USS Coral Sea - Mishaps

This part of the site is dedicated to all the men who were killed or injured due to mishaps on board the USS Coral Sea.

As much as successful missions and great safety records are part of the ships history, so too are its mishaps. When two shipmates get together to remeber the old times it usually isn't long before the conversation turns to the mishaps that happened on the cruise.
Some of these stories are tragic, some are heroic, some are humerous and some are just amazing. These mishap stories are not intended to blame or accuse anyone of anything. If you think something is in error or have something to add to a story then let me know and I'll change it or add it.

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1948 Shakedown

Here are a few wrecks from the first cruise.

F4U-4 "T.U."	F4U-4 from VF-5B. Well, he got it stopped.	AD-1 Gear "UP" landing
[Image Source - US Navy]	[Image Source - US Navy]	[Image Source - US Navy]

1949 Med Cruise

I was a corpsman aboard CVB-43 for most of 1949, including the Caribbean shakedown cruise and the first Med cruise. I often watched operations from the O7 deck (probably wasn't supposed to be there). We had a fatal mishap, which I remember very well. We were in the Mediterranean at the time. A crew member (I can't remember his name) of one of the Corsairs was waiting for his plane to come in. When it touched down, it had a problem catching a cable, so the crew member backed up suddenly and into the path of a spinning prop from another Corsair, which had just come in safely. He was killed instantly. I was the Operating Room Technician aboard, and was called up to the scene from Sick Bay, but obviously could do nothing. We also lost a couple planes, but I don't recall on which cruises. One of the ADT's (? - I was just a corpsman) caught a wing tip on the flight deck during night operations and dumped over the side; and another time a Corsair, which had been waved off, lost its hydraulics and dropped into the sea as it started to swing back around. Nobody hurt seriously in either incident.

[Submitted by Paul Watson]

...the first story i read on your page was about the young man who killed on the 1949 med. cruise if i remember it was told by a corpsman he said the young man backed in to a propellar but what really happened was i followed him up the ladder from the catwalk he was the plane captain for the plane that was comming in when the plane jumped the first couple barriers and he ran forward into the prop of the plane that had just landed .

[Submitted by Denver Anderson]

I have a vivid memory of that day because it was the first time I ever witnessed a death. On that day I was on lookout watch on the 07 level, my position was the forward port side and my sector was from dead ahead to 2pts abaft the port beam which put me right over the flight deck and a clear view of the flight quarters being conducted that day. Flight quarters started off normally and all was going well. I got a great thrill watching the F4U4 corsairs going through their firing runs on the tow target we were towing then it came time to end the runs and land the planes. The first few came in without any trouble. This plane landed and taxied to a position forward on the flight deck I saw the people come out to chock the wheels and watched the pilot fold the wings, then the plane captain got up on the port wing section as normal to assist the pilot as the alarm sounded so I looked aft and saw the next plane come in and some how his tail hook missed all the arresting gear and i! t headed toward the up right barriers he was on an angle and his prop cut the first barrier at this point the plane captain jumped off the wing and looked aft only to see the plane headed to the next barrier. Then pilot on his plane had just cut off his engine and the prop was still coasting the plane captain panicked and ran forward as he emerged from under the wing the coasting prop hit his head and right shoulder killing him instantly, what an ugly sight. Well, the next barrier stopped the plane.I then saw a bunch of people and medical people rush to the site of course there was nothing they could do. You may find this hard to believe, because I did, but the next thing I heard was " lets get that mess cleaned up we have planes to land". At this point I saw an officer on the flight deck and heard" mister that is not a mess that is a human being and he is going to get the last rights, so then I knew he was the chaplain he quickly gave the last rights and came back looked up! and said "this not war time and the planes have enough fuel now you cane bring in those planes now". Believe me that is exactly what happened, It will live with me till I die.

[Submitted by Joe Policastro ]

1949 Med Cruise

No details on this one. Amazing trick putting a Corsair on its nose...

[Image Source - US Navy]

1950-51 Med Cruise

No details on this one. Looks like his gear collapsed on landing. F4U-5 from VF-173 or VF-174

[Image Source - US Navy]

April 26, 1951 Med Cruise

I recall the exact date, April 26, 1951, Coral Sea was on station in the Med carrying the flag of CarDiv 6. During training exercises, a Banshee jet lost power on take off and hit the water in front of Coral Sea. The plane was overrun by the ship and disappeared under it, the pilot lost and his body never recovered. The reason I recall the exact date was because I was informed that my wife had given birth to our first child the day before. As a teleman, I was assigned to the communications traffic center in the island structure and my shipmates in the radio shack were on alert for a notice of the event thru the general fleet messages on NSS. The message came thru early on that Thursday morning with a the Red Cross notification to me that I was the father of a new baby girl. There was another message to a new father that day. It was to a Navy flier (I regret I can no longer recall his name) who had become a new ! father of a baby boy I was excited and took the message to the officers ward room and personally delivered it. We congratulated each other and at about that time, scheduled flight operations were coming up. We both went to our duty stations very happy guys. But one can only speculate what might have been on his mind as he prepared for take off. He was the pilot of the Banshee that crashed. To this day, a feeling of sorrow still haunts me. As I write this in March of 2006, I wonder..... I am now the great grandfather of four boys. That pilot never saw his own son.

[Submitted by Vince DeSena]

1952 Med Cruise

F2H-2 of VF-62 in the water off of Coral Sea(CVA-43). Note that the entire tailplane has been wrenched loose, probably from a barrier strike. [From November 2004 issue of Airpower Magazine]

[Submitted by Troy Prince]

1952 Med Cruise

An AD-4 of VC-33 DET 6 is in the water after a landing gone bad. Notice the tailhook is down. One pilot can be seen to the right and a helmet from another crew member can be seen in the middle. Don't know the final outcome.

 

1952 Med Cruise

My father has told me stories of at least two mishaps.

First; Him and a shipmate were working under an aircraft when another went out of control. Seeing it coming he went to the shipmate, they both climbed into the wheel well for safety. One strut calapsed but both where un hurt. The out of control plane was either F4U or AD-4.

Second; Was a night landing gone wrong. An F2H (jet) was coming in with damage. He missed the flight deck and slammed into the fantail, just below the flight deck. The insuing fire caused GQ, and at one point was out of control to the point that the escorts were ordered to the horizon for their safety. He says though it was in the dead of night, when GQ was sounded, the fire lit the area as bright as day. The fire was so intense that the twin AAA guns located there were completely melted. Supposedly there was news coverage of the fire at sea. Dad's name is Frank Daniel Russell.

[Submitted by John Russell]

1953 Med Cruise

Here is a series of five photographs that show an F2 Banshee's landing gone bad. The first picture says it's a Phantom but I believe from the tailcode and the look of the plane that it is an F2H-3 Banshee from VC-4 Det 6. Photo's courtesy of the Ellis collection. Obituary of Pilot Ltjg. Robert E. Berger. Submitted by his nephew Bob Loving.

Picture 1	Picture 2	Picture 3
Picture 4	Picture 5	Pilot Obituary

1953 Med Cruise

I was a plane captain with VF-83 assigned to an F9F5 squadron # 311 serial number 126133. I was on the flight deck and watched the F2H3 bounce the Davis barrier and take the two AD's off the bow. Another serious incident occoured on the cruise.We were involved in a NATO operation Weldfast as I recall. General quarters sounded early one AM. I went to the flight deck to pre-flight and prepare my aircraft for flight.There was a very heavy fog that morning, shortly after arriving at the aircraft GQ was cancelled for weather. I resecured the aircraft and had no more than got back in my bunk when GQ was sounded again. The Captain came on the public address and stated the AIR BOSS was in sick bay and named his replacement. Aircraft were launched for the mission however the fog was still present when the aircraft returned. If I remember correctly we lost seven pilots and numerous aircraft that day. We returned to Naples where the Captain was relieved. I would like to know the official count of personell and aircraft lost on that cruise.

[Submitted by James Taylor Cmsgt USAF Ret.]

April 1953 Med Cruise

"A Corsair fighter roared over the ramp of the Coral Sea. Althogh he saw the LSO give him the "cut", the pilot held off. Still airborne, the plane's landing gear snagged the #3 barrier. We see what happened next. The plane flipped over on its back so forcibly the fuselage cracked near the cockpit. The pilot's head struck the steel deck hard. As the heavy plane skidded down the deck, his head was dragged about 10 feet across the sandpaper rough deck covering. The pilot escaped from the accident without a scratch - only a stiff neck. The rough deck wore almost through the helmet - had he been without it, it probably would have honed down to his skull!!"

[Naval Aviation News.]

1954 Med Cruise

The Story of Ensign Austin E. O'Toole:
I was a plane captain in VF-11 Red Rippers on the 1954 Med. Cruise. Of the 11 pilots and crewmen who lost their lives on that cruise , Ensign O'toole stands out the most vivid in my memory. O'toole came up the hard way. He came out of the enlisted ranks to become a Navy Fighter Pilot. He almost didn't make it because of his size. He was an enormous Irishman. No fat. Just size, bone and muscle. It was no easy chore getting him strapped into the cockpit. O'toole was loved by every man in the squadron. I think it had a lot to do with the fact that he came from our ranks. But, he was also a jolly Irishman, always smiling and joking with the guys. I was standing forward, waiting for my plane to land and taxi forward. O'toole was in the pattern to land next. Although we didn't know it was him at the time. Everything looked good until the last second before he would have gotten the OK to land from the LSO. The next thing we saw was the banshee suddenly losing altitude and smashing into the fantail. What was left of the plane and pilot veered to the left and sank out of sight. We were all shocked at what happened before our eyes. But, we all sank into a sense of deep loss when we learned it was O'toole. We had lost a friend, a good friend to all the guys in dungarees and different colored jerseys and caps who roamed the flight deck The rest of the cruise was not quite the same not seeing the big lumbering frame of Ensign Austin O'toole making his way to his plane and somehow hoping his plane was yours.

[Submitted by Lyle J. Howard, Airman, VF-11 Red Rippers]

Follow up:
I read with great interest the story about Ensign Austin O'Toole and his air accident while landing on the Coral Sea. I knew and flew on a number of occasions with Ensign O'Toole while he was assigned to Fasron 6 at the Jacksonville Naval Air Station. While he was stationed at Fasron 6, he had the rank of Air Pilot Chief.  He was one of only a few with that rank in Navy at the time. When he decided to go to Pensacola and enter the Naval Cadet School for his Commission, we all asked why. After all, he was APC and got extra pay for hazardous duty  (flying) and the pay he was receiving as an APC would be more than what he could get as an Ensign!. He said it was just something he always wanted to do and so he w as off to Cadet School. When he got his commission, he came back to Jacksonville and was assigned to our sister Squadron VF-11, the "Red Rippers". I am most certain that his accident happened during a shake-down cruise when the Coral Sea was returning from Norfolk,Virginia to MayPort, Florida. His death came as big shock to all who knew him. He was a big red headed Irishman, as was stated in article, and liked by all who knew him. He was an individual who one took pride in saying that he was a friend. I always thought He resembled the TV star Arthur Godfrey. What was not included in the article, was that he not only left behind a wife but also had 4 or 5 children also.

[Submitted Dale Waba VF-103 ,(1954-55) ]

1954 Med Cruise

AJ crashes on launch:
Sometime in the fall of 1954, the Coral Sea was participating in "War Games" off the Coast of Turkey with the rest of the Sixth Fleet, and Naval and Air Forces of other Nato Countries. During General Quarters my post was in the lower deck Fire Control Computer and Radar Room where I helped search for and locate enemy aircraft. The anti-aircraft 3" guns and Fire Control Systems and Personnel in our Quadrant were under the control of a Gunnery Officer whose Battle Station was in the Fire Control Director Tower above the Flight Deck and was immediately in front of and slightly below the Admiral's Bridge. During the "War Games", but not during GQ, we were on a 4 hours on, 4 hours off watch. Every 4 hours, I relieved the Gunnery Officer in the Gun-Fire Control Director Tower.
On the morning of the crash, I relieved the Gun Officer at 4 AM. As a cold, grey dawn broke that morning, I happened to turn the Gun-Director toward the starboard rear and was suddenly startled to find myself staring directly into the eyes of the Fleet Admiral who was only about two feet away from me. The Admiral was looking straight ahead with his folded arms resting on the window sill of his Bridge and his chin resting on his arms.
As I remember it among the many differing types of aircraft aboard, were three AJ 2s. They were reputed to be the largest planes that could be landed and launched from our ship. These planes had two large wing mounted propellers and and a jet engine in its belly. Scuttle-butt had it that they were long-range carrier-based bombers capable of carrying Atomic weapons. In the exercises of that day, two AJ-2s were to make a practice run over Turkey simulating an atomic or other attack deep into Stalinist-Criminalcommunist Russia. The third AJ 2 was a tanker carrying Aviation fuel which was to re-fuel the two Bombers before entering Soviet air space.
Not long after Dawn, Flight Quarters was sounded, the AJ-2 Cow was first up to the launch position and hooked onto the catapult. ( Having served for almost three years on Carriers and always having sleeping quarters directly under th flight deck, I had witnessed many, many hundreds of landings and take-offs, from the side-deck cat-walks or Fire Control Directors. I had a pretty good idea what the Airdales had to do to land and launch planes.)
Preparing to launch planes, the Coral Sea had increased speed; the "Cow" was rev-ving up all three engines; and the longer than three-football-fields-ship started to heel over as it turned into the wind. Before the Coral Sea had completed its turn, and while the ship was still "heeled over" I heard the order or saw the signal to launch aircraft. The Ship had not fully turned into the wind and the Flight Deck was still canted over. I was astounded. I turned the Gun-Director around and looked directly into the Admiral's eyes and signalled with my hands that the ship was not level. The Admiral looked straight ahead with his chin on his arms.
The Pilot brought his engines up to take-off power level; the jet engine was blasting a red-white tail; the signal was made to launch; the huge fuel-laden plane shot forward. But because of the slant of the deck, the right wing was noticeably lower than the left wing. After clearing the Carrier, the Pilot immediately tried to level the wings; the move went too far. In a split second, the left wing was now lower than the right wing had been a moment before. The desparate Pilot made a radical move to right the plane but this time the right wing-tip caught the sea. The plane cartwheeled into the sea and there followed an instantaenous, gigantic, explosion of aviation fuel.
As the Coral Sea passed the tremendous fire-ball fifty yards to starboard, the radiant heat was so intense that I almost panicked as to whether I should get out of the Gun Director. As the flames moved furthur aft on our right hand side, I once again was looking directly into the Fleet Admiral's eyes. He never moved his eyes to mine; he just kept looking straight ahead with his chin resting on his arms.
Only the life-jacketed body of the enlisted crewman was recovered. I vaguely remember that the enlisted man aboard the crashed AJ2 was a Petty Officer. It seems that the only Petty Officer on your list of the deceased is AT2 Billie Patterso. AT2 may mean Aviation Technician Petty Officer 2nd Class. An enlisted man, as the third member of the crew of such an important aircraft, should be a Petty Officer of experience and maturity, whatever his duties were.

[Submitted by Jack Brennan]

Follow-up to the story. Dialogue between Jack Brennan and Kay Chamberlain, a niece of one of the crew from the AJ.

[Kay] My uncle Leon Rex Grover was a pilot on the Med cruise in 1954. He and his navigator Garth Garreau were catapulted off the USS Coral Sea. I believe my aunt said he was overloaded with fuel. They crashed on take off.
[Kay] Thanks for the info. I can't help but wonder what was going on in the Fleet Admiral's mind. My Aunt has told me that my uncle had a predawn refueling flight. He had 5000 lbs. of fuel on the AJ. She said she was told there was not enough wind. The wing tipped to the right - then left - the AJ hit the water and exploded. I have to assume That you witnessed my uncle's demise. Your words and my aunts seem to confirm that it was the same event. This happened in November of 1954. He was promoted to Lt. Commander after his death. If you have anything to add please feel free to email me. Admiral Charles Stevenson had asked my aunt about her feelings on a Congressional Investigation into the accident. We all have felt that something "fishy" was going on.
[Jack] I did witness the crash. As a none expert, my opinion is that the plane left the ship before the ship had completed its turn into the wind and consequently, the ship had not leveled itself or returned the flight deck to level condition. The plane was catapulted off the deck at the same angle of cant as the flight deck. As I remember it, the plane took to the air with its right wing lower than its left wing. The pilot immediately took action to right the plane but the left wing went past level, and then the left wing was lower than the right wing. The pilot tried to level the plane in the opposite direction, but this time the right wing went too low and caught the sea and the crash ensued. The accident did not happen pre-dawn. It happened after dawn broke with plenty of daylight.
[Kay] Do you think the Admiral was lost in thought and didn't see your signal? I know this all happened a long time ago. It just amazes me to find someone who witnessed this event. I was almost 4 months old when this happened.

1956 MED Cruise

- I was on cruise in Coral Sea from August 56 to Jan 57. Approximately, mid cruise, we had an AJ with a hydraulic failure (partial flaps, I think) go through the barriers and into the pack up forward. If memory serves me correctly, 13 aircraft were destroyed and the pilot was severely injured and sent to the hospital in Wiesbaden. Cannot remember if there were any fatalities but it was a heck of a wreck up fwd, particularly viewing it from my vantage point at about 5k in the dog pattern.

[Submitted by Jerry Dempsey]

- Follow up: My name is Stephen Caton and I am the grandson of Roy Caton who was the pilot in the 1956 AJ Savage crash. This is the crash that involved the hydraulic failure and approx. 13 parked aircraft. The information about the pilot passing away during the mishap is incorrect. My grandfather spent the better part of a year in the hospital recovering from his injuries. He then lived a full and productive life until passing on in 1999. He was a wonderful grandfather that never forgave himself for that accident.

[Submitted by Stephen Caton]

- The obituary and the picture of the a/c [F2H-2 Banshee]in the water (destroyed) go together. We were in the Caribbean (April 1956) and were just one hour from officially ending our exercise when the LCDR took a starboard wave off. Do not know (nor remember) why he took a starboard wave off - that was unheard of and costly.

    [Submitted by Terry Hauck]

- Attached are 5 shots of the 1956 AJ crash that I took as a Navy photographer on board the USS Coral Sea(CVA43).
Background...The AJ lost its hydraulics, therefore, the use of his ailerons to keep his plane airborne, at a reasonable landing speed, was not an option. On deck, the operations officer gave the order to clear the forward deck. The ship turned into the wind with all the speed it could muster in order to reduce, as much as possible, the plane's deck speed. But, on his approach, wanting(I assume) not to miss the 1st arresting wire, his hook hit the edge of the deck and snapped off...without a connection to the arresting wire the plane proceeded to crash, at high speed, into the planes parked on the forward deck.

All toll I took a 50 shots--from what you see here to the full rescue and damage/control exercise. The AJ photos were taken w/a K20 handheld aerial camera using B/W HS film at 1/500sec.

[Submitted by Michael Delaney]

AJ touches down on deck-hook snaps off. If you look you can see the broken hook in the air just above the horizon.	The AJ makes contact with both the low barrier wires and then sheds the nylon high barriers (High barriers not shown).	Here the AJ has come through the barriers without any slowdown heading into the forward parked planes aircraft.
[Image Source - Michael Delaney]	[Image Source - Michael Delaney]	[Image Source - Michael Delaney]
The AJ has made its first contact on its port wing. One interesting point--look at the forward deck, just to the left of the parked jeep, and you'll see one lucky sailor as he runs to port for cover.	Full contact. See that piece of wing on the horizon --that sailed about 2 feet over my head before crashing into the main stack.
[Image Source - Michael Delaney]	[Image Source - Michael Delaney]

- Pictures of the AJ crash aftermath.

[Image Source - Joe Logeman]	[Image Source - Joe Logeman]	[Image Source - Joe Logeman]	[Image Source - Joe Logeman]
1	2	3	4
[Image Source - Joe Logeman]	[Image Source - Joe Logeman]	[Image Source - Joe Logeman]	[Image Source - Joe Logeman]
5	6	7	8

 

1956-57MED Cruise

Spad launch gone wrong. Here an AD-5W of VAW-12 DET 31 has lost power on takeoff and is crashing into the sea off the port side.

Plane banking hard to port.	Impact!	The entire engine compartment has been seperated from the fuselage in the accident. That probably helped the fuselage stay afloat a bit longer.
[Image Source - Terry Hauck]	[Image Source - US Navy]	[Image Source - US Navy]
Plane guards move in immediately. Crewman are seen standing on the canopy.	Back on board. Helped form the helo, all three crew members were recovered safely.
[Image Source - US Navy]	[Image Source - US Navy]

1956-57 MED Cruise

- I was an AE3 with VA-104 (AD'6s) during a qual cruise on the Coral Sea in the Caribbean Sea in 1956 and a Med cruise beginning in August, 1956 and ending in Feb., 1957.
My duties required me to be on the flight deck at all hours of flight quarters and more.
I remember seeing the F2H going in on the starboard side. We were two hours out of Norfolk. The plane took a waveoff and instead of banking to the port as usual he banked to starboard. Speculation was that because of his approach to land was wide he thought he had room to starboard. Flying low and banking his left wing tip hit the water and cartwheeled and sunk. Talk was he left a wife and 2 children.
Being in VA-104 my only sea time on the Coral Sea was the qual cruise to the Carribbean and to the Med so these pictures and details are still with me a 65.
The AD-5 going off the port side is still vivid in my mind. This took place either in the Caribbean or Med,1956. As a matter of fact I have told the story of watching the Skyraider go overboard to several people over time. The plane was catapulted off the port cat, as it reached the end of the flight deck the pilot pulled back on the stick sharply causing the tailwheel to strike the deck causing it to cartwheel over the side. I ran to the port elevator and watched helplessly as the plane drifted by (see photo of crew on elevator, I was one of those) I recall that the pilot and observer (not a co-pilot) were up front with a enlisted radar operator in the rear, right side. If you look closely at photo #5 you can see the top of his helmet. The radar equipment is stored in the front panel when not in use. When the plane hit the water the equipment extended out in front of the operator slowing his exit.
I remember looking down at him trying to get out and not able to help him. He did make it, although the plane was beginning to sink (water over the wings). The fact that the engine snapped off on impact saved his life and the other two. The pilot and observer stepped out onto the wing with no problem. I'll never forget that one.

NOW FOR THE BIGGIE.

I didn't see this one but I was on the hanger deck at our "shop" when it happened. I heard one hell of a noise, looked up and smoke was coming down into the hanger bay so I knew something was wrong.
I ran up to the flight deck and saw fire around the port cat. which was crammed with parked planes. Several planes were destroyed and the crash crew put the fire out quickly. We were instructed to throw parts and pieces over the side in order to clean up.
The entire nose of the AJ-3 was sheared off showing the seats of the pilot and co-pilot with nothing around them but the bulkhead that they were attached to (pilot and co-pilot had been removed). I think 12-15 aircraft were destroyed.
The information I got was that the AJ-3 had lost hydraulic pressure and could not lower his flaps nor lock his tail hook in the down position. Having no flaps prevents the plane maintaining a safe air speed when landing. This situation was relayed to the Air Boss and the pilot had requested permission to proceed to land at some airfield. Permission was denied by the Air Boss (for those of you on the 1956 Med Cruise you can remember his famous expression- Expedite-Expedite). Anyway, the plane came in "hot" and the speed being such, it was too much for the tail hook and it snapped off. Being on a straight deck carrier there was only one way to go, straight. From the information I received I understand the plane jumped the barriers and the nose smashed into the wing tip tank of another AJ-3 parked forward (see photo #4 and you can see the right engine and nacelle of the parked plane. This is what sheared the nose off of the plane. You can see the AD-6s parked forward in the planes path. These belonged to my squadron, VA-104. We lost 5 aircraft in this accident as well as other squadrons, VF-103, VF-106, etc..
I understand the pilot lost his life with the co-pilot injured. A chief was sitting in the lower compartment behind the co-pilot and escaped uninjured. I understand that later he committed suicide. Not confirmed, just a rumor. We proceeded to Naples (I think) and off loaded what was left of the planes involved in the crash and returned to sea.
I have tried to relive those days on the Coral Sea and hope that this information will fill some voids and enlighten our sailors as to what happened there and what life was like on a straight deck carrier with no air conditioning, no E-mail, no TV, and a very small gedunk and no game room. Our game room was on the flight deck.

[Submitted by Grady Pittman]

1960 Shakedown

Early on in Coral Sea`s return to the sea after her being re-commissioned, we were launching and landing aircraft off the coast of Washington. This was one of the very first operations following 1/25/60 and I don`t remember the date, but the ship lost an A-4D Skyhawk during a launch. I remember it was a night launch, and upon being launched, the steam in the catapult had a pressure loss, and immediately the pilot knew it, for you could see his futile skidmarks all the way to the end of the bow, where he plunged over, and was lost. There was speculation that the ship`s screws may have caught the plane in their path. I distinctly remember seeing those skidmarks, and how horrible it was.

[Submitted by Mont Monaco]

1960-61 WestPac - June 18, 1960

This guy took off in his F3H-2 Demon and when he reached the end of the cat, the bridal cable bounced up and hit the belly of the a/c, breaking a number of fuel lines. He was airborne for maybe 7 or 8 minutes, in which time he managed to land back aboard, using one of the shortest 'finals' seen this side of a helo landing. He dribbled a couple of gallons of fuel on the deck, the engine shut down about the same time he hit the wires. No one hurt, so guess it worked out OK.

[Image and story by Mike Brown]

1960-61

While on board the Coral Sea I had been given over to the Ships Service Department and worked in the laundry, at that time I like most everyone else in the navy didn't even know what a Illustrator Draftsman was. We had finally gotten out of dry dock and had gone out for a sea trial, when we returned to the dock we backed in. I was working in the laundry on the extractor, the laundry was located in the aft section of the ship, our storeroom was just under the fantail deck and only wire enclosed inside the laundry area. I had just stepped on the extractor brake and heard this terrible sound, I released the brake and the sound stopped, I hit the brake again and the noise resumed, finally the extractor stopped and so did the noise, I was the only one working in the laundry at that particular time, normally there were others there but they were all topside watching us pull into port. I have never been one to notice things around me when my mind is set on other things and apparently it was at that time. I left the laundry, locking the door behind me and never noticed the hole in the storeroom bulkhead until the next morning. We had backed into the dry-dock where the USS Iwo Jima was being built. I believe there is a before and after picture in the Bremerton Newspaper that says, "USS Coral Sea Launches USS Iwo Jima into the center of Bremerton." In the picture was all the yard workers on the Iwo Jima, welding and what not, the second picture was of the yard workers standing on top at the far end of the dry-dock as the USS Coral Sea came to rest, only a couple of minutes had passed, that is possibly an unchallenged record for the speed of yard workers.

[Submitted by Fred P. Akins ]

1960-61 WestPac

Served aboard the Coral Sea with VMA 121 with our A4D Skyhawks and was pleased to see a photo showing the forward deck with our birds tail letters VK. It was that period where the ship had a massive deck fire resulting from a bad landing. The ship lost most of the aircraft parked on the left forward deck.
That crash involved a Navy jet on landing...we were in the process of recovering air craft, with the majority of birds secured on the forward deck. I was with my A4 VK 12 just recovered and going below on the starboard side forward elevator when the Navy bird missed the trap and continued down the deck taking out at least 6 air craft. The deck was engulfed in fire and I can tell you that those Navy fire fighters and deck crews performed outstandingly. The deck looked like a war movie scene.

[Submitted by W.D. Ravgiala, Jr. GYSgt. USMC Ret.]

1960-62 WestPac's

Also remember a mishap while we were refueling. A clete that was used to tie off the cable that came from the refueling ship broke off the bulkhead. I believe there were four crew members throwen overboard.All from second divison. All bodies were recovered, although one was dead.

[Submitted by F. Colmenero B.M. 3 U.S.N.R. ]
Follow Up: I was 2nd Div officer when the refueling incident took place described above. It was my refueling station but I was just coming off OOD watch and my 2nd Div JO (Bruce Tharp? I think) was in charge on the station.:

What happened was that a shackle failed which was holding a snatch block to a padeye welded on the bulkhead on Station #5. That snatchblock had a saddle whip line passing through and the snatch block hit one of the men in the back while they were trying to fit the JP-5 hose onto the riser. They had to stand in the bight of the line because there was no room on that station (unlike the Midway which has loads of room on sta #5). The line swept 2 men overboard, one was BM2 Andy Anderson and the other was a BMSN whose name I cannot remember. he is the one who died because he had a partial dental plate and got choked while trying to fight the heavy seas. The rescue destroyer crew brought them both on board but the BMSN was dead. He was in his 30's and we all thought he was too old to be on deck! I remember the incident well because I had to work with the shipyard engineers who tried to figure out why a steel shckle failed before the manila line used for the saddle whip. They finally ended up rotating the padeye 45 degrees and rewelding it to the bulkhead! I told them that wouldn't make any difference because the contact was at a single point on the shackle to the ring padeye. They said yes but we have to do something!

[Submitted by Charlie Smith]

1961-62 WestPac

Near the end of the 62 cruise we were paralleling the swells, the sea wasn't rough, it just had these gigantic swells that came by every few minutes. That was the perfect combination to set up an equally slow roll by the ship, we rolled far enough that the lift rafts on the port side of the flight deck went under water and when we rolled back the other way a substantial portion of them ripped loose and were left behind. During the middle of that some genius decided it was time to respot the deck, we were only about a day out of Alameda and I think they wanted to get everything lined up for the fly off back to the land bases. At any rate, Joe Zuni, an AQF3 from VF151 that was on plane captain duty, was sitting in the cockpit of one of the old F3H Demons that 151 was flying that cruise. The Demon had a fairly long nose strut and the cockpit was higher in the air than most of the birds. He was tied down on the elevator behind the port cat, were they called hurricane tie downs, nine chains & 6 cables if I remember right? Anyway they had taken a couple off when the ship rolled a long way to port and the rest of the tie downs started popping as it dragged the mule with it. When the wheels hit the outside of the elevator the plane with Joe still riding the brakes, and still attached to the mule, started to do a back flip. Joe decided it was time to get out and jumped just before it went over backwards in to the water. By the time he made his exit the cockpit was about 15 feet in the air and he suffered a rather badly broken leg. The Demons only had one more flight in them anyway, when we got back they were going to be flown to China Lake to get parked in the desert.

[Submitted by Veryl Champine]

Minor correction about Joe Zuniga.

The incident took place on the hanger deck. The elevator doors were open and the plane had to be moved inboard enough to clear the doors so we could close them to stop the water from coming in the hangar bay.

Joe got in the cockpit and the tug operator hooked up, as soon as all the chains and tiedowns were removed, except for two chains facing the starboard, the ship rolled to the starboard and the there was a mix of hydraulic fluid, oil and water on the deck. Chocks slid, the brakes held and the remaining chains snapped and the Deamon pushed the tug across the hangar bay and the bird and the tug smacked the starboard side of the hangar bay. Joe was on his was out of the cockpit but sat back down and again applied the brakes. The ship rolled to the port and Joe realized that he had better jump. Joe jumped and landed on the brass track for the port hangar bay door, four feet short of going overboard.The drop from the cockpit is 10 to 15 feet. Joe was lucky, the plane, chocks, screens, towbar and tractor went over the side. The tractor driver set the brake on the tractor and bailed off by the starboard hanger bay bulkhead.

How rough was it that night, rough enough that when I stepped over a hatch combing aft I got knocked off my feet while getting people up to muster for the man overboard check.

[Submitted by T.A. Zwetzig]

Does anyone remember the underway refueling when we ran in to a destroyer? I don't remember which destroyer it was but think it may have been the Wiltsie. They were along side in some fairly rough water when they started to get too close to us, our captain got on the, was it the 5MC that was the flight deck speaker system? and told them to pull away. They must have had a rookie on their wheel because instead of slowly moving away he cranked it over fairly hard with the result that the back of the destroyer swung in to the number 3 elevator hard enough to bend up the pipe supports under it and it took the aft 5" gun mount of the destroyer and just laid it over sideways. By that time the momentum of the destroyer was going away from the carrier at too high a rate to get it back and the fuel lines both broke, covering the destroyer with a thick coat of black oil. The destroyer had to go to Yokosuka for repairs and I think it was there for a couple of months before they got it all put back together. I don't think they ever did do anything to the bottom of our elevator. I remember on the next cruise that the bracing under it still had several members with kinks in them.

[Submitted by Veryl Champine]

In late 1963 an F8 Crusader was being returned from the rebuild shop at Atsugi, Japan. The plan was to have it stop off at Subic Bay before coming out to the ship. The touchdown was long and the pilot decided to take the Morest gear at the end of the runway and put the tail hook down. Apparently he had a last minute change of heart and decided to take it around for another landing. He was over the Morest gear and had rotated far enough that the hook caught the cable and the bird was slammed back to the runway resulting in severe structural damage. Fortunately the pilot came out unscathed. I do remember the quote in the accident report, "the tower was screaming at him to pick up the hook, but he probably couldn't hear them over the sound of the hook dragging down the runway" The bird was loaded aboard the next ship headed for Japan and sent back to Atsugi to be rebuilt again.

[Submitted by Veryl Champine]

This may be the same incident as the story above:

Lt ******** was assigned to get a bird from Atsugi Japan rework facility and return to the ship via Cubi Pt. NAS. While attempting to land at Cubi Pt. he made a couple of minor mistakes. He first came in the wrong way, the morest cable was deployed on the end that he was going to use for touch down. Second was that he had his hook down. The angle of attack lights on the nose gear door flash when the hook is down, the tower saw this and advised the pilot to raise his hook and go around. The pilot refused and continued on to his, I believe, last landing as a navy pilot. It was raining, the runway at Cubi Pt has a high crown. When the F-4 touched down it started to slide to the side and the pilot added power to go aroud, whoops the tail hook caught the morest cable. The Phantom tried to take off but did not make it and returned to the runway. Neither the RIO or the pilot were injured.

After the accident I was standing ASDO watch and the skipper came in the ready room and asked me to watch the COD for the Lt's return to the ship and notify him when he arrived. As soon as the COD arrived and I saw the Lt on screen I called the skipper. When the Lt came into the ready room the skipper told me to give the ASDO arm band to our new permanent ASDO. As a side note the RIO was a former classmate of Joe Zuniga in AQ school.

[Submitted by T.A. Zwetzig]

1960-62 WestPac's

- 1. '60-61 The XO of VA-153 (A-4s) had a lot of trouble getting back into the groove when he got back to sea-duty. He had been ashore (I think) for 2 years and we heard a lot of the time was flying a desk. Even though he requalified during the carrier quals off southern California before the cruise he had a lot of trouble with night landings, especially when there was any rolling motion going on. Daytime landings were OK for him, but pretty bouncy and some bolters among some of what many pilots considered less challenging.

One night he came in low, could not or did not correct power and pitch and hit the aft end of the flight deck. The A4 broke first in half and then into pieces and shot down the flight deck, burning fuel spreading and following it everywhere. Guys ran to get out of the way and 3 or 4 (I recall seeing the jackets of 3 of them outside sickbay, but heard there were 4 involved) ran right into the spinning props of a Willy Fudd. That was a very bad night. The fires were contained relatively soon but the carnage and wreckage took longer to sort out. I believe the XO was also killed (went of the bow just to the right of the angle deck after crashing through a bunch of parked planes forward).

[Image Source - John Lyons]
Follow-up from John McCuen:

I served with Attack Squadron 153 (VA 153) from '59 to '62 as a Plane Captain and then an AO3 in the shop. Our sleeping quarters were just under the flight deck and the arresting gear. We were off the coast of Japan and the ship was recovering aircraft. It was just before taps if I remember correctly. I was secured and in the process of climbing up into my top rack when I heard a much louder then usual screech on the flight deck above me as the ship seemed to dip at the stern. I recall saying to my buddies, "What the hell was that?"

It was Lt. Tom Cress, one of our pilots in my A4-D, "Blue Tail Flies" squadron. On his attempted recovery I was told he hit the stern of the ship and his plane skidded forward on it's underside all the way to the right side of the angle deck. The aircraft hit at least two or three aircraft spotted just forward of the angle deck, and plummeted into the sea forward of the front of the angle deck. I understand two sailors happened to be on the catwalk forward of the angle deck at that instant. One was killed instantly and the other lived through the night but died just before reveille. I remember that I was carrying practice bombs across the flight deck the next morning. We stopped as the Chaplain said a prayer for our shipmates.

Another squadron member barely escaped. An EM2 was working in the cockpit of one of our aircraft spotted just forward of the angle deck. It was hit so badly that the entire tail section was sheered completely off while the electrician mate was sitting in the cockpit.

Directly after the crash a message came over the 1MC, "Do not come to the flight deck unless you want to fight a fire."  Our compartment door opened and one of our plane captains stepped in soaked head to toe with jet fuel. He was pretty shaken and I remember a few of the guys calmed him, stripped off his clothes soaked with JP5 and brought him to the showers to get the fuel off.

I knew Lt. Cress for some time before the cruise in the Moffett Field days. He was a good man, as we all were. He composed a poem that was run in the cruise book which I still have. There are ten names on the memorial page but I know we lost more while the book was being printed. At the end of his poem it says, Composed by Lieutenant Tom Joseph Cress, United States Navy. Lost at sea January 6, 1961.

Follow-up from Del Abercrombie :

My name is Del Abercrombie cva-43 59-63. I was reading about the 60-61 Westpac mishap. In reading the article I didn't see anything about the Blueshirt that ran through thr E1-B (Willy Fudd) prop. I was the blueshirt. I was invloved in all the flight deck mishaps between 1960 and 1963. My accident happened Jan 6, 1961 at about 1900. I will never forget that night.

We were recovering A/C and had spotted the Fudd on the port side just forward of the angle deck. The fudd shut down before the starboard jury strut could be installed. The straboard wing began to droop toward the deck. The flt dk Chief, Willy Clarkson gathered some blue shirts and thge plane captain to try and raise the wing withput starting the engine. We tried several times to raise the wing to get the strut in with no success. The Chief finally decided to start an engine for hydtalic power to the wing. I think he thought the port engine would be used. However, the starboard engine was used since we were working on that wing. As we were working on the jury strut we heard a loud noise behind us and turned around too see 1/2 of an A4 coming up the deck right at us. Everybody scattered. I ran between the fuselage and the prop on the Fudd. The prop hit my mickey mouse ear and my right shoulder. I was dazed and was told that I was headed back to the prop when a marine grabbed me. Don't remember his name.

Two sailors were killed that night. One was hit on the flight deck and lost all his limbs, an arm, leg, hand, and foot. He was in sickbay with me being worked on when he died. The other one was found in the port catwalk forward of the angle deck with fatal head injuries. He was found by my shipmate Larry Sullivan. The pilot was LT Tom Cress, there was a pitching deck and a dark night. Lt Cress managed to get the A4 over the side saving the lives of alot of sailors. I received the nickname of Propstop.

- 2. I was manning the phones in Ready 5 during night ops off Japan during WestPac 60-61 (VA155) when word came down from the flight deck that "503 is in the water!!". There was a lot of confusion in the Ready room and on the flight deck and it seems they never figured out why the A4 went in the water after launch. There was speculation about a cold cat (word was pressure checked ok) but more likely pilot error or ???.

The A4 banked sharply right immediately at the end of the launch and apparently stalled, hitting the water inverted to the right of the ship's course. The irony is that the pilot of 503 and the pilot of 504 had swapped aircraft on the flight deck without telling anyone (a big deal I think!). We thought the "other" pilot bought the farm, the one who was supposed to be in 503 but was still sitting behind the Cat prepared to roll forward. (the only items recovered, since the A-4 hit the water inverted) were a pack of Salems and a broken helmet.

When the Pilot who was supposed to be in 503 reported in (he was in line behind 503), he shut down (as did all AC on the flight deck....the search and rescue had begun), climbed out, and came down to Ready 5 and turned in his wings. He never flew again. Everyone was stunned he was alive, and equally surprised by his turning in his wings. He was a very good aviator and an excellent officer and leader. It was a double loss that night.

- 3. Toward the end of Westpac '61-'62, we were in the South China Sea in moderate conditions (some big waves occasionally) and fresh breezes. The Line crew of VA155 was in the shack just below the flight deck waiting for our birds to return and enjoying a break. The planes had only been launched a short time earlier so we had an hour or so before we had to reassemble, collect tie-down chains and recover the aricraft. I was snoozing a bit, sort of aware of the sounds of the ship when I felt the ship taking a hard turn to starboard, followed by a big lurch, then a god-awful CRUNCH....twisting metal and groaning sounds and feelings like we had hit something major.

It turned out we lost the number 2 elevator!!! (I believe that is the one behind the angle deck on the port side) It had caught a very large wave while the ship was heeling over...much of the water actually went over the elevator. The ship lost the battle with the water! The elevator ripped completely loose and went to the bottom. We went to Subic for emergency repairs (to seal up the holes) and made the rest of the cruise with only 2 elevators, both on the starboard side. I believe there were one or two aircraft tied down on the elevator (with plane captains aboard). Word was they sank like rocks with the elevator.

Follow-up from John McCuen:

I was also aboard when the Coral Sea lost it's deck edge elevator while in the down (Hanger Bay) position on the starboard side. I had just walked past it while walking forward on the hanger deck when I heard screams behind me. Sure enough the sea came up from underneath as the ship rolled to the starboard side and sheered the elevator off in a flash. No planes or personnel aboard the elevator at the time, thank God.

- 4, (1962 end of WestPac cruise) Secret mission! (Right!) We were off the coast of South Vietnam escorting the jeep Carrier "Cord" into the Mekong river delta so she could get to Saigon with her load of helicopters...we stayed way off shore, and the USS Cord proceeded with it's load of helicopters (those with the binocs reported seeing the land mass but we saw nothing with the naked eyes). After the Cord entered the coastal waters of South Vietnam we turned around and headed to sea.

When we got out 50-plus miles we launched aircraft. The birds were fully loaded, bombs, rockets, guns loaded. Prior to launch we did some strange things...we smeared heavy grease over the markings of the aircraft and painted gray paint over the grease.....ostensibly so the planes could not be seen and tied to the US or the Navy (who else was flying A-4Ds, F8Us and A3Ds in 1962??).

The planes returned without ordinance, fresh powder markings from the guns and the painted out grease jobs had been wiped off by the force of the air....the markings were pretty clearly visible ("NL" and aircraft numbers)! We got a good laugh out of that brilliant idea!

- 5. One last story I recalled recently with another shipmate from 60-61 was during a very wet and sloppy night we had finished recovering aircraft and the deck was busy with planes being respotted for the next day's launch. A heavy tug was spotting an A-3 on the forward elevator, slowly backing the A3 to the point where it would be tied down to be sent below to the hangar deck. The ship suddenly heeled to the starboard (the direction the A3 was being moved). The deck was very slippery, the angle of heel kept increasing, the tug started to slip across the flight deck and the A3 brakes would not hold any longer. The aircraft, the plane captain and the tug slid right over the side of the number 1 elevator and sank out of site immediately.

Since the main gear had caught as the A3 went over, the plane sort of reared up and went over the side on it's back. The escape hatch on the top of the cockpit was in the water first and the PC wasn't strapped in anyway....he very likely was tossed around pretty badly during impact with the water and didn't know up from down. It would have been very, very dark in the water at night.

The operator of the tug was able to jump clear just before he would have gone over the side. Many of us plane captains felt deep chills about that night. "There but for the grace of God go I"... We all felt that ghost walk past our graves.

[Submitted by John Lyons]

February 3, 1963 WestPac

The USS Coral Sea, a gigantic 63,000-ton aircraft carrier, ran aground in heavy fog near the mouth of the Oakland Estuary Saturday. For more than nine hours she was held fast by mud. Then at 7 p.m., two hours before high tide, an armada of straining tugboats pulled her into deep water. Navy spokesman said a cursory inspection showed no signs of serious damage. No one was injured. At the time of the mishap fog bad cut visibility to less than 200 yards. On board were Navy Capt. Robert M. Elder, Coral Sea's skipper, and Capt Irving S. Tjalldeen, 48, of 630 Madison Ave., Albany, a civilian pilot for Navy Port Services. The Navy said it did not know which of the two men was directing the tricky navigation at the time of the grounding. The Coral Sea was headed toward her Pier 3 berth at the Alameda Naval Air station after a month of maneuvers. All of the planes, with the exception of those in need of repair, had left for land bases before the ship entered the Bay. The Navy dispatched a fleet of 10 tugboats to help pull the huge vessel free. After she was freed, the Coral Sea swung around and slid down the channel and into her berth where families of the ship's company had been waiting since morning.

[Submitted by Chuck Bell]

March 1963 WestPac

Article from the Coral Sea publication Sea Breeze.
Pilot In Launch Mishap.
A VFP-63 pilot was killed last month when his plane rolled over after launching and he ejected into the sea.
Lieutenant Delmar D. Young was being launched in an RF-8A on a photo mission when the accident occurred. According to Lt. David P. Burleigh, VFP-63 Administrative Officer, the launch was normal but the plane began to roll to the left when it became airborne. The pilot ejected, however the plane had turned on its back, and he shot into the water. His body was not recovered.
Exactly what caused the accident has not been determined, but a special board of officers from the photo squadron is conducting an investigation.
The crash was the worst accident to occur aboard Coral Sea in some time. In fact, during last year's Far East cruise Carrier Air Group Fifteen was presented with the 1962 Aviation Safety Award by the Chief of Naval Operations.
An accompanying document said that the Air group's "performance is in keeping with the highest traditions of the Naval Service".
Lieutenant Young is survived by his wife, Kay, and his two-year-old son, Eric, who live in San Diego, Calif.

- Follow-up from Hank Porter: I was in VFP-63 at that time but not on that cruise. It was later determined, or highly suspected, that the rudder package had somehow failed. Look closely at the video. The rudder is full left prior to and throughout the cat stroke. The pilot would have been giving full right rudder to correct the situation but to no avail. With his nose going left, his right wing was creating all the lift and the left wing stalled.

This should never have happened. His plane captain should have seen the rudder was left as he signaled the pilot to check his controls. The next guy in line would have been his squadron checker, on the cat, who also should have seen it. Instead he apparently handed the plane over to the shooter without really doing his job. Damn shame.

- View the video of this mishap here
- Deck log of incident:

[Submitted by Allan Matthews]

July 1963 WestPac

Blue Shirt killed during flight ops. Here is the deck log describing the incident.

[Submitted by Allan Matthews]

1963 WestPac

I was in the 1st division when we were refueling (' 62 or ' 63) when 3 sailors from the 2nd division were knocked overboard when a block and tackle broke. Only 2 (Prigmore and Kirby) were saved. 2nd class Anderson was never found. (I think the names are correct).

[Submitted by Lee Fuselier]

1964-65 WestPac

In 1964, on a training flight from NAS Lemoore above California's Sierra Nevada mountains, Lt. Ed Dickson experienced engine failure and was forced to eject from his A-4 Skyhawk. Dickson's rocket seat fired normally and there was a good seat separation, but the parachute did not open.

In a hard-to-believe scenario, Dickson landed on a steep slope in a heavy drift of soft snow. Cushioned by a soft impact and, after many yards of free-style snow sliding, the pilot was able to walk away from his unusual landing with only minor injuries.

When a rescue truck and crew arrived to transport Dickson down from the mountain recovery area, the malfunctioning parachute was tossed into the back of the truck. As the rescue vehicle worked its way back down the mountain trail and passed 10,000 feet of altitude, the dormant parachute surprised Dickson and his rescue crew. Performing as designed, the barostatic sensor popped and the chute deployed.

Needless to say, parachute barostatic sensors for aircraft operating over the mountainous ConUS were subsequently reprogrammed to open at 14,000 feet- higher than mountain peaks.

Sadly, a year following his miraculous survival in the snow-covered Sierras, LT Dickson was killed in action while assigned to the VA-155 Silver Foxes flying form USS Coral Sea (CVA-43). During an early (7 February 1965) strike mission over North Vietnam, Dickson's A-4E Skyhawk was hit by anti-aircraft artillery. Although his aircraft was on fire, Dickson, with determined effort, completed his bombing mission and subsequently nursed his wounded aircraft toward relative safety of the Tonkin Gulf. He was seen to eject about half a mile offshore but, coincidentally, his parachute failed to deploy.

Only the second Naval Aviator to be lost during a strike mission over North Vietnam in that long ago war, Ed Dickson was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross.

[Author Unknown - Submitted by Herman Doernbach]

1964-65 WestPac

If I remember right we were coming in to the port of San Diego for a few days of liberty. It was around 06:00 and in day light. I was on the fantail watch Port side. I was listening to the head set and the bridge all of a sudden it got awfully busy, more than normally with a little frantic in there voices. So I called to the Bridge and ask one of the BM on duty there what was going on. He came back and said we were headed toward the Iwo Jima That was anchored out in the harbor. Then he said can `t talk know were really busy up here. It was just a few minutes later I felt this bump or shake and then all hell broke loose on the bridge. I knew that we must have hit something. Well, when we docked there were more cars pulling up and brass every where. I learned later we bumped the Imo Jima and tore off and damage about 12 life boat racks that line the carrier around Her flight deck..

But let me tell you that un rep with that oiler was a mess. The hoses got lose and the oiler looked like a Texas oil well. That poor ship had oil all over her deck and bulk heads. When the oil hose came loose the pressure knocked down one sailor on his butt and he slid over board from the starboard whale boat sponson. We went to life drill and lowered the whale boat but a Helo got to him first. We were concerned that he would be pulled into the screws of either ship. But they retrieved him from the sea safely .

[Submitted by Mike Robertson]

One time word filtered down to the AQ shop that a Phantom had hit the roundown, sheared its main gear, and was coming around for a gear-up barrier trap. It was right at sundown, and I stupidly went topside to watch the action. No, I didn't go up to the relative safety of Vulture's Row on the O7 level. I stood just aft of the island, right there on the flight deck, and watched from less than fifty feet away as the F-4 bellyflopped, skidded, and showered sparks from the wire to the barrier (parallel with my position) with airplane parts flying across the deck like cannon projectiles. It was not until I had ducked back behind the island superstructure that I realized what a stupid thing I had done. Can you imagine a more foolish way to get maimed or killed? It's the same thing that happens to rubbernecks who slow down for a wreck on the freeway. I know I had to be the dumbest guy in the squadron.

[Submitted by Randy Kelso]

The story about the F4 that hit the round down is correct as far as basics. The full story is:

The pilot had his hands full with the F4. He had suffered a previous accident with a F3H Deamon where he stuffed the nose gear up thru the cockpit. In transitioning to the F4 he came in low, hit the round down and almost sheared off the right main. Full power applied the Phantom took off and made a go around, The arresting net was deployed and the pilot made a nose high pancake landing and the nose gear collapsed. The deck crew used foam to shut down the engines and removed the RIO and pilot. The pilot was a LtCdr and he turned in his wings and retired after that landing. I was in VF151 and got to do a close inspection of the plane as an electrician.

[Submitted by T.A. Zwetzig]

"One sunny day I was up on the roof plying my trade while some blueshirts nearby shoved an F-8 aft very near the flight deck rounddown. There was parked a mule with two swabs talking. One was leaning back on the hood of the mule, only a few feet from me. I wasn't paying half attention but that changed when I heard him yelp and whistles started blowing. I couldn't believe it, but those morons had shoved the F-8's UHT (Unit Horizontal Tail, the horizontal stabilizer, which was rather sharp-edged) into the mule with the man's thigh inbetween! They shoved the plane forward a bit and chocked it while he squirted blood everywhere. The poor victim was taken below to sick bay, and I never heard what happened to him, but he must have had one serious cut from that accident. I'm not sure we were even at sea when that happened, so I don't think the deck was pitching at all. You know, a fella could get killed on those floating bombs."

[Submitted by Randy Kelso]

Follow on: In reference to the 64-65 West Pac cruise, an incident where an F-8 was backed into my fellow blue shirt, (Wilson) is his name, he had his leg repaired, they sent him to a Naval Hospital near Seattle where he was from. I saw him a year later and he was still in rehab, the two 'swabs' talking were Wilson and myself, Stinnett, we were both assigned to V-1 Division. In that incident, Wilson did not feel any pain, after we got the yellow shirt to full the F-8 away, a little blood surfaced on his pants and Wilson said he felt weak, I told him to report to sick bay immediately, he hopped off t! he tractor and he passed out, blood was everywhere as he was carried away.

[Submitted by Steve Stinnett ]

"after finally finishing carquals and leaving Pearl, the ship made a speed run to Subic where we tied up to the pier for about 4 hours and took on stores and munitions. Then it was straight to Yankee Station where we relieved, I believe, the Bonnie Dick and officially became a part of the Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club. We were part of Task Force 77 under Admiral ******, who was flying his flag on our ship. When we entered enemy waters our ship's skipper, who was a Texan, came over the 1MC and said, "Boys, we're in Indian country now; hang loose!". The yankees aboard howled with laughter at this, but us southern boys knew exactly what he meant: we were in the waters of one of Russia's allies and there was every reason to believe they would come down on us as soon as the shooting started. Then we launched the first raids on North Vietnam. It was the first time I had ever heard, "General quarters, general quarters, all hands man your battle stations: this is NOT a drill...". The months that follow are all a blur in my memory, but I remember specific events without being able to place them in their proper sequence. I'll give them to you as they come to mind. I believe that first raid was a resounding success with all hands returning safely. We had sent out about 20 birds (F-8s, F-4s, A-1 Spads and A-4 scooters) which had joined with strike groups from the other two carriers on station (Ranger and Hancock, I believe). All went well, and the Dong Hoi Barracks and the Vinh oil storage facility were now lovely messes. We continued the raids for the next several weeks. I recall one A-4 coming back with a wounded pilot (I think he was paralyzed on his left side). He was determined to bring the shot-up scooter aboard, lineup or no lineup, since it was suicide to ditch in his condition. It was just after dusk, getting dark, and I was forward in the port catwalk looking aft. He lined her up the best he could and came down far left of center. The LSO's dove into their escape net and he hit the deck along the port angledeck catwalk. The port main gear dropped off the catwalk, the port wing sheared and the plane burst into flames while skidding down the catwalk. It flopped back onto the flight deck, minus most of its port side and wing, still on fire. The crash crew got the man out (he actually lived through this high pucker factor landing, although I'm sure he needed a change of laundry) but the aircraft was a total loss. Some yellowshirt jumped on a mule after throwing a mattress over its hood and began ramming the burning plane toward the angle deck edge, forward. I watched from a distance, expecting an explosion at any time, but this brave sailor succeeded in shoving the pile of junk overboard. Halfway to the waterline it burst into brilliant flames, lighting the ship just like it was daylight. Then it hit the drink and fizzled. I think that one was my first introduction to reality as a green boot. Up until then it had been a pleasure cruise, but now I knew this was no Campfire Girl outing. We were aware of the dangers of working on the flight deck: exhausts trying to blow you overboard or into intakes which can suck a man into an engine, whirling propellors and the possibility of a snapped cable sweeping the deck during a trap and cutting off the legs of anyone in its path. But add to all that battle damaged aircraft returning low on fuel with wounded pilots or hung ordnance at night in bad weather, and you have a very dangerous four acres on your hands. In retrospect it is amazing to me that we didn't blow ourselves to Kingdom Come, knowing that the average age on board was 19. I was one of those teenaged kids, and I think I became about 40 before that cruise was over.

[Submitted by Randy Kelso]

"we were flying almost around the clock and were working obscene hours for weeks. This particular at-sea period ended up being over a hundred days, and everybody was dragging their tailhook. The pilots were flown until numb, and that explains what happened next. During one launch sequence **** used the F-8's nosewheel steering to swing the airplane around counterclockwise, forward of the island, in order to line up with the #1 cat for hookup. Now, the Crusader's nose wheel is located considerably aft of the pilot, and it is not unusual for the pilot to be hanging over the side while executing one of these turns. This time he cut it too close, however, and the nose wheel dropped into the catwalk, bending the airplane. Ugh. A day or two later he was coming aboard in another F-8 and drew one of those unfortunate stern pitches from the rough sea just as he approached the deck. He caught the wire in a nose-high attitude and slammed the nose gear down onto the deck, collapsing it and folding the beautiful Crusader intake into two little ones, side by side. Strike two. I think it must have been only a few days later that ****, as it happens sometimes, got a little out of sync with the ship's motion and caught the rounddown with his main gear, shearing both of them off. As you know, seagoing pilots are trained to select full burner upon impact to facilitate a go-around, and that's what he did. Now he was airborne again, but with no gear. Although the barrier was rigged post haste, he lost all his hydraulics while trying to regain the pattern and had to eject. Bye bye bird. After he was fished out they finally granted him a couple of days to rest before being scheduled for any more hops. He was suffering from combat fatigue."

[Submitted by Randy Kelso]

The A-4 I mentioned came down right at dusk one evening with a wounded pilot and went off the port side into the catwalk before righting itself, minus one wing, on the flight deck and skidding to a fiery stop. The crash crew got the pilot out while the plane burned. Somebody threw a matress over the hood of a mule and rammed the plane repeatedly until it went over the angle deck, still on fire. Halfway down it burst into brilliant flames, then hit the water and sank. I was forward in the port catwalk watching the show, but didn't have my camera. In recent years I bought a VCR tape of carrier crash footage, and there was a very short black-and-white segment that looked to me like the same Scooter crashing into the catwalk, taken from Vulture's Row.

[Submitted by Randy Kelso]

" One day a Spad returned to our ship under an emergency declaration. He was all over the sky as he approached and seemed to be having trouble just staying aloft. Somehow the pilot managed to get the plane right over the wires, chop the throttle and plop down on the deck. When I saw the aircraft up close I just couldn't believe it. This thing had a huge hole in the starboard wing which had taken out the flap on that side, and the entire empennage was a shredded skeleton with barely enough skin left on the rudder and elevators to maintain control in flight. I still marvel at the sight of that one."

[Submitted by Randy Kelso]

2 October 1966 - WestPac

THE STORY OF A-3B 142633 - A Wounded Whale That Took A Dive

It was a pleasant, sunshiny Sunday morning on the deck of the USS Coral Sea, the 2nd of October 1966. The ship had just completed a lengthy and grueling Yankee Station line period and was now heading towards Subic Bay for a deserved rest for the ships' crew and airwing 15. I was a B/N in VAH-2 Det "A" which had four A-3Bs, configured with tanker packages, onboard. My pilot was Charlie Cellar and our Crewman/Navigator(C/N) was Larry Sharpe. Our crew had been selected to fly off early to Cubi Point and we were looking forward to the Cubi Dogs and Cubi Specials and some relaxation time in the Cubi pool. We briefed our flight in the ready room and the weather was forecast to be good along our route and at Cubi upon our arrival. The only thing out of the ordinary for this flight was that we were taking a passenger along who would be sitting on the floor in the rear of the flight deck in what we called the "jump seat." He was a first class electrician, selected to fly in early to Cubi with us because of his outstanding performance during this line period. Larry briefed him on all the safety procedures. He was very excited to be going because it would be his first catapult(CAT) shot and also his first flight in an A-3B. We were also told that we would be carrying some mail bags and packages to Cubi.

At launch time we went out to the flight deck and preflighted our assigned A-3B, 142633 with side number 691, and manned up. We went through all the check lists and everything was proceeding normally. An E-2 was launched ahead of us, also going to Cubi. At our turn, we were directed onto the number two bow CAT. Everything was going smoothly and the CAT officer had now signaled for full power. Charlie checked all the gauges and saluted the CAT officer who saluted back, leaned forward in a crouch and touched the flight deck. Then it happened! Rather than the sharp, powerful jolt of a normal CAT shot, I heard a loud sharp bang and felt a very mild jolt. The nose bounced high and came back down as we started toward the bow of the flight deck at a slow speed. I remember some debris flying by on the starboard side and people ducking for cover. Charlie was as busy as a one-armed paperhanger. He had the brakes pushed to the floorboard while shutting down both engines and pulling the handle on the emergency air bottle for emergency braking. I thought Charlie was going to get the wounded whale stopped before we went over the bow but I could see we were angling off to the port side. We later learned that the eye of the bridle on the starboard side had been mis-positioned over the tip of the aircraft's CAT hook. When the CAT fired, the tip broke off which let the bridle release and swing violently across from the starboard to port side of the aircraft. The CAT shuttle, which is positioned behind the nose wheel on the A-3, struck and blew the nose tire during its forward movement. This is what had caused the nose to bounce up and had also turned the nose wheel to the left. The starboard main mount was on the greasy CAT track, which didn't help our braking efforts. When the nose gear went over the bow, I finally realized that we weren't going to stop and were going to get very wet. After the nose of the aircraft had dropped down over the bow, the starboard engine nacelle hung up on the round down for a few seconds before giving way, which allowed us to fall nose down in an inverted attitude. When we hit the water, I remember it as a violent impact with the cockpit almost immediately engulfed with water. It was dark and I couldn't see anything as I unlatched my lap belt and pushed off from my seat. But I felt a tug which held me back. I had forgotten to unhook my oxygen hose from the seat so I reached back, unhooked it, and pushed off again, reaching for the upper hatch. For those reading this who are not A-3 types, the A-3 upper hatch was always positioned open on all CAT shots and arrested landings for emergencies such as this. But we didn't need the upper hatch this time as the whole canopy was gone.

Click on the image to view the video of this mishap.

Afterwards when we discussed the accident, we surmised that the pressure created at impact, and being inverted, had blown the canopy out. After I had exited the aircraft, I inflated my Mae West and ascended to the surface. I estimate we were about 15 ft. underwater at that time. Charlie said that he was right behind me on the way up to the surface. When I reached the surface, I removed my oxygen mask but was having trouble breathing. When Charlie reached the surface, he said that he looked around for the rest of the crew but at first saw only one other head. Then Larry's head finally popped up.

I noticed that I was about 15 ft. from the aircraft and that the tail was sticking out of the water at a 45-degree angle in an inverted position from about the speedbrake location. Charlie also noticed that the tailhook was down. Pictures of the accident taken as we were going over the bow showed the tailhook as being up so we're not sure what caused that to happen. I could hear a lot of gurgling sounds as the A-3 was sinking and could also smell JP-5 fuel. I tried to swim away from the aircraft but didn't make much progress as my right side was really hurting and I was still having difficulty breathing. Charlie swam over to me to check on my condition and noticed that my Mae West was not fully inflated. He pulled both toggles again and it fully inflated. I guess I hadn't pulled them hard enough, as one cylinder had not been activated. At about this same time a crewman in the rescue helo, who also noticed that I was having some difficulty, jumped into the water and helped me into the rescue sling. From there I was hoisted up and into the helo. I later learned from the doctors that I had suffered broken ribs and a collapsed right lung which had caused my pain and difficulty in breathing.

I do not recall seeing Larry or our passenger in the water nor, do I remember the Coral Sea bearing down on us. Charlie later told me that Larry and our passenger had made it to the surface and were rescued by helo. He also remembers that the Coral Sea was moving away from us as the Captain had put in full port rudder and then back to starboard, which caused the ship to move almost sideways away from us. Our passenger had a severely broken arm and was transferred to the Subic Naval Hospital. Charlie had a laceration on his leg and Larry a cut on one finger. They were both flying again soon. I was grounded for about a month while the superb Coral Sea doctors got me repaired. When I was given my up chit to fly again, it was with Charlie and Larry in our replacement aircraft with side number 691 and yes, it was from the number two bow CAT. Whew! But, this time it worked as advertised.

Our crew flew many more missions together without mishap for the remainder of our cruise. One side note that I should mention is the fact that for several months after our accident, the ships 1MC would announce: "Those personnel who lost money orders in the A-3 that went into the water report to the post office." They just wouldn't let us forget. Also, this accident is another reminder that carrier aviation is never routine. An unexpected accident is always just waiting to happen - so be prepared.

Dale V. Clark
CDR USN(RET) [Submitted by Gary Schreffler]

Follow On: In reference to the A-3B cold cat shot on Oct. 2, 1966, I was the PLAT operator and the film missed the most important aspect. I saw an explosion from the starboard wheel, I immediately zoomed in on that wheel to see if anybody was injured, I then panned to the nose wheel which appeared to be damaged, then went full image as the plane was going down the deck, I saw the face of the man in the starboard seat, an image of sheer hopelessness, so I zoomed in on his face, immediately went full image as the plane went overboard. When flight operations ended I went to the Photo Lab to be 'chewed' out by the Photo Officer CWO4 McManus. He informed me that by focusing in I lost valuable information which was not filmed, the entire aircraft, was out of the frame. This is true since the investigators could zoom in while viewing the film. While he was yelling, the Captain or Air Boss, I do not remember, came into the Lab and shook my hand to thank me for a great job.

[Submitted by Steve Stinnett]

1966 WestPac

- This A-4 of the VA-23 Black Knights somehow made it back aboard despite having part of its port wing shreaded by a missile that fortunately didn't explode.

[Image Source - Norm Palosky]	[Image Source - Norm Palosky]	[Image Source - Norm Palosky]	[Image Source - Norm Palosky]
[Image Source - Norm Palosky]	[Image Source - Norm Palosky]	[Image Source - John Mittler]	[Image Source - John Mittler]

                 

25 October 1967 - WestPac

Zuni Rocket Mishap - "The United States Navy disclosed yesterday that an air-to-surface rocket accidentally ignited on the attack carrier Coral Sea off North Vietnam this week, injuring nine seaman.
Three of the men were critically burned. All nine were flown to Clark Air Force Base in the Phillipines.
The incident occured Wednesday night while crewmen were assembling the Zuni rocket, used by Navy aircraft raids in Vietnam. The motor ignited and shot the rocket forward about 20 feet into a steel bulkhead.
A spokesman at the Navy fleet headquarters here said the rocket did not explode."

[Image Source - US Navy]

Four of the men subsequently died of their injuries:

• 10/29/67, SA Carlyle B. Pomeroy, Jr., Denver, Co
• 10/30/67, AO3 Victor R. Wooden, White City, Or
• 10/30/67, SN Ronald A. Hessman, Los Angeles, Ca
• 12/7/67, AO3 Donald D. Maki, Hutchinson, Mn

The rocket motor was next to the bulkhead and on the other side was the first class lounge where they had a hot plate on all the time which cooked off the zuni rocket.
The missle became lodged in the bulkhead without the warhead exploding. It was then decided to cut the bulkhead out around the rocket. The rocket and bulkhead were carefuly removed and gently thrown overboard. Walt "The Salt" Hardy who was on board in 1967 when it happened was also aboard in 1983. When he left the ship in 1983 the patched bulkhead was still noticable.

[Submitted by variuos sources]
Follow up: I was aboard the Coral Sea on Oct 25 1967 when the rocket launched, my GQ was two decks below the forward mess decks right under the resulting fire. The article you have is a little wrong. The rocket was accidentally launched as it was being assembled and lodged in the First Class Mess bulkhead, luckily it didn't arm.The fire was intense and the forward magazines were flooded which were next to us. the fire teams that put out the fire should have been commended because this deck was used for assembling weapons and was of course full, so the danger of something cooking off was possibility. After the fire was put out the warhead had to be cut out and be disposed of, as I recall after we were notified the fire was out it took about four hours for this to take place.

[Submitted by Lloyd Becker]

Follow up: The Zuni rocket incident. I had just showered and gotten into my rack at around 2145 when a fire alarm sounded. I was in the E-Div berthing compartment 3rd deck amid ship near the post office. A second alarm sounded and not long after that a third alarm then general quarters. I grabbed my clothes and shoes, and like everyone else headed for the ladder to the second deck, reminding myself of "port aft and starboard foreward" during GQ. The smell of burning paint and smoke was evident and it scared the crap out of me, not knowing how bad things were. We all started in the wrong direction but soon everyone had rememberd their mantra as well and we headed to our GQ stations. As I moved to my GQ station on the aft mess decks via the port side, the burned sailors were brought by me in litters. My GQ station was not 5 yards from the hatch going down to sickbay and I watched as the wounded were brought down. During the night there was a fire in 2C fire room and guys were going down to the bilges to get those poor guys who were passing out fron the heat. There were 10-20 guys lying on the aft mess decks, passed out from heat exhaustion. They took the liquid O2 tanks out of the A4 Skyhawks to administer oxygen to those guys.. I was an electrician and was involved in deengergizing the circuits so the fire could be fought safely, There was 4-5 inches of water in the passageways on the second deck juft foreward of the messdecks as well. In any event, they safely removed the Zuni rocket still embedded in the bulkhead, (they had cut a 2 foot hole around the warhead) and gently carried it by my damage control team and went up he ladder to the hangar deck on their way to the fantail (I presume) to dispose of it. Few people remember that the missile went through a live 440 volt 400 cycle power panel and had lodged between two live buss bars. The whole power panel had to be disassembled and removed before they could even begin to cut around the missile warhead,. That is why it took all night. By 0730 the following morning it was pretty much over. The reason I go into so much detail is that that incident, and my witness to the injuries and the heroics of the docs and copsmen in sickbay steered me into wanting to become a physician. Subsequently, after leaving the ship on 7 August of 1970, I started my education and ended up in med school in 1979. I am now a specialist in Internal Medicine and subspecializing in Nephrology (kidneys), a direct result of that incident.

[Submitted by Albert Bodt]

I was there during the incident. We were at GQ all night until around 0700. The Zuni pod, as I recall was on the starboard side of the foreward mess deck with the business end facing the bulkhead of the first class lounge, about 15-18 feet away. The tail end of the pod was about 4-5 feet from the starboard bulkhead. The inciting incident did not involve a hotplate but apparently the weapons crewman testing the pod for electrical continuity with a 1.5volt multimeter set off the live Zuni. He was sitting, straddled accross the pod with his legs testing the pins on the connector into which the plug fron the aircraft is attached. As he connected the multimeter to two crirical pins on the connector, there was enough current from the multimeter battery to light off the rocket. He took the full blast of the rocket exhaust and I remember seeing him as he was carried past me in a litter to sick bay as we were going to GQ. The first fire alarm was at precisely 2200hrs, then a second fire alarm was sounded 30 seconds later, then a third, then GQ was sounded at around 2202hrs. The rocket had launched from the tube into the first class lounge bulkhead knocking the television off the stand in the lounge, and had penetrated a 440V/400cycle controller panel which had to be removed before the rocket itself could be removed. It took all night until around 0730 the following morning. As I recall, the controller panel was replaced but the circular weld could still be seen behiond it where the bulkhead had been replaced.

[Submitted by Albert Bodt]

I was onboard when this incident occurred. I was in the first class lounge when the rocket ignited and lodged in the bulkhead. The first class lounge (couldn't call it a Mess) was located in forward mess deck area starboard side, this area had been taken over for ordnance assembly. I spoke to one of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technicians who disposed of this rocket afterwards. Working party handled rocket pods returned from strike aircraft after missions (not all Aviation Ordnancemen as this was a low tech job) job was to visually insure no rockets remained in 4 rocket pod container, then with a battery pack RESTEP the firing switch. Crew apparently failed to inspect prior to resteping and a rocket remained in the pod. Cycling the switch fired the rocket which did not travel far enough to arm (rocket warhead had an impeller and had to travel a minimum distance to arm). Rocket warhead did not explode, it was safely extracted and disposed of by EOD Team onboard.

[Submitted by Denis Howard]

The Zuni rocket accident in October 1967 involved a lot more than merely the forward messdecks fire. The ship went to GQ because the rocket somehow managed to short out the ventilation systems to the main boiler room, the zuni rocket magazines on either side began to heat up, etc., etc. A damage control chief later told me it was a close call. I have told the story for years to various NROTC classes....

[Submitted by king@bus.orst.edu]

The ship also went to GQ when the ventilation systems for the boiler rooms mysteriously shut down. (Later, it was discovered that the zuni and/or zuni fire had short-circuited some electrical stuff, etc.) Meanwhile, zuni rocket magazine next to the boiler rooms began to heat up. "Naturally," one sprinkling system was down for repair and the other barely dribbled out water. A damage control chief later told me he figured the zuni's came within several degrees of cooking off. That would have been a real disaster!

Several crewmen were subsequently awareded medals for going back into the boilerroom to shut down the furnaces. Meanwhile, other folks were throwing all the zunis overboard and anything that looked like it might explode on the hanger deck. In fact, someone threw a box overboard containing a "silver rotary radar joint" for our E2A which cost upwards of $500,000. The plane guard later found it floating the the Gulf and returned it to us.

The ship secured from General Quarters about four hours later.

[Submitted by Jonathan King]

I was one of the survivors of the '67 Zuni accident. There were 9 of us in the forward mess deck when the rocket was fired. The result was 4 died and I was the worst of the injured. I spent almost a year in the hospital with 37% 2nd & 3rd degree burns. I would like to find any of the other survivors. My time on the grand old lady brings back so many fond memories.

[Submitted by Jim Doil]

        
[Story & Pictures - Jim Doil]

I was on board the Coral Sea during the 1967 Zunnie Rocket incident. I was a BT2 assigned to 2-B fireroom and my GQ station was in a berthing area little aft of 2-C fireroom. My assignment, when we were @ GQ, was nozzelman on a  firehose on a damage control team. When it came time to remove those warheads from the locker I was one of the work party to go into that storage area to remove them. Myself, as well as everyone else was pretty scared. We formed a line of about 30 people that went up the ladder to the hanger deck and acrossed the hanger deck and over the side at the elevator. As we relayed them out from the fourth deck up to the hanger deck and over the side they had fire hoses spraying on the overhead to keep everything cool and that sea water was cold. We all were in our scivies and tee shirts and we all looked like a bunch of drown rats. The Senior Chief said they were very unstable because of the heat and it would not be very good to have one of them detonate.  

When the rocket went off it went accross the compartment and lodged in the bulkhead where the rocket motor continied to run until it was out of fuel. When it went through bulkhead it lodged in a electricial distribution panel on the other side of the bulkhead in the First Class mess. It just so happens that was the distribution panel that supplied power to forced draft blowers in 2-C fireroom and any cooling vents that were running were out also. Right above the fireroom was the storage area for the rocket warheads. When the vent system in the fireroom was knocked out it rapidly allowed the fireroom temperature to rise which intern caused the heat problem in the rocket storage area to escalate. Under normal steaming conditions, when all ventilation systems were up and running, it was a continious 140-150 drgrees on top of the boiler which is directly under the rocket storage area. Sometimes we did some of our wash and hung it up on top of the boiler where it would dry in 10 minutes or less.   

After they finially got a handle on the problem, they realized they had to take 2-C boiler off the line. By now the heat in the fireroom was unbearable. They took our damage control team to the air trunk above 2-C fireroom where we went down in teams of three for 5 minutes only to try to wrap up the boiler. I don't know how hot it was but I do know it would turn your skin red after 5 minutes down there. I went down for three rounds and the last thing I remembered after the third round was looking up the air trunk and seeing people up at the top yelling for me to hurry up the ladder. The next thing I remember I was lying on the mess decks in my scivies with ice packed all around me and some guy was trying to wake me up. I did find out latter that a guy carried me from the air trunk to the mess decks. When I found out who it was I looked him up and thanked him. The only thing I really got out of it was the fact I looked like a lobster for a couple of weeks.     

One of other stories I read mentioned that some people got some awards for what they had done. I don't think that is true. I think those other guys as well as myself are not looking for a pat on the back but we need to try to get the story straight. We all did what we had to do for ship and shipmates and I would do it all again!

[Submitted by Robert Skelton ]

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1966-67 WestPac

October 10, 1967 - USS Coral Sea collides with the Auxillary Explosives ship USS Mount Katmai AE-16. The two ships made contact during an underway replenishment operation. Both ships sustained damage but no one was injured.

Follow up: I remember the Mount Katmai collision very well. I was on the hangar deck standing just inside the hangar bay by the starboard aft elevator. I saw the Mount Katmai come slowly closer and suddenly, I believe a swell may have pushed her into us, we collided and then separated again. Fortunately no one was hurt. The next unrep with her was at 2 am in the morning, a week, maybe two later, as I recall, and they played music during the unrep and had a large target painted on the side at the point of impact.

[Submitted by Albert Bodt]

USS Mount Katmai AE-16	Seconds after the collision. Damage amidships can be seen on the Mount Katmai.
[Image Source - Bob Kurtz]	[Image Source - Bob Kurtz]
Close-up of damage to the Mount Katmai.	Coral Sea suffered damage to one of its elevators.
[Image Source - Bob Kurtz]	[Image Source - Bob Kurtz]

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1966-67 - Somehow this F-4 Phantom wound up in the cat walk. Hmmmm...see the mishap story from the 1979-80 mishap when a Phantom wound up in exactly the same spot!

Update to this story:
In reference to your bewilderment as to why the F-4 was in the cat walk, I can tell you why this happened. The same thing happened when I served aboard as a troubleshooter in 1985-1986. At that point in the deck, there is no deck edge combing due to the fact the the barricade arm extends beyond the deck edge. If the wing walker is not paying attention, as can happen, the main mount will go right over the side. An A-6 suffered the same fate in early 1986.

[Submitted by Bob Dorais & Matt Voight]

[Image Source - US Navy]

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1967 - A VA-155 Silver Foxes A-4 Skyhawk makes an approach for a barricade landing. The starboard landing gear would not come down.

                 
[Image Source - US Navy]

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1967 - Another A-4 shot-up over Vietnam, this one from the Blue Tail Files of VA-153, returns to the ship for a barricade landing.

     
[Image Source - Gerald Davis]

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1968 - WestPac

There were 3 men that also died while I was on board the Coral Sea.

One was Jim Gardner. He was driving a tractor on the flight deck after flight ops respotting aircraft. He lost control of his tractor and went over the side and was never found.

Another was Jim Bitter of Indiana. We were getting underway from Alameda air station for the pilots to practice landing. They couldn't get the line lose from the dock. He was waving to his wife on the beach when the line snapped and came back through the hole he was looking out of and it cut him in half.

The third I remember was a young lad working on the flight deck. They were getting ready to launch a phantom when his hat flew off and he went onto the flight deck. He went out to retrieve it just when they launched the plane. He was a fuel operator.

Also when I was on Station 5 refueling from an ao I was a phone operator. As we were hooking up the cable to pull hose over, the ship listed and Ortiz of second division was thrown over board. He was later rescued buy helo and returned to the ship a.o.k.

[Submitted by Chuck Wothke]

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1969-70 WestPac

I have this picture of an F-4 Phantom [from VF-151] that's getting ready to crash in the water. It was getting ready to be launched when the cable that shoots it off the catapult slipped off and tore off the front landing gear. All you see is the after burners and the jet plane going off the angle deck into the water. Both pilots ejected and one of them landed on the flight deck but the other one landed on top of an F-4. His back hit the wing and than he just fell into the water and we lost him. The other one was being dragged on the flight deck by his chute so we all ran after him trying to catch him but he signaled not to grab him. He went over the side too but he made it to our relief!

[Submitted by Daniel Sauceda]
Follow-up:

I was there when the F-4 went off cat-3 that morning. I was on the fire truck in my fire suit. The pilot that was lost went through the canopy an hit an F-4 air in-take down to the wing over the back of the jet and down over the fantail. They were on there way home. We were 24 hours out from NAS Alameda. The cat-man let the tension off the cable and the cable droped, he still shot the cat off and riped the nose gear off by pushing it down the track.They were about 30 ft. from the end of the deck when they shot out of the jet. To this day I`ll never forget it.

While the afterburners were at full 100% the C.O. thought he was fixing to take off. They didn`t know they were about to have an accident on deck. If the C.O. knew they had a problem he thought he could get the jet off the deck before there would be a big accident on deck. I work that deck for over 3 1/2 years. This is what I believe I saw, it happened right in front of me that day. It was a sad day knowing his family was looking to see him come home.
[Submitted by Harry T. Kelley, Jr]
Follow-up:

I was the Plane Captain of that plane that went overboard (VF- 151 number 102). Like it was yesterday I remember strapping in the Commanding Officer (the pilot) and the Executive Officer (the RIO) for their last flight home from combat to meet their families. If I recall our executive officer was going home to retire out of the NAVY. Tragically he died in this mishap. I can still vividly see the nose landing gear collapse on the cat and the plane go over the side. The CO went into the water but the XO hit a plane taxing up from behind, bounced off of it and went into the ocean. He was the one who died.
[Submitted by Terry Goldfarb]
Follow-up:

Another one I personally witnessed. It was the fly-off before making our final leg to San Francisco. On the Angle Cat was an F-4, 96.6 percent engine, full afterburners [of course!] going. The pilot was the squadron's commander - and perhaps evens the air wing's commander - that was the scuttlebutt. For whatever reason, the forward guide wire disconnected and wrapped itself around the nose gear, just as the shuttle yanked the craft forward. It was sad and ugly. The plane, nose at a down angle, slid off the round down in front of the angle. Both pilot and RIO ejected, but bounced down the deck and into the water.

The pilot who was killed or listed as MIA, was LCDR, R.C. Keating. This accident took place the day before we entered San Francisco 1970. The pilot who was killed or listed as MIA, was LCDR, R.C. Keating, the CO of VF-151 was Co. Fred Winton, who did survive the accident.

[Submitted by Benjamin Romero]

Follow-up:

Below is my eyewitness account of the death of my RIO, LCDR R. C. Keating on 30 June 1970: At the end of my first combat cruise the Air Wing was flying off the USS Coral Sea. The fighters were going to Miramar; the A-7's were headed toward Cecil Field, FL; the A-6's to Whidbey Island, WA; the Cats & Dogs to their respective home Naval Air Stations. All the wives, children and girlfriends were all dressed up in their "Sunday go to meeting clothes" waiting for their men to fly in to a joyous celebration after 10½ months apart.

Me? As a nugget I was too junior to get to get a seat so I had to ride the boat into Alameda arriving the next morning. I was the Squadron Duty Officer that day and the squadron observer in PriFly(the tower.)

We were about 250 miles west of San Diego when the flyoff began. Everything flyable that could fit on the flight deck was turning and burning. As usual, the fighters would be shot off first, then the bombers then the cats & dogs.

I assume the Captain was anxious to get to Alameda on time so he elected to not slow the ship down for the launch. There was plenty of natural wind so as a result, we had 47 knots of wind over the deck. Not out of limits(as far as I know) but definitely more wind than we had operated in before.

The first aircraft to launch was my squadron CO, CDR Fred Winton with my RIO, LCDR Bob Keating, in his backseat. Bob was a "Mustang," a former enlisted man who was commissioned an officer and worked his way up the ranks. He was the senior RIO and the squadron Maintenance officer.

Since I was a cocky snot-nosed kid and an FNG and Bob was almost old enough to be my father, he had been assigned as my RIO to keep me alive long enough for the Navy to get a return on its investment. In more than 100 combat missions together he had saved my life at least half a dozen times that I was aware of and probably many more that I was blissfully unaware of.

Despite the more than 20 years difference in our ages, we had become fast friends. We went on R&R to Hawaii together where we were met by his wife and my girlfriend. We all hung out quite a bit together in Hawaii even though Bob and I had been together on the boat and in the air almost 24/7 for months.

This flyoff and reunion was to be Bob's final flight as a crewmember in a fighter aircraft. He had orders to two years of stateside shore duty before he was to retire. His wife, teenage son and teenage daughter were all waiting at Miramar to greet him.

I was outside PriFly on the O-7 level with my camera when Bob and the Skipper taxied over the shuttle, had their nose strut extended, went into tension, went into burner, saluted and were shot off the waist cat. At their weight with that much wind they probably didn't need to be in burner but they were going to have to dump down to landing weight anyway so why not?

The cat shot looked normal for the first 10-20 feet then I saw the nose rise up a little before it fell down as the nose gear folded forward(opposite the direction of normal retraction) as the shuttle ran away relieved of the weight of a 45,000# F-4. The aircraft skidded along the cat track on its nose in full afterburner.

Time stood still. It became obvious they were going too slow to fly and too fast to stop with brakes before they reached the end of the angled deck. I remember yelling "get out, get out." Everyone else watching was probably yelling the same thing.

I was so relieved to see Bob's canopy come off followed by his seat. I sweated bullets as the seat rockets fired and carried him about 100 feet into the air right in front of me. I then sweated out the seat separation and chute opening. Everything worked as advertised. I felt like I could almost reach out and touch him as he floated down under a beautiful canopy.

The skipper was in trouble though. The F-4 ejection seat system has a built-in delay of ¾ of a second between the time the rear seat ejects and the front seat ejects. This delay is designed to keep the rocket motors of the front seat from burning the guy in the rear seat and to prevent both seats from trying to occupy the same airspace at the same time during an ejection.

The ¾ second delay meant the aircraft was already pitching nose down off the end of the angled deck when the skipper went out. His seat trajectory was about 45º and he didn't get nearly as high as Bob. Fortunately it was just high enough to get a good chute and to come down on the deck.

Bob was also coming down on the deck. Unfortunately, the fantail was jam-packed with aircraft ready to launch. Bob came down and collided with the center bullet-proof windscreen of another one of our F-4s. It was 1½ inches thick and weighs 90 pounds. He hit it so hard it cracked. He slid off the windscreen, down the port side of the aircraft, over the wing, onto the deck and off the fantail and into the wake of the ship 60 feet below the deck. We later found his survival seat pack or his body dug a ¾ inch gouge out of the solid steel intake splitter ramp of the left engine of the F-4.

The last I ever saw of my best friend and mentor, Bob Keating, was when he disappeared into the wake of the ship. He sank immediately. The Angel hovered over him within seconds but there was nothing they could do. This was in the days before water-activated Koch fittings so if a crewmember was unable to free himself from his chute, the Angel couldn't help him lest the water-filled chute pull them under also.

The skipper was fortunate enough to land on the deck in front of the pack on the fantail. The 47 knot wind dragged him over all 4 arresting wires, between and under the airplanes in the pack on the fantail and into the water. He was able to release his Koch fittings and the helo picked him up and brought him back on deck. He was very battered and bruised but nothing too serious.

The flyoff celebrations were cancelled without an immediate explanation to the families. The launch was postponed for about an hour and everyone just straggled home. Since I was the SDO and practically the only officer from my squadron still aboard, I had to bite the bullet and implement the squadron emergency plan and initiate the crash investigation. We were never able to determine what exactly went wrong. The videos weren't good enough to determine why the bridle became disconnected from the aircraft. The bridle was lost overboard along with the aircraft. .

[Submitted by Jerry Hart]

I just read accounts of the F4 accident on cat 3 on the last day of the 1969 WestPAC cruise.  Herry Kelley's account, if correct, answers questions that I have always had since that day.  Namely, what broke or came loose?  We watched the PLAT tapes repeatedly just after the accident but could not discern the answer.  I was out of the Navy before the accident report was published.  What was my role?  I was a pilot in VF-151 at the time and I was spotted on centerline with my tail nearly hanging over the ramp.  My log book says I was in F4B Buno 152325 with an RIO named Webb.  We were already turned up with the chains broken down when the incident occurred.  There was a commotion on the radios and I looked up to see a perfect replication of the drawings out of the NATOPS manual of the Martin Baker ejection seat sequence - two seats in fact.  I remember papers flying through the air mixed with steam from the catapult.  Since the wind was directly down the centerline, all of this stuff was rapidly coming our way.  I instinctively shut down the engines thinking of FOD.  It soon became apparent that the parachutes were also coming straight at us.  Cdr Winton hit the deck just to the left of my plane and bounced off the end if the ship.  Bob Keating hit and cracked the bulletproof insert at the front of my canopy then bounced down the left side of my plane and into the sea.  I remember holding the emergency airbrakes as hard as I could thinking that if one of those chutes snagged and billowed, we could be in trouble too.  VF 161 had already launched and the accident delayed our launch and arrival at Miramar by about 2-3 hours.  I could have downed my plane for the cracked bullet proof but I ended up flying it in (I did put down my visor for the CAT shot!).  The whole incident was a sad thing and certainly put a damper on our homecoming.

[Submitted by John Holland - VF-151]

  
[Image Source - Daniel Sauceda]
View the video of this mishap here.

1969 WestPac

You know, some of those incidents that I read about are more or less like some that happen while I was on the Coral Sea. We had this minister say good bye to everyone in his squadron and than he jumped off the flight deck from the back end of the ship with tie down chains around his neck. He came up once and waved good bye. We found out later that he had gotten word from back home that his only sister had died of cancer. We had an F-4 Phantom that fell in the catwalk while they were trying to park it on the flight deck on the right side, aft end of the ship. We had an F-4 Phantom slip off the aft end of the flight deck and fell into the water when the tow bar broke. No one was hurt or lost in this mishap. One night we had an A-7 Corsair lose it's landing gears when it hit the run down and slid down the flight deck while my crew and I were fueling an A-6 Intruder at station 14 which is where the angle deck meets the bow. We saw the pilot eject right into the water and I knew right away that he didn't make it. The funny thing about this was that the pilot's name was LTJG Waddell and the destroyer that picked him out of the water was the U.S.S. Waddell.

(Correction from Glenn Willis. This happened in 1972)

[Submitted by Daniel Sauceda]

Follow-up: Enroute San Francisco to Vietnam , probably Nov. 1971, and somewhere east of the Philippines , we lost a plane (A-4?) doing practice landings.  I was in the hurricane bridge lifting weights, maybe early evening, when I heard an unusually loud jet engine noise, then the announcement over the 1MC of "pilot in the water". The pilot (LTJG Waddell) did manage to eject but drowned before recovery.  Note: I see that your "Mishaps" section has this accident listed in the "1969 WestPac" subsection (with correction to the year 1972.)  And there's another similar-sounding incident in the "1973 WestPac" subsection.  I am fairly certain of the date being late-Nov.'71/early-Dec. as we hadn't arrived on station yet and I left the Coral Sea (and the Navy) in Feb. of 1972, and I do remember the pilot's name was Waddell (sp?) -- the same name as the plane guard's.  Hope my memory adds to that incident instead of confusing it further.

[Submitted by Kent Damon ]

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1970 WestPac

I was on the COD crew from 1967-1970. I have found a few pictures of the aircraft, and will attach them. One of the pictures is of the elevator accident in 1970. I was in the aircraft on the elevator getting ready to go to the flight deck for a flight. I was on the elevator with one chain tie down on the front landing gear. I saw a rouge wave traveling down the side of the ship when the elevator was picked up and torn from the big metal guide channels. The elevator and plane came crashing down dangling the end of the elevator dragging in the ocean. I was sitting in the pilot seat looking up to the sky with the plane at a45 degree angle up. I had hit my head on the throttles, located in the overhead, and banged up my right ankle and knee. I ended up climbing out an emergency exit, hanged on to the gear and had to jump from the elevator to the hanger deck. With the elevator being ripped away, it left me with a gap of four feet to clear to reach the hanger bay. I am still fighting with the VA trying to get a repair to my broken nose- breathing problem and a bad ankle and knee. I tried to locate records of the accident but have not found any. Thank god the ship photographer took some pictures and I got one.
As a footnote, I was on the fantail when I saw an A-4 blown off the flight deck. I saw the plane hit tail first bobbed once then sank. I was within 50 ft. The pilot never got out. During my aircraft accident I thought that the same end would be repeated.

[Submitted by James Waldron]

  
[Image Source - James Waldron]

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1970 WestPac

You know, some of those incidents that I read about are more or less like some that happen while I was on the Coral Sea. We had this minister say good bye to everyone in his squadron and than he jumped off the flight deck from the back end of the ship with tie down chains around his neck. He came up once and waved good bye. We found out later that he had gotten word from back home that his only sister had died of cancer. We had an F-4 Phantom that fell in the catwalk while they were trying to park it on the flight deck on the right side, aft end of the ship. We had an F-4 Phantom slip off the aft end of the flight deck and fell into the water when the tow bar broke. No one was hurt or lost in this mishap. One night we had an A-7 Corsair lose it's landing gears when it hit the run down and slid down the flight deck while my crew and I were fueling an A-6 Intruder at station 14 which is where the angle deck meets the bow. We saw the pilot eject right into the water and I knew right away that he didn't make it. The funny thing about this was that the pilot's name was LTJG Waddell and the destroyer that picked him out of the water was the U.S.S. Waddell.

(Correction from Glenn Willis. This happened in 1972)
[Submitted by Daniel Sauceda]

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1972 WestPac

Also off the coast of Nam we had a C-2 coming in from Da Nang with mail. I belive this was in 1972. As the plane came in the nose gear collasped. the prop's bent, and went flying. Parts of the prop cut open the top dome of a E2, and a small fire started on the engines. I remember see people running out of the back of the plane. Our mail was saved.

[Submitted by Joe Ballard & Charlie Williamson]
Follow-on: I was in VAW-111 DET.4 as a (ADR) reciprocal engine mechanic ( E-3 airman) when the C-2's main landing gear collapsed. Part of the propeller hit the radar dome and ripped about a 4 ft. section of our E-1B Tracker. I was watching flight ops on vultures row when this happened. If the aircraft (E-1B) was not there the propeller would have hit the Carrier super structure.

[Submitted by John Gramlick ]

Follow-on: I was an AE-2 in VA-95 on the Coral Sea during the 73 cruise. I was TDY to the ship for a while in 1972. These pictures were taken by AD2 Pete Mclain during the accident.

[Submitted by Richard Rielley]

C-2 Greyhound port mainmount collapses on landing. Fire breakes out right away. Notice prop has broken loose and is heading towards island.	Seconds after the crash, flight deck crews are dousing the flames.	The fire fighting crew standing down after foaming the plane.
[Image Source - Pete Mclain]	[Image Source - Pete Mclain]	[Image Source - Pete Mclain]
Aftermath of the fire.	Look closely at the E-1B radome. You can see a big chunk missing where a prop blade sliced through it.
[Image Source - Pete Mclain]	[Image Source - Pete Mclain]

 

 

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1973 WestPac

Also in 1973 there was an F4 that came in for the landing, hit the deck missed the wires. I was on the flightdeck at the time. We were off the coast of California doing night air qual's. It was pilots that needed traps and launches. After they took the dip off the angle, they both ejected. We saw them punch out, and land in the water behind the ship. The F4 continued to travel up, with afterburners, and banked right. It was something to see this plane travel on it's own. It was around midnight when it happen..I can honestly say that people on the deck where very scared as the plane verd in a right turn, and headed back to the ship. As we stood there watching it come back to the ship, with afterburners on. Alot of us where running, but where??? The ship tried to turn, with no luck. The plane crashed in the water a very short distance from midship. parts of the plane landed on the flightdeck.

[Submitted by Joe Ballard]

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1973 WestPac

There is a story of a sailor named, I'm doing this solely by memory, Seaman Flores. I can't remember his first name. He died in a five inch gun turret. He somehow ended up getting locked up in the turret with no air supply and died while we were in West-Pac on Yankee Station. I remember there being a memorial for him in the 1973 West-Pac cruise book. Capt. P.A. Peck was CO and he addressed the ship on the 1MC about the incident. He was our only fatality that cruise.
[Submitted by Jon Kusler]
Seaman Flores was my uncle. I remember his funeral as a little boy. I remember it very well, I'm now 38 and an Army Veteran. My uncle's name is Gregorio Flores from Uvalde, TX. He is buried there.
[Submitted by Joel R. Flores]
I was on the flightdeck working when Seaman Flores died in the gun turret. We were docked in Subic Bay. Our understanding was that he was locked in the gun, doing some cleaning. The solvent he was using overcame him and he had no air. I watched as they tried to revive him outside the turret.
[Submitted by Joe Ballard]

SN Gregorio Flores
[Image Source - Al Kleveno]

 

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1973 WestPac

I was on that ' 73 cruise when the Phantom left the deck in burner and came back at the ship. I was a trouble shooter with VF 51 and was forward of the island when it hit the water. There were pieces and parts all over the flight deck. Funny how time plays tricks on you though. I remember it happening in the afternoon.

I can also remember another crash from that cruise. I had just finished checking our aircraft that had been recovered and were parked on the bow. F-4's were recovered first due to their using so much fuel. My friend and I were walking down the deck between the bow 'cats' toward the island. Just as we passed the starboard 'cat' blast deflector, an A-7 struck the round down. The force of the landing broke off both main landing gear and the aircraft skidded down the deck on its belly. Luckily for us it maintained a straight course and plunged into the water off the angle. I can still see the shower of sparks as it streaked past us. The pilot was able to eject as the plane left the deck. I saw the chute open and the pilot drift over the back of the ship. My friend and I ran over to the angle in time to see the plane sinking into the depths. Although the pilot ejected safely, he became entangled in his chute after hitting the water and drowned.

[Submitted by William 'BUCKY' Schuster]
Follow-on: When the A-7B hit the rown down it was at night, I was aft of Tilley and L-2 waiting for our E-1B to land. I was at the fowl line when the landing gear went by me in a split second, way to fast and close to make a move. After the fact, the U.S. Navy put a lot of thought in the way the crash debris stays in the fowl line perimeters.

[Submitted by John Gramlick ]

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1973 WestPac

We had an F-4 that slipped off the aft end of the flight deck. Earlier in the day there was a fuel spill and the deck was foamed down. It was still slippery when respotting the bird. The plane captain jumped out and hurt his knee just as it went over the round down. It was #112 one of my birds. ADJ2 Jim Long mechanic and test operator. VF51 Screaming eagles.

We lost a helicopter on that cruse also. It was bringing in the mail and got to close to the water. A big swell licked it and it went in. Had another F-4 run out of fuel on the way back from a mission. The wing tanks were full but refused to transfer to the center tanks. Sits in Davy Jones' locker now.

The best one we lost was a F-4 on our shake down cruse just before we left for the West pack. A Phantom was coming in for a landing and the pilot thought he had caught the third wire so he cut the throttle. But he had missed the wire so he put it into full afterburner last moment. The RIO? (instrument operator in the back seat) thought they were going to hit the water so he punched them both out. The bird recovered by itself in full afterburner and flew off into the night. It looked like two little pencil flares flying a huge circle to the starboard. It came back right at the carrier (Corral Sea). It hit the water off the starboard side and blew up.A part of it laded in the hanger bay. A buddy said he ran in four different directions and wound up in the same spot.

[Submitted by Jim Long]

 

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1973 WestPac

F4 cold catshot, dips and then peals off to the starboard side, Lt in front seat hits the Martin Baker ejection seat and out he goes, chute deploys, splash, recover, pilot on board. Ltjg in rear seat, navigator, hits the button, up goes seat and co-pilot, no chute, down comes ejection seat, co- pilot still attached. We search for 8 hours until Captain "Paul" Peck calls off search and announces to ships crew that said Ltjg died doing what he loved in life. That's all I remember...

[Submitted by Pete Campo & Bob McManus ]

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1974 Alameda

I was a Federal Fire Fighter at Alameda Naval Air Station (1968-1978). One night we got alarms from the Coral Sea. We responded and found the Engine Area on Fire. After some six hours the small fire was brought under control. Later that month our Fire Station received other fire calls to the Coral Sea. We were told that someone was starting fires aboard ship. All hands were on 24 hr. watch for the arsonist. The Sailor was finally caught. He was brought to Treasure Island and confessed that he set the fires. When asked if he was an agent from a foreign country he replied "No". then asked the intelligence officer why did you start the fires? This was his answer: "My girl friend and I wanted to have more time together, so we thought if we started some small fires aboard ship that it couldn't leave port." Well he was partly right, it couldn't leave port and he got 25 years in Leavenworth Federal Prison.

[Submitted by David Lee]
Follow up: [Maybe a different incident ??] I was reading the mishaps and was a little confused about the fires set on board. The story said 1974...but I thought it was in 1973, we were docked in San Diego not Alemeda. I recall because we got back to the ship after partying about 0300 and I remeber General Quarters being sounded. It was all pretty confusing, I was a BT3 at the time and actually thought it was a drill until I got to my GQ station. The sailor set the fires in two different firerooms, I believe it was 3C and 2B. He supposedly opened all the burner valves on the boilers and let the diesel fuel spill onto the deck, lit the torch (used for lighting the boilers) and threw them on the deck starting the fires. I recall there was extensive damage to the two firerooms but ironically we still got under way, after all we had 10 boilers left. I beleive we were in San Diego for ORE..Overseas Readiness Evaluation, smilat to REFTRA.

[Submitted by BTCM(SW)RET Al Ching]

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1974 CarQuals

I was in VA122 and we were dong carrier quals on the Coral Sea in late spring or summer I don't recall exactly. As part of the quals the aircraft would do touch and go's from late after noon to past sunset. We had a fellow who hit the round-down but did not crash out right, it ruptured the oil resivor in his A7-E. He headed for land but the A7's engine quit about half way to shore. He punched out. He said that he could see the ship and see land so he cut loose his seat pack, (big error) thinking he would hit it if he did not do so. It took us almost all night to find him. One guy in the ocean with no light or signal device is hard to find at night. [Submitted by Joe]

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1977 WestPac

I was working Departure Control in the CATCC in early December, 1976. The seas were relatively calm and the weather was pretty good. Standard procedure for fair weather required that I be at my station monitoring departures, but I really didn't have a lot to do. I monitored all departures on the PLAT screen. We had an F-4 on the port cat launching when the Air Boss called out "Burner Blowout Cat 1 (I think), Eject, Eject!" The Phantom banked to the port side and hit the water like a rock. Not even the appearance of floating, just straight to the bottom. The pilot and RIO ejected, but because of the attitude of the plane they were almost horizontal as they went out of the range of the camera. The plane guard helicopter was over the crash site in seconds and dropped markers. They scanned for the pilot and found nothing then went to look for the RIO. They found him cutting his way out of his parachute and rescued him. No sign of the pilot at all. My division officer also witnessed the mishap, and was visibly shaken. It turned out that he had flown as RIO for the pilot in the past and knew him. Ironically, my division officer, after being discharged from the Navy was killed as a ride-along pilot on the 727 that mid-aired in San Diego around 78/79.

Follow-up from Ken Lyon: I was assigned as an additional Flight Deck troubleshooter that day. Since it was 2 months before deployment, we had installed all our ECM and crypto stuff. The boxes were touchy and failure-prone and the aircrews were having problems remembering how to use the gear so extra hands were needed on deck. I was working a TACAN gripe on an A-6 on deck when the incident happened. Weather was pretty and sunny that day as I recall. I just happened to look forward, saw the plane launch, make a low sweeping bank to port, 2 ejections, and then the Phantom hit the water. It looked like it floated for about 5 seconds and then just disappeared. I vaguely remember seeing only one chute. Since I was plugged in after having just made a radio check, I switched to the SAR frequency to listen to the helo traffic. They were on top within 30 seconds. The helo reported seeing one chute in the water. I think it was the RIO and they picked him up. The helo then looked for the pilot and reported that there was no sign of the pilot or his chute. There was talk of reluctance to put the swimmer in the water because they reported sighting several sharks in the area. I monitored SAR until they called off the search and my Flight Deck supervisor chewed my butt for not paying attention to my assigned task. Oh well.

We also lost an RF-8 on a cat shot one day. The pilot ejected and almost landed on the flight deck. He barely missed the ship and was picked up by the plane guard. (Dried off and got another chance to fly, too, however not the same day.)

Follow-up from Ken Lyon: I also remember the day we lost the RF-8. I think it was on our second to last READEX before deployment. The ship was alongside at NAS North Island that time. I remember because I really got bad drunk in Coronado the night before and met the most beautiful girl I ever laid eyes on. We left port around 0800, a beautiful sunny and cool San Diego type day, and as soon as we cleared Point Loma, they called the ship to flight ops. I think the RF-8 was the first aircraft launched and I think it was on the starboard catapult. He flamed out about halfway down the deck and he punched out. He landed right in front of the ship and some quick-thinking Seaman Quartermaster turned the boat in time and just missed him. That Quartermaster was mentioned in the Bravo Zulu section of the ship's news a couple days later.

[Submitted by Gary Wiley]

We did lose a young guy playing Frisbee on the hanger bay, when he tripped off the "lifted Elevator" door. Our Communication's Commander saw him from the fantail, and called for "General Quarters/Man Over Board". It was a very sad night for all! I have never seen so many guys (Officers and Enlisted!) cry in my life! I did not know him, but he had a LOT of friends on board!!!

Follow-up from Ken Lyon: I also remember the night we lost the guy playing Frisbee on the hanger deck. He went over the starboard aft elevator safety rail. As I recall, the seas were pretty rough that night and it was pitch black dark. We steamed around for a couple of hours looking for him and went on. One of my drinking buddies in CS Division said one of the plane guards stayed all night searching but he was never found.

We also lost a couple of jets; one on take-off with the Pilots ejecting, and one on landing where a big fireball explosion took place on the flight deck few minutes after the bad landing. Loss of pilots on both incidents. Another sad time....

[Submitted by Robert P. Hampton]

As for other losses once we deployed on WestPac 77, the only casualty I know of was an A-7 from VA-94 pilot was lost when he crashed at sea during a training mission.

[Submitted by Ken Lyon]

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1978

So I dug out these photos i had in one of my photo albums of F-4 crash that happened the night of 7 February 1978 when the Coral Sea was operating in the southern California operating area during a sea period from 31 January 1978 to 17 February 1978. The ship was conducting carrier qualifications for the west coast replacement squadrons and for the basic training command squadrons while the USS Lexington was in restricted availability.

That night a very fiery accident occurred when a VF-121 F-4J # 150 landed and broke its main wing spar in half during recovery. During the runout the flames from the ruptured centerline drop tank ignited spreading flames in front of the wings which caused the RIO to eject but the pilot was unaware of the flames and turned his head to see why the RIO ejected and wasn't in the tucked position when his own seat ejected and he suffered a broken neck and died while they recovered the RIO uninjured.

The flames burned for 17 minutes with the crash crew unaware that the engineering department had emptied all the AFFT tanks before going on our very last sea period operating aircraft for training because the ship was going to Bremerton , Washington for a 11 month yard period after that sea period. Needless to say that commander didn't make captain. I was working in flight deck control as the elevator control third class petty officer for Lcdr Casterline the aircraft handling officer and these are pictures taken the day after that crash 8 February 1978 of the F-4J #150 from VF-121. I had a big 8 1/2 x 11 1/2 photo of the whole plane burning in my photo album Mr. Casterline gave all of us in the division but some five finger discount fool needed it more than me. Well here is another great set of photos for our growing list of shipmates to see. So take care and keep on stroking. Walt the Salt!!!!!

[Submitted by Walt "The Salt" Hardy]

[Image Source - Walt Hardy]	[Image Source - Walt Hardy]	[Image Source - Walt Hardy]	[Image Source - Walt Hardy]
[Image Source - Walt Hardy]	[Image Source - Walt Hardy]	[Image Source - Walt Hardy]	[Image Source - Walt Hardy]
[Image Source - Walt Hardy]	[Image Source - Walt Hardy]	[Image Source - Dale Smith]

 

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1979

I also remember we were ready carrier off the coast of California for about four months going from off the coast of Mexico, up to the Aleutians, and back. There was an A-7 corsair they had been working on in the hangar. They wanted to see of one of the main mount struts from an F-4, could be substituted for one of the main mounts on an A-7, in case of an emergency. It took off and flew just fine. Landing, was another story!
I was off duty and liked to watch the launches and recoveries, and was standing at the rear of the superstructure, on the starboard side, near the wreck crane. The A-7 came in and caught the wire, but the main mount on the right side of the plane they replaced exploded into a million pieces! I was lucky to be where I was as it occurred straight out from me! I ran around the corner of the superstructure just in time to see pieces of aluminum and steel whizzing past me and flying over board! No body was hurt, and the disabled A-7 was quickly picked up and took down to the hanger for evaluation. I think it was a VA-27 bird.

[Submitted by Mike Scrogham]

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RF-8 lost after build up cruise in July. Ltjg Martin was killed and aircraft 622 was an alpha unknow mishap. All they found was a stabilator and a chunk with the aircraft number. Never found his body in bay area water. This picture was taken just prior to the mishap at 30,000 feet over San Diego.

[Submitted by Michael Chlebowski]

      

[Image Source Michael Chlebowski]

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1979-80 WestPac

Early December 1979 - Man overboard during an UNREP. I personally saw a bunch of the "grape's"(aircraft refueler's)hanging out way forward on the starboard safety net. We took a huge swell and the bow dipped and came up with a big wave that grabbed one of the "grape's" and threw him in between the two ships. People started throwing life jackets, rings, etc... We did an emergency breakaway and the helicopter picked him up in good condition.

[Submitted by Bob Dorais]

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Late December 1979 - An F4 flamed out on a cat shot. To complicate matters the catapult F "whacked" the belly tank. The amazing thing was that the pilots damn near road that thing into the water before they punched out. Both pilot's were picked up ok.

[Submitted by Bob Dorais and Kevin Burke]

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January 8 1980 - First day out after leaving P.I. An A-7E from VA-97 was making a night landing and apparently stalled it just short of the deck . He was given the wave off but it was too late, he didn't have enough power to pull out of it. He slammed into the fantail round down and the wreckage traveled up the port side taking out the christmas tree lights and twisting the lens. Somehow the pilot managed to punch out in the nick of time and was picked up ok.
Here is a picture of the bent up lens and light getting inspected the next day.

[Submitted by Bob Dorais]


[Image Source Mark Gadomski]

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January 1980 - VA-196 KA-6D lost on cat shot. The plane went out on a mission. When it came back, they hot seated the B/N(bomber/navigator). The plane was refueled when still turning. Only the internal tanks were filled as per the load "A" sheet. When the plane was going down the cat, the pilot thought he had all tanks full, 5 drop tanks as well as internal and wings. He figured that cat shot was too light and the plane wouldn't make it. He punched out during the cat stroke. The B/N punched after. The real sad thing is the B/N almost drowned. He got tangled in his chute. The really, really sad thing is the Pilot had read and signed the "A" sheet and knew his configuration and fuel load. When he ejected he failed to tell his B/N. The first clue the B/N had was a flash and no pilot. Both guys were picked up ok.

[Submitted by Kevin Burke]

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January 1980 - I remember one incident that happened in Jan 80 (day unknown). While getting ready for a launch the aircrew of my squadron (VA-196) was standing on the boarding ladder of their A6 Intruder checking things out. There were several maintenance personnel on top of the plane making sure their systems were ready to go. (The plane had several discrepancies that had "downed" the plane, so they had to make sure everything was a "Go!") One by one, the maintenance guys left the plane until only one AT was left. Just as he leaned under the canopy, there was a loud explosion and the canopy flew over his head. The "tweet" wasn't hurt, other than his hearing, but another second of waiting to check out a panel under the canopy and he could have been a headless technician. It seems that when the pilot removed the safety pin on the canopy jettison firing mechanism there was air pressure that caused the firing pin to hit the cartridge. It was later found that the valve that initiated the jettison sequence was leaking. Needless to say, the plane didn't take off for that flight or for several days until we (the AME's) "robbed" another canopy off our "hanger queen" and the Metalsmiths replaced the damaged slats on the wings.

[Submitted by Paul Basso]

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Late February 1980 - We were on Gonzo Station and finally got a stand down day. They brought about six guys up from the brig in handcuffs for some fresh air. As they walked by the fantail one of the guys just jumped off the ship. I remember we had to clear the deck, launch the helicopter and go get him. Amazingly he stayed afloat even with his hands handcuffed behind his back.

[Submitted by Bob Dorais]

Update: Regarding the prisoner that jumped from the fantail during a stand down. His name was Rick Dial. I am not sure what rate he was, I know him from the Mess decks. I was a cook (MS), he was mess cranking at the time of his demise with the Master at Arms.

[Submitted by Pat Carty]

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Late February 1980 - Another man overboard. I didn't see it but apparently a guy was washed off the sponson. He was picked up in good condition.

[Submitted by Bob Dorais]

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Late March 1980 - I saw this one. Yellow shirts were respotting after a recovery. They were putting an F-4 on the edge of the fantail. The tractor driver got the F-4 wheel too close to the round down and it started to slide. The tractor driver jumped to the deck and the plane captain riding brakes was attempting to climb out when the Phantom went over. As it fell into the sea the plane captain was thrown clear. He was picked up ok.

[Submitted by Bob Dorais]

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Late April 1980 - A VA-196 KA-6D was parked and turning just forward of the island on the starboard side. It was the "Alert" tanker for the latest launch. Keep in mind the exhaust pipes are about head high on the Intruder. I think it was a ships company guy who came walking out of the island. At the same time the A-6 was revving his engines. There was a safety guy standing there but didn't see the guy coming. The guy didn't even hesitate and walked right into the exhaust. Kevin Burke, the plane captain, saw it too late to signal the pilot to power down. In an instant the guy was slammed into the railing and then shot overboard. He survived but broke a lot of bones and had to be flown back to the states.

[Submitted by Bob Dorais and Kevin Burke]

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Not sure of the date - Everyone was on deck getting ready for flight ops. Several birds were already turning. One F-4 Phantom on the port side was getting ready to go. The Plane captain had removed all but the two wing chains. The ship started a port turn into the wind in preparation for launch. The turn was too fast. The ship rolled hard to port and the F-4 jumped its chains and rolled back into the catwalk. It came to rest partially on its fuselage and on the ordinance pods on the wings. If I remember right the ordinance pods at least had sidewinders on them. The crash crew secured the plane and the rest of us stood by on hose teams. The remaining planes were brought forward and the F-4 was ever so gently pulled up by the cherry-picker. No one was hurt.

[Submitted by Bob Dorais]

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Not sure of the date - We were in the middle of a launch. All three "sling-shots" were being used. An E-2C Hawkeye rolled up onto the #3 or angle deck catapult. At the same time on the #2 or port forward cat an F-4 Phantom was hooked up and waiting for the bird on the #1 cat to go. The E-2C was taking longer than usual to get hooked up on the angle deck. While all this was going on the exhaust from the Phantom was washing over the startboard turboprop engine of the Hawkeye. The Hawkeye was finally cleared to go. By this time the starboard engine of the Hawkeye was choking on JP fumes from the Phantom. As soon as the Hawkeye was shot, the starboard engine lost power. The E-2C left the deck and immediately dipped hard to the right. The pilot did an amazing job of keeping it in the air. The Hawkeye banked right in front of the bow with the wing tip just several feet above the water. The starboard engine, now with fresh air coming in the intake, finally regained power and the E-2C leveled out and climbed.

[Submitted by Bob Dorais]

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VA-27 Corsair II coming in for a landing. He caught the wire and started traveling up the deck. Then "snap", the tail hook broke off. He of course was at full throttle and just barely had enough speed to lift off again. He dumped fuel and came around for a perfect landing into the barricade.

[Submitted by Bob Dorais]


[Image Source Bruce Henion]

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VA-97 Corsair II taking the barricade. No details on this one.

[Image Source Bruce Henion]

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VA-27 Corsair II returning from a sortie. He flew over the carrier broke left and deployed his speed brake. He put his gear down and got in the pattern for a landing. That's when he noticed that his speed brake would not come back up. On the A7-E the speed brake extends well below the landing gear. He circled the ship and dumped fuel. It was decided to try a barricade landing. This was very risky because if he put it down even a little bit off it could roll and crash. I remember being on the hose team just forward of the island. I thought, "great, this is about where the fireball and wreckage will come to a stop". He lined up and drove it right down the center line. As soon as he got over the round down he cut power and set it down hard. The speed brake touched first but the pilot held it level. He just kept going into the barricade and grinding down the speed brake until the wheels hit. He came to a stop right in front of our hose team and hot footed it out of the cockpit. Other than the huge trail of sparks, the landing was perfect.

[Submitted by Bob Dorais]

1981-82 WestPac

AMHC Gilbert Chavaria "Chief Chevy" VF-154

I can't remember the squadron but it was F4. On the 81/82 cruise a Chief was killed, I believe his name was Cheverez, when an F8 was spun around to get on the waste cat. He got caught by the jet blast and hit the back of his head on the front of an F4 wing pylon.

[Submitted by Ron Greene]

Follow-up: Ron Compton who was a PN at the time recalls that PN Napoli photographed the accident scene.

Follow-up: I was an airman in VF-154, one filthy whore, to the old blacknights!
I was TAD at the time to the mess decks. I didn't see it happen. But he was in my squadron. We were on our way back to Alameda from Pearl. We had picked up some civies, from Pearl for the tiger cruise. Chief Enchada, was on the flight deck as safety PO for VF-154, that day. The sad thing was the guy had already retired, and got his walking papers in Pearl when we were there. He could have flown back to the states. But wanted to ride the ship back for one last ride. We were at flight quarters and he seen a tie down chain hanging from the wing tip of a bird taxing up to the catapult. He was afraid it would come off and hit somebody so he ran over to get it. Another bird pulled out and turned on him. The jet blast blew him into a bomb rack on another parked bird. Like I said I didn't see it and from what I heard it was horrible. A lot of people got sick.
I was working the sandwich line on the port side of the enlisted dining facility, and had two meat lockers. They made us clean one of them out and they put him in there for three days until they could contact the next of kin. I was ordered not to tell anybody! It really messed me up for quite a while but could not tell anybody about it. He had put in his service record that he wanted sea burial if killed on duty, so we had a ceremony. Most all of the ship that were not on primary tasks attended including MARDET, whom gave him a thee gun salute. His burial used to rank right up there among one of the saddest things I've ever had to witness. He was a real good guy. He was Mexican. Some used to tease him and call him Chief Enchalada! He was one of the most easy going guys I ever met. I was an AMS and he was in the AMS dept. I had talked to him on a number of occasions in the corrosion control dept of VF-154, in the shack down in the hangar.
[Submitted by Mike Scrogham]

Follow up: A gray sky,against a ragged horizon,the view I stowed in my mind...My BOYS,fall out for dailies on their ,yellow,six ton,girlfriends.With each step,men muttering cuss words."Turn,To! Ya no load cherries, Starts in 15! " was my booming rebuttal."Man, talking like a lifer!, Hey, got any mud,Yo-Yo? Chief Chivaria snickered,from behind me,as he steeped into my Tractor Shack. "For I am ,the King! Oh, shit-bird,encrusted,SHORT, one" Short,referring to Chief's two weeks,and a wake up,till retirement....20 years...I am happy for him ."Make that,a half cup,T-K"Chief spouts,"I'm not gonna miss this shit,at all,Eddie."He says, with the biggest shit eating grin,I've seen. The truth of it was, He always smiled like that! "But you'll miss my mocha,Cabrone!"I, chimed. So,the next five minutes were crammed with as much shootin' da shit,a civy might accomplish in an hour! Our pre-op fun was ,murdered in cold blood! By none other than, Chief Dingle,Flight-deck Chief. "BURKHARDT! Quit smokin' dat shit and git yo ass on deck! BOY! How could I say NO, to the wall of humanity at my threshold. As the din of the AIR-BOSS on the squawk ebbed,all,on deck,went about the biz...Flight operations. All ,except for me,seems that fat bastard of Squadron Puke, Chief Petty Officer,Chivaria,Maint.VF-154,had managed to fill the EARS of MOUSE ,up with grease! Till this day I don't know how He pulled it off! So, with slippery MOUSE upon head, I steeped up to another cycle. Sea of Japan,late in the tour, the deck was slick. 40 or so Plane Captains, with their shaky peace signs,eye my boys,as if competing for their servings of hot air,used to start the aircraft with,as they rolled AFT.CATS 1 & 2 kept time slinging ,nose-tows, thus clearing the angle,and setting the stage. Into the wind She lurched, everything changed.Expansion joints flexed so, one would think that, Neptune,Himself had called for the next act, not to play out fate. The first Phantom set to taxi up,was on elevator #3 ABH2 Honeycutt, taxied the fighter off el-3 ,as if it was losing a tug of war, Honycutt, a first rate,yellow shirt, held that bird. After checking for personnel,He singled the pilot to turn-up His,F-4 so we would win this battle against wind,an angry sea,gravity, and the Coral Sea Herself. Turbines scamming,the Phantom crept up deck,turning towards the Waist CAT-3. As this picture, panned,my view...getting my eyes AFT in FLY-3 to check on my boys. That's when I saw Him, in slow motion sliding off leading edge ,of a Phantom's port wing. Time stopped ,as He hung , like a dish rag,by His massive torso. on the weapons station .Blind rage overtook me,I ran to him...as if I could help Chief Chivaria. Those of us who could ran to aid. Honycutt, in shock, fell to His knees and sobbed,head in hands, rocking,as a child would. Turning my attention back to my friend,who just became a casualty, just hanging there, on a bomb rack of one of His own birds, Seems the Chev, turned His back away from el-3 for one second, to get a visual status of a fighter back AFT. That's when the thrust of Honeycutt's F-4 tossed,Chev,like a rag doll. Impaling Him on bomb rack, He was dead ,He just didn't know it yet. Honeycutt was never the same after that ,poor bastard....Wow...20 years later,I just remembered the big snow ball fight we had the week before!...I'm thinking of you ,Chev, I miss you, ya big stupid, lovable son of bitch....Damn,I need a drink... C-YA, LATE ...Yo-Yo

[Submitted by Edward R. Burkhardt]

Follow-up: I don't know how many people I've told this story to, but it looks as though it needs to be told again since some of the facts here are a bit off the mark. I was there that day, too. The day Chief Chevy retired early. And I will never forget what happened, since I was one of the first two guys from VF-154 that picked him up off the deck. The reason that I'll never forget is because it should never have happened! We were finishing the checks on a bird along the port side, right behind the waist CAT when we were told that we had to move so they could begin firing planes. I was an AO and we had control of the plane right then and we argued that we just needed five more minutes to complete our tests. The only reason we gave in without a huge fight was because of Chevy himself being right there keeping everyone stable. So we gave up the plane for movement to the aft of the flight deck. The only problem was that we had half our crew on one side of the plane and half of us on the other side. As the plane got moved, we just walked alongside of it until it was turned rearward. At that point the guys on the other side, including Chief Chevy, ran out of walking room due to the shape of the deck, which caused them to get stranded behind the island. Since I was on the inside of the bird, I was able to walk right alongside the whole time and got an almost too-good view of the entire thing. As the plane's front wheels reached the arresting wires it came to an abrupt halt, making it look as though the pilot had applied the breaks! The Chief probably thought this was a stop and wanted to get within view of everything, so he headed out behind the aircraft. Meanwhile the Plane Captain gave the pilot the signal to throttle-up in order to jump the wire. I glanced behind the plane and saw Chevy and then looked back to the PC, at which time my mind registered that the Chief shouldn't be where he was. The engines fired a strong blast and I spun around to see Chevy laying on his side farther up the deck, right in front of the wing of another plane that was tied down and not running. I ran toward him, chuckling to myself about how he could let himself get tossed along the deck when he was the safety chief! Another guy from 154 met me at the Chief and we rolled him over, thinking that he had only been thrown along the deck. It would not be fair to state what I saw, only that it was quite evident that he was dead, even though I didn't realize it yet. I just remember at one point dropping to the deck and wondering why it was taking so long for the medical personnel to show up... it seemed like forever, although it was most likely only seconds. On my way down below I passed the VF-154 AO Chief. He looked at me with tears in his eyes as he stumbled the words "He's gone, Bobby. Chief Chevy's gone". I've probably cried a couple dozen times in my life as I've thought about the Chief and how he died, just two weeks prior to retirement. He was the kind of guy that took full responsibility for everyone around him, somehow with a smile on his face 90% of the time that I saw him. He worked hard, gave two shits, and I know he loved the old lady. I still miss you, Chief!
[Submitted by Bob Prescott]

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1982 WestPac

I remember a chemical leak in one of the compartments just below the hanger deck one day and a young sailor going down into the compartment to save all the guys that were working down there. He got them all out and saved their lives, but lost his in the attempt. He succumbed to the chemical and died. His memorial service was held on board with his family in attendance. I don't remember his name, but I remember seeing his body and thanking him for saving all those men and making such a sacrifice. He was a young man, maybe 21 or 22 years old. This was in 1982. If anyone remembers who he was, I think his name should be listed for all to know how brave he was.

[Submitted by James Botello]

Follow-up: The sailor who died was from A division and his last name was McMasters(McWilliams ?)or something. I was also in A division at the time. He was an MM3 pretty much fresh from boot camp and A school (he had actually been on the ship for just a few months, joining the ship in either Hawaii or PI) and had never been to the fleet.

The account of events submitted by James Botello are not entirely accurate. McMasters had taken charge of an extra-duty detail to clean one of our voids. He gave them a five-gallon can of Freon to use as a cleaner. We always used it in well ventilated areas and he was so new I don't think he knew the dangers until the detail started passing out, at which time he did get them all out (two or three of them if I remember correctly) before he died.

[Submitted by Stephen Donelson]

Follow-up: "I was onboard when the Freon death happened and to be specific it was Freon R-11 that was used and a "Seaman John Doe" was using it without permission and put his shipmates in danger. McWilliams was on a roving watch and found them all passed out. He did save them all and "John Doe" was the last one he got out. The reason he died getting "John Doe" out was because "John Doe" was so overweight the exertion and deep breathing of the low oxygen content air did him in. From that day on "John Doe" was an outcast in "A" gang and was blamed for the whole thing, unofficially."

[Submitted by Annonymous]

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1982 WestPac

I was at the aft of the flight deck with some squadron buddies waiting for our chance to check another plane when an F-4 on the starboard side from my sister squadron, VF-21, dropped onto it's belly! The skinny that passed around afterward was that the pilot had hit the wheels-up switch and due to a failure in the weight-on-wheels system, the right wheel folded inward. The bird had a full tank of fuel attached to it's center line, which proceeded to burst, sending VP5 across the deck and right over my feet. That's how I found out about the accident. We immediately ran for the fire hoses, but a number of them had not been checked in so long that they rotted and began bursting. I remember that a bunch of guys took off at that point, letting go of the hoses and heading forward for some "safety", which caused my hose to almost get away from me. No offence to anyone else who was there, but it felt as though the only guys left were all the AO's, who saw the live missiles attached to the plane's wings (now lying on deck), and knew that we had to get rid of the fuel ASAP. Thanks to the help of the ship's crew, new hoses came out of nowhere and we got the chance to wash the deck down. Now the crane showed up and it was attached to the aircraft in order to lift it back onto it's feet. The problem we had was that the seas were a tad rough, more than most of us had thought. As soon as they lifted the plane into the air, it swung outward, then swung back in and it's belly made contact with the side of the deck! Now you saw all the red shirts take off forward, myself included I must admit, because it's not a good idea to bang a missile around. Luckily they got control of the airplane without any serious damage and no injuries. That was my indoctrination to the Coral Sea flight deck.

[Submitted by Bob Prescott]

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April 11 1985

- The US aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea collides with the tanker Napo.
The Napo was carrying 190,000 barrels of No 6 fuel oil from Esmeraldas, Ecuador, to New York, Smith said Some fuel was spilled on its deck, he said, but none was reported to be leaking into the sea. The tanker sought refuge in the harbor at Guantanamo Bay about 8 a.m. Friday. It was not known if it will return to its home port in Ecuador.
Neither ship required assistance, Smith said.
Crewmen were taking supplies and some personnel off the Coral Sea late Friday in preparation for its return to Norfolk. Extra men and equipment had been aboard to conduct training.
Smith said the Coral Sea had been on refresher training with its air wing in the Guantanamo Bay area since April 3.
The carrier had 11 jet aircraft air-borne when the collision occurred. They were diverted to the naval air station at Guantanamo Bay and landed without incident, Smith said.
Those aircraft will return directly to their home bases, Smith said. They include two FA-2C Hawkeyes based in Norfolk, two A-6E Intruders and one KA-6E tanker based in Virginia Beach, and seven F/A-18 Hornets from Cecil Field near Jacksonville, Fla.
The remaining aircraft will be flown from the carrier sometime during its cruise back to Norfolk, Smith said.
The Napo, according to Lloyd's Register of Shipping, is owned by Flota Petrolera Ecuatoriana of Equador It was built in 1981 in Korea and has a top speed of 16.5 knots.
The Coral Sea was commissioned in 1947 at Newport News Shipbuilding. It has a top speed of 32 knots, according to Navy specifications. It is the second-oldest operational carrier in the Navy. Its sister ship, the Midway, is still in operation with the Pacific Fleet.
The Coral Sea had been scheduled to return to its base in Norfolk on Tuesday to prepare for a major joint service exercise called Solid Shield.
Its participation as the only carrier in that exercise, which is to begin April 30, is in doubt.
The carrier had just completed a major $200 million overhaul at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth. The overhaul took 15½ months and included work on its propulsion system and weapons and electronics gear. The flight deck was extensive modified to handle the first operational F/A-18 Hornet aircraft in the Atlantic Fleet.
The Coral Sea is commanded by Capt Robert Tucker Jr., 47, a 47-year-old fighter pilot who previously commanded the combat support ship Sylvania. Tucker took command of the Coral Sea in September.
Also aboard the carrier are two Hampton Roads-based outfits, Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 127 from the Norfolk Naval Air Station, an E-2C Hawkeye radar plane squadron, and Attack Squadron 55, an A-6 Intruder squadron based at Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach.

[Submitted by Rich Carson]

- I was onboard when we ran into the Ecuadorian oil tanker. The day that happened there were a lot of sailors out taking pictures of the ship but almost all of them were confiscated and never given back. I howl ever got lucky and had one of the pocket cameras and got away with taking the pictures. I got a few of the bow by having one of my shipmates hold my ankles while I leaned out a port hole in the focsal.

[Submitted by James Wasson]

- I remember the day of the collision mainly because it was my 20th birthday and I was spending it while doing my mess-cooking 90 days in the scullery! It was just as the evening meal was winding down and we were swamped with dirty trays and glasses. Anybody that ever did their turn in the scullery knows how hot and noisy it was! I don't remember exactly what I was doing at the time, but I felt a huge shudder like we used to get from a rogue wave and looked over at one of the guys and said " shit that's all we need is a storm". It was so loud none of us heard the GQ or 1MC and one of the fellas looked out the hatch and asked where the f*** is everybody? Just then one of the Mess-Deck MAA's came up and told us to get to our GQ stations and no he didn't know what was going on.

After getting to G-1 we were contacted by Ordnance Control and told to meet the EOD on the weapons sponson where the bomb eleavator is. You had to go through the uptakes on the Stbd. side and when the Gunner(Lt. Chuck Cole) and about 6 of us got there we found a a whole skid of live sidewinders with the rail bent over them and no serious damage!!! I wonder how many of our guys kknew just how close that collision came to being a lot more serious than it was.

It was a sad way for the Skipper to end his command. Capt. Tucker was a fine officer and gentleman who was always on the move looking out for his sailors. Many times the Skipper would show up on the mess-decks and make sure the chow was good and the space clean. He also ate many meals with the troops and always tried to let us know what was happening.

[Submitted by Dan Grant]

- I was the duty LSO (landing signals officer) for the "big event". The other CAG LSO, Chip Williamson and our CAG, Phil Gay, were flying and in fact had just landed on the recovery prior to the collision (see entry below). It was a dark, no horizon night. I went to PRIFLY after the recovery to kill some time and talk with the AIRBOSS until the next recovery. I remember the ship suddenly heeling hard starboard (making a very abrupt turn to the left): hard enough that we had to steady ourselves. There was a hard shudder throughout the ship, and we looked to the bow, knowing that we had hit something. Over the bow, we saw a single white mast with a white position light on it falter and fall over. The BOSS and I looked at each other and exclaimed "Holy s___!! We hit the Primori!! (The Primori was a Soviet intelligence gathering ship that had been shadowing us. They were unusual in that they were typically painted white, thus the erroneous identification. They were very interested in the F/A-18 Hornet, since it was still new to the fleet, and CAG-13 was the first "all Hornet" air wing). Then over the 1MC (PA system) came "Brace for impact!!!" , or something like that. Then there was a large crunch and terrific shudder as the two ships hit broadside.

I went out onto the catwalk on the starboard side (this was the normal route to and from PRIFLY) and saw a tanker, sitting low in the water, drifting slowly away with flood lights coming on to illuminate the deck.

At some point the General Alarm (general quarters) was sounded and I proceeded back to the platform. As my phone talker and I did our com checks, it became apparent that the LSO radios were the only operable UHF radios on the ship. When the Napo and Coral Sea hit broadside, the port bridge wing of the Napo had punched a large hole in the Coral Sea's island in line with the mast. All the antennas and wave guides to the bridge, CATTC and CIC had been cut or damaged. Holding the radio handset in my left ear and the sound powered phone in my right ear, I relayed communications between our airborne aircraft and CIC until all the aircraft were safely on deck at GITMO.

Miraculously, the only injury on either ship that I was aware of was one of our sailors spraining an ankle getting to his GQ station. The damage to the ship, however, was significant. The island damage is noted above, the damage to the bow visible in the pictures extended to the keel, and a fueling sponson on the starboard side had been severely damaged.

The transit back to Norfolk was at a tortuous 6-9 knots. We could not fly (except for the helos of course) because of the restricted speed and unknown status of catapult alignment. We knew that a superior skipper's career was over. ROCKY TOP Tucker was a tremendous inspiration to the crew, and it was quite a while before we recovered from his early departure.

Some other tidbits from my memory to which I attribute no accuracy:

The OOD was the ship's First Lieutenant and was fairly experienced at underway operations. He got little to no help from the bridge team after the Skipper left the bridge. The JOOD was an inexperienced Ensign who reportedly fainted as the collision was imminent. Surface plot (in the Combat Information Center - CIC) was not keeping the tactical picture updated. It was a dark, moonless, no-horizon night.

The Primori had been in close proximity for days, and the Soviets had been known to present "navigational challenges" to our ships from time to time. We typically try to avoid international incidents and such, so staying clear of them is always a concern, even though the carrier conducting flight ops is the burdened vessel.

Because of the questionable positions of the Napo and Primori, the OOD gave an order to start turning but did not give a course. By the time the OOD determined the Napo's course, it was too late. It was not a matter of if we are going to hit, it was a matter of how bad is this going to be?! I understand his order was "All Stop, Full Left Rudder". This action resulted in the big "heel to starboard" just prior to the first impact.

The OOD's first order arguably set up the collision. But the more significant point is that his subsequent decision to order all engines to stop and full left rudder probably avoided an unprecedented disaster at sea. Had he done nothing or tried to reverse the turn, the Coral Sea likely would have cut the Napo in half or would have hit in a head-on collision. Either event would have likely resulted in massive casualties and the loss of one or both ships.

How we did not lose any aircraft, equipment or personnel over the side during the collision is baffling. We had aircraft and tugs all over the deck, mostly up at the bow, as the deck crew was preparing to re-spot the aircraft. Reportedly, a sailor was in a radio compartment in the island. At the first impact, he came out of the space to look forward towards the bridge to try to see what was happening. A few seconds later, the bridge wing of the Napo wiped out that space as it cut a huge hole in the island.

The loss of CAPT. Tucker was a tremendous blow to the ship. We did eventually recover to be an outstanding operation (regards to CAPT Ferguson): the second oldest carrier in the world operating with the newest tactical fighter in the world. But I know many of us wondered how it would have been had "ROCKY TOP" taken us on cruise.

(Submitted by CDR J. Daigneau, CVW-13 LSO)

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Oh, yeah. CAG Gay and I were flying that night. We were among the first to trap that recovery and they spotted us on the bow. I remember how truly dark it was that [night] and being directed sooo close to the bow before turning, yikes!

Anyway we were in the 323 ready room with our gear still on when over the 1mc came "Captain to the bridge!'. Then almost immediately afterward, "standby for shock!" I remember CAG getting down between 2 R/R chairs and bracing. I was thinking: "WTF is he doing?" Then a shudder, then the sound of grinding metal along the starboard side of ship. I knew we'd hit something, maybe a sub.

I distinctly remember the funny yet haunting introduction to Maritime rules of the road by my ROTC 1st class instructor, "Gentlemen, a collision at sea can ruin your whole day!"

That was the start of about a 4 month malaise that hit our air wing/ship. Remember? I'm glad we got thru it! (Submitted by LCDR C. Williamson, CVW-13 LSO)

[Submitted by Jim Daigneau]

- I was on the USS Coral Sea CV-43 During the collision that occured in 1985 as a Quatermaster (Navigation) Fischel (fish). It was on the last day of Battle Training off of Cuba. We were waiting for our scores during that excersize (I keep wanting to call it rough tra). I remember that we were already in collision when the message came out on the 1MC. I ran to the bridge to which was my post for GQ. At the time, I was just waking up and had thought we were hit by the Russian ship that was following us collecting our trash.

When I arrived on the bridge, there was spanish coming across the Ship to Ship radio. I looked over the Starboard side to find a ship stuck to us and a bunch of their people throwing bottles at our ship. That ship did not look very good at all. Eventally, we separated. I do recall that their rudder was stuck and a ship was sent to help them.

As you can imagine, the bridge was a mad house. The captain was giving the OOD a stern talking. The bridge was well informed that this ship was there from many sources... including their eyes. I know that the logs showed that the Junior OOD fainted after he turned on the Color Radar navigation had installed on the bridge and only saw one blip instead of two.

Every shred of documentation was collected and the Navigation Office (located behind the bridge) began swarming with high level officers beginning an investigation.

As far as Captain Tucker is concerned. I was very sad to see him go and for all he went through during this ordeal. He is a great leader. My Navigator lost his job as well which was sad.

Personally I was amazed that this incident could have taken place. It was standard practice to begin working on ways to avoid other ships when they appeared on the horizon. At some point, the Captain was supposed to be called to the bridge. This did not happen until the same call for Collision.

[Submitted by Peter J Fischel]

- I was talking with some of my friends in the birthing area on the O 2 level when out of the night the ship shook like it had never before. Not like hitting a big wave or anything else that we had gone through before. I looked at my friends and joked that we just hit something. Just after those words passed my lips General Quarters was called. Being assigned to 7 starboard I started running to get to the repair locker. As I went over a knee knocker the ship shook again and caused me to hit the floor. Once I got to the repair locker I dispatched out the investigators to see if there was any damage to our sections of the ship. Being in 7 starboard we were in charge of the island. We found an area in the island where there was a bulk head knocked in. We didn't know what had happened until later. We found out that we had indeed hit something, that Ecuadorian oil tanker. We hit bow to bow when the ship shook the first time and hit island to island the second time we shook. We had to send damage control techs to the tanker to keep her afloat. We later found that the Russian that was ghosting us caused the tanker to take a port turn towards us. Unfortunately the captain that we had got blamed for the accident when he wasn't even on the bridge at the time. The ones on the bridge let the tanker get closer than they should have.

[Submitted by Joe Andrews]

I was onboard for the collision with the Panamanian freighter that occurred on the work up cruise in the Caribbean area (I believe off the coast of Cuba), after we left the yards (overhaul) in Portsmouth, VA and before the ship departed on the Mediterranean cruise of 1985-86 (whereby we delivered care packages to the hotshot little dictator in Libya). I was in a berthing compartment near the forward mess area and do remember watching a movie on the ships channel at the time. The initial (first) impact was very hard and felt as if it had pushed the Coral Sea several feet (level and straight) to the port side. The subsequent (second) impact that followed was less severe but nonetheless forced the carrier to roll slightly in a counterclockwise rotation (unlike modern carriers, the Coral Sea has a battleship bottom). As division members were running up two flights of ladders to reach the hanger bay, I remember thinking that we must have struck a Soviet submarine or the like (because no one would be stupid enough to hit another ship in the middle of the ocean). Also, the impacts were of such a magnitude, that I believed a third strike would definitely cause the ship to list and sink. After I reached the hanger bay, I saw crewmembers running in all directions and an enormous lighted structure approximately fifty to seventy-five yards away from the forward aircraft elevator. I immediately identified the structure as another ship, and it appeared to be slowly moving towards and away from the Coral Sea. There was confusion on the hanger bay before GQ was sounded and some enlisted personnel were saying everyman for himself. The GQ alarm went off a few minutes after the collision and the mass confusion transformed into an orderly state of affairs. I believed we stayed at GQ station for about an hour and the captain came on the PA system to announce what had occurred. This event truly distinguishes the point where the Coral Sea left being The Best In The West and arrived at being the Least In The East. Some facts about the event that I remember: (1) the radar of the Panamanian freighter was inoperable and that ship was given permission to trail the Coral Sea for navigation (2) the Captain of the Coral Sea was taking a shower at the time of the accident (3) the O.O.D. (Officer of the Deck) was very inexperienced and told the Boatswains mate on duty (Coral Sea only had a few qualified Quartermasters at the time, due the high turnover rate after being transferred to the Norfolk, VA area) to turn to Starboard (right, and right into the freighter) instead of to Port (left) (4) a Soviet AGI (intelligence gathering vessel usually disguised as a fishing trawler) who had been following the Coral Sea for days before the accident, was seen out in the distance monitoring the situation but lending no assistance (5) the impacts tore an enormous section out of the bow and island areas (6) the Captain of the Coral Sea was immediately relieved of duty and his career was thus destroyed by the incompetence of another.

[Submitted by Glenn]

I was the bmow on the bridge at the time of the collision. The OOD was LCDR Raspett and he was qualified just weeks before the collision. The bottom line is he made us turn to port instead of starboard. The Napo was turning Starboard to pass Port to Port like you are supposed to do, with us turning to Port it caused us to basically turn to meet it instead of passing Port to Port. He also refused to contact the Captain because he thought he had it all under control. The damage would have been much greater except that a very sharp young Ltjg Thornhill I believe he was from CS division came on the bridge to relieve LCDR Raspett and took control and began giving commands and ordered me to call the Captain to the Bridge. We actually had backing bells on which definetly slowed us down.

[Submitted by Robert D. Mooney]

I was the MPA at the time of the collision and was in my office next to Main Control briefing the senior folks in the main propulsion division in prepartion for casualty cotrol drills later that evening when we heard the word passed " Captian to the Bridge". I immediately ran to Main Control where the EOOW, CWO3 Krabbe, was ordering all shafts to emergency back and for all engineering watchstanders to brace for shock as we could see what was going on from the PLAT cameras on the flight deck. Immediately after the collision we had all spaces report damage and secure one of the 2 Group boilers due to main steam lines leaking. The DCA and I went forward on the damage control deck and discovered we had lost the forward peak tank which represented about 25% of our fresh water supply. We then commenced to slowly proceed under our own power along with the NAPO to proceed to GITMO where we were met by Norflok Naval Shipyard engineers to asses the damage and some senior CNAL officers who began the formal investigation into the collision..

[Submitted by E.L. Stone, LCDR, USN (Ret) ]

I was onboard USS Coral Sea from 1983-1986. We had just finished INSURV at Guantanamo Bay Cuba on a clear night. I believe visibility was around 7 miles. I was on the bridge getting some time on the helm. I just finished and went to my berthing compartment. I was in CR Div and was hanging out with my fellow RM's when suddenly the ship shook and listed to the port side. We had a russian troller following us all day long and i immediately thought that we had hit him. I was in my rack (top) and fell out ontop of one of my shipmates. We both heard General Quarters being called followed by a collision alarm. My GQ station was in Radio 4, 07 Level. I got up and proceeded to go to my station. When i got there radio 4 was cut open in half (rught through the middle). I started looking for my shipmates that were in there prior to the collison. I found them and we maned up and called DC central via sound powered phones. DC central had informed us that Main Communications was down and that CAG had called and needed to communicate with his inflight aircraft. I quickly went a verified that my TACAN xmitter was operational and xmitting. I called Main Communications and spoke with RMSN Guerrero and he informed me that Radio Central was down hard. I asked ET1 Arney if i could go to radio and help them out. Once cleared by DC Central i proceeded to radio central. When i got to radio central my self along with a few fellow radiomen were immediately sent to Repair 7 Forward where we were put on hose teams and fought fires for what seemed days. Once the fires were out we set reflash watches and proceeded to other repair parties to give them a hand. It was quite an eye opening experience. Since those days i have had the luxury of being part of many disasterous sitiations. I hope that one day the Sailors that lost their lives or the ones who were injured during these mishaps are recognized and compensated for their sacrifices.

[Submitted by Richard Petrucelli]

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Napo Collision Photo Gallery:

[Image Source - Rich Carson]	[Image Source - James Wasson]	[Image Source - James Wasson]	[Image Source - James Wasson]
[Image Source - Rob Mooney]	[Image Source - Rob Mooney]	[Image Source - Patrick Carley]	[Image Source - Patrick Carley]
[Image Source - Chuck May]	[Image Source - Ron Crouch]

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1987-88 Med Cruise

Hi my name is Carl Tucker I served aboard the Coral Sea with VFA-131 Wildcats during the 87-88 med. Cruise. I looked at the Coral Sea tribute sight, which is great. I saw the list of names of sailors who had died while serving aboard the Coral Sea. But one name is missing and I wanted to share this story with you.
The 87-88 cruise was pretty much uneventful. But this was the first time this young country boy from Georgia was able to go over seas. The Today show did do a live broadcast aboard the Coral Sea while we set off the French coast.
On the day of Dec. 9.1987 I was hard at work as a plane captain on aircraft No. 111. (our squadron flew F/18's.) The day went by normally with 111 flying several times. At the end of the day I turned 111 over to a very experienced plane Captain named Carl Patton, who would be working on the plane during the night check hours. After being relieved I got something to eat in the galley then took a shower and hit my bunk for the night. At 2100 I was awaken by Petty Officer mason a fellow p/c who was in tears as he informed me that aircraft 111 had went down. As fast as I could I threw my uniform on and went to our work center to await any word on Lt. Joseph Mullany, the pilot of 111. He was a young sharp pilot who had received many flying awards in his short career. The Coral Sea and the USS Yorktown searched several ours for the crash sight. When the sight was found there wasn't much left of 111 and there was no sign of Lt. Mullany. The recovery and rescue mission went on forever without Lt. being found. The largest part of the plane we found was the front half of an external drop tank. Although we did find Lt. Mullany's helmet, we never found him.
Being in a squadron living with this small group of people, well they become like family. Loosing one person is like loosing a family member. Investigations were done and rumors were past but when all was said and done, and if I remember correctly it was wrote off as pilot error. That was hard for us to believe. But nevertheless it happened and a good man died. I think the XO of the Yorktown said it best when he said, " the call of a sailor in trouble at sea is a call that every sailor man heeds." Attached is a picture of aircraft 111 aboard the Coral Sea CV-43 just days before it was lost at sea.

[Submitted by Carl Tucker]


[Image Source Carl Tucker]

Follow on: I remember that cruise. I was with VA-65 (Fighting Tigers). We were the first NVG capable A6 squadron. I remember our pilots located the wreckage that night. I don't know if you recall it or not, but when the aircraft had been replaced, I believe the tailnumber was still '111'. Interestingly enough, that one struck the round-down just in front of the main gear, skidded across the deck and went over the waist cat with the pilot ejecting just as the plane went over. The pilot was recovered. I do not know who it was.

Maybe my memory's not too good, but I believe that was when and how the curse of 'Triple Sticks' got started.

[Submitted by Steve Borkowski]

Follow on: My name is John Davis. In 1987 I was an F/A 18 pilot for VFA-136. I read Carl Tucker's account of Lt. Joe "Repo" Mullany's accident and thought I would give you a bit more information. I new Repo well, as we had gone through the "RAG" together to learn to fly the Hornet. As Carl noted, Repo was a fine Naval Officer and Hornet pilot. The cause of the accident was quite clear to us who flew the Hornet. Repo was flying at night on a "Surface Search and Control" flight; essentially, his job was to identify any vessel near the carrier and report it back to the ship. He had a FLIR (Forward Looking infrared Radar) and was in the process of "rigging" (the process whereby we would circle and take pictures of ships.in this case with the FLIR) a Spanish ship. Sailors on the Spanish ship observed his aircraft very close to the water circling their vessel, then impacting the water as it passed the starboard side. Repo's mistake was flying too low at night with a FLIR. As one passed the ship the image of the FLIR, displayed to us on a screen, would turn upside down causing great disorientation to the pilot, for this reason we had rules requiring us to be at 5000 feet while performing this mission at night. It was clear that Repo was at about 200-500 feet. Sadly this seemingly small error cost Repo his life. I think of him often and of the sacrifice he and his family gave for their country.

[Submitted by John "Rock" Davis]

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1988 Med Cruise

I was aboard between 1986 and 1990. I was the Typewriter/Copier repair supervisor in S-7 Div. One incident comes to mind where a man was killed on sponson #1. I believe he was in deck. His chief ordered him outside to check the rigging of things stored out there. Unfortunately one of the objects broke free and crushed the young man. Not a lot was ever said about that one in particular. I think that was in '88 out in the eastern Atlantic.

[Submitted by Brian]

I was stationed with va55 attached to CVA-43. The mishap on sponson number 1 was due a storm in high wind and sea's. From what I understand a deck chief ordered him to check the sponson for stored item integrity when all weather decks were to be kept clear of. A wave had hit some stowed gear and broke it loose.

[Submitted by Rodney Fama]

I was serving on Coral Sea as a Weather Forecaster at the time of the mishap. We were in the Central Med and had forecast high seas 15-18+ feet the previous day. As forecast the seas did build and the ship was taking a beating but riding well into the seas. Gear on the starboard side mid-ships sponson had not been secured the night before and a seaman was sent out during the high seas event to secure the gear. Something broke loose and crushed the sailor against the bulkhead. He was dead when they got him to medical. An unfortunate accident that should have been prevented.

[Submitted by Steve Lipnick]

I was stationed aboard the Coral Sea from 1987-89 in the Ordnance Division. I witnessed the mishap that AN David Cornell was involved in. We were in some really rough seas at the time. It was so bad that the aircraft on the flight deck had double tie-downs on them and waves were almost coming over the flight deck. I was assigned to the flight deck crew for the Ordnance dept's G-2 division and the Weapons officer decided we needed more 20mm up there. I think the Coral Sea was the only carrier that had a weapons elevator behind the Island or "bomb farm" as it was referred to. All sponsons and weather decks were secure at the time but we had orders to get the 20mm up there. An Cornell was a weapons elevator operator in G-4 division and was sent to operate the elevator at the sponson level. There were 3 skids of 20mm ready to send up and up on the flight deck we were waiting for the ok from AN Cornell to send the elevator down. There were small hatches on each corner of the elevator that had to be opened to "unlock" it from it normal position. We were looking thru them when all of the sudden a wave came over the sponson and hit the skids of 20mm. One was pushed into the elevator pit, the 2nd was left hanging off the edge of the sponson tangled up in the safety chains and the 3rd was pushed into AN Cornell pinning him between the handle of the skid and one of the at sea refueling stations and basically crushed his chest. It was a horrific accident that I will never forget. AN Cornell and I had become friends because he always worked that elevator. He was a good sailor and the U.S. Navy lost a good man that day.

[Submitted by Scott Miller]

I believe I was the last person to speak with him. I was outside the ship up under the Main aircraft elevator, I believe it was # 3 below and behind the bridge, enjoying the sea. When An Cornell and another person came out. I did not now the other person. I spoke with him, and he informed me he was ordered to transport missiles to or from the flight deck (stingers)? I said they got to be out of there F--- minds, have you seen the size of the waves out here why can't they use the internal elevators. He just shook his head and laughed. and made a comment that the only ones big enough to do the job inside were not working. I told him to watch his A--. I had been out there for over an hour and I saw waves break over the sponson that were at lest 20 feet in height, above the sponson. ( the elevator comes down on the outside of the ship and the floor panel below it opens like a door and the elevator rests on springs under the sponson) Well one of those waves hit, and crushed him between the elevator door and a 2 foot in dia gatevalve handle splitting him open from the chest to the abdomen. due to the frigid waters this was not known until they got him into Medical, were he bleed to death. the other man servived, I don't remember in what condition. I guess I was in a state of shock over his (Cornell) death. His body was placed inside of the milk locker (Walk in freezer) located in the main or aft mess deck for a couple of days under Marine Guard, until arrangements could be made to transport his body home. He was a member of the Weapons Dept. G-2 Aviation Ordnancemen . I believe the orders he received that day were insane. I only wish I could have done something. He was a friend.

[Submitted by Anonymous]

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1987-88 Med Cruise

Picture of an F-18A Hornet of the VFA-131 Wildcats that made an emergency landing. A small fire can be seen near the tail section as the crew gets the hoses on it as the pilot rolls to a stop.

[Submitted by Scott Miller]


[Image Source - Scott Miller]

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1988 Med Cruise

I was reading some of the mishaps from the 1988 med cruise, and wanted to add myself as one of the mishaps during that cruise. Although I was not killed. The ship was in the Eastern Atlanta about 200 Nautical miles from the straits of Gibraltar, the sea's were very bad that night, and everyone was ordered off the flight deck. I was working in Tech Control in Main Communications that night, when the C.O. called and said that we were loosing antenna's on the flight deck from the waves, He ordered us to go and raise the antenna's. Myself and my chief went to the flight deck and were in the forward port catwalk when one of the antenna's broke loose and fell on me, crushing my left hand. I was flown to Rota Spain the following day by HS-17. I was disabled and that ended my Navy Career. RM3 Darrell Young (onboard: 1983-1988)

[Submitted by Darrell Young]

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Contact me, Bob Dorais, at: cv43@usscoralsea.net