moving away from me. This made the swim even longer and more tiring.

Continued.....
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