- Location
- Richmond, BC
In the spirit of big ships...............
Lol!
Man, I miss the 'ol Tomcat (bottom right, next to the Hornet)
Picture of the day
- Thread starter jwhc
- Start date
Lol!
Man, I miss the 'ol Tomcat (bottom right, next to the Hornet)
Cocked&Locked
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- S. Ontario
my brother in law flew the E2C's during the last gulf war..he said landing them in the dark was a real handful, with not much lee way between the superstructure on the right, and parked aircraft on the left.
During training, I remember doing a 'simulated' carrier deck landing. They painted the outline of a carrier deck on the runway. I remember turning onto final my first time and my first thought was..."OMG! I'm on final to a postage stamp". We were lucky, our 'postage stamp' wasn't pitching and rolling too. If that had been a real carrier we had to land on, there would have been a lot of sad telegrams being sent home by DND that day.
I was in the Regular Force when the #### hit the fan in Korea.Volunteered for the Special Force and went over in 1951 with 25th Infantry Bgde RCEME Workshop ,as a welder,near PUSAN.About July I went north to 190 Wksp at Uijongbu. Later the shop moved to Tokshan. In late Jan I was medical evacuated to Kure Japan,a very large BECOF hospital.I was in hospital for several weeks ,then to a Battle training school for the ground pounders newly out from Canada. Then back to Kure-Hiro till i got a boat back to Vancouver.I was on the first boat to bring troops back from Korea and Japan.After a couple months leave got a posting to 141 workshop Whitehorse Yukon .Was there til 1956 took my discharge .
gewehr76
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
We would like to hear more about your experiences. Any part of it would be interesting to us. I am curious about what you did in Whitehorse.
Mr. Dynamite
CGN Regular
- Location
- Northern Alberta
Cocked&Locked
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- S. Ontario
He snuck me into the trainer when he was doing advanced flight instruction outside corpus christi texas. You actually sit in a plane cockpit that moves with a 270 degree panoramic projection screen around you. Set me up to to carrier landings...., I hit the deck, but so hard i ended up in the hanger below LOL...then he set it up for a NIGHT carrier landing, which was bad enough, then a night landing in operational conditions (ie no deck light, just a meatball you could only see when you where lined up on the curve right.) ....I decided if he did THAT in real life, his balls where a good bit bigger then mine. That run i landed into the stern of the carrier.
I am a pilot. Or was. I sold my plane 15 years ago. I have always considered carrier pilots the best of the best. Their balls must be the size of soft balls.
Speaking of carriers, here's a man they could have written a few books about: fist jet carrier landing and highest number of carrier landings: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Brown_(pilot) Greatest number of aircraft types flown: 487.
Just died last week.
Just died last week.
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In the early 90's I flew with an ex RCN guy and he was catipulted off the Bonnie directly into a wave and lived to tell about it. He was in a Tracker and while waiting for takeoff, closed the overhead hatch because of spray when the ship dived into a wave. The catipult officer was supposed to time the launch to the deck rising but screwed it up and launched him into the wave. He was lucky that he was flying a Tracker and that he closed the hatch that was supposed to be open for launch.
We worked on everything,watches to tanks.Not much battle damage,a lot just from the terrain and poor roads.Guns like the 25 pounder done a LOT of work and needed repair.Trucks ,weapons carriers,jeeps trailers ,water tanks Sherman tanks,rifles Brens,Browning MGs.30cal & 50 cal ,recoiless 3 inch guns
.Everything used by troops in the field.Ths was all done in the open ,Very little cover.As a welder it could be broken frames and springs on vehicles tosome battle damage on Shermans ,tent stoves, gas opperated lanterns and cookers,aluminum water trialers. All the time subject to the weather from 90 F.down to 10 -15 below. Come winter we had a few Quanset shelters and tarps to work under. US issued tents AKA Mash for troops and kitchens.I was evacked trough a Norwegian Mash hospital to Japan ,busted up left shoulder.A lot of the steel we used came from the WW2 Japanese submarine yards on the coast at Inchon which was roughly 45 miles from camp.This was still there from the surrender of the Japs in 1945.We I got back to Canada and Whitehorse the Alaska Hiway was still under control of the Army, so we looked after road maintenance,from Dawson Creek BC,Mile 0 to Scotty Creek Mile 1202 on the Alaska border .Rebuilding wooden bridges ,new steel bridged and straitening some of the twists and turns of the original road in 1941-42.A little Poem from then and there.
Winding in and winding out,
It fill my mind with serious doubt
As to the Dude,
Who built this route
Was going to Hell,
Or coming out.
.Everything used by troops in the field.Ths was all done in the open ,Very little cover.As a welder it could be broken frames and springs on vehicles tosome battle damage on Shermans ,tent stoves, gas opperated lanterns and cookers,aluminum water trialers. All the time subject to the weather from 90 F.down to 10 -15 below. Come winter we had a few Quanset shelters and tarps to work under. US issued tents AKA Mash for troops and kitchens.I was evacked trough a Norwegian Mash hospital to Japan ,busted up left shoulder.A lot of the steel we used came from the WW2 Japanese submarine yards on the coast at Inchon which was roughly 45 miles from camp.This was still there from the surrender of the Japs in 1945.We I got back to Canada and Whitehorse the Alaska Hiway was still under control of the Army, so we looked after road maintenance,from Dawson Creek BC,Mile 0 to Scotty Creek Mile 1202 on the Alaska border .Rebuilding wooden bridges ,new steel bridged and straitening some of the twists and turns of the original road in 1941-42.A little Poem from then and there.
Winding in and winding out,
It fill my mind with serious doubt
As to the Dude,
Who built this route
Was going to Hell,
Or coming out.
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I always enjoy reading your posts Duker, very informative stuff..nice to hear from a Korean vet
