My five (victories) in the late afternoon and evening of April 6,
1945, was a piece of cake - thanks to good training, equipment,
maintenance, wingman and fighter direction ( plus plenty of bogies
in the immediate area.)

Reiteration of the details would be boring to any of you who have
pulled the trigger on six fifties (or four twenties) while looking at
a target through a reflector gun sight. So I will tell you about
getting aboard the carrier on a dark moonless night . . with the fuel
guage way down . . in the ' red zone '.

Finding the carrier during the day is fairly routine . . if you've
kept your wind vector [and your task group vector ] correctly updated
during the four or so hours you have been beyond radar contact.

The YEIZB VHF Navigation System usually worked well enough to get
you within visual range of the ships if you had the current ' shackle
code ' [ written down ] on your knee pad.

This night . . in addition to strict radio silence and blackout - my
YE/ZB was of no help because my 4 hour ' shackle code ' had expired.

At that moment in time I perceived a bunch of phosphorescent wakes
perpendicular to my course and it was time for an instantaneous
decision: "Turn right" .. OR "Turn left", with not enough fuel to make
it ( to the carrier ) if you turned in the wrong direction.

I guess you analyze and decide quite quickly when your life is on the
string. So I turned left on the hypothesis that the enemy territory of
Okinawa was to the right . . and the open sea was to the left. ( So
what ?) Because of having some bad experiences with Kamikazes, the
carriers were not sticking around too close to land ( so that was my
best guess at that moment ).

With diminishing low fuel, I picked a large wake in the midst of the
many smaller wakes. Almost immediately I saw a tiny blinking red light
ahead, and I dropped hook, gear & flaps for a cautious let down.

Then I picked up the small hooded deck centerline lights ahead and the
LSO's fluorescent signal paddles to the left. At this point, I was now
feeling right at home after up to three landings per day at that stage
of the Okinawa thing.

Bottom line, I was landing on the wrong carrier ( Bennington vs.
Hornet ) but that's a 'nother story.

My hunt and peck finger is getting tired, so that's all for now.

' Ace In A Day ' Bill Hardy