What You Can Learn About America from the deck of the USS Theodore Roosevelt

The Weekly Standard ^ | April 28, 2008 | P. J. O'Rourke

[NTHockey]

>>Been googling USS Princeton (CV/CVA/CVS-37, LPH-5) and cannot find any mention of this. Not doubting your word, just want to know more about it!

It happened in 1960, off the coast of Formosa. A big SEATO ops, 88 ships in all. Don’t think that you will find an embarassing thing like this on Google. Anymore likely that you’ll find out about the shi’s Captain who managed to run Princeton aground off Okinawa. Sorry, I won’t put his name out there: “Respect the dead, they can’t defend themselves.”

[American Quilter]

Knowing these young Americans will give you hope for the future of this nation.

Absolutely right. A big BZ to all of them!

[2111USMC]

Great Read!

[magslinger]

SONOBUOY PING!

Click on pic for past Navair pings.

Post or FReepmail me if you wish to be enlisted in or discharged from the Navair Pinglist.
This is a medium to low volume pinglist.

[bt_dooftlook]

Actually, I think it is 10 nights...

A little more info on launch procedures (from ("Super Carrier") - I believe the shear pin varies in thickness depending on the maximum thrust of the plane to be launched; that is, it is designed to hold the plane in place at full thrust, then shear when the catapult load is added - this allows the pilot and ground crew to assure full power if available before launch...

[Bender2]

Re: It happened in 1960, off the coast of Formosa. A big SEATO ops, 88 ships in all. Don’t think that you will find an embarassing thing like this on Google. Anymore likely that you’ll find out about the shi’s Captain who managed to run Princeton aground off Okinawa. Sorry, I won’t put his name out there: “Respect the dead, they can’t defend themselves.”

Yeap, only Captain I could find for the USS Princeton was Raymond N. Sharp and that was in 1952 when she was CVS-37.

Sounds like you have some interesting sea stories to tell... I'll supply the beer!

[Bender2]

Found another: Captain Paul J. Knapp, in late 1964.

[Hegewisch Dupa]

Christ Almighty - that was awesome. Thanks for posting that excerpt. BTTT.

[Ditto]

And there's the happy-talk boy wonder, the plaster Balthazar in the Cook County political crèche, whose policy pronouncements sound like a walk through Greenwich Village in 1968: "Change, man? Got any spare change? Change?"

LOL. P.J. sure has a way with words.

[FreedomPoster]

A guy that used to work for me was previously a reactor officer on 688 boats. He felt the same way.

[Non-Sequitur]

O’Rourke makes some devastating observations about Hillary and Obama and their unfitness for the presidency—I definitely recommend everyone read to the end of the article.

It's a good thing that Huckabee or Romney or Giuliani isn't the nominee. He wouldn't have been able to use that neat ending.

[FreedomPoster]

Did you find this?

Andrew Toppan’s site is the place to start for anything naval, if you don’t have Jane’s subscription ($$$$).

http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/carriers/cv37.htm

[edcoil]

I was on a 688. The RO’s road in the back of the bus.

[Bean Counter]

America’s Big Stick Plankowner *ping*

[Oztrich Boy]

This is not a pilot taking off. This is a pilot as cat's eye marble pinched between boundless thumb and infinite forefinger of Heaven's own Wham-O slingshot.

Say hello to the imagery

[Bender2]

Yeah, I went to hazegray.org as they do have a lot of info other sites do not, but there was not any mention of the torpedoing or the Princeton herself grounding NTHockey mentioned.

One must assume that grounding in Okinawa was not like the Big Mo's in 1950. Then "...the only U.S. battleship in commission, Missouri was proceeding seaward on a training mission from Hampton Roads early 17 January when she ran aground at a point 1.6 miles from Thimble Shoals Light, near Old Point Comfort. She traversed shoal water a distance of three ship lengths from the main channel. Lifted some 7 feet above waterline, she struck hard and fast. With the aid of tugs, pontoons, and an incoming tide, she was refloated 1 February." From hazegray.org

Nowadays, can you imagine the glee the MSM would have it if an American carrier was torpedoed or grounded?

[perfect stranger]

pj ping

[perfect stranger]

http://home.comcast.net/~jcescudie/hottie.html

[NTHockey]

After grounding her off Red Beach in Okinawa, Princeton had to put in to Yokuska Naval Shipyard for repairs. After a week in drydock, they had replaced a bent shaft and patched two holes in the outer hull. We then proceeded to Formosa for our first vertical envelopment operation. HMM(then HMR)-362 and 3/1(Reinforced) for Ops.

But that’s another story.

[BroJoeK]

"A strange flight it is--from the hard and fast reality of a floating island to the fantasy world of American solid ground. In this never-never land a couple of tinhorn Second City shysters--who, put together, don't have the life experience of the lowest ranking gob-with-a-swab cleaning a head on the Big Stick--presume to run for president of the United States. They're not just running against the hero John McCain, they're running against heroism itself and against almost everything about America that ought to be conserved."

Play it again, Sam.
I want to hear the music, and the harmony.