Wasn't there some major issue going on with the A-6's about that time that went on several months? I know we lost several of them close into the ship usually on take off. I can't remember what it was doing it though I just remember there was a problem.
Maybe, I don’t know. I worked on Corsairs, so I wasn’t that tuned in. We did lose another A-6 about a year before that.
The Intruder busted its hook off when it caught the wire during darkened ship exercises, and slowed down too much and the crew ejected.
I watched that plane lumber by me less than 50 feet away (I was on the bow) climb slowly out in front of the ship, its shape silhouetted against the stars, then slowly fall tail first, twisting and inverting to disappear in a circle of white foam a few hundred yards in front of the ship. I watched in horror saying over and over to myself “Those guys better eject...come on...get out...eject...EJECT!” and they never did.
I was dumbstruck, then the white lights on the ship came on as the air boss said over the 1MC “Plane in the water!” When I looked back, I saw two chutes come down, one went into the water just off the port quarter, and the other landed on the side of a E-2 Hawkeye on the deck. In all the noise of the plane hitting the deck and the throttles being pushed to full military, I never heard the bang of the seats.
It was one of the most startling and amazing things I have ever seen in my life. I was all by myself up on the bow...there was nobody else up there and I had a ringside seat to that plane’s final moments. I felt like I was the only witness to that, even though I am sure everyone up in the island saw it better than me. I immediately ran all the way back to my line shack and burst in all googly-eyed, exclaiming to everyone “You won’t believe what I just saw!”
Funny thing is, for years, it somehow got stuck in my head that it was an F14 I saw go down. It was only in the last few years that did a search to find out specifically what date it happened on, and was chagrined to find it was an A-6, not an F-14. It was odd to have my mind play that trick on me.