Posted on 11/19/2013 7:43:13 AM PST by US Navy Vet
Post them here.
More times than we like to think, this happens. Especially with the U-2 in a flat spin, the pilot punches out and is knocked out or there is damage to his parachute/seat pack/ejection seat which causes him to fall to his death, sink quickly and not be found ever.
Yup. We never found the pilot, the seat or anything like that.
I was at recess at Silver King Elementary School near Kellogg, Idaho. Everyone was repeating the news as recess ended. Mrs. Woolum, my second-grade teacher, confirmed the news and told us that we were being sent home.
Above photo shows F3H screaming demonand tow tractor on Coral Sea: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/XF3H_Demon_on_USS_Coral_Sea_%28CVA-43%29_in_1953.jpg,P> From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_F3H_Demon
"The McDonnell F3H Demon was a subsonic swept-wing United States Navy carrier-based jet fighter aircraft. After severe problems with the Westinghouse J40 engine that was ultimately abandoned, the successor to the McDonnell F2H Banshee served starting in 1956 redesigned with the J71 engine.[1] Though it lacked sufficient power for supersonic performance, it complemented daylight dogfighters such as the Vought F8U Crusader and Grumman F11F Tiger as an all-weather, missile-armed interceptor[2] until 1964. It was withdrawn before it could serve in Vietnam when it, and ultimately also the Crusader, was replaced by the extremely successful McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II. McDonnell's Phantom, which was equally capable against ground, fighter and bomber targets, bears a strong family resemblance, as it was conceived as an advanced development of the Demon. The supersonic United States Air Force McDonnell F-101 Voodoo was similar in layout, but was derived from the earlier XF-88 Voodoo, which also influenced the Demon's layout."
And old Navy pard of mine said he was so very glad to see the screaming demon retired as it was... in fact a real dog suffering from frequent flame outs, compressor stalls and the ejection seats were unreliable, a death sentence if you had to punch out.
I was Supply Officer aboard USS Interdictor(AGR13) at Treasure Island, CA. Had just held special pay for crew as I was going on leave. When I walked into wardroom the rest of the ship’s officers were sitting in front of blank TV, audio only. I asked what had happened to the broadcast of “Captain Kangaroo” that they normally watched. Was advised that president had been shot and it dawned on me that the audio was Walter Cronkite talking and that they didn’t know if Kennedy was alive or dead.
I recall when my mom got there that she and Mrs. Brown were talking and very upset. And then vaguely remember seeing something on TV when we got home.
I was newly assigned to Japan. It was on the AFRTS Saturday morning news at 0700. A Japanese maid in the BOQ woke me up...crying that the president had been killed. She was beside herself! The rest of the day Japanese around me could only say GOMINASAI....(I’m sorry...many crying).
It was a Friday afternoon. A schoolgirl stuck her head into my 4th-grade classroom and announced that the president had been shot. It seemed surreal, because none of us kids could relate to assassinations except for Abraham Lincoln.
By pure accident, my mom was stuck in traffic three blocks behind Kennedy’s motorcade as she tried to cross Dallas. She was trapped in traffic for hours.
I recall that all the TV channels broadcast nothing but news coverage for three days straight. I was upset because there were no cartoons on TV during that time!
“I was an EM1 aboard the USS Coral Sea (CVA-43), just beginning my 2nd enlistment.”
After his death, were you put on any type of higher alert? Just curious. I imagine you would have been in during the Cuban Missile Crisis? An old friend of mine said that was a REAL scary time.
That was when I learned that grownups will say one thing in front of some people, and something completely different in front of other people. My parents were so sad and worried while with our neighbors, but when it was just them, family, and close friends, “thank you, God.”
RIP Capt. Hyde, Jr. Thank You for Your Service Sir.
1st Iinfantry, Fort Riley.
I was in Jr High in Ft Worth Texas ...I later attended the same High School Oswald went to.
Kennedy had come through Ft Worth the day before.
I did not go to see him
A few years laterI I snuck into the “Cellar”
That was the dive the Secret service guys had gone to the night before,
“About 6 meters from where I sit now.”
What direction?
/johnny
AH I wans’t blink in my parents eyes
I think Mafia whack JFK
I was still a gleam in my dad’s eye.
I was in the third grade when the principal came to the door and talked to our teacher (nun). The teacher was distraught and walked to the blackboard and wrote that JFK had been assassinated and was dead. She said the country was in deep trouble as Lyndon Johnson would take over and he was a communist. Never truer words were spoken. Class was dismissed early and we went home. Was getting ready to depart for church on Sunday when Oswald was shot on TV. Still went to church with the family.
21twelve,
Out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, there was no change in our regular steaming readiness condition announced to the crew. I’m guessing that there probably was an increased level of awareness at the upper level of command.
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