Editorial: Wrap us in a flag
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Pittsburgher tells of hero who risked life for squad
Corporal gets Medal of Honor for smothering hand grenade in France
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Storm hits Gulf Coast – at least four killed
By the United Press
The Southeast today counted at least four dead and many injured as result of near-hurricane winds which lashed the Gulf Coast last night.
Scores of homes were damaged, throughout Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, and property damage mounted to uncounted thousands of dollars.
Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC (delayed) – The main thing I never understood about how an aircraft carrier operates, is what they did with all the rest of the planes while one was landing or taking off.
I had thought the flight deck had to be entirely clear of planes. I thought that as soon as one took off, they brought the next one up from the lower deck by elevator, and sent it off.
It isn’t that way at all. There are always idle planes standing on deck during landings and takeoffs. There have to be, for the hangar deck down below isn’t big enough to hold all the planes. But these idle planes are never along the side of the deck – they are at one end or the other. Here’s how it’s done:
Planes always take off and always land from stern to bow of the ship – or from rear to forward as you simple landlubbers would say.
For the takeoff, all the planes are parked tightly together at the rear of the deck., all have folding wings, which has been one of the great contributions to this war, without them a carrier could hardly carry enough planes to justify itself.
Noise is terrific
These parked planes take up maybe one-eighth of the flight deck – the rear one-eighth. When they get ready to launch planes all the engines are started and warmed up while the planes are still parked tightly together.
The noise is terrific. Angry propellers whirl within inches of the tail of the next ship. “Plane-pushers” by the dozen crawl around, under, and among these flying propellers, adjusting chocks and untying the lines that hold the planes down.
When they are ready, the center plane in the front is taxied out a few feet. His folded wings are unfolded. The pilot tests his controls. puts down his flaps.
A signalman standing ahead and to the right of him indicates by motions when he is to start. He holds on his brakes, speeds up his engine until the noise is ear-splitting, and then the signalman leans over and dramatically swings his arm forward, as though personally to give the plane impetus.
The plane starts rolling. The deck behind him is packed with planes. But the seven-eighths of deck in front is clear. Not a plane or man on it.
No sooner has one plane gone than the next one is ready, has his wings unfolded and is running up his engine. They take off one right after the other, less than a minute apart, until the whole flight is in the air.
Prepare for return
The moment the last plane of the flight is off, a horn signals the fact, and the great flight deck instantly becomes a swarm of men.
Usually there are several planes left on deck, which weren’t scheduled to go. All these are immediately towed to the forward end of the deck, and reparked there.
For, when the planes come back to land, they must use that rear end of the deck. While they are landing, the whole front end of the deck is full of parked planes.
A barrier of steel cables, stretched head-high across the deck, stops any wild-landing plane from crashing into the bunch of tightly parked ships ahead.
As soon as a plane lands, the barrier is dropped, the plane taxies over it, and the barrier is raised again for the next guy coming in. The plane that has just landed is parked among the other inert ones up front and the pilot shuts off his engine.
When the last plane is down, the horn squawks, all the men rush out, and all the planes are towed back to the rear of the deck, ready for the next takeoff.
Almost never, during actual landing of the planes, is the elevator let down. It is used only between flights, to take planes down to the “garage” or bring up fresh ones.
Like cars at carnivals
This moving of planes from one end of the flight deck to the other is called “re-sporting.” It goes on all day long – back and forth, back and forth.
The planes are pulled by tiny tractors. As they run around they look like these little electric cars you bump each other with at carnivals.
At night, probably two-thirds of the planes are “spotted” on deck. They are parked tightly together, and tied down to gratings in the flight deck by heavy rope.
If we’re sailing into a storm, they’re tied additionally with steel cable. And all night long men are posted among them, to see that nothing breaks or goes wrong.
Despite all this, there have been times when the ocean was so rough and the deck careening at such a steep angle, that planes would break all their moorings and go screeching over the side. That would be when I was down in my cabin, very seasick.
Gracie Allen Reporting
By Gracie Allen
My goodness, when all these amazing new medicines they’ve been discovering are released to the public, people are going to live forever. My! Wouldn’t it be funny to live long enough to see Mrs. Roosevelt settle down, and a Republican in the White House, and Jack Benny get a motion picture Academy Award and (George says) a Philadelphia baseball team finish in the first division again.
Georgie Jessel and Al Jolson would be in their prime at 400 or 500, and would be marrying sweet young things who hadn’t been out of high school more than 80 or 90 years.
But even if I live to be 500, I’ll still fib about my age. If someone says “How old are you, Gracie?” I’ll just look them right in the eye and say, “Day after tomorrow I’ll be 472.”