Lieutenant Commander Jeff Zeberlein, U.S. Navy
In January 2017 on board the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) on the first day of my first deployment. Flying from Lemoore, California, we were among the first wave of F/A-18s to arrive. It was snowing, with the worst visibility I have still ever seen. First pass waved off—never saw the ship. Came around again, saw the ship a half mile away. Trapped, and after that, the air boss sent the rest of the aircraft back home.
Commander Gregory Atchison, U.S. Navy (Retired)
I was the bombardier/navigator in the KA-6D Intruder last night tanker and the rain was pounding on our windscreen. Following a “right for lineup” call at the start, my brain kept rolling right until I was sure we were in a 90-degree angle of bank—worst vertigo I ever had. Only as we came over the ramp did my gyros cage. As we sat in the wires, my pilot said, “I had really bad vertigo back there.”
Captain Rodger Welch, U.S. Navy (Retired)
On board the USS Constellation (CV-64) off the coast of Hawaii in 1984. Heavy thunderstorm followed by fog. I commence a vector—300 feet, 200 feet, 150 feet . . . still no ship/no ball. On centerline according to needles. I break out, but I’m on the right side of the island. CAG paddles calls, “Contact, come left!” I trap on the two wire on the fly staying at military power in the wires long enough for the boss to shout, “Power on deck, we got you son!”
Jim Heldberg, U.S. Navy Veteran
I was an ensign on the USS Bexar (APA-237) in 1964 in the South China Sea, preparing to land troops in Vietnam. I hung from a helicopter’s rope seat during a transfer to the USS Princeton (LPH-5)—definitely not first-class accommodation.
Thomas McReynolds, U.S. Navy Veteran
In 1960, during an antisubmarine warfare exercise, I had to return to my destroyer from the aircraft carrier. The transfer was by helicopter and a drop-by line to the fantail. When the helicopter got to the destroyer and had me in the sling and outboard ready to lower, it was unable to hover because of air density and temperature. I had to be transferred via highline.
Steve McDonald, U.S. Navy Veteran
On my first flight into the Gulf of Mexico from Pensacola to find the USS Lexington (CVS-16) in a T-28 Trojan, the instructor says, “There’s the boat.” I didn’t see anything. He said, “At nine o’clock.” All I saw was a postage stamp with a wisp of cigarette smoke coming off it. It never got larger when landing.
Andrew J. Hines, U.S. Navy Veteran
Approaching the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) at anchor in Augusta Bay, Sicily, June 1988. My S-3 Viking enters the overhead break. I look down, Union Jack at the bow. Downwind, Catania homes, barrel-tile roofs, gear/flaps down, I am 200 feet above steep hills. No ship’s wake for line up, fast and high, “704 Viking Ball 5.8.” I catch the four wire.
Vice Admiral Robert F. Dunn, U.S. Navy (Retired)
It was a beautiful day in the Mediterranean. The ship was steady on course with 30 knots of wind across the deck. An A-4 Skyhawk was on the approach for landing. The Skyhawk was right on glide slope and right on centerline; but as he got close, he began to settle a bit. The LSO called for a little power, which in response the nugget pilot applied a little too much. This caused the aircraft to “go over the top” and land long, beyond the arresting cables. The normal procedure in that situation is to go to 100 percent power, takeoff, reenter the landing pattern and try again; but the pilot did not add power!
Instead, the aircraft sank off the angled deck and everyone waited for the splash; but it never came. After leaving the flight deck the pilot did add power and, creating a rooster tail in the water beneath him, he climbed to what observers estimated must have been forty thousand feet.
The next landing pass was much like the first—a little settle in close, add power, touch down long, but this time he did go to full power. The aircraft leapt off the deck and the pilot punched out!
After he was plucked out of the water by the nearby helicopter, the flight surgeon determined that the pilot had made up his mind after the first landing attempt that if he ever again missed a wire he was going to punch out—and he did!
Commander Donald R Lincoln, U.S. Navy Reserve (Retired)
In June 1963, as an ensign air-intercept controller on board the USS Ticonderoga (CVA-14), during cross-training with Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 11 Detachment Bravo, I had my first flight in any aircraft—a carrier launch and an arrested landing in a Grumman WF-2 Tracer. Firsts are always memorable.
Commander Jim Kelly, U.S. Navy (Retired)
In 1968, I flew on a C-2 Greyhound (carrier onboard delivery) from Cubi Point, the Philippines, to the USS Bon Homme Richard (CV-31) on Dixie Station off the Mekong Delta, South Vietnam. We boltered three times, and I quit bracing for the landing. When we caught the wire, I thought I had been sucked into a marshmallow. Never did that again!
Commander Mark Davis, U.S. Navy (Retired)
While in the Caribbean in 1973, our SH-2D Seasprite’s magnetic anomaly detector (MAD) bird jammed with 200 feet of cable out. We went into a very high hover over our destroyer and a pilot on deck talked us down, successfully getting the MAD and our aircraft onboard. Later that year in the Mediterranean, before visual landing aids, I brought my SH-2D in, at night, over water to a destroyer. Never routine, but the landing signalman told me afterward he saw my lower rotator merge with its reflection in the water.
Captain Robert C. Rubel, U.S. Navy (Retired)
Landing number 880 was the most interesting. At 0230 in the morning during a recovery on the USS Eisenhower (CVN-69), I was a former A-7 Corsair II pilot who was now very comfortable in the F/A-18 Hornet, but also tired. On approach, I started a little high start and then made an A-7-style correction. Immediate wave-off lights, max burner, reset the nose! Barely cleared the ramp and got the one wire.
Commander Mike Murray, U.S. Navy (Retried)
After spending 45 minutes in a stormy Mediterranean Sea one dark night in November 1979, we made a single-engine water takeoff back to the USS Independence (CV-62). Not knowing how heavy the SH-3 was because of water intrusion, we made a single-engine no-hover landing to spot three.
OG Lacy Jr., U.S. Navy Veteran
On 4 February 1971, during an F-8 Crusader night trap on the USS Midway (CV-41), after six bolters because of unnoticed hook point failure.
Captain Tom Clarity, U.S. Navy
On a dark night off Korea, the number of small, poorly lit fishing boats made our base recovery course look like the maritime equivalent of the Los Angeles freeway in rush hour. As a naval flight officer, I had been fortunate to fly with talented pilots. As the captain’s stand-in on the bridge, I was acutely conscious that any mistakes I made would make an already challenging recovery even more difficult.
Bob McIntyre, U.S. Navy Veteran
Being a radio division officer on board the USS Coral Sea (CVA-43) from 1959–62, I never landed myself. But I often visited the signal bridge during air recoveries, and I will never forget watching the A-3D Skywarrior bombers perform night landings during driving rainstorms. Those pilots really earned our admiration.
Chief Petty Officer Patrick S. Corrie, U.S. Navy (Retired)
Years ago, when I was a young Marine, I had heard an anecdotal story about a C-130 Hercules that landed on an aircraft carrier. Fifty years later, I stumbled across a YouTube video that documented the event. The test happened on the USS Forrestal (CV-59) with preliminary approaches, touch-and-goes, and unassisted recoveries and launches. Just observing the touch-and-goes was dramatic enough, but watching the landings and launches was incredible.
Alan L. Williams, U.S. Navy Veteran
In 1968, I was communication officer for Commander, Carrier Division One. An E-2 Hawkeye traps and after coming to a stop (fortunately), the empennage separated from the rest of the aircraft. The tail surfaces, sitting at a 45-degree angle from the rest of the fuselage. It was quite a sight.
William M. Twaddell, U.S. Navy Veteran
In 1972 on a French foreign-exchange cruise. Post-meal, relaxing with 2 NROTC Midshipmen. Alouette naval helicopter swooped above holding perfect station and radioed to report to the commanding officer that a radioman misplaced the Squadron Rear Admiral’s lunch invitation. He needed service dress khaki asap. After a three-minute uniform race, he was whisked to the command ship for a formal lunch. Fabulous day!
Captain Greg McLaughlin, U.S. Navy (Retired)
So last week’s landing on Frontier Airlines in Denver doesn’t count? Wasn’t sure if we had landed or been shot down. Harder than any carrier landing I have ever been part of.
David Robinson, U.S. Navy Veteran
In 1979, USS Blakely (FF-1072) was between Florida and the Bahamas getting into a storm. An SH-2 Seasprite approached and went into hover and began matching the rock and roll of the flight deck. Then—bam!—it landed. Chocks, chains, fold rotors and tail, roll the hangar. Unbelievable.
Captain Gerald E. Rogers, U.S. Navy (Retired)
First trip in an airplane. I was ordered to the USS Lake Champlain (CVS-39) and reported to Naval Air Station Quonset Point, Rhode Island, and, the next morning, to base operations. Two hours later we made an arrested landing on board the Lake Champlain en route to the Cuban Blockade.
Colonel Mark A. Olinger, U.S. Army (Retired)
While supporting Operation Earnest Will, I accompanied U.S. Army Task Force 118 aircrews on resupply missions to U.S. Navy frigates throughout the Arabian Gulf, and to the mobile sea barge Hercules.