mike b
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On Memorial Day I think of all service men and women that have served through the history of our country that have made the ultimate sacrifice and the disabled vets that live with their injuries 24/7/365. We tend to think of battles, wars and conflicts, but there are also those that made the same sacrifices in peacetime. this story is about one of those.
September 5th, 1981, I was an aviation electronics tech trouble shooter (AT) working on attack bombers on the USS Dwight D Eisenhower. We were somewhere in the North Atlantic, it was very cold, very windy and always a gray sky.
We were doing recoveries (Jets and Helos Landing), so it was very busy and loud. unless you were standing next to someone there was no verbal communicating, hand gestures and having your head on a swivel is how you get around.
On the 5th I had just gone up to the deck via the catwalk forward of the super structure on the starboard side and I was making my way to do a job on an aircraft when I saw an A-7 being directed to an area behind me to be tied down. I had seen this plane a hundred times always recognizing the pilots name stenciled on the side, "LT CLINT NICELY". I don't think I had ever seen his face until that moment; he looked slightly panicked, the canopy was open, and he was working fast and hard trying to do something with the straps and fasteners that hold a pilot to the seat. I know now he had started to unclip when he realized there was a serious problem, I think he wanted to eject from the plane but had to refasten everything before that could happen. I stepped to the side to let the plane pass, I could have touched it, when I saw a plane captain running toward me and the plane (no one runs like that up on the deck, unless). The plane had landed safely then on its way to be tied down lost hydraulics that control the brakes and steering, the LT knew he couldn't stop and was heading to the side of the ship, his only hope was ejecting. The plane captains plan was to attempt attaching a chain somewhere on the plane and then hooking a pad eye on the deck, he could only try. When I realized what was going to happen, I ran a few steps to try and help, but all we could was watch LT Nicely and his A-7 flip over the side and land upside down and start to sink. the few of us that saw it happen ran to the back of the deck, eventually watching it sink.
I was 21.
I think of that often and always on Memorial Day.
September 5th, 1981, I was an aviation electronics tech trouble shooter (AT) working on attack bombers on the USS Dwight D Eisenhower. We were somewhere in the North Atlantic, it was very cold, very windy and always a gray sky.
We were doing recoveries (Jets and Helos Landing), so it was very busy and loud. unless you were standing next to someone there was no verbal communicating, hand gestures and having your head on a swivel is how you get around.
On the 5th I had just gone up to the deck via the catwalk forward of the super structure on the starboard side and I was making my way to do a job on an aircraft when I saw an A-7 being directed to an area behind me to be tied down. I had seen this plane a hundred times always recognizing the pilots name stenciled on the side, "LT CLINT NICELY". I don't think I had ever seen his face until that moment; he looked slightly panicked, the canopy was open, and he was working fast and hard trying to do something with the straps and fasteners that hold a pilot to the seat. I know now he had started to unclip when he realized there was a serious problem, I think he wanted to eject from the plane but had to refasten everything before that could happen. I stepped to the side to let the plane pass, I could have touched it, when I saw a plane captain running toward me and the plane (no one runs like that up on the deck, unless). The plane had landed safely then on its way to be tied down lost hydraulics that control the brakes and steering, the LT knew he couldn't stop and was heading to the side of the ship, his only hope was ejecting. The plane captains plan was to attempt attaching a chain somewhere on the plane and then hooking a pad eye on the deck, he could only try. When I realized what was going to happen, I ran a few steps to try and help, but all we could was watch LT Nicely and his A-7 flip over the side and land upside down and start to sink. the few of us that saw it happen ran to the back of the deck, eventually watching it sink.
I was 21.
I think of that often and always on Memorial Day.
