Sea Story For Woody

On 9/6/04 2:01 PM, in article , "Mike
Kanze" wrote:

Since Woody just asked for sea stories, I'll try to oblige. Unfortunately
this one came to me third or fourth-hand, so its provenance is uncertain,
thus the customary "TINS" acronym will be omitted.

Owl,

In kind...

A guy I knew in the FRS, Will "Rooster" Royster was finishing out his tour
with VA-115 just before the squadron transitioned to Hornets (and before the
Super Hornet transition too). They were at sea with CVW-5 on INDY
supporting a RIMPAC with the JMDSF. Circa 1996.

Seems that like most senior JO's or O-4 non-DH's, he drew the short stick to
drag the TDU's across the sky. Towing targets so that the small boys can
fire their CIWS. I've flown the missions myself, and I remember that I
wasn't too excited about it. Lots of droning around worrying about whether
the TDU was really 500 feet above the water and if it was sagging in the
turn or not. Occasionally, we'd tow for some foreign ship. I even towed
one for the Russians post-cold-war. In short, it was just another way of
being yanked from a bombing or ACM hop to drone around on some
administrative mission.

Anyway, such is Rooster's lot. He's droning around in a race track pattern
perpendicular to the ship's course on his first run. He give's them an
"inbound at 8 (miles)" call on the radio. The next step would be for him to
call "cleared hot" after he passes over the ship. At that point, only the
target is exposed to the live weapon, and the frigate has about 2 1/2 to 3
miles to pop the target with those DU 20mm shells. How monotonous.

He never gets that far. Shortly after getting settled wings level on the
inbound leg, he feels a THUMP, THUMP, THUMP.

Not good.

All electrical power vanishes (day/VMC). Rooster reaches behind him with
his left hand and pulls the RAT handle to deploy the air-driven generator on
the top of the left wing root. He looks over his shoulder to ensure it's
out in the breeze, but instead of the RAT on the wing, he sees that the
whole aft end of the jet is a fireball.

Really not good.

As he brings his gaze back into the cockpit, he notices that the controls
have frozen up. The airplane is starting an uncommanded roll to the right.
His B/N, LT Keith Douglas has "assumed the position." Less than a second
later, he's in the breeze watching his jet go down in smoke and flames.
They've just been shot down by the Japanese.

Here's where the story diverges a bit. The news reports that both aviators
were picked up by the Japanese and that their injuries were "non life
threatening."

In reality, LT Douglas was picked up by the Japanese, but Rooster (whose
nose was "degloved" by the microphone in his O2 mask as his helmet was
ripped from his head during the ejection) waves off the Japanese rescue
boat. He's in his raft, bloody and angry and refuses to be rescued by
anybody that just shot him down. He gets picked up by helo a few minutes
later.

Navy docs did a great job repairing him. I saw him a few months later and
couldn't even detect any scarring.

The Japanese invited he and his B/N to a reception to offer a formal
apology. He either refused to go or refused to accept it (can't remember
which). Minor diplomatic international incident. President Clinton
accepted Japan's apology.

Last I heard, Rooster was flying for United.

--Woody