Landing Was the Easy Part
by
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28-29 March Pilots man your planes. We climb into our planes that are in the next the last row on deck. I am second in from the right. Lt. (j g) Coumbe, my wingman is on my right. Lt. (jg) Art Hiser is behind us. The planes are staggered. Hiser’s is between Coumbe and me. We are of course chained to the flight deck. It is just starting to get light. It is raining and still quite dark. Time is about 5:00 AM. The first corsair takes off. The second one starts to roll down the deck. It’s engine coughs. The pilot tries to stop. Over the side it goes into a gunnery station. We are holding the brakes and revving the engines to full throttle. The plane chatters. The engine is going full speed. The chains and brakes hold the plane into position. I look back. Whoa-- the backwash from Coumbe’s plane and mine lifted Hiser’ plane into the air and blew him off the fantail into the drink. A deck hand unchained his plane too soon. Whoa, I call the tower." Plane overboard I yell."" We know answers the tower. The plane stuck in the cat walk but the pilot ejected and is in the water."" No, I answer not the one taking off. There is one off the back of the ship." Two small lights can be seen in the ocean. Both pilots got out and turned on the one cell light attached to their May Weast (inflatable jacket). Thank God for the tin cans (Destroyers). They picked up both pilots. I am now signaled to the starters position and given the flag to take off. At the end of the deck my plane starts to settle toward the water. I do not go in. The plane manages to get air borne. I pick up the mike and yell "If you bastards want to see us all go into the drink move the starter up another 20 feet." (I could never understand why the starter didn’t move back some after the first row of planes took off.) The ship answers, "Who said that. It’s against navy regs to swear on the air." They knew damn well who said it. But they were not about to take any action. We were on a sweep to look for Japanese planes at or near Okinawa. The flight was uneventful. That is except for the two pilots that went into the drink.
Two Corsairs overboard
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Book Details
About the Book
Air Group 83 boarded the Aircraft Carrier The Essex on March 11, 1945. They stayed till the war ended. Lt.(jg) Edward Pappert writes about life aboard the carrier. He takes you with him on strikes against the Japanese homeland. He tells about his wingman, Lt.(jg) Vern Coumbe’s being shot down, spending the night on Japanese soil and his subsequent rescue. Other true tales include: a division of Marine Pilots that can’t find their way back to the carrier, the sinking of the Japanese battle ship The Yamato, the invasion of Okinawa, and others.
About the Author
Ed Pappert was born December 3, 1920 in Pittsburgh, PA.He grew up in Dormont, a suburb of Pittsburgh. He was too small to play football and too slow to run track, so he became a wrestler. In his senior year he won the Western Pennsylvania Athletic Conference at 125 pounds. After high school Ed worked at U.S.Steel in the metallurgical lab. He worked from 11P.M. till 7 A.M. and attended classes at Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon) during the day. His wife Mary Jayne says the war saved his life as he fell asleep twice while driving back to school after working all night. Ed applied for and was accepted in the V5 program. This lead to his becoming a pilot and an Ensign in the U.S. Navy on December 17, 1943. He qualified as a fighter pilot. Air Group 83 was formed at Atlantic City, NJ. Ed was part of the fighter squadron flying The Hellcat (F6F). Air Group 83 trained at Ayer, Massachusetts. He and a friend flew an old SBD (dive bomber) to Pittsburgh where he married his sweetheart on September 11, 1944. The air group continued their training on Maui, Hawaiian Islands .On Maui his division switched to flying "the Corsair". On March 11, 1945 Air Group 83 boarded the Aircraft Carrier "The Essex". Their tour of duty should have been up in June, however they were not relieved. They stayed through the end of the war. After the war Ed finished his college at Penn State University. He took a job with United States Gypsum Co. He worked for USG for 37 years attaining the position of V P and General Manager of the companies largest division. Ed and his wife Mary Jayne have three children. They retired to Hilton Head Island. After living there for 14 years they moved to their present home in Charlotte, N C.