25 and Alive
43-68

USS Yorktown CVS 10 sailors spell it out on the USS Yorktown's birthday
In the Pacific Ocean
US Navy Photograph by PH2 Milt Putnam of HS-4

as the group of planes were approaching from the rear of Yorktown, someone threw trash off the fan tail. That was the only time in my whole Navy career that I was able to secure dumping trash. Also, I had the aircraft fly by again because there may have been some trash in the first image.

I remember the guys (SAILORS ON THE FLIGHT DECK) did a good job of lining up.

AND ends with a D.  The "D" looked like a "P" and the e looked somewhat like an a. I was speaking to someone on deck by radio through my helmet and the problem was fixed within a couple minutes.     

Take a look and you can see how the back side of the D was extended downward making it a P. We tighten it up, but you can still see a couple guys extending below the bottom of the D.

My greatest joy during that photo flight was securing the fantail during trash dumping. How many E-5 (Petty Officer Second Class) do you know that have done that!

(After the photolab gave him one of the first prints) Captain Bennett called me to the bridge later that day and told me how much he liked the picture. In fact he wrote a atta boy letter than went into my service record. I still have a copy of that letter buried someplace.

 

Didn't have to say a word to the aircraft, they were perfect.

 

Before landing back aboard Yorktown the helo pilot came down to deck level, but still over the water and flew the helo backwards all the way around Yorktown. He then said, "lets see a fixed wing do that."


If I had the negative, I'd be able to sell the Yorktown vets prints. They can copy it from the www.YorktownSailor.com as I did.  The picture was published around the world;  LA Times, the Long Beach paper and picked up by the Associated Press.

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I doubt the picture was taken in late Jan 1968 as the Yorktown was confronting the North Koreans then over the Pueblo Incident.

However, on the 25th anniversary of commissioning on April 15 1968 we were available for a historic photo op. As I recall we were in the South China Sea about that time, or en route to Japan for unscheduled repairs (rumor was we hit/ran over something). Izzy and I left the Yorktown for the last time approx April 20th for discharge in SF. I therefore think the photo was on April 15 1968 and I was in the picture like another radarman remembered last year.


Pat Dingle RD3

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I remember having to go up to the flight deck in the middle of the ocean wearing my dress white uniform. I remember getting ordered around by a Chief Petty Officer, also in his dress whites and the https://www.tualatinvfw.com/vfw/6305283362.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpgChief had the black chin strap under his chin! I'd never see the chin strap on a chief's hat actually being used for what it was made for.
He was yelling at everyone and I remember thinking, 'who is this chief...bad enough to get yelled at by my own chief...now i'm getting yelled at by some chief i've never seen before.'
i remember that they kept telling us to move over a few feet here and then a few feet over there and I thought, "what the hell! Is this the real US Navy, the Navy of Chester Nimitz and John Paul Jones?" I soon learned to hate this chicken shit and longed for the real Navy like the one in the movie South Pacific starring Mitzi Gaynor and Rossano Brazzi.(Picture: The "Real" Navy.
 
Dan Bernath, Airman Apprentice in Boatswain Mate, 2nd Division



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