Evening star., 1952-09-18
BY Fred Voters !
AssoeIassd Press sioff Photographer

CARRIER BOXER, Sept. tDe-
laye6 Aboard this ship today
we watched the first takeon of a
guided missile in actual combat.
And on a television screen we
watched its fight $50 miles into
dangerous, f1ak-ridden North Ko-
rea toward a target more than
$50 miles away.
Hundreds of crewmen tingled
with excitement and so did as
we watched a pilotless suicide
plane - carrying a 2.000-pound
bomb roar on q catapult. The
World War II Grumman climbed
northwestward In q sweeping turn
and was herded to its target by
"a mother plane.
AS both ships sped from sight
we rushed to the television screen
|of a secret room. The experts
crossed the Sea of Japan and
watched the jagged peaks of East
ern Korea loom in the distance
and grow larger.
! For from the cockpit of the
suicide plane a teleyision camera
peered out to record the planes
last hour and transmit the pic
ture back to the u. S. S. Boxer.
50 Watchers Grow Tense.
Overland. the craft throbbed
toward its goal as the seconds
licked away and the tenseness
grew in the safe television room.
The plane lost altitude now and
noSed into a final dive, with q
powerful warhead locked in its
belly.
The target-an enemy concen-
tration in a valley between two
shadowy hills-was indicated on
the receiving instruments nova
real flak-trap for. any hapless
Allied pilot.
Second to go now-the signal
on the instruments grew stronger
as the guided missile dived
straight at the target, at hum
dreds of miles an hour.
Then the instruments suddenly
went blank. The screaming dive
had ended, squarely on the target,
and the plane had crashed to
oblivion.
And we on the ship knew that
here, at least in actual combat,
was a new era Of battle-an era
when electronic brains will ride
into tough. dangerous places, saw
ing the lives of American pilots.
Tinge of Sadness.
Tie suicide ship was an old
Grumman Hellcat bomber. STEPPED
in past glories of World War II.
A certain sadness tinged the
excitement of the captains bridge
of the Boxer as we watched the
old warhorse of the skies elevated
from the hangar for its appoint
ment with destiny.
AS the plane popped up to the
flight deck. half a dozen crewmen
sprang to straighten its folded
wings and ready 1t for its mission.
While they worked, an AD-2-Doug-
las attack plane. laden with Sc
cret electronic equipment-cata-
pulled of the Boxer, scared to
1000 feet and began a steady cir
cling.
Skies were deep blue, the seas
were calm and the Boxer headed
into the wind at 20 knots. A
crewman started the planes en-
gins. 1t spat fitfully, caught, and
churned into a steady roar. Men
scattered behind its blast. The
crewmen released the brakes and
the plane moved over to and onto
. catapult.
The drama and the excitement
grew. You could see it in the faces
and the actions of the Boxers
personnel. I could feel the tense
ness, wadded up in my stomach.
Controlled by Pilot Alongside.
A second attack Douglas, with
a pilot at the controls, was parked
alongside the catapult. The mis-
sion Of this Douglas pilot was to
take the missile off the catapult,
with electronic controls. It was
a fantastic thing to watch as a
crewman gave the "rev up" signal
to the pilot of the Douglas-for
the engine that "revved up" was
that of the guided missile.
1t stood on the catapult and
shuddered with its own power. I
could see the big warhead strapped
to its underside.
A crewman gave the launching
signal and the breath caught in
our ttroatS. The missile shot
along the catapult and zoomed