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  • Well three more Ready Reserve ships have left for across the Bay leaving only three. Strange looking around on the flight deck now. Without the Cape Henry we now have an unobstructed view south all the way down to San Jose so to speak. Can definitely see the San Mateo Bridge and even the Dumbarton on a very clear day. Turning down the road for the Hornet you can see the Hornet immediately now.

    Only had 4 hours today because of picking my son up from school. With the high winds spent the time on something familiar to many. Sailors man your brooms. Swept down O11, all around the Island on O7, port side O6 and O5, starboard side O6, inside Nav Bridge, and port side forward gun sponson. O11 and O7 are always interesting as there must be some carnivorous birds in the area. Find, torsos, wings, legs mostly striped to the bones.

    We also had a TV production on board for Netflix. What I don't know so will have to wait and see.

    Learned that our F-8 pilot, Willie Sharp got out of ICU where he was for 7-8 days in two hospitals. Had a shoulder infection, a hip infection and knee infection. How I don't know. However, I learned Willie's history as a Lt. flying the F-11 Tiger and F-8 Crusader. Got his wings in 1964 and was flying over North Vietnam in 1965. He was shot down that year, in an F-8, and the story you turn up is that it was over Tonkin Gulf. No, he was shot down over Haiphong and parachuted into the harbor. Once down the ever present junk came by and grabbed him. Two men on the junk with one having a rifle. He motioned for Willie's service revolver which he handed over. Meanwhile, due to his mayday, a couple of Spads appeared and glided up behind the junk. When they passed the junk the fellow with the rifle started to shoot at them. Willie pulled out his second gun (his XO suggested to wives that their men would do well to have a second gun just in case) and shot the guy with the rifle. The other fellow had the service revolver and he turned to shoot at Willie. Bang, nothing. Second bang, nothing again. Willie turns to fire and the man jumps overboard. The XO told his men to keep one or two empty rounds at the top. Mainly for guys screwing around in their state rooms. That was interesting since the XO must have seen some accidents. So Willie kept two empty rounds in his gun.

    Now with the two Spads flying around the junk Willie goes back into the water and gets in his life raft. He paddles out towards the sea as a rescue helo comes in to get him. He is picked up up the line but they don't have time to haul him all the way in as the helo hopscotches away from the harbor. Once clear he is pulled aboard. Willie has been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, 12 Air Medals, Purple Heart (shoulder damaged during ejection), and Navy Commendation with Combat V Medal. His later life was spent with United Airlines and he was Captain of the Year in 1999. Willie is now 79.

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    • What an incredible story!!!
      “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
      Mark Twain

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      • I found out he was interviewed by the local PBS doing s story coinciding with the Ken Burns release.

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        • About being shot down

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          • Today I happened to be on the Hanger Deck at the right time as a pre-restoration inspection was to be made of Special Weapons down on 4th and 5th decks. It is going to be opened to the public for docent tours when finished. First cross ventilation had to be rigged up because of the stale air down there. The compartments are actually very clean outside some red lead paint in a few locations and the Navy's ever present mark-a-lot DC 8/89 on doors and drawers. Two of our docents were quite familiar with the space. What I found interesting is that this particular space had a dumb waiter to bring food down along with 16 racks for sailors. The entrance is right next to the Marine Station so it seems these guys didn't get out much. Didn't have my camera with me as it was 10 decks above at the time. Next time down there I will.

            What it all means is that now 2nd and 3rd decks are down and completely open. Most of fourth deck is too except maybe a few spots. Now Special Weapons and after that possibly Fwd Aux Machinery and Aft Aux Machinery. Docents need to bring you down below 2nd deck. So if one wants to see a complete WW II Essex Class carrier it would be the Hornet as the other three can't match this.

            The Kitty Hawk is starting to look better. Seems the people up there once again thought our Chief Engineer from 1999-2005 was still with us. They don't like him to be polite. They didn't call us about the Ranger till we did and explained he was gone. Apparently they forgot again which was why we didn't get a heads up once again. Cleared that up and now fingers are crossed.

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            • TBM3Fan,

              The Kitty Hawk is starting to look better. Seems the people up there once again thought our Chief Engineer from 1999-2005 was still with us. They don't like him to be polite. They didn't call us about the Ranger till we did and explained he was gone. Apparently they forgot again which was why we didn't get a heads up once again. Cleared that up and now fingers are crossed.
              Please explain - interesting, but I'm totally lost on this!

              One of our mech. engineers was in SDiego last week for a HVAC air handler FAT in Tiajuanna, MX and had time to visit MIDWAY. He was an MM2 in MIDWAY in the '80s and was quite impressed with what they've done with the ship.

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              • Originally posted by bbvet View Post
                TBM3Fan,



                Please explain - interesting, but I'm totally lost on this!

                One of our mech. engineers was in SDiego last week for a HVAC air handler FAT in Tiajuanna, MX and had time to visit MIDWAY. He was an MM2 in MIDWAY in the '80s and was quite impressed with what they've done with the ship.
                The Chief Engineer I mentioned, ex-Navy, was once up in Bremerton parts hunting early on. Apparently he so pissed off the folks who ran the program with his constant directions that they decided to never call the Hornet again. So ten years later when we were not called about the Ranger we found out about that reason and got an invitation. When our guy was talking to them on the phone and said he was long gone he could hear cheers in the background. However, it seems the info didn't permeate all the way around so the same problem was occurring with the Kitty Hawk which has now been corrected again. Meaning a possible ??? trip to the Kitty Hawk before she is scrapped.

                Well Midway is not a WW II Essex Class carrier for one.

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                • OK - good explanation. Hopefully, you can find things you need from KH - I'm sure some items are virtually impossible to replace or find these days.

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                  • Well time to post some pictures. Haven't been down to the ship since April when I got fed up with some docents.

                    I went down this past Saturday, because I was off and a large group of volunteers are down on this day. Time to see them all and also see what is new.

                    What is new is that work is being down on the gutters of L1 which are around the perimeter of the elevator deck. When it rains the well on L1 is like Bridal Vail Falls inside. Some areas are so bad that they are being cut out and new pieces fabricated and then welded in. Good areas are being needle gunned and then painted.

                    Last shot of the cables for the elevator exiting from way down below.
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                    • The boat sponson has been cleaned up. Has been used as a storage area for stuff that was basically junk in my opinion. Well the junk has been cleaned out and junked.

                      In the background is an interesting piece. Can anyone figure out what it's purpose is?

                      Last shot is off a ramp to the scissors lift that brings up whatever from band equipment, to food, to handicap who want to tour the hanger deck. Volunteer built.
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                      • Is it a garbage or laundry shoot? It's been years nearly 50 years. My father was an LSO on the Essex Class carrier and I thought to evacuate the LSO platform, there was was a trunk and some padding. I was about 8 at the time so I am not that sure of if that is even correct.

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                        • Originally posted by Dazed View Post
                          Is it a garbage or laundry shoot? It's been years nearly 50 years. My father was an LSO on the Essex Class carrier and I thought to evacuate the LSO platform, there was was a trunk and some padding. I was about 8 at the time so I am not that sure of if that is even correct.
                          Here is an LSO platform. See that net below as that is where you are suppose to jump to in order to escape a wayward aircraft.
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                          • Ah, the joys of scraping paint in difficult to reach areas for one and off galvanized steel for another on October 6th.
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                            • A bird's nest that I missed somehow. It won't happen next year given the mess. October 20th.
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                              • Meanwhile the view from 20 stories. Downtown Oakland, downtown San Francisco in the 9:00am haze, Port of Oakland, and south over Alameda which makes me the highest in the entire island.
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