Free Abandoned: MIA in Vietnam by Bill Yancey

record.”

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER 10
     
    “Wolfe!” a yellow-shirted man Wolfe didn’t recognize barked at him. Wolfe, wearing a blue jersey, had been sitting on the seat of the tractor, looking out the hangar bay opening to the elevator, watching the sea roll by. The elevator spent most of its time at the flight deck level, coming down to the hangar deck level only to drop off or pick up aircraft. He had been on Oriskany for a little over three weeks and had learned the names of most of his comrades. The man continued, “You and Higgins go with Byrnes. On the double.”
    Byrnes, Wolfe knew. He also wore a yellow jersey and was one of the aircraft directors in the crew in which Wolfe struggled to learn terminology and his new menial labor job. The blue-jerseyed sailors physically pushed aircraft around the hangar deck, when the tractor and spotting dolly could not fit in a space, or were not available. That was most of the time on the crowded hangar deck. Constructed during World War II and commissioned shortly after, Oriskany had been designed for smaller aircraft. Blueshirts also carried the chocks and chains used to immobilize and tie aircraft to the deck. It was their job to break down the tie-downs prior to moving a plane and then to re-attach them after it had reached its new position. The job was dirty, the chains often coated with grease, fuel, and grime. It was also slightly dangerous. The underside of every aircraft bristled with antenna, rocket and bomb fins, and devices that secured fuel tanks, bombs, and other devices to the aircraft. To get firm leverage on the aircraft without pushing on control surfaces or other fragile parts, blueshirts crawled under the planes and pushed on the landing gear struts, bomb racks, fuel tanks, or bombs. Occasionally, after being distracted, a blueshirt would have a foot or hand run over, or have the skin on his back raked by a bomb fin. In the subtropical heat, on a ship with no air conditioning, the back breaking work had everyone in the crew smelling of sweat and salt.
    The yellowshirts determined the direction the plane went by giving instructions to either the driver of the tractor or a man who pivoted the nose wheel of the aircraft with a long steel pole, the nose wheel steering bar also known as the tiller. A fully loaded A-4 Skyhawk, better known as the Scooter, could weigh almost 20,000 pounds, an F-8 Crusader almost twice that. During air operations the hangar deck crew routinely worked 15-18 hour days. They moved aircraft to the flight deck for launches. Later they moved aircraft dropped from the flight deck to the hangar deck during recoveries. Most recovered aircraft dropped to the hangar on elevator #1 in the middle of the forward hangar bay. One plane after another dropped quickly from the flight deck. From there the three crews took turns pushing the planes toward the stern, filling all three hangar bays. That left room on the flight deck for the recovery of aircraft to continue. After air operations ended, they spotted and re-spotted aircraft for the squadron mechanics, so they could make certain each aircraft was in flying condition for its next sortie.
    Depending upon how exhausted the aircraft handlers were, they either lounged for the two hours between launch and recovery, or worked at duty stations, cleaning up messes on the hangar deck made by the mechanics, polishing brass, or repairing or upgrading hangar deck equipment. The navy required all support and maintenance equipment, generators, tractors, aircraft jacks, rolling ladders, and more to be painted yellow. Sailors referred to the collection as yellow gear .
    Coated in salt from evaporated sweat, his blue jersey ringed by many layers of white, Wolfe rolled out of the yellow tractor seat and stood quickly. He located Byrnes, who waved at him and Higgins from a hatch in the third hangar bay. “Run!” the yellowshirt yelled.
    Higgins beat Wolfe to the hatch by a