CHAPTER 9 MAY1, 1944 -- MAY 8, 1944 NAS GLENVIEW CARRIER QUALIFICATION --USS SABLE, (IX81)

Operational training finally came to an end and we considered our selves ready to meet the enemy. Not to be! Before this could happen the seven of us received orders to report to NAS Glenview at Glenview, Illinois for carrier qualification aboard a genuinely real carrier. In our case it would be the USS Sable, one of two carriers, the other being the USS Wolverine. Both were land locked in Lake Michigan.

USS Sable

These were two former Great Lakes passenger ships fitted with flight decks just for the purpose of qualifying neophyte aviators. The Wolverine had a stern paddle wheel and the Sable had two paddle wheels, one on either side of the ship.

**** I interrupt the story at this point to make a correction as to the configuration of the paddle wheels on the USS Wolverine. I was kindly informed in the guestbook by one of our visitors to this site that the Wolverine had the same number and arrangement of one paddle wheel on either side the ship as the Sable and not on the stern as I had indicated in the story. I can make no excuses for my mistake other than the fact that I have never seen the Wolverine then or since and for that matter I never saw the paddle wheels on the Sable even though I made eight landings on board her. ****

USS Sable

To qualify as a carrier pilot was necessary to make eight landings aboard a carrier. Due to the backlog of pilots who were delayed and waiting their turn at qualifying because of bad weather, it took us a week to get our call. On the seventh day we took off from Glenview and flew out over Lake Michigan to the carrier. The first sight of the Sable gave me the feeling that "this can't be for real". That ship looked incredibly small. It might have been a little more comforting if I'd had the opportunity to go aboard the ship first so that I could have gained a feeling for the size of the flight deck.

The USS Sable was known as the USS Greater Buffalo before being converted to an aircraft carrier.

Well, there was no turning back now --faint heart never "buggered fair lady". So I took my place in the traffic circle and the first thing I knew I was making a turn into the stern of the ship. I picked up the LSO and before I could even think about it I had taken a cut, had hit the deck and was jerked to a stop faster than you can say " Jack Robinson". Didn't even have time to get confused. The confusion was soon enough in coming. I looked out the side, there was a deckhand waving his arms, making motions with his hands and moving his lips in a menacing manner.

After a few seconds I began to interpret all this mumbo-jumbo and began to react. I responded to the signals to release the brakes so the plane would roll backward making it possible for them to release the tail hook, turn up the engine to full power and leave. I did! The roll down the deck wasn't exactly straight and being that the forward end of the flight deck curved a little bit toward the center line of the ship I lifted the plane off the deck just before it ran over white rope that was about six inches high and run up the side of the flight deck. I actually took off over the side of the ship. I made the seven additional landings without screwing up. Looking back on the first landing, it probably wasn't the best they had ever seen but I'm willing to bet it wasn't the worst. For that matter there were several planes and pilots lost in Lake Michigan over the years that these two carriers were in operation.
 

Flyaway take-off from deck of USS Petrof Bay

From Glenview the seven of us received orders to report to the Naval Air Station at Norfolk Virginia. We were given seven days to get there, so I decided to make a relatively short side trip to Des Moines to "show-off" my "Wings of Gold" to my family and friends. Actually there weren't too many of my friends still at home. Only those at the bank where I had been working before going into the Navy. Anyhow, my family was impressed.