March 10, 1952
Monday night
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| Some of Jim's crew members maintaining machine guns. |
Hi Norma,
What's new? "Nutting" over here. it's always the same.
I'm sorry to hear that you have a cold. This makes two or three for you this winter, doesn't it? You must be unlucky.
But I've been lucky. All through the bad weather I never did have a cold.
The weather us getting better all the time, but it still isn't warm enough.
I think the big "wheels" have finally decided to win the war instead of talking the "gooks" out of it because we've been flying like "hell" for the last three days.
Where we used to fly 70 or 80 sorties per day, now we're flying a hundred or more.
Those top ten tunes you wrote about are new to me. I've never heard of any of them, except "Tell Me Why."
We have that record, "I Can't Help It" by Hank Williams.
In case you didn't notice, my pen is all "fouled up." I loaned it to one of the guys this morning and he used some sort of ink that wasn't good for it. I think now it is about washed out though.
About that clipping you sent. Since you've read it in the paper, I'll you what happened.
The was an A.D. (Attack Douglas) "guppie," which means it was equipped with radar and sonar gear and used mostly for hunting submarines. And when a sub is found, some other plane moves in and kills it.
I know the pilot pretty well. We call him "Buck" Rogers and he is one of the best we have. There are very few pilots who could have gotten it off the water. In fact, the air officer passed the word that a plane was in the water. It was dark (about 4:00 in the morning) and snowing, so nobody could see there hand in front of their face. We turned on the crash lamps but about five minutes later, he radioed back that he was O.K.
The reason it all happened was because of a faulty holdback on the catapult. We had him set up on the "lot," ready to send off and his engine was supposed to be turning up to 45 hundred RPMs, but when it got to 23 hundred RPMs, the holdback broke and off he went. And believe me, we we were "sweating" for awhile.
Rogers was a lieutenant at the time, but when he came back, they made him Lieutenant Commander. The admiral said any pilot who could do that deserved another rate, so he got it.
Norma, I started this letter about 4 days ago, but I didn't get to mail it or finish it if I had had a chance to mail it.
It is 10:15 now, we got came off the flight deck. We've been flying since 4:00 this morning.
Norm, I'm so tired I can't hardly see the paper I'm writing. We've been flying 18 hours per day since the 3rd of March, but tomorrow is refueling day and maybe we can get some rest. That is, if the "Gooks" don't come over and cheat us out of that.
Norm, 70 knots isn't the temperature, it's the speed of the wind. If the ship is going 30 MPH and the wind is blowing 50 knots across the bow, that would equal 70 knots of wind, or velocity, and it is pretty much a gale. In fact, you're pretty lucky if you can stand up in it.
No, they don't keep the mail on board until we enter port. It goes off on refueling days, which is every 4 to 10 days.
So, you got three letters from me and want to kiss me for it, "eh?" Well, just hang on until I get home.
Well, Norm, I've got to sign off before I fall off this seat.
Answer soon.
Love,
