Received this from Richard Perrey:
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Our Navy Pilots back then were Heroes as are our guys today!!
F6F AND F4U CARRIER OPS...WW II
This video is awesome. Read the story before you watch it. Incredible.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7166330178234459087Point of interest...about 3 minutes 20 seconds into the clip, you will see an F6F Hellcat, it's hydraulics shot away during a strafing run, pancake on the carrier deck and slew into the island. A deckhand was crushed between the aircraft and the superstructure and killed. The number on the plane is 30.
The lanky pilot sitting dazed in the cockpit is a gentleman named Andy Cowan, a friend of mine. He is hale and hearty at 87 and lives just north of Salinas, Ca. To this day he cannot recall this accident without a tear coming to his eye. The swabby who was killed was his crew chief.
Andy is a marvel. He has absolute total recall of those bygone days. He is regularly invited back to the Naval War College to give a power point demonstration to the young fighter jocks of today's Navy. They hang on his every word. A living link to the past..to the days when you got up close and personal to kill the enemy. No over-the-horizon missile kills..
Andy was the longest serving Navy fighter pilot in WWII. He was on his shakedown cruise off Gitmo on December 7th, 1941. The carrier Ranger made flank speed to Norfolk and the pilots were transhipped to San Francisco by train, then sped to Hawaii by ship. He saw Pearl not long after the sneak attack, and again is unable to speak of it...a horrible disaster. He immediately went aboard the Lexington and in the course of the war had 4 carriers shot out from under him as he fought in every major Pacific battle. Coral Sea, Midway, Battle of Santa Cruz, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima...you name it. Credited with 4.5 kills. Flew with Butch O'Hare, Cmdr Thatch (inventor of the "Thatch Weave"), flew with high scoring ace David McCampbell...served under Admirals Nimitiz, Bull Halsey...
He has studied the Japanese side of the Pacific War and is a recognized expert on their side of it. He can reel off the names of all their capital ships and admirals and battles from memory. Remarkable man...and still alive to tell the tale...
Tom Lambrick
