Back to the Bennington: Tales In the Wake

By Richard A. Clark

Back to the Bennington: Tales in the Wake (published by Merriam Press) is the author's memoir of his service on the aircraft carrier USS Bennington (CVA-20), during a Mediterranean cruise, 1953-54. Includes much of the history of the ship during this period with additional information from crew mates and other sources. Clark describes his Navy years on the USS Bennington and with FASRON 77/VR-24 Detachment (Naples, Italy) as “a series of ‘rewardingly-exciting’ experiences—experiences upon which I constantly reflect and for which I’ll be forever thankful… ” From the book: "An aircraft carrier’s flight deck has been called the second most dangerous place on earth to work, and rightly so... [Dozens of aircraft and scores of men] are crammed onto little more than [a few] acres of hardened steel armor plate. Searing jet exhaust can cook a man or blow him overboard. At times the air is so hot that he can’t breathe. Jet intakes can pull a man off his feet and devour him. An unwary sailor can fall prey to a spinning propeller’s razor-sharp, invisible arc. On the flight deck men move in many different directions in what appears to the uninitiated observer to be chaotic. Yet nothing is as organized as the flight deck of a U.S. Navy carrier. It’s like an orchestra, with each section devoted to performing a part of the overall symphony of carrier operations." —Excerpt from "A Guide to Carrier Flight Deck Operations." 59 photos and illustrations. Merriam Press Military Memoir.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jan 25, 2020
• ISBN: 9781794898455

Book preview

eBook Edition 2022

ISBN 978-1-79489-845-5

Copyright © 2012 by Richard A. Clark

All rights reserved.

Additional material copyright of named contributors.

The views expressed are solely those of the author(s).

This work was designed, produced, and published in

the United States of America by

Merriam Press, 489 South Street, Hoosick Falls NY 12090

•

Dedication

Dedicated to those whose names are memorialized in the 26-year history of USS Bennington, CV/CVA/CVS-20.

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May 26 Memorial, Fort Adams State Park, Newport, Rhode Island. Dedicated to the 103 victims of the USS Bennington tragedy, May 26, 1954. [Programme from USS Bennington Memorial Fund Committee: Graham Casserly, William A. Collins, Coleman McGowan, Joseph Pires.]

On the Cover

USS Bennington, CVA-20, 1953, Fresh and Ready. [Photographer William Kaufman, PH3, USS Bennington, 1953-54.  Released by USS Bennington Association, Inc., webmaster Lonnie Whitaker: www.uss-bennington.org]

Preface

When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not; but my faculties are decaying now and soon I shall be so I cannot remember any but the things that never happened.

Mark Twain ¹

That my own faculties should be in decay now is a frightful thought, and lest this be my present condition, I am compelled to write of what did, in fact, happen during my USS Bennington days so many years ago.

In the following pages I will draw from letters which I penned to family and friends, from the Jet Blast (the Bennington’s newspaper) and from the official "U.S.S. Bennington Mediterranean Cruise (book) 1953-1954."

And of course I will draw much from memory. Most of us retain, I believe, a select quantity of indelible impressions based upon the most peculiar incidents of our lives, impressions which for one reason or another we cannot erase.

Admittedly, images of the social activity and dialog which are at the core of the events of yesteryear—in this case, 56 years ago—exist only imperfectly in our minds. But, imperfect or not, the truth I will express is from those very unique incidents which I am still able to quite vividly recall.

Richard A. Clark

(formerly) ABAN, V-2 Division

USS Bennington, 1953-54

An aircraft carrier’s flight deck has been called the second most dangerous place on earth to work, and rightly so... [Dozens of aircraft and scores of men] are crammed onto little more than [a few] acres of hardened steel armor plate. Searing jet exhaust can cook a man or blow him overboard. At times the air is so hot that he can’t breathe. Jet intakes can pull a man off his feet and devour him. An unwary sailor can fall prey to a spinning propeller’s razor-sharp, invisible arc. On the flight deck men move in many different directions in what appears to the uninitiated observer to be chaotic. Yet nothing is as organized as the flight deck of a U.S. Navy carrier. It’s like an orchestra, with each section devoted to performing a part of the overall symphony of carrier operations. ²

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From USS Bennington cruise book (page 3) entitled U.S.S. Bennington—Mediterranean Cruise, 1953-54.  Future reference to this book will be Bennington cruise book or  cruise book.

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Immensity of USS Bennington featured on cruise book page. Stats listed her overall length as 898 feet 6 inches with flight deck of 867 feet. [Bennington cruise book, pg. 9.]

Chapter 1: A Prelude to Action

I turned 21 on June 17, 1953. But somehow my long-awaited independence party was not logged into the Navy’s plan of the day. To report aboard the USS Bennington was.

The dull hum of shipyard activity and a dockside scent familiar to mariners heralded my arrival at New York Naval Shipyard, Brooklyn. I approached the gangway of the slumbering attack carrier, adjusted my cumbersome olive-drab sea bag, and trudged upward to salute the colors.

Recalling four grueling months of plane pushing aboard the USS Coral Sea, I wished for better times aboard CVA-20, a decorated World War II vessel that was now temporarily out of action.

Reporting for duty, sir!

The Officer of the Deck’s brisk salute brought me aboard. Within five minutes I was billeted to V-2 Division’s arresting gear crew, the flight deck…

Fitting In

The first tentative days brought opportunities to study the stenciled names of my new shipboard family. At chow I sat listening to them, conscious of my outsider status.

Where ya from?

Ohio…Bowling Green…up near Toledo…

Toledo? There’s a guy from Toledo here…Bieniek. He’s in catapults.

Oh, yeah? I’ll have to look him up.

One of the first to really break ice with me was Doc Dougherty, a New Yorker who did amusing, throaty imitations of singer Jimmy Durante. His jovial manner was entertaining, and, because we were both E-3s, often shared the menial tasks delegated to us by our petty officers—usually the chipping and painting of flight deck barrier stanchions. During off hours aboard ship, we developed a relaxed friendship and would explore Big Benn’s topside structures and armament. Once we fell afoul of a PO whose gun-tub paint job we unintentionally tracked up.

A Piece of the Apple

Liberty in New York was a sailor’s dream, one destined to empty our wallets and sometimes stretch the limits of personal decorum.

Hey, there comes Kelly B., someone yelled across the flight deck one forenoon as we slapped on paint. He’s only two hours over liberty…they’ll chew his ass good.

I looked below. Kelly B., clad in whites, was rapidly approaching the gangway with an anxious expression on his face. At that moment he was still a PO, but had the Big Apple’s gaudy attractions put his crow in jeopardy?

On an airman’s pay liberty ashore was challenging, but also rewarding. While the Empire State Building, Central Park, Times Square, and the Brooklyn beer joints fascinated us, the German neighborhood, fascinated even more.

Acting on a tip from a shipmate I began to frequent historic establishments of Yorkville, including Die Lorelei and Café Hindenburg on East 86th Street, along the German Broadway. I found out later that the latter was a setting for espionage connections during World War II.

There Gunther Gustav Rumrich, one of the slickest and most productive spies in the United States, wrote William B. Breuer in his Secret Weapons of World War II, ³ met Nazi party official Karl Schlueter and was commissioned by Schlueter to acquire information about government tests on radar, infrared detection, and anti-aircraft detectors.

Activity at the popular cafe’s beer hall provided an atmosphere of boisterous merrymaking, a perfect setting for those stealthy encounters.

During my visits to the Hindenburg that summer, the lively festivity continued. Fleet personnel and other members of the military moved in and out nightly amidst the noisy, beer-bombed crush whose numbers included not a few elegant women. To dance under those conditions was a sailor’s delight, since coziness was predictable on the café’s packed dance floor. (Navy espionage in those days was person-to-person, but of a benign nature.)

Our general conviction: There ain’t no liberty like it!

South, Then North

In July, Big Benn got underway. The thrill of new waters and unknown ports was appealing. Slipping through Gravesend Bay, the ship sailed toward Norfolk to pick up planes in preparation for a United States Naval Academy midshipmen’s cruise to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

From a letter sent to my Ohio family, mid-July 1953:

Norfolk, Virginia, Sunday afternoon

It’s very warm here. We’ll only be here eight days. Just pulled in at 7:51 this morning. Left Gravesend Bay yesterday forenoon. It was cool at sea and very pleasant. Be glad to get our planes and go to Nova Scotia. I hated to leave the New York area. There is such a lot to see and do there. On Friday night I went to see Ruthann, the girl I met in Asbury Park, New Jersey… (Same day.) Something unusual! Got a Sunday afternoon mail call. Got one from Grandma Brim and one from Mom. Really a pleasant surprise.

By this time I felt fairly secure with the V-2 crew. To me they were definitely an entertaining bunch.

William Bill Russell, an AD3, bunked not far from my rack. Son of a Houston, Texas, Ford dealer, he worked an arresting wire on the flight deck, strummed a lively guitar, sang, told intriguing stories (many about flying planes, since he was privately licensed), and chuckled frequently. My superior, AD2 John Jack Downs, was Russell’s sidekick. Downs not only enjoyed a good laugh, but often created them.

"Wouldn’t ya just love to be gettin’ out of flight school right now with your