Where Do We Get Such Men
The Story of One Such Man
by
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It was a beautiful morning and Gil and his squadron had just rendezvoused with the USS Princeton off the
The jolt any pilot felt when the cat was energized jammed him violently back against the seat and headrest. This jolt also forced the stick back, which caused the nose to come up too high and lead to a stalled condition. To counteract this effect, the pilot must place his right elbow up against his stomach and hold on to the stick tightly to keep it in the proper position. The throttle suffers the same force with the tendency to reduce power, which, of course, is quite the wrong thing to do. To prevent this, there is a rigid rod positioned just forward of the throttle handle. The pilot grasps the throttle handle and the rigid rod together in his grip thus preventing any reduction in power on take-off .
Gil taxied into position on the catapult, was properly hooked up and given the one-finger turn up signal. He added power up to the 80% mark and checked all the instruments for normal readings. After the cat officer gave him the two-finger turn up signal, he added power to the 100% mark and grabbed for the rigid rod.
It wasn’t there!
Gil nearly panicked. Here he was turning up at full power with nothing to hold and keep his left arm from pulling off the power. Being a young Navy pilot with a relative sense of immortality he made an instantaneous decision to go through with the take-off . Not to mention there were a lot of shipmates watching and, like most young men, he’d rather suffer injury then look less than brave. Being panicked, and not showing it, is a young man’s privilege.
He saluted the cat officer, the “OK to fire” signal. He now had three seconds to grab the stick, get his elbow in his stomach and, WHAM! Off he’d go. So he grabbed the stick and got his elbow in place and concentrated on pushing, as hard as he possibly could, on the throttle to keep it in the full power position. The catapult fired and took him from parked on the flight deck to 130 knots in about four seconds. He pushed so hard on the throttle that, to this day, Gil swears he could have bent it in half.
To his dismay (as well as everyone on the flight deck, the bridge, and the observers on vultures’ row) in concentrating on pushing the throttle forward, he also pushed the stick forward and when he went off the end of the flight deck the plane headed straight down to the blue ocean. Everyone on the ship knew Gil would hit the water. The crash alarm sounded, the ship went into an emergency full rudder turn to avoid hitting the airplane, and the rescue helo started on its way to pluck him out of the sea.
However, Gil didn’t know he was going in the water, he only knew instantly that he was in a hell of jam. When he realized his mistake he quickly pulled back on the stick with the adrenalized force of someone trying to save his own life. He got the nose as high
as he could without stalling the plane. As he eased off a bit, the plane shuddered and scooted forward with the tailpipe dragging near the water. Fortunately there were no big waves. They told Gil later that he churned up a white water trail for two miles.
Slowly the airplane gained speed and he was able to pick up a few feet of altitude by tenderly jockeying the stick back and forth. He finally got high enough to ease the nose over and accelerate to a life saving flying speed. Gil wasn’t about to risk another cat shot without the rod, so he bingoed back to Moffett Field. Sure enough, he had been assigned a plane that wasn’t configured for operations aboard ship.
This was Gil Erb’s initiation into the world of flying jets off aircraft carriers. It was 1951. In this case, it was a F9F-2 Panther. The exciting career of this young Navy pilot was just beginning. He has had more than his share of near-death experiences but seems to have had more lives than an alley cat.
The composite of Gil Erb’s and his fellow Navy pilots’ experiences is what taught the Navy how to become the mightiest and most capable Naval Air Force in the world. Gil and his peers flew these monster machines before there were computers. They weren’t all famous but they should be. It’s their adventures and mishaps that served as the lessons learned to constantly improve the tactics, technology and policies of the Navy. They were there when the
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About the Book
Gil Erb was one of the men who flew the Navy’s first jet, the first carrier qualified jet, the first supersonic carrier qualified jet and the first Mach 2 carrier qualified jet. He participated in two combat tours in
Gil has, over the three year course of our interviews, enthusiastically opened up about his flying days. The thrilling training, combat and test piloting episodes are interspersed with the humorous after-hours tales that seem to come with the fighter jock turf. The chapters include anecdotes from some of the seven original astronauts such as Alan Shepherd, Scott Carpenter and Wally Schirra; as well as Gil meeting Chuck Yeager and spending a day with Charles Lindbergh.
Despite the name dropping, the author has tried to tell an honest “everyman’s” story of what it was like to become one of the first pilots to fly jets on and off aircraft carriers and just how brave these men really were. The author also believes he has included in Gil’s biography a little of how this kind of life typically affects a family.
Dr. Peter Bartis of the Library of Congress’ Veteran’s History Project said the biography was “a beautifully documented history of Commander Erb.”
Dr. Dave Winkler of the Naval Historical Foundation has accepted the manuscript for inclusion in the Naval History and Heritage Command Archives and is forwarding it to several other Navy museums/libraries.
Paul Gillcrist, the author of “Feet Wet”, “Vulture’s Row”, and several other naval aviation novels said about the manuscript, “Once I started, I couldn’t put it down. Congratulations! You have written a wonderful story.”
About the Author
The author quit High School halfway through his senior year, joined the Navy and quickly earned his GED. Ironically, his test scores in boot camp were the best in his company so the Company Commander made him Educational Petty Officer for the unit. He was also the Drill Team Commander. Four of the author’s almost six years in the US Navy were spent aboard the USS Lawrence DDG 4 as a Missile Fire Control Technician. The remainder of his enlistment was spent in various technical schools. Five years, eight months and seven days after he enlisted, an Honorable Discharge was granted and the author soon began a career in naval engineering. He supported the US Navy for 40 years. He earned his AA and BS Degrees by going to college at night over a period of twelve years. This path to higher education is not recommended to any future generations.
Mr. Reynolds has written a plethora of technical documentation. Other than a half dozen newspaper articles and numerous technical papers, “Where Do We Get Such Men” is his first published work. A collection of short stories will be published in late 2009 followed by his first fictional novel “Alone in the Water” in 2010. He lives with his wife, Carol, in
The author’s love of the written word made him decide to pursue writing when he retired in 2005. He is an avid reader. It should be noted that without his wife Carol’s continued support he couldn’t possibly spend his days at the keyboard.