רוצים לראות איך זה היה פעם על נושאת מטוסים?

Wonder what flight pay was back then???


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7166330178234459087

Point of interest...about 3 minutes 20 seconds into the clip, you will see

an F6F Hellcat, it's hydraulics shot away during a strafing run, pancake on

the carrier deck and slew into the island. A deckhand was crushed between

the aircraft and the superstructure and killed. The number on the plane is

30.

The lanky pilot sitting dazed in the cockpit is a gentleman named Andy

Cowan. He is hale and hearty at 87 and lives just north of Salinas, Ca. To

this day he cannot recall this accident without a tear coming to his eye.

The swabby who was killed was his crew chief.

Andy is a marvel. He has absolute total recall of those bygone days. He is

regularly invited back to the Naval War College to give a power point

demonstration to the young fighter jocks of today's Navy. They hang on his

every word. A living link to the past... to the days when you got up close and

personal to kill the enemy. No over-the-horizon missile kills...

Andy was the longest serving Navy fighter pilot in WWII. He was on his

shakedown cruise off Gitmo on December 7th, 1941. The carrier Ranger made

flank speed to Norfolk and the pilots were transhipped to San Francisco by

train, then sped to Hawaii by ship. He saw Pearl not long after the sneak

attack, and again is unable to speak of it... a horrible disaster. He

immediately went aboard the Lexington and in the course of the war had 4

carriers shot out from under hi m as he fought in every major Pacific battle.

Coral Sea, Midway, Battle of Santa Cruz, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima... you name

it. Credited with 4.5 kills. Flew with Butch O'Hare, Cmdr Thatch (inventor

of the 'Thatch Weave'), flew with high scoring ace David McCampbell... served under Admirals Nimitiz, Bull Halsey...

He has studied the Japanese side of the Pacific War and is a recognized

expert on their side of it. He can reel off the names of all their capital

ships and admirals and battles from memory. Remarkable man... and still alive

to tell the tale...