Show Writes Of Navy Activity I In n East EastA A Aletter letter started more than a month ago was received recently by Mrs Mrs Hayley Anderson fro from m her son Don L. L a sailor aboard the aircraft carrier carrier car car- rier nor Essex He started in port a at tt t Athens Greece on July 14 but bu t wrote only a short paragraph His next installment w was s written written written writ writ- ten on July 17 and he told ho hoat how howat w at at 3 a. a m. m the morning of July 15 15 when we were all all having a quiet nights night's sleep and I wa was s planning on going to th the beach the next day all the lights light s came on and they were kicking kickin g us out of our racks Of course we wanted to know what wa was s going on and our chief said sai saiMan d Man your flight quarter stations stations sta stations sta- sta Were We're pulling out in a half hour Its It's the r real al thin thing g this time no no practice By By noon we were were somewhere e way out in the Mediterranean flying everything we had loaded loaded load load- loaded ed edwith with rockets bullets and an d bombs They were going over ove overto overto r to cover the Marines when the they y hit the beach at three h in the th e afternoon Well everything went along alon g fine All of our planes came cam e back without firing a shot But Bu t still were we're flying 24 hours a da day Y with full loads On July 16 he wrote On our afternoon recoveries s of our planes two AD 6 propEller propeller pro pro- peller planes came back a little e shot hot up And Aud when some of or orthe the planes hit the flight dec deck k some of off the rockets came loose loos e skidded all over then over th the e side of the ship without going goin g off Everything still going along a along a- a long fine We haven't fire fired d Lack back at them yet July 17 Today some more mor e of our our planes came back shot hot t full of holes nd 4 weve we've threw a afew afew few rockets back at them Bu But t everything's still okay and w we e haven't lost losta a man man July 18 Theres not mud much Ii happening so far today besides beside s a few rockets coming loose an and d scaring the heck out of us Al Also Also Al- Al so weve we've had a few more planes plane s come in with bullet holes i in ini n i them Ive I've got to go help re refuel refuel refuel re- re fuel the ship Weve We've really use used d the fuel the last few days And so It went with similar r r reports until on July 21 h he e wrote Today was going along very good no planes were comin coming g back with holes and they've go got t the rockets fixed so that w we e only have one come loose once in awhile But then about 4 tonight one of our ADs AD's came cam e in and crashed on the flight deck No one was hurt but it i iwas t vas was sure a nasty mess That's That s one plane we wont won't have to t o so fuel uel July 22 Well I finished d my yesterdays yesterday's letter too soon because we had bad a jet crash about a a about a- a bout 3 in the morning It tor torup tore e up about 15 feet of catwalk before before be be- be- be fore hitting the water I dont don't t see how the pilot ever live lived d through it but he came out wit with h dh minor cuts and bruises July 27 The last few days daysI I have been going along okay all but for them rockets comin coming g loose once in awhile |