Special Opps or Nutt Job

[KMart]

A4 was one of a very few small jets configured to carry nuclear payload.

• Designed in late 1951 , at a time when nuclear massive retaliation was the national doctrine, the A-4’s specifications called for a light, expendable aircraft capable of carrying a single 2,000-pound bomb to a target 300 nautical miles away at a maximum speed of 500 knots (520 mph).

It was a US designed nuclear Kamikaze airplane

 

[Infrequent Shooter]

• Designed in late 1951 , at a time when nuclear massive retaliation was the national doctrine, the A-4’s specifications called for a light, expendable aircraft capable of carrying a single 2,000-pound bomb to a target 300 nautical miles away at a maximum speed of 500 knots (520 mph).

It was a US designed nuclear Kamikaze airplane

I was thinking about adding that type of information, but I am kinda weak on the knowledge. Glad you put it in there. I heard some Navy guys talk about it. you hit the nail on the head!

 

[Walt Schmidlin]

My uncle served in Europe in ww2 Italy, france, germany wounded twice always said the ones that talked the most did the least. Doug

Seems to work that way in the non military arena also.

 

[ebb]

Now a cargo plane can drop a whole pallet of cruise missiles out the back and up to 9 (if the cargo plane is big enough) at a time can fly 600 miles in 9 different directions to the target. Brought to up by the logistics dept so the cargo plane didn't have to land and load them onto a bomber and another whole crew get involved.

 

[Dave M.]

I was not in the Navy but I was Navy trained (USMC airwinger). The fire on the Forrestal was an absolute disaster. As to the photographer, here is my best guess. The Navy used the A-5's as a photo recon A/C. So that squadron had the ability to take and process all kinds of pictures.
My squadron flew RF-4B's (my MOS) and everybody in the squadron seemed to 35 mm cameras and our buddies in the photo section got us free film and processing.
Plus, an aircraft carrier is a small city. The Navy most likely had a photo section that recorded a lot of day to day operation and major/minor incidents.

I was surprised to see “CLASSIFIED” stamped on the back of some photos in black ink, only to have “U.S. Naval Declassified” stamped in RED over top on it. To say the pictures were horrifying doesn’t begin to do them justice. I recall two images that I can’t ever unsee. One was a bloody arm from just under the shoulder down to the hand which was still in a glove, and the other was an charred body in a partial fetal position being pulled out of the sleeping births in the decks below with no clothes on that my dad said was likely a sailor that was sleeping in his rack at the time the first of the bombs went off and the burning jet fuel went down through the holes in the deck. I often think about what my father must have been thinking being on a ship engulfed in flames without the proper tools to help his friends. And on top of that he still cannot swim to this day, which he told me was more common than you think for guys on his ship. During boot camp he said they would basically let you sink to the bottom of the deep pool and flounder around before they’d send divers down to fish you out. And the good news is that you got to partially drown 3 more times. Freaking terrifying.
Dave

 

[Dave M.]

A4 was one of a very few small jets configured to carry nuclear payload.

I consider myself so naive about military stuff and history in general. Fortunately, my dad and my son are big history buffs and have educated my over the last 10 years. I have zero interest in history growing up, strictly math and sciences for me, but I really enjoy learning about military history now. WW2 is super interesting and absolutely terrifying at the same time.
Dave

 

[ACard]

There are 2 kinds of people in this world, those who talk about it, and those who do it...

 

[jlshaw]

Wait a minute you haven’t heard my war stories. Oh, wait again, you never will.
It was Bart Sauter who said he and Billy Stevens were chopper pilots in the Gulf and Billy could do barrel rollls.

Bart is a good guy.
He's not full of sh!t - which is rare for an aviator.

 

[Old Navy]

Holy crap am I embarrassed after looking it up. I really should have known that considering my father was a mechanic and firefighter aboard the USS Forrestal during the huge fire in July 1967. His crew of 7-8 mechanics took care and maintained a single plane, he said they knew every scratch, nut and bolt on that plane. I think he told me that each plane was typically flown by 3 or 4 pilots/captains. The very plane him and his crew managed happened to be the same plane flown by John McCain, among other pilots. He told me that in his entire time on the ship, he never met McCain in person, but he knew his F-4 plane like the back of his hand with his eyes closed.
His stories from the fire are absolutely terrifying and still to this day he can’t eat in BBQ restaurants or stand the smell of smoking meats on the grill, because he says it’s like reliving the entire nightmare over again.
The idea that people make up stories about being someone they weren’t or doing things that they didn’t do, is disgusting.

Dave Monette

It is a small world. My last cruise aboard the USS Hancock (CVA-19) on Yankee station ended in June of 67. The Forrestal might have relieved us.

 

[Old Navy]

The E2 is a twin turboprop with radar and electronics.

I believe we called them Willie Fuds on my ship. Don't know why. My job was below decks and only supported the ships operation.

 

[Lee in Texas]

I knew a guy in the Army who had a bad-ass hot rod back home. A 5-second street car. Not in the 1/8 mile. The 1/4 mile. Sure. You betcha.

 

[BW64]

I have a couple of Marine friends that were really in the deep s... in Nam & you can't pry a good story out of them. They just don't talk about it. I understand!

 

[wyshadow]

I want to thank everyone's stories. I didn't think my post would bring a lot of great reading about real heroes who served their country. I would to add one story that I'm very proud of and this is the story of my mom's father.
I never knew much about him growing up because I could never understand him. He had several strokes before I was in my teens and that's when I tried to ask him questions about his life. The strokes paralyzed part of his face which slurred his speech. On top of his slurred speech he mostly talked Navajo and I didn't understand it as good. I always knew his served in WW2 and that's all I knew. I asked my mom and grandmother if he ever talked about it but I was told to never ask him anything about to the war and that was that.
My grandpa passed away the beginning of July 2011 and his funeral was held July 11, 2011 in Arizona. During the eulogies, several people got up and talked about his life but no one mentioned his time in the war until that last speaker. The last speaker was a historian representative from the Navajo government. To everyone's surprise, the Navajo Nation sent a historian to interview my grandpa in the early 80's.
The historian talked for about 30 minutes about what my grandpa went through during the war. My grandpa was part of D-Day and the historian talked about the grueling and horrific days/years my grandpa went through. After he was done talking, everyone was in tears and crying. Everyone in that church knew nothing of what my grandpa had to deal with until that day. My grandpa never told anyone his story in the war. Not even my grandma or his kids. My grandpa is more of a man I'll ever be even if I live 10 lives. I'm very proud of my grandpa.

 

[Kevin1990]

Still got the shovel.
View attachment 1515429

Just when you think you got it figured...You're wrong!

 

[Dave M.]

It is a small world. My last cruise aboard the USS Hancock (CVA-19) on Yankee station ended in June of 67. The Forrestal might have relieved us.

I know it changed a lot of things in future ships like automatic foam fire suppression systems, and making sure all sailors were properly trained in fire suppression before setting foot on the ship. From what my dad has told me and from what I’ve read, it really sounds like Captain Beling got a raw deal after the fire. I’m thankful my father survived the fire, but it saddens me to see how that event still effects him to this day.

 

[Dave M.]

I want to thank everyone's stories. I didn't think my post would bring a lot of great reading about real heroes who served their country. I would to add one story that I'm very proud of and this is the story of my mom's father.
I never knew much about him growing up because I could never understand him. He had several strokes before I was in my teens and that's when I tried to ask him questions about his life. The strokes paralyzed part of his face which slurred his speech. On top of his slurred speech he mostly talked Navajo and I didn't understand it as good. I always knew his served in WW2 and that's all I knew. I asked my mom and grandmother if he ever talked about it but I was told to never ask him anything about to the war and that was that.
My grandpa passed away the beginning of July 2011 and his funeral was held July 11, 2011 in Arizona. During the eulogies, several people got up and talked about his life but no one mentioned his time in the war until that last speaker. The last speaker was a historian representative from the Navajo government. To everyone's surprise, the Navajo Nation sent a historian to interview my grandpa in the early 80's.
The historian talked for about 30 minutes about what my grandpa went through during the war. My grandpa was part of D-Day and the historian talked about the grueling and horrific days/years my grandpa went through. After he was done talking, everyone was in tears and crying. Everyone in that church knew nothing of what my grandpa had to deal with until that day. My grandpa never told anyone his story in the war. Not even my grandma or his kids. My grandpa is more of a man I'll ever be even if I live 10 lives. I'm very proud of my grandpa.

View attachment 1516114
View attachment 1516115

It’s pretty cool to see that a comical story of an obvious case of stolen valor by a guy at a range, has turned into lots of folks sharing their stories of the true heroes in their lives. Every man and women you served our great country is a hero in my eyes, some had the unfortunate opportunity to share these harrowing stories with us, and others gave even more and never had a chance to tell their stories. The best thanks we can give to all of these great people is to try to understand the amazing sacrifices they made, and do our best to carry on their legacy that makes our country what it is today. In SO MANY WAYS, our country has great challenges and truly screwed up problems that we shouldn’t have to deal with, but at the end of the day, I wouldn’t trade it for anywhere else in the world. I’ve lived all over the world (in over 10 separate countries) and in EVERY case I couldn’t wait to get home to the good old USA.
Dave

 

[338 Mollett]

That fire was a perfect storm with all the things that went wrong . There is a video about 50 minutes long on the investigation into the accident .

 

[Krogen]

I always thought Uncle Joe was enlisted Army. He never talked about it, except once when he let a little bit out. That was at Mom’s urging. The kid (me) should hear it, she said. I know he sanitized it for my young ears. I didn’t know until his funeral that Uncle Joe was a Lt. Colonel and had served in WWII and Korea. The honors at his funeral choked me up; and still do.

Paraphrasing a famous someone: “Most of the real heroes are dead.”

 

[Dave M.]

That fire was a perfect storm with all the things that went wrong . There is a video about 50 minutes long on the investigation into the accident .

I’ve watched everything I can get my hands on. Biggest problem was guys fighting the fire from two sides, one with the proper foam, and the other using sea water and washing the foam away.

 

[AccelR8]

I think I've written about this guy here on this forum once before; one of my high school friend's fathers. My friend had told me his dad was a WWII Navy pilot.

Well, on two different occasions I had asked the dad about his time in the Navy as a pilot. One time he told me in a dismissive manner he got in at the end of the war and never saw combat. The other time a few years later, he told me again dismissively he was a ferry pilot, only flying aircraft from point A to point B as needed and never near a combat zone.

I attended the man's funeral and after, at his home, a gathering of family and friends. His brother had many, many photos including WWII photos, combat photos in which the deceased appeared in quite a few.

I told the brother what I had been told about him not seeing any combat and the brother filled me in. Turns out the guy had seen much combat. He was ultimately a squadron leader or commander (I don't know the proper terminology). His Navy service ended like this; he was on deck observing the landing of his squadron aircraft when a kamikaze hit and he was burned over 70% of his body. He was not really expected to live due to the severity of his injuries. My friend, his son, said “You know I never really thought about it, but I've never seen him without long pants and a shirt on.”

THAT's a guy who had been there and done that!