CARRIER 4: FLAME-OUT By Keith Douglass

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

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