[ARC5] Lady Be Good.

[Kenneth G. Gordon]

On 30 Apr 2011 at 23:25, Mike Morrow wrote:

> >Before you indict the navigator and the rest of that crew you may
> >want to do a little more research on the subject.
> 
> Have you a book you've read to recommend?  If not, I suggest "Lady's
> Men" by Mario Martinez.

Yes. IMHO, that is the best one on the subject. Martinez also wrote the web 
article I quoted from. You can see it here:

http://www.ladybegood.com/

>  It's one of the latest and most in-depth of
> the many that have been written about this event.  I've studied and
> read about everything I could find for 40 years, but if one reads only
> one book on this event, this is the one.

Agreed, although over the years, I have read others.

> When I said "poor crew performance" the phrase was intended to soften
> the judgement on the navigator.  The phrase I used is accurate, for he
> was part of the crew.  He appears to have been completely ineffective
> on this mission

I don't agree: he got them to Naples and on the correct course home: 140 
degrees. I suspect that given his lack of experience, he felt that since they 
were on the way home, the rest was the responsibilitiy of the pilots. 
Obviously, this was wrong, and he should have been more alert, and more 
forceful, but he did his job up to that point. Undoubtedly, there were 
personalities involved that would have become "sorted out" in subsequent 
actions, if there had been any.

Ken W7EKB