little Wildcat
Fighter
Survived New Orleans &
F4F
In those days the trains were
not the most reliable form of transportation. But it was all we
had so we got sidetracked in New Orleans on Christmas Eve. This
gave me time to fully explore Bourbon Street and all the sights
thereon for the first time for this ole Missouri farm boy. What
an experience! Come midnight, I heard church bells and decided
to go in and see what was going on. I sat in the back row on the
isle and watched the impressive Christmas ceremony. Then back
to Bourbon Street till daylight. I almost missed the train.
When Bonnie arrived (by bus) in Jacksonville,
we rented a one-room apartment not far from the base, and just
to be safe, we got married again on 27 January 1944. The reason
for this was that cadets were not supposed to be married before
being commissioned. They kicked out my roommate just because of
that, so we wanted to get married again for the Navy.
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The little Wildcat Fighter was
real tricky to handle on the ground due to a very narrow landing
gear. On my first take off, the wind got |
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under one wing and tilted me so that I "Ground
Looped," that is, drug a wing on the runway. l taxied back
to the ramp where the Instructor hopped up on the wing and said
to not get out. He was afraid I would lose my nerve, so he told
me what the Admiral said: ..."if we buckled up we could fly
one of those suckers into a stone wall and not get hurt."
With that I lined her up again and got airborne for the first
time in a Navy Fighter. Never mind that these very planes had
been used by the Marines in combat and had patched bullet holes
in them. Once when I was finishing up a flight at 10,000 feet
I decided to make a quick letdown to the field, soo, I pointed
‘er straight down at full throttle and picked up so much
speed that the landing gear sheared off. With just one strut holding
on I lined up for the runway, the little WAVE in the control tower
said, "Sir, your landing gear is dangling so please land
in the grass." So I made a belly flop landing and walked
away. Back then if a Fighter Pilot didn't have a few crashes,
he was just too cautious.
Finally, we were supposed to live in the
barracks and not off base, so at night my buddies would make "Bunk
Check" for me while I was with my wife in our little one-room
apartment.
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