The diary of a U.S. Naval Aviator
God was also in the cockpit with us, later that same year. We were flying east out of Jacksonville at 500 feet, approaching the Gulf Stream. Crews can visibly pick out the Stream, since there is a vivid change in the color of the ocean.
We were in and out of rainstorms on that particular flight, and ended up in an especially dark and heavy downpour. We began to lose altitude, and I started adding power. The rain got so heavy, I thought we might flame out an engine. I put on more power as our altitude got lower—low enough for the radar altimeter to start to register.
By the time we got down to 100 feet, I had full power on, and Dave Parker was pushing up the power levers, too. We were still descending. All we could do was hold on.
Gradually, the plane started to rise. We flew out of the storm with full power on, climbing fast. Afterward, we noted that no one had thought to pick up a mike and call “Mayday!” We were too engrossed in handling the situation.
It’s my personal theory that is what happened to some of the planes lost in the infamous Bermuda Triangle. Thank God and General Electric Corporation, who manufactured those reliable T56 engines that kept their fires going even when deluged with the water from that storm. A flameout on any one of our four engines most likely would have put us in the drink—a victim of the Bermuda Triangle.
Thomas Golder takes the reader on a journey from his boyhood days on Long Island to his joining the U.S. Navy’s flight training program—where he learned to fly the Navy way—and through thirty years of distinguished service as a U.S. Naval Aviator. It is a story of intense flying and learning the intricacies of military life. We live his experiences in the air and on the sea as he rises in rank, and share his stories during extensive Mediterranean deployments. His tour of duty in Iran during the 1978-79 Islamic Revolution sheds new light on living through the overthrow of a foreign government in the midst of chaos. It is an extraordinary adventure.
