I visited the Hornet last year and took a 65 year old Navy Helo swimmer that
was based on the Hornet and he took me to some really cool areas on the ship
and the guys let us in some areas not allowed for most..I really got a good
history tour by this guy..Here's what he wrote to me later about his
experience on the Hornet:

Great Stuff!
This brings back memories. We were in a task force February of 1964 we went
through the edge of a typhoon near the Sea of Japan. We had green water on
the flight deck 84' above the water line and white water on the 07 level
about 116' above the water line. We lost two aircraft that would not fit
below decks in the Hangar bay. A helicopter and a Grumman S-2 tracker. Both
of these were double chained down aft of the island but were carried away by
heavy seas. We also had 50 feet of catwalk along the starboard side from the
bow aft damaged. Numerous antennae and other parts of the ship were
damaged. It took four weeks 24/7 in port at Yokosuka, Japan in order to fix
the damage. We also saw destroyers at times almost completely submerged with
just the radar mast and stacks sticking up out of a waves as they plowed
through. Some of the Destroyers took heavy damage and had injured crewman.
They could not serve food for the duration of the storm and we had to eat
cold rations since the galleys had to be shut down. We heard the Destroyer
guys joking after we got into port that they were going to draw submarine
hazardous duty pay for the duration of that crossing. Those guys had it
tough. On our way to Australia from Japan on a Good will tour I did exchange
duty on the USS John S McCain, a Fletcher class Destroyer, and we hit
another storm. While this one was not as bad as the typhoon we had to wear
safety belt while operating the sonar gear and life jackets with carabiners
that hooked onto safety lines throughout the ship whenever we went about our
duties. The oceans of the world are an amazing, beautiful and treacherous
place. I will never forget my adventures at sea. There are times when I
actually miss it. Thanks.
JJC

He also talked about a Skyraider that landed and the arresting cables were
set to a much higher weight aircraft and it tore in two on landing due to
the tension on the wires...Crazy times and a crazy business!

Marty
"Mitchell Holman" > wrote in message
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