In August, 1962, Forrestal joined Sixth Fleet and soon we had NATO ops
with Enterprise (this was when John McCain wiped his AD/A-1 oil cooler
on trees or a power line in Spain or Portugal and fouled Enterprise's
flight deck) and I am thinking, Ark Royal, Hermes, and Foch and/or
Clemenceau. We had F4H-2/F-4B's (VF-74 Bedevilers) on their first combat
cruise, and the F-4B's on CAP were soon jumped by French Corsairs, or
vv. the CAP was vectored down low to intercept incoming Corsairs. They
met in the vicinity of Forrestal, and everyone ran to the flight deck to
watch the Corsairs turning way inside, avoiding the Phantom II's which
skidded over the horizon. It was quite a show, the Corsairs could turn
literally on a dime, the Phantom's couldn't get near them. We had a good
number of Korean vet VF- and VA- senior types in Heavy Attack, they
really got excited seeing the Corsairs. Back in the ready room I nearly
got killed when I offered that I thought my Grandpappy flew them.

It was a memorable afternoon. We had cross deck operations with Ark
Royal and Hermes, some of our crewmen spent a few days on them - they
were amazed to see hammocks still in use. It was also when Long Beach
turned unnanounced across Forrestal's bow - even after hard right rudder
and all back emergency, our maintenance crews said men started running
aft on the flight deck, you could have spit down on Long Beach's stern
as she passed just ahead.
Joel McEachen VAH-5


qui si parla Campagnolo wrote:
Greasy Rider wrote:

On 8 Jan 2007 05:48:43 -0800, "qui si parla Campagnolo"
postulated :

I thought the F-14 was tough to bring aboard. Corsair pilots, very
impressed. Gotta love paddles in shorts too, getting their tan set for
liberty.

It was my understanding that the Corsair was not an ideal aircraft for
carrier ops because of the limited forward visibility and most were
transferred over the Marines.

All true but it was flown around the boat by a few really good
aviators, had to be to be able to do it.