Under the Radar and a Collection of Other Short Stories

By Bobby Everett Smith

These stories are fiction but they are based on my autobiography when I was a pilot in the Navy back in the 1950’s. I have changed the names to protect the privacy of the characters and where needed I made up some of the events that are described. Most of the essence of the stories is real. War really sucks and I wish our leaders could find a way to settle disputes without just killing each other.
The Cold War is the last war that the United States has won. It started at the end of World War II between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union. Many in the west thought the Soviets were trying to dominate the world with Communism so we created a national strategy of “massive retaliation”. If you bomb us with nukes, we will retaliate--with Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles carrying 100 megaton payloads and attack bombers from carriers-- flying low level to avoid radar and carrying a 100 KT nuclear bomb, five times the power the United States dropped on Hiroshima.
Every aircraft carrier in the U.S. fleet had a detachment of attack planes capable of this delivery. This is the fictional story of Detachment Echo on the USS Bon Homme Richard, CVA 31 in 1958 and 1959. These five pilots were not the prestigious and glamorous pilots of the Blue Angels, Top Gun, or the early Astronauts. They are the work-horses of the Fleet on 24-hour alert prepared to launch should the President “ring the bell. “
Tom Murray, a rookie attack pilot, is one of five pilots, assigned to the Bonnie Dick, flying in bad weather, just over the ocean tops, and challenged to deliver an atomic bomb that might take his life and that of his crew. Many aviators did in fact give their lives in preparing for this ultimate mission. Leaving wives and young babies at home is a personal sacrifice that Tom and his buddies endure. But in between these fearsome events, the naval aviators have plenty of fun and plenty of conflict. You will grow to love and admire them as they persevere through their training and operations in the South China Sea.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bobby Everett Smith
• Release date: Jun 6, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463929926

Bobby Everett Smith

Bobby Everett Smith www.bobsmithsblog.comBobby Everett Smith is an American author of fiction and non-fiction essays, short stories and novels, and the publisher of the blog bobsmithsblog.com.Born and raised in Wichita Falls, Texas, Smith earned a degree in Economics from Rice University and an MBA from the University of Washington. Primarily during the Cold War, he served as an aviator in the U.S. Navy. His tours in East and Southeast Asia are inspiration for many of his works, taking the reader vicariously along for his adventurous rides, launched from aircraft carriers in the 7th Fleet.Fueled by his own leadership experiences in the U.S. Navy and the private sector, Smith has become passionate and knowledgeable about our nation’s leaders. In nearly a dozen summaries of great presidential biographies, he examines the lives, achievements and legacies of these important political figures.Smith’s most recent novel, Lida Murry Smith, was inspired by his own family history. Set in the backdrop of the women’s suffrage movement, it traces the arduous and courageous 1905 fictional journey of the Smith family from their farm in Missouri, through the Indian Territories and Oklahoma to a new farm in Texas.For access to these and other works of Bobby Everett Smith, visit:https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/744702

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Under the Radar

And A Collection of Other Short Stories

By Bobby Everett Smith

Fiction

Copyright © 2020 Bobby Everett Smith

All rights reserved.

Distributed by Smashwords

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Table of Contents

UNDER THE RADAR

FLYING THE WEST PAC 1959 TO 1962

DISAPPEARANCE OF ENS BILL MUSGROVE, USN

BAGUIO

VERTIGO

CRASH, CRASH, CRASH

EMERGENCY LEAVE, SPACE AVAILABLE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

UNDER THE RADAR

A Long Short Story

Bobby Everett Smith

All Weather Attack Squadron 35 Ready Room, NAS North Island

The United States, in 1958, was in the middle of the Cold War with the Soviet Union and China. All the major players had nuclear weapons that were orders of magnitude more powerful than the weapons used to end World War II in 1945. The U.S. strategy was Massive Retaliation--if you bomb us, we will bomb you, with nukes. It could be the end of civilization on Planet Earth.

Six officers of the United States Navy dressed in cotton Khaki uniforms, with Navy Wings and insignia and punctuated with a solid black tie, sat in the briefing room of VAAW 35. The rookies there for the first time as members of Detachment Echo.

Lester Morris, Commanding Officer of VAAW 35, was speaking to pilots and crew of the newly formed Detachment Echo:

Gentlemen, congratulations. You have been assigned to VAAW 35 as part of an elite group designated with the task of implementing the national strategy of the United States. Our country is in the midst of the Cold War which can turn hot at any moment. This squadron has detachments of pilots and crews, like yourselves, stationed on every carrier in the Pacific Feet.

You have recently completed the best flight training in the world, and you will now receive an additional eight months of flight training that will prepare you to execute the national strategy if the president of the United States decides to go to a full-scale war. You will be judged on your flying skills, courage, leadership and understanding of United States Strategy. This is a challenging assignment and I wish you good luck.

During this training phase, you will be taught to land on aircraft carriers at night and in bad weather. You will be trained to deliver a ‘special weapon,’ a nuclear bomb, from low altitude and this weapon is five times the explosive power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima to end World War II. Some call it a suicide mission but I believe that if you follow correct procedures and know your targets, you can survive.

I don’t have to remind you, that if you are called on to deliver your weapon in a hot war, it will be the most serious event that has taken place in the history of the world. That’s not an exageration.

With that, I am turning this meeting over to Lcdr Chester Meyer, the newly appointed Officer in Charge of VAAW 35 Detachment Echo. Lcdr Meyer, it’s all yours:

Welcome, gentlemen, We will be working together to meet the requirements required to deliver an atomic bomb from low level at night and in bad weather, should the president of the United States call on us to make such a mission.

By the way, it is not just the special weapons delivery that is required but we must be competent at all the other skills that Naval Aviators have been required to do--landing on aircraft carriers and delivery of conventional attack weapons such as bombs, rockets, and machine gun support of troops on the ground.

Our Operations Officer is Lt George Collins. He has just recently returned from a cruise to WestPac where he performed the mission that our Skipper, Lester Morris just described.

George will be your every-day flight leader and will be responsible for scheduling and executing the training required for us to pass the battle-ready qualifications that we will be tested on in Hawaii before we reach our operational assignment in the 7th Fleet.

George, over to you now.

Let me introduce the rest of the pilots and the aircrew. Ltjg Tom Murray, Ltjg Richard Blackburn and Ltjg Ron Johnson will make up the rest of our pilot team. Each one of you will have one senior petty officer who will serve as navigator. A third-class petty officer will be assigned to each plane as radar operator. These assignments are not firm at this stage, but they will be firm long before deployment.

We will be flying the AD5N Skyraider. This is a special version of the SPADs that you flew in the final stages of your advanced training. The main difference is the ability of these SPADS to deliver nuclear weapons using a radar Initial Position and starting the delivery from 100 feet.

This nuclear bomb is 90KT (90,000 tons of TNT). The details of this bomb and the targets we will hit are classified TOP SECRET and by the way, one of our tasks this morning will be to complete the classified security application. Each of you, if you pass the FBI investigation, will be qualified with a TOP SECRET clearance for the duration of the time that you are in this squadron."

We will start flying at low level immediately. Our first flight is tomorrow at 0900 when we launch four aircraft on a three-hour flight. I will be leading this flight and the three of you will be flying my wing. Our call sign is ‘Camel Driver’ and we will head out over the Pacific for 200 miles then back to shore, over the mountains and back home. I will give you details of the flight briefing in the morning at 0800 here in this ready room.

I intend to be extremely hard on you. We will require strict military discipline and observation of the military chain of command. I oversee operations and will expect you to behave and fly like you are the best in the world. I have one more question for you.

Can you answer the call of the president of the United States to carry out the national strategy?

If you think, for any reason, that you are not up to that, now is the time to bail out.

That’s all this morning. Let’s complete our security application and get ready for our first flight tomorrow.

When George finished speaking, no one said a word. The three rookies sat in their chairs, stunned. This is really happening. Each one thought in his own way, am I really up to this?

Detachment Echo

Ltjg Tom Murray got home about 4 p.m. He and Missy had moved into their garage apartment at 808 D Avenue in Coronado, a mile down the main street from the Ferry to San Diego. Tom and Missy shared a 1956 red and white Chevrolet Bel Air. Missy and Clay, 6 months, would take Tom to work if she felt the need for a car during the day.

How was your day? Tom and Missy had been married since just after graduation from Rice in 1956.

Pretty good. I only had to clean up vomit twice, once from Clay and once from Hannibal. I got the rest of the boxes unpacked and am ready to start dinner.

How was your day? Missy asked.

Exciting, but I need to talk to you about it to make sure we are both on the same page.

OK, I am ready for a break and would like some adult conversation. What’s up?

Well, this squadron turns out to be an elite bunch. They have a four-plane detachment on every carrier in the Pacific Fleet. I am on Detachment Echo which is scheduled for deployment to WestPac in November.

We will be flying low-level, like at 100 feet much of the time we are in the air. It is extremely dangerous. Not only that, our main mission will be to deliver an atomic bomb that is five times the power of the bomb they dropped on Hiroshima.

We have been assigned to the USS Bon Homme Richard. It’s one of the older carriers, but it has an angle deck and all the modern electronics required to deliver nukes.

I am honored and pleased to be part of this group, but it’s dangerous flying and I want you to have a say about what I do.

It sounds scary just listening to you talk about it, but I have no intention of interfering with your career and If you want to do it and think it is the right thing to do, I am with you. But speaking of the right thing, are you going to be ok with delivery of an atomic bomb that could kill a whole lot of people?

That’s a good point which I have been thinking about all day. My decision, subject to your agreement, is that if the president decides to go into a hot war with Russia or China, someone will do what I am currently assigned to do. That’s what attack pilots do. It might as well be me.

I don’t want to die, and you and Clay are the most important things in the world to me, but I have to do my duty to my country. So that being said, let’s have a drink.

Yes, let’s, and Missy poured a glass of Jack Daniels with a splash of water over two ice cubes.

Of the three rookies, Ron and Richard were bachelors and they lived in the Bachelor Officer’s Quarters on the base. Each shared a room with another junior officer but not with each other.

Ron had graduated from Notre Dame where he went to the NROTC program to get his commission.

Richard went to University of Nebraska and got his commission by attending Officer Candidate School in Newport, RI.

Ron was about 5 ft. 10 inches and very handsome. He was a typical bachelor Naval Officer, with girls lined up all around the United States--a semi-heavy drinker, but he was always sober when he reported for flight duty.

Richard was more conservative, no girls now but thinking about meeting one. He was not interested in an entire harem and he was just as conservative at flying. Both Richard and Ron were top of the line officers, they could be trusted to complete their mission, or any job assigned to them.

Richard and Tom were close friends but they both also liked Ron and thought highly of him.

Chester Meyer had been in the Navy as a pilot for 14 years. His first assignment was on board a carrier, the USS Essex, flying F2H Banshee jets in the Korean War.

Chester was a medium-skilled attack pilot in the AD 5 Skyraider, but he could make landings aboard the carrier with little or no trouble and he was average in dropping conventional bombs during target practice. He was a laissez faire leader and was not pushy or looking for trouble. He was married but had no kids after 12 years.

George Collins was from a small college in Kentucky. He had gone to OCS training after college, then into the training command to learn how to fly. In 1957, he was deployed aboard the USS Hancock for an eight-month cruise to WestPac as a rookie pilot. He was now assigned to Det Echo as the Operations Officer and the de-facto leader of the Detachment. George was married to Mary and they had two kids,