by In 1948, I was on detached service with the USN flying ice, photo special reconnaissance for Task Force 80 - a group of Navy ships re-supplying a bunch of weather and ionosphere stations in the Arctic, looking for possible airfield locations; photo-mapping some areas that had never been mapped; and looking for the Russian fleet allegedly maneuvering near Spitsbergen. The Task Force Commander was Capt. Dufek, one of the Navy's leading arctic experts who had been on a expedition to the Antarctic with Byrd. He was a Naval aviator and a great guy and frequently flew on our 10 - 12 hour missions in the old RB-17. Yes, I was in 4-engine for a while. LeMay had my five pounds of flesh between wars. I would probably have been one of the poor souls shot all to hell by the MiGs on Black Thursday had I not hidden my form 5 while going through the port in June 1950. They were looking for, and diverting any pilot coming through who had B-29 experience. I had about 500 hours in that beast - the first tri-motor since the Ford. Normal landing - 3 turning and 1 burning!!! Anyhow, we got a "Well Done" commendation from the CNO for a flight where we basically saved Dufek and other ship skippers when we landed at Resolute Island with no navaids other than our airborne radar when the ceiling was 100' and vis at 1/8th mile. In his description of the incident, Dufek said those Air Force Lts are cocky as hell - but they're damn good! I had read in Stars and Stripes that he had come to the theater as skipper of the carrier task force that was operating in the Sea of Japan and patrolling up and down the east coast or Korea. While on R&R in Japan, I ran into a USN Lt, pilot type, who said he was from the Antietam. I asked his to take a message to a guy I knew and then took a bar napkin and congratulated the old man on his command and told him I too had a command at Kimpo and would like to see him if he ever got over that way and signed it, First Aviator, Six Three Jig Baker, TF 80 (that had been our call sign back in '48 in the Arctic). Now obviously I had not had any libations otherwise how would a young buck major send such a missile to the carrier task force commander. The next morning, I had second thoughts about the propriety of what I had done. A few days later at Kimpo, the first shirt came into the 'office' in the tent and told me I had a call from Captain Morris, Senior Naval Liaison Officer at JOC in 5th AF Headquarters. Capt Morris told me that I had a personal radiogram from the old man. As I said he was a great guy with, fortunately, a sense of humor. He paraphrased my bar napkin message back to me "Glad to hear you're in the theater. Congratulations on your command, etc. How about coming out to the Antietam for a few days as my guest to see how the other half lives. If you can, I'll send a COD in to pick you up and take you back". On the way up to Wing Headquarters I was trying to figure out a way how to ask Col. Chickering to let me forget the war and go out there for a few days. I asked him how would he like to go out on a carrier for a few days and see how the other half lives. He thought that was a great idea but wanted to know how we could arrange that. I told him, "I know a guy" and the rest is history. The Navy sent a bird in for us; we were the Admiral's guest for about three days; and they flew us back. The old man is seated in the skippers chair on the bridge with Col. Chickering and I standing and the others in the picture are some of the Admiral's Navy horse holders. I don't know their names. Copyright (C) 2000 Ruffin W. Gray |
A TRIP TO THE ANTIETAM