The Association Was Born...
In 1978, those who served on the Hannah gathered in Atlantic City, New Jersey, reunited for the first time, and resulted in the founding of the USS Hancock Association
by "plank owner",
Edmund Orchowski
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The Association Was Born... In 1978, those who served on the Hannah gathered in Atlantic City, New Jersey, reunited for the first time, and resulted in the founding of the USS Hancock Association by "plank owner", Edmund Orchowski |
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OUR
MISSION: the memory of the USS Hancock CV/CVA-19
and
the men who served aboard her.
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Departments
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The Fuel Stop Submitted by: Tom Wimberly On the 1955-56 WesPac Cruise of the USS KEARSARGE, (CV-33), I was a "nugget" (first cruise) LTJG flying the McDonnel F2H3 Banshee with VF-141. Vf-141 was a "dual mission" squadron, which meant we did night flying (which was still fairly new for jets in those days) and also "Special Weapons" bombing. Special Weapons was how we referred to nuclear weapons at the time. During a special exercise, I was fortunate to get scheduled to fly a special mission to drop a T-63 "shape" on a little rock in the ocean somewhere between Japan and the Philippines. The T-63 was a full-scale dummy of a Mark 7 nuclear bomb. It weighed 1,600 pounds, which is a pretty heavy load for a Banshee. My chase plane for the hop was flown by the squadron XO, Big Al Yesensky, a WWII fighter pilot. Yesensky loved to embarrass the junior officers by challenging them to do a one-arm pushup which he could do with no sweat. I flew the flight profile, dropped the dummy bomb, and headed back to the Kearsarge, checking the clock and fuel gage. It was apparent that we had an unexpected high headwind for our return Kearsarge. Big Al was a couple of steps ahead of me in rank, experience, and thinking ahead (thank goodness!) He announced to me, "You're not going to be able to make it back to the ship." Fuel was no problem for him, he hadn't been lugging that 1,600 pound, 30-inch diameter dummy bomb. As I was pondering over the significance of his message, and wondering how this could be happening to me, Big Al got on the radio and found there was another carrier -- USS HANCOCK, CVA-19, and it was much closer then the KEARSARGE. You're going to the Hancock," says Big Al. And so I did, and thank goodness it was around. I would have run out of fuel before getting back to my carrier. This would have meant ejecting and taking a swim. I landed aboard Hannah with 700 pounds of fuel remaining which is much lower than we liked to have for a landing when operating off a carrier. I don't remember anything about my stay aboard Hannah, except that I was really very anxious to get launched with the new steam catapults. It was much easier than from a hydraulic catapult, which just hit you with the tremendous blast the first instant. The steam cats started you off easier, and then took your breath away with the continued acceleration as you went down the track. Thanks Big Al for seeing me safely aboard and thanks Hannah for saving me from taking a swim.
PS: George Jarrett, Hans Grimm, James Ploor, Thomas Sena, Joaquin Garcia, Salty Green, Rupert Castillo, Edgar Warriner, Ed Funderburk, Robert Larson: You were all in the Air Department about the same time all this happened. Do any of you remember a strange Banshee coming aboard?
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