Lexington (CV 16) - Naval Cruise Book

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THE LOST F4F FROM THE LISCOME BAY mt l The lost pilot explains he has never made a night landing on a carrier, air control phones him a few basic instructions, then he Hies in a landing circle around the Lex. We can hear the plane but can't see it. He must be making a good approach, two waving flashlights indicate the landing signal oHicer is telling him he is in the groove. Suddenly a silhouette appears over the fantail, the Hashlights signal-cut, he's down, his hook catches the third cable for a smooth stop . . . a perfect landing . . . the deck crew cheers in the first demonstration of any kind on this trip, they swarm around the plane. Lt. Wells, the pilot, is taken to the wardroom for chow, his plane is sent down to the hangar deck where it is entered on the records as: From Heaven-One Baby Airedale. 24 November. As enemy submarines have been reported in these waters, I have been coming up to the bridge before dawn each morning. This morning, as I grope my way around in the semi- darkness, the quartermaster points to a sudden glare of light on the horizon. A nervous speculating and theorizing as to the cause of this glare takes place between some of us. Soon we receive an alert and are rocked by a message that one of our CVE carriers has just been torpedoedg the name of the carrier is Liscomc' Bay: yes, that lost F413 we took on board last night was a plane from the Liscome Bay. Later in the morning comes the grim information that she sank twenty minutes after being hit, that the torpedo explosionwas followed by internal explosions of her own ammunition, that Rear Admiral Henry Mullinix was among the two-thirds of her personnel that-were lost. 35