Sign on USS Midway

While at one of my many service schools back in 1970 I meet a shipmate who was aboard the Bonnie Dick while it was on Yankee Station in the Tonkin Gulf in mid 60s. He said in a two day op alone they lost 2 crewman to spinning  AD1 propellers a not so uncommon happening topside during 24/7 operations in a war zone.. Now that's a fate worse than being "blow over the side".... Yipes!!

Back aboard the Forrestal (CVA-59) in 1959-61 era an  arresting cable was snapped & killed a crewman & injured several others.
I just found out that during this time frame, My uncle's A-3 [of VAH-5] had also blown a guy off the deck while getting set to line up for a cat shot.

my uncle was later killed in a landing mishap in Jan 1966 on the Ranger (in the RA-5C) &  sometime in the latter part of the cruise, someone had walked into a prop of an A-1.
The Flight Deck is a dangerous place that's for sure!

Well after working at night on the flight deck for 4 west-pac cruises and numerous other detachments it's a bonafide fact that the flightdeck is a dangerous place. I was up on the flight deck one night when one of our plane captains got caught on the wrong side of the #4 catapult. He was stretched straight out holding on to a tiedown chain from the nose wheel of his plane it was a tense moment untill the plane on #4 cat launched.

Another fellow in my shop stood up infront of an intake on a turning F-14 from our sister squadron after coming up out of a catwalk and walking under the A/C. Luckily he was just short enough that he kept from being bent backwards into the intake. I was his fault he didn't go up to the nosewheel then exit from under the A/C as taught. Being in a hurry can be a big problem.

Couse I had my share of bonehead stunts too. First time I ever went up to the flightdeck on my way back down i fell into the catwalk, I coulda swore the ladder was right there! During a pushback I got a little too close to the starboard intake on on my sister squadrons F-14's and I felt the tug of a Pratt & Whitney TF-30 P414A until one of the ordies jerked me back and had a few kind words to say I won't say anything about the E-2 Prop arc I almost walked through while the plane was running on apu or huffer I got a real "Your a look from the Safety guy from the Hawkeye squadron. The props weren't spinning just the plane had all the prerequsites met and if someone hit the wrong switch it would have been a bad day at blackrock.

All in all naval ships are a dangerous environment not just flightdecks seems like everything aboard them can bite

If I had of known of my uncle's Naval Career when I was younger, I would have tried following in his contrails or, at least been on the flight deck The only reason I didn't go Navy is I don't wear "whites" too well I have a tendency to attract dirt, grease, etc like a magnet.
Having seen some footage of Carrier Disasters & the old war movies, I get a pretty good idea of what I had missed out on. Man,  Navy grub & Mud....

Destroyers have their dangers, too.  My dad was a chief on Gearings and their quarters were in the bow just ahead of the first twin 5-inch mount.  The Sumners and Gearings had a very wet bow in heavy seas because of all the weight ahead of the bridge with those two big turrets and sometimes it stuffed the whole ship underwater in a big wave.

One night in the Straits of Formosa a typhoon blew in and gave the fleet a good thrashing.  Dad's ship, DD 717 Theo. E. Chandler, had a big wave smash in the Chief's quarters while he was in a top bunk.  He was pinned in the wreckage through the rest of the storm and had to be cut out of it with torches.  All the armor was ripped from the front mount and they were wide open to the skies.

He suffered spinal injuries that haunted him for the rest of his life.  Ever notice the extra steel straps welded on the forward turret of many Gearings and Sumners?  That's why ...

MBT70: man, that musta been a horrifying experience for your Dad!

It was, but he stayed in the Navy and went on to be FTCM and the top kick at the Naval Gunnery School at Great Lakes.  He passed away at 66 from brain cancer.  Might have been because he was there for the H-bomb tests.

I'm glad to hear he stayed in the Navy. (I thought of asking but didn't) I am sorry to hear he had passed on.  The H bomb tests, weren't those the ones near Bikini Atoll?

I was on the Midway from 87-89. Flt Deck Crash&Salvage. I've got a few sea stories myself, one of which includes stopping a yellowshirt from going over the side after he got dusted. Keep your head on a swivel..... I took this photo of that same spot years later, with no warning in place. It was still a dangerous spot to be during a launch off of cat#1.

   Eddie

 

 

Now I wonder when they removed that sign?! That's interesting to know.
 Weren't you on the Ranger as well? I seem to recall seeing the Shield in some of your
posts.

Hippy-Ed wrote:

Now I wonder when they removed that sign?! That's interesting to know.  Weren't you on the Ranger as well? I seem to recall seeing the Shield in some of your posts.

Yep, I was on the Danger Ranger from 89-91. Here's a nice photo of a mishap I got to help clean up on our way home from Desert Storm.( that's me with the cool tube socks and flashlight)

    Eddie

 

A red shirt ay?! Nice shot up the ol' turkey feathers Not very often we see that
Now was this a landing mishap or did the PC forget to apply the brakes while moving it?