My best f-4 memory......
‘79, I was a plane captain aboard the FID....
They just shot off an F-4....
As it was rolling down the cat, a deck wrench came flying out from the catwalk.
the f-4 ate the wrench and spit out the engine in a million little pieces.....
The plane hit the end of the catapult, all the stores were immediately ejected, and the plane drifted below the flight deck....
We all just stopped ans stared, waiting for them to eject...no seats...
Then, way off in the distance, we saw it, at wave top level, shaking like a leaf, but sslooowwwllly gaining altitude...
It got up, came around, and caught the wire.....
Just can’t kill ‘em?..
Hehe, those J79 engines were real beasts! I had a 1st class describe them to me as being able to run with fewer compressor blades left in them than a hillbilly had teeth in his mouth!
Wow! That’s a great story. Did the plane abort its’ mission, or was it able to continue?