This is a continuation of last week's comment and final chapter of "The Miracle". The following again, is taken from the article written by CDR Slattery, CHC, USN, a Chaplain on the USS Wasp; the day after the miracle took place (Sept. 24, 1953).
" Now we were sweating out one plane...plane 701...the "Guppie". Pat Patrova had been down earlier in the afternoon and had now finished his task. He bore through the fog and out into the clear. Down he swooped and then in for a "cut". He was caught by number four wire, a smooth landing; the flight deck crew received their well done from the air "boss" as 701 taxied up to his spot.
Grins were the uniform of the day. Thank God was the word.
CDR Bottomley, the USS Wasp Executive Officer, said over the ship's IMC. "The Good Lord was merciful to the pilots and the ship today".
Indeed He was merciful.
Was it just an accident of nature that we should find a warm patch of water at the crucial moment? Was it just a whim of nature, as a poet would say? When 701 landed, it had one hundred pounds of fuel left, barely enough for a wave off and another pass; and the fog was closing in again. The men who flew the planes do not think it an accident or a whim. Their jubilance in the ready room was a surface joy. Deep inside they recognized the work of God. And when the Chaplain was on his way to say the night prayer over the IMC (the ship had night and morning prayer broadcasts), "Pat" Patrova reminded him, "Don’t forget to say a special thanks for us, Chaplain". Patrova was struck by an unusual aspect of the events of the day... "God is not discriminating, for He had Catholics and Protestants and Jews and non-believers all around up there. And He brought them all home".
No one will forget the experience. The strange conjunction of events which no man can measure in terms other than faith and prayer, As we collect our thoughts about the experience, it comes back to such a spiritual measure; faith and prayer.
Ens Roy N. Reynolds thinks so, "When I first realized the position we were in, I became frankly, scared. I prayed to God to bring us all down, and thought of several of the boys who have families or who have children on the way, and I thought of my mother and dad and everyone who means anything to me. I wondered how they would take it."
Family and prayer.
"When they called me down for an individual run on the ship, being directed by radar, I prayed for courage enough to remain calm and to help me to fly to the best of my ability. Help me God".
Training for the job and prayer.
"When I finally gave up hope in the late afternoon, I began to think of things I had done in my life and tried to prepare myself to meet my Creator. Along toward the last, I guess I became too busy to pray, except to make short little prayers, and to concentrate on flying. When we sighted the ship and when I landed, I gave thanks. Some people might call it a miracle of nature, but I believe it was God working through nature".
Tom McDonald, who can laugh now about wanting the Padre put on the radio so he could make a last confession, sums it up this way. "Of the situation as a whole, I feel it was miraculous. The fact that we had orbited at a point to the east of the ship which was between us and the sub, resulted in the situation that having proceeded twenty miles towards the submarine, we were just over the ship when the break came. This plus the short duration of the break made the situation though entirely natural in its process, seem to have supernatural control".
And now, Mike Hanley has a squadron knit more closely, ready for combat with man or nature. For squadron 175 is armed with a special weapon. Prayer, for those in peril on the sea. "
Well that’s pretty much the story of the miracle on Sept. 23, 1953.
There is another article, written by CAPT Wynn F. Foster, USN (retired) on the same subject called "The Mariner Miracle". It’s a long article, and he gets deep into the specifics; the water temperature, the wind direction, the names of the other ships in the exercise, and the countries they were from, etc.
With forty two planes aloft, and a zero visibility fog, that short duration the fog lifted prevented the greatest peacetime disaster in the history of Naval Aviation. It also saved the future of U.S. carrier aviation from possible doom.
These past three comments were about the men of the USS Wasp. But there are many hair raising facts that took place on the other two carriers; the USS Bennington, and the Canadian ship, HMCS Magnificent. One in particular, was a Corsair that ran out of fuel seconds after it landed. Another was a Skyraider that floated precariously over the arresting wires, and appeared to be headed for a messy collision with the group of aircraft spotted forward. But at the last moment the deck heaved upward and caught the plane's hook in a late wire.
Many prayers were offered for those in peril in the air in Task Force 218 during the afternoon and early evening of 23 September 1953. When the last of the 42 aircraft had landed under conditions rarely encountered before or since, there was no doubt in the minds of the Mariner participants that those prayers had been answered - immediately and directly.
Among other aspects of the Miracle. The visibility already had begun to deteriorate when the last of the 42 props had landed. Fifteen minutes later, the fog closed in again and the carriers steamed in zero-zero weather for the next 18 hours.
September 23 of this year will be the 54th anniversary of "The Miracle", or "The Mariner Miracle". I wonder how many pilots and crew from those three carriers are still with us. God, continue to bless them.
By George Konig
9/16/2007
www.georgekonig.org
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