On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 12:44:36 -0800, "W. D. Allen Sr."
postulated :
For what it's worth...

(snipped)

It was a dark and stormy night aboard the Intrepid in the fall of
1957. A twenty year old Aviation Electronics Tech (AT3) was tasked
with replacing the UHF radio (ARC-27) in FJ-3M number 204 tied down on
the flight deck. The radio set was mounted in the nose and the top
cover of the nose was held by Tzus (sp?) fasteners at the rear while
the front had two tangs that slipped into sockets forward. This
unnamed AT3 popped the fasteners and the metal cover became airborne
and was gone in the wind.

Some soul was taking a smoke break on the fan tail and saw a dark
shadow hit in the water. Man Over Board was quickly sounded and CVA-11
slowly started circling with her two DDE plane guards. Search lights
lit up the North Atlantic and there was much mustering of all hands
and naturally 15 or 20 are missing in a crew of maybe 3,500.

The AT3 knew that the cover would be found and dusted for finger
prints. The AT3 knew that the Navy would charge him for all fuel oil
and expenses encountered. The AT3 slipped quietly into the cat walk
and went to muster. The AT3 reported to his Shop Chief the next
morning that he noticed the nose cover of 204 was missing.

Has the statute of limitations run out from 1957?