Evening star., 1948-05-10
BY Crosby Noyes

Last Wednesday night. a young
man stood up in the crowded ware
room of an American aircraft
carrier.
Tomorrow. he said, sis going tc
be a great day for us. We're keep
ing our fingers crossed on the
weather, but with any sort of g
break, I think we can give you ar
interesting time"
The young man was Comdr. Ralph
A. Fuoss, skipper of the Navy's
Fighting Squadron TIA. He spoke
to a group of so newspapermen and
representatives of the aircraft in
dustry, invited by the Navy for a
24-hour cruise aboard the carrier
Saipan off Quonset, r. I. The occa-
sion was the first public demon
stration of jet fighters, the Navy's
new Mcdonnell "Phantoms," oper.
ating as squadron from the deck
of a carrier
Pilots Are Introduced.
Comdr. Fuoss introduced the %
pilots of his squadron to the group
and spoke briefly about the record
of each of them. They were
crack outfit, with plenty of rank
and plenty of decorations. Above
all. every one of them had expert
ence in making carrier landings in
jet planes. The Navy was taking nc
chances with this show.
Comdr. Fuoss turned to Rear Ad-
miral Thomas H. Robbins, COM
mander of Carrier Division II, who
had overall charge of the opera
ton.
"While I'm here, sir, Id like to
thank you for giving us this chance
to prove what we can do with these
planes. Well do our best to put on
a good show for you tomorrow"
You always have, Ralph" the
admiral replied, And I know you
always will"
From the Navy's point of view, the
next days operation, conducted in
a choppy sea 30 miles off Newport
R. l., was a complete success. 1t
proved beyond any doubt that the
new era of jet-propelled planes hac
not made the aircraft carrier OBJ
solete From the point of view Of
the pilots of Fighting Squadron
TIA, it was a fairly routine mis-
sion, carried off with confidence
and professional efficiency.
Reporters Duck" Planes.
To the observers aboard, especially
to those who, like myself, had never
been on a carrier beforehand whose
experience with planes was back in
the horse-and-buggy days of World
War II. it was day of new impres-
sions of speed and sound. Huddleo
in the catwalks on either side OF
the wind-swept flight deck, we spen,
most of our time ducking.
We ducked the hot blasts from
the twin jets of the ''Phantoms
reyving up for takeofs from the
flight deck. We ducked when the
planes smacked back onto the decl
for those amazingly short carrier
landings, when the hook trailing
from it's tail caught in the arresting
cables and dragged it to a sudden
stop. We jumped at the bang of the
catapults which hurled the fighters
along the deck and out over the
bow, and covered involuntarily
when a pilot. making bad landing
approach suddenly poured on the
power and passed close overhead
with a misunderstanding roar.
Gradually, what had seemed like
a perilous turmoil began to make
sense to us as the highly disciplined
operation 1t was. Squads of men,
dressed in brightly colored sweaters
and wind helmets, rushed to the
planes as soon as they stopped, un-
hooked them from the arresting
gear and cleared them to the fore
ward part of the fight deck, be-
yond the barriers limiting the land
ing space. The landing signal officer,
standing astern and dressed in a
striped outfit. controlled the land
ings with pair of scarlet paddles.