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USS Franklin D Roosevelt CVB - 42

Sailor:

Late in the year of 1958 or 1959 (It's been to long to remember for sure) I was standing a look out watch on the FWD. port side of the 07 level, directly above the bridge. I was a radarman in OI Division, and all look outs fell under our jurisdiction. We were involved in Car- Quals, and we were steaming on fox-corpon at about 30 kts. and they were positioning a F8U Crusader on the port catapult. The bridle had been put into position, and the catapult officer had began his hand signal for the pilot to turn his power up as the JBD's rose into position for the aircraft to take off. Suddenly, the catapult chief comes out of the port side catwalk, and walking in a 1/3 bent over position, he attempted to walk under the forward section of the aircraft, and appeared to stumble on the cable that the bridle is attached to. Woosh, he was sucked into the intake of the F8U, as a vacuum cleaner would suck the dirt off of a carpet. One second he was there, the next he was gone. I remember hearing this loud POP, and a ball of fire flew out of the exhaust, that turned out to be the chief's leather jacket. The aircraft was very quickly shut down. A Doctor was on the scene very fast (I don't know if it was a flight surgeon, or ships Doctor) at any rate, he almost passed out, and had to be removed from the intake. They, at this time pulled the plane over to the #-1 elevator and lowered it into hanger bay #1. After hearing how bad it was from the Doctor that had attempted to get the chief out, they got this older marine, that had fought in WW2 and Korea to go in and get the chief out. This he did, and to everyone's surprise the chief was still alive. They did what they could for him on board, then flew him off in a TF to NAS JAX Hospital. However due to loss of blood and of course shock, he died later that same afternoon. From that day until I left the ship the F8U was known as the chief eater. During my time at sea, all of which was on carriers, I saw quite a few men die from different reasons, and also suffer severe injuries. However I looked at it this way, the navy gave us all very good training, but when you went to the fleet, especially a carrier, you better remember your training and stay alert at all times. If you do this your chances of completing your tour are very good.

Respectfully,

Larry M Easton Sr.

Eugene L. Jeffers

Service Dates=April 1944 - October 1946

=My father served on the Roosevelt on its shake down cruise from January 1946 until June 1946. He flew as a radioman/gunner in the back seat of an SB2-C. In addition to stories of F4U's banking into the ocean, he had a story similar to the "chief eater" story posted above.

While another sqaudron of SB2-C's prepared to take off from the flight deck for ceremonies honoring the new president of Brazil, Dad's sqaudron warmed up their engines on the hanger deck in case the other squadron had to abort for any reason. They were sitting in two rows of two at 45 degree angles to each other with their engines running when the chief warrant officer attempted to walk between the planes. Dad heard a terrible thump and saw a drop of blood splash across the back of his gloved hand. He vividly remembers the bloodied ceiling of the hanger deck.

In an equally freakish accident, once a 50-calibur pomp-pomp gun and a 5" gun crossed sight lines just off the side of the ship during gunnery practice. The resulting explosion killed several Marines manning the guns.

On a lighter note, Admiral Nimitz visited the new ship and wanted to take a ride in the rear seat of an SB2-C. The admiral didn't have any flight gloves and since Dad was small, like Nimitz, he loaned the admiral his gloves. Unfortunately, Dad didn't (or couldn't) save the gloves for they would be great souvenir to have today.

All in all life in the navy is always dangerous, but since Dad had trained with the understanding that some day he'd be invading Japan, the "peace time" navy of 1946 suited him just fine.

Donald E. Jeffers

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