Korea: the carrier war: the aircraft carrier's role offshore Korea never garnered the attention of ground operations, but sailors aboard ship and crews in the air made a valuable contribution throughout the war

Courageous Deck Crews

Much credit for the Navy's aviation success goes to the brave sailors who manned the incredibly hazardous carrier flight decks. In one accident, a damaged plane attempting to land on the Essex killed seven men and injured 27 others. Another time, an out-of-control Panther aboard the Antietam killed four sailors and injured 10. And in August 1952, a fire aboard the Boxer took nine lives and injured 30 men.

But disasters were prevented by courageous deck crews. Like the time a Skyraider landed with its unused napalm bomb ready to explode, and three of the Princeton's crewmen rushed in and threw the ordnance overboard. Or the time aboard the Bon Homme Richard when a deck crewman grabbed and tossed into the sea an inadvertently ignited flare, thereby preventing a catastrophic fire.

Overall, of U.S. Navy personnel killed in action during the war, 177 or 41% of its total died as a result of aerial combat. Some 124 were pilots.

In Korea, Navy aviators and crewmen played a vital role in the war effort, but their accomplishments had a much broader effect, too. Their skill and success resurrected the aircraft carrier as an essential part of American military might.

In subsequent conflicts, the big flattops repeatedly proved their value as mobile airfields capable of hitting an enemy anywhere in the world. Still, full credit for the men who operated from them has been fleeting.

"It is disturbing how quickly the Korean War is sinking from the national consciousness," concluded Richard P. Hallion in The Naval Air War in Korea. "Yet it was a war of sacrifice, courage, and principle, a war not sought but thrust upon us, a war rich in images, none richer than those of the air war."

NAVAL AIR SUPPORT: Corsair fighter planes (F-4Us) line up for take off from a U.S. Navy carrier of Task Force 77 in 1950. Some 124 Navy pilots were killed in action during the Korean War.

GARY TURBAK is a frequent contributor to VFW's Korean War series. He is based in Missoula, Mont.

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