opening up in front of the Tomcat. There was a tendency for pilots to feel
they were too high at this stage of the approach, but it was an illusion.
Tombstone eased up on his descent rate, conscious of the other potential
hazard, that he would over-correct and come in too high. It might result in
an embarrassing fly-by … or, if his hook caught a wire even though his
landing gear wasn’t on the deck, it could end up in a messy crash.
Nearing the half-mile point, Magruder could see the carrier taking on a
ghostly shape for the first time. Now he could use the visual clues that
simplified carrier landings, including the meatball. There was the usual
burst of confidence, and the usual quick realization that there was nothing to
be confident about yet. As the last few seconds of the approach ticked away
the impression that the deck was really just a square hole came back stronger
than ever.
“Come down, Stoney. Down a little,” the LSO said urgently. Magruder
could picture him getting ready to punch the button on the “pickle switch” in
his hands that would signal a wave-off and send the Tomcat back in the air for
another run. Tombstone compensated, knowing that too much correction could
slam the plane into the ramp.
The landing gear hit hard as the Tomcat touched down, and Tombstone
realized instantly that he had overshot the ideal touchdown point. Four
arresting wires stretched across the deck, and the optimum landing was one
that snagged the number-three wire. The F-14 had been high, and missed that
one.
He shoved the throttle full forward, according to standard procedure, so
that the Tomcat could get airborne again if it missed the “trap.” Even though
it was common enough to botch a night landing he felt his face turning red
with anger and embarrassment. For Tombstone Magruder, the great naval hero
and the new Deputy CAG, to pull a bolter on his first approach …
But sudden deceleration caught him by surprise as the tail hook caught
the four wire and the Tomcat jerked to a halt. “Good trap! Good trap!” he
heard in his headphones.
They were down.
2331 hours Zulu (2131 hours Zone)
Tomcat 204, Hound Flight
Over the North Atlantic
“Gotcha! I’ve got our boy nailed, compadre. Bearing zero-four-one,
range eighty-three miles. He’s down on the deck. A hundred, maybe a hundred
fifty feet.”
“Nice going, Malibu,” Batman replied over the ICS. He switched to his
radio. “You got him, Tyrone?”
“Affirmative,” Powers replied tersely. The young pilot seemed determined
to fly the mission strictly by the book.
“Hey, this dude’s really trying to catch a bodacious wave,” Malibu
interjected. “He gets any lower and they’ll be scraping fish off the front of
that thing.”
“Trying to duck our radar,” Batman said. “And maybe sucker us into
taking a bath if we try to buzz him. Listen up, Tyrone. The Russkies always
get a big laugh when they con some capitalist nugget like you into hitting
water. You watch your altitude and keep it cool, got it?”
“Roger, Leader,” the other pilot replied.
Tyrone’s RIO, Lieutenant William “Ears” Cavanaugh, spoke up. “I’ve got
the bastard too.” He gave a dry chuckle. “Don’t worry, Batman, I’ll keep the
kid out of trouble.” True to standard practice, Cavanaugh was an experienced
hand teamed with one of the squadron’s rookies. But Batman had seen the RIO
in action during the intensive air wing training program at NAS Fallon in
Nevada before deploying to the carrier. Ears was a topnotch RIO, but
sometimes he was a little too eager.
“Question is, who’ll keep you out of trouble, Ears?” Batman responded.
He didn’t give the others a chance to answer him. “Tango Two-fiver, Hound
Two-oh-four. We’ve got him on our scopes. Going in to have a look.”
“Roger, Two-oh-four,” came the reply from the Hawkeye. There was a
pause. “Mind your ROES, boys. It ain’t a shooting war.”
“Not yet,” Batman muttered. Ever since his first combat experience off
North Korea he had mistrusted the limitations set by the Rules of Engagement.
They had been designed to keep overeager pilots from precipitating an
international incident in the heat of a tense encounter. But they also had