[Milsurplus] Flat top flight deck

[Michael Tauson]

Sorry about the delay. See preface to my reply to Dave Stinson as to
what happened.

On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 6:22 AM, Mike Morrow <kk5f at earthlink.net> wrote:

> I was on the USS Intrepid/CVS-11 in 1971.  We spent much of that summer operating north
> of Norway and Finland in one of the few carrier operations ever conducted above the Arctic
> Circle.  The concept of an anti-submarine carrier force was later judged to be a failure, but
> least I got my Bluenose (Arctic Circle Crossing) card from it.

Aside from being a [once] card carrying member of the Turtle Club and
a member of the Mile High Club (with bonus points), I managed to miss
out on all the really cool stuff like that.  Okay, that was a bad
choice of words but you get the idea. :-)

> We carried A-4C, S-2E, E-1B, C1-A, and SH-3D aircraft.

Add AD-5 (A-1E) and AD-6 (A-1H) Skyraiders and we were pretty much the
same.  (Some were marked with the old designations, some with the new
and some with both.)  It was an AD-6 that several of us watched chew
through a flight decker.  We were wearing his blood and bits as mute
evidence to the dangers of flight operations.

> I saw an inverted crash of a SH-3D into seas south of Norway, and several other assorted
> mishaps.  A broken arm was the worst personal injury, but the SH-3D sank.

As a general sort of rule, helicopters don't fly well upside down.

> I found our USN aircraft operations to be less interesting than the close attention paid to us
> by Soviet naval and air forces.

Typical of practically all Pacific operations, we had our "duty"
Russian trawler.  They'd maneuver with our screen and sometimes would
sneak inside only to be escorted out again.  After a while it became a
game.  Kind of.

I have a few stories about us and the trawler[s] ... for another time, perhaps.

Best regards,

Michael, WH7HG