A slightly different CAG story.

One of the many crosses that a junior Stoof CAPC (Carrier Air Plane
Commander) had to bear was riding "shotgun" with nuggets during FCLPs.

One night I had just finished with nugget number 3 and thought I was done
when the LSO directed me to taxi to the platform for one more. I thought
that was unusual, as we generally switched seats on the squadron line. But
I headed over and my nugget climbed out of the left seat and was I surprised
when CAG 56 hisself climbed in!

I had never met him before, only knew he was a rotorhead and generally flew
with one of the HS squadrons. He was pleasant and while we were getting
ready to go informed me that the last time he had done any fixed wing FCLPs
was in a Turkey at Block Island. ("Turkey" in this case was the Original
Turkey, the TBM.)

My only thought was, "Oh, ****."

So when he was all strapped in and we had done a quick run-up we got cleared
for take off. His taxi was not too bad, but he did try to over-rotate a bit
on lift off. I was "spring loaded" to the "I've got it" position after he
tried to make a 50-degree angle of bank turn to the downwind (this is a
Stoof, remember) but managed to get to the 180 pretty much on altitude,
heading and airspeed.

We rolled into the groove and he bore-sighted the mirror. Right, dead,
square in the center of the windscreen. The LSO called "lineup" but nothing
happened. Airspeed and attitude were OK. A second "LINEUP" call also
resulted in no change.

About now I was mentally reviewing 3710 and contemplating my future career.
He was the CAG and could do what he wanted, but I was signed for the
aircraft. In the end, I figured a bad FITREP was better than a smoking hole
and yelled "WAVEOFF" as I popped the throttles out of his hand and was a
starting to apply pressure on the yoke. Fortune was smiling on me, however,
for as I yelled "WAVEOFF" so did the LSO. The waveoff lights corresponded
with my push on the throttles and he was reacting only about a nanosecond
after me. I don't think he ever knew that I had momentary control of the
aircraft.

As soon as I saw that he was flying again, I backed off. As we turned
downwind (we were the last plane in the pattern) he turned to me and said,
"Kind of close, huh?" I just said, "Yes, Sir, just a bit!"

Again the downwind leg was OK and we hit a good 180. And he rolled out
again in the groove with the mirror right in the center of the windshield.
We got one "lineup" call, then a very early waveoff. (I was later informed
by our squadron LSO that on our first approach, for the first time in living
memory, all hands abandoned the LSO cart during FCLPs.)

The next pass we lined up kind of on center line (but definitely not on the
mirror). We touched down long (he tried to pull back on the yoke, almost
like he wanted to hover, but my hand was in the way) and the LSO said, "OK,
225, you're done." Oh, happy day!

He made pleasant small talk as we taxied in and shut down. I told him I
would take care of putting the aircraft to bed. He thanked me for the
flight, and was gone. To the best of my knowledge he never again flew a
stiff wing bird either at the field or the boat. And that was probably a
Good Thing.

Bill Kambic

If, by any act, error, or omission, I have, intentionally or
unintentionally, displayed any breedist, disciplinist, sexist, racist,
culturalist, nationalist, regionalist, localist, ageist, lookist, ableist,
sizeist, speciesist, intellectualist, socioeconomicist, ethnocentrist,
phallocentrist, heteropatriarchalist, or other violation of the rules of
political correctness, known or unknown, I am not sorry and I encourage you
to get over it.

"Gordon" wrote in message
...
Here's 'nother CAG/Tomcat story -- during one of the "killer May"
evolutions, we ran out of F-14s, literally.

Ha! That Ubangi A-7 pilot that got to be "fighter pilot for a day"
couldn't
have been happier - the May inbound looked like all the previous ones,
except
it had an A-7 "fighter escort"! The Tomcat hung off to the side, as if
it
didn't want to be seen in the same formation )

The only up jet was the
one CAG was flying as all the alerts kept going down on deck. Sooooo,
we tanked him and kept him airborne...for 5 or 6 cycles as I recall (I
remember passing him off to the oncoming E-2 as we RTB'd, sometimes
it's good not to have IFR capability). I also recall he was kind of
stiff when he finally landed and got out of the jet

LOL


My first encounter w/CAG came during my first underway period
(workups) as a newly minted NFO (Ensign-type) standing my very first
SDO watch underway. Our CO was standing in for CAG at 8 o'clock
reports that night (cue the foreboding music). He had had a long
night/day already and when he got back from his flight, headed for the
rack, asking me to wake him about .5 prior to 8 o'clocks. "Sure
skipper, no problem" 1805 and CAG office called "politely" asking (as
only the 5MC would permit) (a) where is the CO for 8 o'clocks and (b)
for my presence in CAG office, pronto. Stopped by, woke up CO enroute
who rolled his eyes and said he'd meet me there (CAG Office). After
cooling my heels for a few tension filled minutes, I was summoned in
whereupon CAG thundered "Ensign, why wasn't your CO at 8 o'clocks and
just what the h*ll were you thinking?" I looked him straight on and
said (quite honestly, I might add...) "Jeez CAG, I thought 8 o'clocks
went down at 8 o'clock....?" The choking sound I heard I later
attributed to CAGOPS trying not to laugh out loud. CAG stopped, tried
to say something and finally just threw me out of the office... Of
course, our SWO made sure I got the requisite training all new SDOs
should get, as well as ample opportunity to put said training to
practice for the next week :/

Beats my first encounter with him. I was a pup, not old enough to
drink/shave/vote/etc., and our first portcall was the Bahamas. Remember
the
Playboy Club? I ditched my E-1-to-E-3 friends and raced to that club's
bar/casino and had myself an awful tasting tequila sunrise. While I was
busy
trying to not blow it out on the floor, the slightly surly gent beside me
at
the bar looked on as if I was going to be first to be voted off the
island. No
uniform, but I could tell by the way he growled that he was used to giving
orders to 17 year olds... I found another seat and switched to Tres
Generations (good call!), while he sat alone at the end of the bar with
all his
'friends'. Back on the boat, I passed him one day and realized I had had
a
close brush with CAG. To show how much of a kid I was, I honestly thought
CAG
and the Air Boss were the same guy - and I was used to the Boss bellowing
for
me by then.

"Plane Captain, Seven Four Seven, man your damned aiiiirrrrrrplane!" I
used to
hear that one in my sleep.

- obviously. )

Will, have you ever written it all down? I bet you could put together
something with a career like yours. If you need pix of Ike, let me know -
I
took hundreds on that cruise (already looked - I have a couple good shots
of
one of your birds on the cat at readiness, but unforch its a bit soft
focused).

v/r
Gordon