http://www.navy.mil/management/photodb/photos/070627-N-3642E-559.jpg
070627-N-3642E-559 PUERTO BARRIOS, Guatemala (June 27, 2007) - Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) The Honorable Dr. Donald C. Winter looks at a swing set being repaired by Seabees assigned to Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit (CBMU) 202. The Seabees are working at a children's hospital in Puerto Barrios as part of a Partnership for the Americas mission to conduct training and humanitarian assistance operations. CBMU-202 is deployed with the joint forces crew aboard Military Sealift Command (MSC) hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20). Comfort is on a humanitarian deployment to Latin America and the Caribbean region to provide medical treatment to approximately 85,000 patients in a dozen countries. U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Shawn P. Eklund (RELEASED)
I just read this a few minutes ago after finding it on the internet and it sure sounds a lot like what I wrote about the front wheel popping off my blue 1967 Chevrolet in my artificial and symbolic memory. It also reminds me of something I wrote long ago about a visit I made to the USS Taylor FFG-50 in 1987 when the ship was in-port in Norfolk and I was attending school in Virginia Beach, having been previously assigned to the Taylor. Since those "memories" are all completely false and artificial, there must be a reason I "remember" them. In that "memory" of visiting the Taylor, one of my former coworkers was telling me about how a target drone missile had crashed into the superstructure of the ship and someone had to go up there with a fire extinquisher and put out the fire. When I wrote about how the wheel of my truck popped off just before I crossed over a wooden bridge, I believe that bridge is symbolic of the forward edge of the flight deck. I don't know if this description below was me, as this type of accident may be relatively common, if you understand the nature of a catapult launch from an aircraft carrier. That text also reminds me very clearly of a time at night when Micheal was in a tree in the yard and I was trying to find him. It was kind of game of hide-and-seek using walkie-talkies. It took him a while to figure out that I was turning off my walkie-talkie as he would speak and then I would hear where his voice was coming from.
http://www.ejectionsite.com/estories.htm
Broken Launch Bar Linkage
The USS Forrestal (CV-59) was on its last operational cruise in the Med in 1990. We were conducting night flight ops off the coast of Turkey in support of Operation Provide Comfort. I had just shutdown my aircraft and was walking across the flight deck when the sound of snapping metal amidst a Tomcat launch off the port waist cat caught my attention. I turned to see the F-14 sliding sideways towards the edge of the flight deck. Apparently a component of the launch bar had snapped midway through the catapult stroke sequence, giving the Tomcat only a gentle push (approx. 20-30 knots) instead of the huge kick in the butt required to get the aircraft up to flying speed. The pilot had immediately realized something was wrong, and in a split second reacted to attempt to hit the brakes and stop prior to falling off the edge into the ocean 80 feet below. As they approached the edge, a tire blew sending the F-14 sliding sideways, and the pilot judged they wouldn't stop in time and initiated ejection. As the pilot and RIO rode the seat rails up into the night, one of the F-14s main landing gear jumped the deck edge rail but miraculously stuck just over the edge, and the aircraft remained perched precariously partially over the deck edge. The RIO was soon sighted landing further aft on the flight deck, and although he received some bumps, bruises and scrapes from his ejection and rough landing on the flight deck, he was was happy to walk away from it with a good story to tell that night over midrats. Meanwhile, a full scale search was underway for the pilot. The airborne SAR helicopter had witnessed the ejection and was on the scene so rapidly that the image of the RIO floating down in his parachute canopy nearly filled their windscreen as they whipped across the fantail. They quickly set up for an approach to the datum, and commenced a hover search. Flight operations were suspended and all airborne aircraft were given instructions to hold overhead (or expeditiously recovered if low on fuel). Fifteen minutes later there was still no sign of the pilot. As the search proceeded with additional helicopters and ships in the area, the flight deck began to quiet down. An alert deck hand thought he heard a faint cry for help, but didn't see anything over the deck edge. The sound of yelling for help persisted, and suddenly the deck hand looked up, and with the aid of his flashlight, was able to make out the shape of the pilot hanging from his parachute 100 feet above him in the radio antennaes and masts at the top of the carrier's superstructure. Although the recovery of the pilot took an additional half hour, he was recovered uninjured.
http://www.dodmedia.osd.mil/Assets/Still/1987/Navy/DN-SC-87-06289.JPEG
ID: DN-SC-87-06289
Service Depicted: Navy
An MD-3A tow tractor is used to tow an F-14A Tomcat aircraft to the catapult track on the flight deck of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (CVN 69).
Date Shot: 1 Mar 1983
http://www.dodmedia.osd.mil/Assets/Still/1990/Navy/DN-SC-90-04805.JPEG
ID: DN-SC-90-04805
Service Depicted: Navy
A sailor drives an MD-3A tow tractor across the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (CVN-69).
Camera Operator: PH3 STEVEN C. HURD
Date Shot: 27 Apr 1983
http://www.dodmedia.osd.mil/Assets/Still/1994/Navy/DN-SC-94-01306.JPEG
ID: DN-SC-94-01306 Service Depicted: Navy
An enlisted flight-deck director guides and F-14A TOMCAT aircraft of Fighter Squadron 101 (VF-101) onto the number one catapult onboard the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS GEORGE WASHINGTON (CVN-73) during carrier qualifications off the Virginia Capes. Other flight deck crewmen check the aircraft's WHEEL alignment with the catapult track.
Camera Operator: PETER B. MERSKY
Date Shot: 16 Sep 1993
