Midway (CVA 41) - Naval Cruise Book

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For the bombardiers and third crewmen there were higher altitudes and higher speeds to contend with. Celestial navigation had to be done more quickly. The radar return was different at thirty five thousand feet, and reaction time was shorter. A myriad of small difficulties of coordination had to be ironed out. All these things meant — FLIGHT TIME. The planes and the radar had to be up. For the AQ ' s in the ASB shop, the period of relative calm, which prevailed over the first months at Whidbey, was at an end. They now joined the AM ' s, AT ' s, PR ' s, AE ' s, and AD ' s at work late into the night trouble shooting the planes downed to get them up for the next day ' s launches. We settled into a routine that demanded more than routine hours. December, January, February passed. It is difficult to determine progress from the inside. We knew we were learning but how much? Were we progressing quickly enough? How did we stand in comparison with other VAH units? The squadron soon got some indications in March. With the MIDWAY just off the coast of the Olympic Peninsula, and with EIGHT flying sorties from Ault Field to the ship, the pilots racked up an impressive total of one hundred thirty four arrestments in one day. In April, EIGHT was chosen to represent the West in a bombing competition sponsored by Douglas. When it was over EIGHT lost by a surprisingly small margin. Two of her crews had placed second and third respectively in the awards given to individual crew performance. EIGHT had come a long way. By late June it appeared we would be ready for deployment in August. Cdr. Fraser received orders to the War College in Newport, Rhode Island, and Cdr. Woodson became the Commanding Officer on the last Saturday of July. In August, the cruise was well underway, and the process of learning had begun again the co-ordination with the ship — flying missions that began with a cat shot and ended with a trap. The overall treatment of the aircraft, necessarily more harsh, demanded more maintenance. The hours grew longer. A year of working on the plane and ASB paid off. Once again it was fly, debrief, study the mistakes, preclude them on the next hop. In early October the Admin Department received notification that EIGHT was under consideration for the CNO National Aviation Safety Award, and, on 16 November, 1958, on the flight deck of the USS MIDWAY, Rear Admiral R.S. Clarke formally presented the plaque symbolizing the award to our Commanding Officer. In the fiscal year of 1958 the youngest of Heavy Attack ' s squadrons had flown more than three thousand hours without an aviation accident. November marked the halfway line of the cruise to most of us. After one year and six months in weapons delivery, the words to conduct high level offensive air-to-ground attack operations hold more meaning for us, and we have learned a greater respect for that meaning. And an element of this respect is the realization that there is still a way to go, still work to be done. IS K»«