OK, here’s one titled “How Wrong We Were.”
On my first cruise aboard the USS Midway, there were these little strange pipes sticking up out of the deck, one or more next to each chair in the ready room. One day the Skipper decided he wanted a new colorful RR deck, so our metal smiths spent several nights with hammer, chisels and grinders getting rid of these useless pipes.
As we know, it was thought that before Vietnam, the days of WVR were over with our new BVR missiles. Thus no gun on the F-4. Moreover it was thought that the F-4s primary mission would be BVR intercepts of inbound hostiles at very high altitudes.
For this F-4 envisioned mission it was believed that our crews would need to be in fully pressurized flight suits for these high altitude intercepts. So our ready room – even after a recent major overhaul and 6 years into the Vietnam War - still had these archaic little pipes sticking up a few inches above the deck … for crews briefing to hook up to with their full pressure suits.
