I received orders to Bennington as "numerical relief" for the Cat Officer. It was common knowledge that many who tried hard to chase a carrier all over the Pacific, could in fact eat up about 6 weeks....thus enjoying the freedom to roam around, with no particular duty to fulfill. I couldn't even begin to force myself to do that. I had finished H-8 Catapult Training just days before my departure from Conus, and frankly, I was anxious to find my new home and settle in.

From Conus, it was a 2 legged flight into Clark AFB, and, within about 10 minutes I was heading toward OLANGAPO, and Cubi Pt.. That is where I was told that Bennington would be. On arrival at Cubi Pt., I went directly to Air Ops to see if I could learn the whereabouts of Bennington, and was told that they were at sea, but still in the vicinity of Kyushu (that is the Island with Atsugi, isn't it?) Anyway, I hitched a ride on an R5D that happened to be going to Atsugi, and after landing, I was tempted to head directly to the BOQ. However, my upbringing kept me from ignoring the basic gentlemanly thing to do....Thank the pilot of the R5D who accepted me as a hitchhiker from Cubi, and went into Air Ops at Atsugi to look for him.

Guess who I ran into. Two of Bennington's Operations Department. I believe it was The Ops Officer himself and the CIC Officer. I had known them from the ASW Community before, and when they saw me, and knew exactly where I wanted to go. We departed within the hour, and flew (in the black of the night) to Bennington. After trapping aboard, it was a quick check in, stateroom assignment, then (finally) FOOD and sleep!

It was a quickie transit from home to Bennington, via Clark, Cubi and Atsugi (a day and a half, with Time Zone adjustments),

Naturally, the departing Cat Officer was most appreciative of my arrival. He left, but his assistant Cat Officer stayed and fleeted up to become the Cat Officer. I became the Asst. Catapult Officer.

In the next couple of weeks, I was occupied with getting "checked out" in V-2 Division activities, including division personnel and a myriad of operational requirements, including, but not limited to, The Air Group and the Ship's Air Department..

Because I was one of 5 Day and Night Qualified Pilots in COD "type" aircraft (S-2, etc) in ship's company, I would be scheduled to fly the COD with another aviator (not Qualified in Type) from the Staff or elsewhere in ship's company. Generally speaking, the COD flew to the beach (Cubi or Dannang) every 5 days. Out one day, then return the next. It would be a great way to break up the 12 hour on and 12 hour off daily schedule that the ships in operating in the Tonkin Gulf maintained. .....

We are all familiar with the 'key roll' of the COD....that is, picking up or delivering, High Priority PARTS and PERSONNEL, and of course, the US MAIL. The Pilot with whom I was scheduled for the 'check ride' was a fine pilot with whom I had become acquainted professionally as well as socially, several years before while I was flying with VS-41 as an Instructor Pilot. Like I said, this was several years before. This pilot was known by me to be highly experienced. My respect for him was great. Imagine, if you will, my chagrin (sp) or dismay, when we came to the Cubi Flight Line the morning after our flight from Bennington, I couldn't believe my eyes. I said "look at "Charles". My pilot said, "What's Wrong?" I said :look: as I pointed, The C1A we were to fly about 500 to 600 miles, arcing around Hainan, and finding Bennington, and trap aboard to deliver lots and lots of US Mail and High Priority parts, was sitting on it's 'tail', with it's nose looking as it it were about to leap into the air. The 'experienced' PC shrugged his shoulders, and muttered "there is obviously a large load this morning. besides", he continued, "with a thousand turns on the engines, if the nose wheel comes down to the ground, it's GO bird.".. Then, after the preflight, I went to the fuselage door (port side, aft on the fusalege) and started to open it when the PC said "Don't Open the door" ! I didn't, for fear of what would leap out at me. The PC explained that the mail completely filled the fuselage, from just behind the pilots all the way to the Aft Bulkhead.

No sweat I thought,,,, So I asked, how do we "man aircraft"? The PC explained that we had 2 ways to do it...Using the "the tie-down' fitting as a 'step', climb up and shimmy along the top of the empennage until there was enough area to crawl forward, creeping forward to the pilot's overhead hatches (mysteriously left open). The other way was to procure a stepladder from Line Maintenance and climb up and in! No sweat. We used the stepladder method. It worked.

Our 1000 RPMs did get the nose wheel on the deck, and we were "GOOD TO GO", as the PC had predicted. For the next thrill, I began to recall that the bird had a history of Really Serious Problems with Engine or Wing Fires. These birds did not have a main spar in the wings, and the crew usually had about 2 to 2 ½ minutes after a wing/engine fire would sever the control rods and the bird would start a roll in that direction until the whole wing separated and the bird stopped flying....literally. Pilots were 'schooled' that they have to either be in a parachute, in the water or on the deck within a minute and a half.

I really wasn't much concerned during the initial portion of the flight, because we had climbed to and maintained about 1200 feet over the water. In and out of the clouds. Really heavy showers. When it became desireable to climb to 2000 ft and above, I began to get concerned. There is no way anyone can get the S2 or C1 aircraft down to the water or ground from 2000 feet and above, in less than 2 minutes. THIS was a gamble, because there was no way we could hope to bail out of the overhead hatch, and egress to the read door was blocked.

This was an uneventful flight. But secretly, I vowed that I would not put myself (or my crew into that position again....and I didn't. I flew 'Charles' (our affectionately named C1) many times, for many different missions, and didn't find it necessary to violate my secret.

Being Cat Officer in Bennington
Dave Kassebaum