HISTORY

Photo: US Navy

knew too well that his response would

be so toxic it could destroy the grass

in the vicinity, even the whole jungle.

Only one was brave enough to break

the silence and carefully asked: “Listen Pappy, did you see those whales in

Solomon Sea which we flew over?”

“Yeah, I did” countered Pappy. All of

sudden his eyes lit, and he cleared his

throat. The men already knew that he

was getting ready to narrate one of

his legendary stories and they circled

around him.

“You may not know but the whale is

the most intelligent of all animals. Not

only is she smart, but she is also friendly. She likes people and likes to help

them out. Had not she been so huge

she would have been an ideal home

pet. Those whales today reminded me

of the year 1930 when I flew with the

Navy. It happened during the exercises

near the northern coast of Haiti. I flew

the catapult launches off the cruiser

Omaha and conducted anti-submarine

reconnaissance. One day at the altitude of five thousand feet and hundred

miles from the aircraft carrier my engine suddenly seized. I was sure about

the cause of the failure. You know, at

that time the rubber hose connectors

were used in the fuel system piping.

Those old engines used to vibrate a lot

and the engineers were afraid that the

piping without such flexibility would

break. Sometimes however the gas

corroded the rubber and its pieces got

into the piping or carburetor and clogged it. I knew what to do if I could land

but when I looked at the roaring Atlantic it struck me that when I descended,

I would be really lucky if after my landing anything remains on which I could

sit until they pick me up.

I spiraled down and searched for a

wave which would be smaller than

the others when all of sudden I noticed the calm ridge between the waves.

So, I touched down on that spot, nicely skidded on the surface and then a

mild bump stopped me. Then I looked

over the side what I bumped into and

learned that I ended up on the whale’s

back! I sat there for a while, but the

whale did not move. So I asked myself:

What is this supposed to mean? But I

disembarked, stepped on the whale’s

back, opened the engine hood, cleaned the carburetor and fuel piping,

installed new hose connectors which I

carried in my pocket and closed everything. Then I pulled out the crank handle for an inertia starter, put one foot

on the whale and another on the float

and cranked the engine until the inertia starter gained enough RPMs.

Then I quickly jumped into the cockpit,

turned on the ignition and engaged

the inertia starter clutch. The propeller turned, the engine started and

that was it! Now the whale… Remember what I said about how smart they

were? She knew I was ready to take

off! So, she carefully submerged and

refrained from flapping the tail so as

not to hit the airplane. Some hundred

feet in front of me she emerged again,

turned against the wind, and created a

smooth wave on which I could take off

and return to Omaha.”

Pappy stopped talking, looked around,

grinned, and waited for the applause

which followed of course.

Then he turned around and said: “I

think I should check out if Sgt. Evans

have prepared my plane for another

mission”. Having said that he left the

operations room…

The whole paragraph was shortened

and adopted from the book The Saga of

Pappy Gunn written by General George

C. Kenney.