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Speaking of aircraft carriers and the funny people who use them...

By The Armorer on March 1, 2007 | | Comments (6)

The carrier in the picture in this post, that I challenged you to identify was indeed HMAS Melbourne. Your clinching clue that she was Aussie was the Gannetts. Of all those nations who operated that class of carrier, only the Aussies used Gannetts. Yes, I actually planned the post that way...

Now here's another make-ya-look-twice picture.

Herc on the Forrestal

Yep, that's a C-130 sitting on the deck of the USS Forrestal. Yep, it's all for real. The whole story (with videos) is available here at The Aviation Zone. At Cassandra's old stomping grounds, I Love Jet Noise, Joatmoaf has more. Just, kewl. We military types will do *such* silly things if you ask us to.

Update: Steeljaw Scribe covered this subject, far more thoroughly, last month. Worth the visit!

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6 Comments

By BloodSpite on March 1, 2007 8:50 AM
Ahh the USS "Forest Fire" One of my good friends served on her in the late 1990's. Which was a introspective for myself....since my Dad had also served on her in the late 1970's.....
 
By Pogue on March 1, 2007 8:58 AM
Notice that centerline is off center? They moved it 6 ft to port (left) to make sure they could clear the island. IIRC the reason they canned the idea of using C-130's for COD was if that puppy went down on deck you had a useless carrier unless you rolled it off the side. They also disabled an interlock to allow the C-130 to apply reverse thrust while still airborne. In a past squid like life I was on the Forrestal (aka FID) for the 1988 Med/NATO cruise.
 
By John S. on March 1, 2007 10:48 AM
HMAS Melbourne- the famous Aussie "can opener" that sliced USS Frank E. Evans (DD-754) in two, hitting dead amidships in the dark hours of 3 June 1969. Probably the fault of the Evan's Officer of the Deck, but 72 dead sailors as a result.
 
By Steeljaw Scribe on March 1, 2007 10:53 AM
The C-130 was but one in a long line of the strange/odd/uncommon that have made their appearances on flattops over the decade. The list includes U-2's, P2V Neptunes carrying nukes, a bevy of Army helos, the V-2 and a navalized P-51. More here: http://steeljawscribe.blogspot.com/2007/01/flightdeck-friday-flat-top-oddities.html BTW, note the inscription on the C-130's nose... - SJS
 
By John of Argghhh! on March 1, 2007 11:34 AM
As mentioned in this space some years ago - with the kicker that the Evans was *not* the Melbourne's first victim.
 
By monkeyboy on March 1, 2007 12:44 PM
Do they still show the Melbourne-Evans film to mids? "Too close for Mo-Boards, lets eyeball it in." The Naval Aviation Museum should still have the Piper cub that the Vietnamese pilot landed.