RM2 Alex Constance

It was the 79 or 80 Med run, and we were on plane guard for one of the
carriers we worked with, I want to say America. It was getting pretty
boring, when all of a sudden, and quite out of the blue, we get buzzed
by a couple of F-14s. I mean buzzed. They run down the either side of
the ship, buzzing the bridge wings, and generally pissing off the
skipper. They pass around, and one makes another run at the bridge,
pulls vertical, and cracks the sound barrier. The CO is by now really
pissed and confused. The last pass is over the flight deck, at slow
speed, with an after burner kick in and resulting sonic boom. The CO is
in fits trying to find out what is going on, and leans on the Air Det
OIC. He has no idea why the go fast boys would act in this way. Only
after much digging does the CO find out that the Airedales had sewn
sheets together, enough to cover the flight deck, and scrawled “If you
can’t hover, you’re queer.” They had stretched it over the flight deck
at the appropriate time (when the go fast crowd could see) and then
punctuated the insult by mooning the target pilot while he passed by
(all twenty five, or so, of them at once).


Charlie Oscar was not happy, but we didn’t do much plane guard after
that either!?