OPERATION 'STRIKE BACK'
In the Fall of 1957 the USS Intrepid participated in operation STRIKE BACK, a NATO exercise with a huge international fleet operating well above the Arctic Circle in the North Atlantic. The USS Forrestal was a participant as part of her first deployment.
In a particularly heavy sea, Forrestal's commanding officer decided to commence air operations and naturally the Intrepid was not going to be left behind, despite the difference in capabilities.
I was positioned on the starboard cat in the first launch and after saluting the cat officer, sat for an inordinately long time with nothing happening...sitting there on the cat at full power; my head braced against the headrest and staring straight ahead but not focusing on much... just awaiting the thrust of the catapult.
When it did not occur, I looked over at the launch officer standing to my left and found him still holding one hand aloft giving a continuous "full power" motion but staring not at me but straight ahead. I then looked where he was looking and saw a huge wave bearing down on the bow.
We hit it and white sea spray vaulted over the front of the ship and over us. As the ship staggered out of that impact, I was launched. My wingman joined on me right after he was launched and we started to climb and I got the call "Carmel Six, your signal is Charlie!"
That transmission was normal, but always followed by "one plus ten" or some such number, indicating when you were expected to be back at the stern of the ship, ready to be recovered. But this transmission was simply that, without the appendage, so I asked "Charlie when?," to be immediately greeted with, "Charlie now!"
By this time I was going through 20,000 feet in my F9F-8, so I rolled over, flipped the dump fuel switch and started a descent back toward the Intrepid below me - It was easy to pick up because I noted a long yellow line of dots in the wake, even from that altitude. I later learned that the yellow dots were life preservers. They had been stored on the port side of the ship just under the flight deck edge.
Bob Kerr, a squadron mate, had just started to haul himself up the side of his airplane when the ship took a large roll and he felt the tie down chains snap. He stepped back off the step and let go of the airplane as it rolled backward and fell off the side of the ship, ripping out the catwalk where the life preservers were stored as it fell, landing inverted in the water and immediately disappearing from sight. Bob never flew from the carrier again and I did not blame him one bit! - The story of my recovery is even more interesting.
"I went into an orbit as directed off the port side of the ship as the flight deck was cleared of all aircraft, not knowing of the conversation on the bridge or the state of my airplane but very conscious of the fuel I had dumped and the rate of flow at that low altitude. When finally cleared I made two more approaches, waved off of each one as I approached the ramp because of heavy seas. On the third I determined that I had fuel enough for one more pass and then it was pull the face curtain somewhere near the INTREPID.
I caught the ship in a cycle between large waves and made the softest landing ever, catching the three wire with a great feeling of relief. I started to add power to come out of the gear when over the ship's bull horn came a loud, "304 shut your engine down!" I did, and it was only as I climbed down from the cockpit that I noticed the list on my airplane and the deck crew shoving a dolly under the fuselage so they could tow the airplane away. The port gear was severely bent, but intact. We called it "the Grumman Iron Works" for a reason, and it saved my life in this instance. Great airplane, great ship, great crew."
Thanks, John (Editor). The rule at the time was no accident report had to be filed if the aircraft could be repaired from on-board stores, and it just so happened that INTREPID has a complete port landing gear aboard for the F9F-8, allowing me to complete eleven years of flying Navy fighters with an accident-free record.
USS INTREPID now has three aircraft aboard that I flew: the FJ-3 "Fury," the A4D "Sky Hawk" and F-8 "Crusader." I made the movement from Staten Island in October and visited the ship on my motorcycle (license plate CV-11) with my granddaughter on the back this past August 15th.
Every former crew member should see the ship now; it is an excellent historical artifact of a magnificent ship and the great men who manned it.
FCM William J Quinn LCDR USNR(ret) USS Intrepid, VA-66, '56-'58