Pacifica Military History Free Sample Chapters.pmd

96 Pacifica Military History
message, and then I turned to that heading and began looking for the
Lex.
After only several minutes of flight, I picked up the wake of the
ship. When I saw her, I noticed that the deck was clear and ready to
accept aircraft. The ship immediately gave me a Prep Charlie in Morse
code with an Aldis lamp, indicating that it was okay to begin my
approach. Soon they transmitted a Charlie, also by Aldis lamp, meaning
it was okay to land.
I turned downwind and began my approach. Much to my chagrin, I
discovered that my tail-hook rail had been shot away and that I had no
hydraulic pressure to lower my wheels or flaps. There was a compressedair
bottle to blow down the wheels in an emergency, and since I definitely
considered this an emergency, I used it to lower my gear as I continued
my approach. The deck was clear, but as I approached the ramp, I was
given a Wave-off by the LSO. As I flew past, he gave me the signal that
I needed to lower my tail hook and flaps. I waggled my wings again to
indicate that I understood but that I was unable to do either.
I continued upwind and began another approach. I had opened my
canopy and was trying to use both hands to fly the plane. The wind was
blowing in my face and I could no longer hold the pressure point on my
temple, which caused the wound to bleed freely. The flowing blood was
completely obstructing the vision in my left eye. Believe me, is difficult
enough to land on a carrier deck with both eyes functioning, but with
only one eye, it was extremely difficult!
As I neared the ramp on my second approach, I noticed that there
was a Hellcat crashed on deck in a wheels-up condition. As I learned
later, it had taken several 20mm hits in the cockpit that severely wounded
the pilot in the hand. The LSO had brought this F6F in on a straight-in
approach, but the wounded pilot had been unable to lower his gear and
flaps prior to the landing.
I was feeling okay except for the bleeding. I was not feeling faint or
light-headed, and the wound above my eye was sort of numb. The caked
blood was helping to stem some of the flow. Though I was not feeling
much pain, I certainly did not relish the thought of circling while the
deck crew cleaned up the deck crash. But I really had no other choice.