The 1,092-foot length of Hancock had already disappeared into the gloom.
CHAPTER 20
After five minutes flying east, Zavitz couldn’t see anything but the wind-streaked sea below and the raindrops on his windscreen.
He knew it was time for a decision. Ed Toth and the C-2 were his responsibility as flight leader. Smith had reported that Toth, through hand signals, had communicated he was at bingo fuel. Toth seemed impatient to leave, even though that meant another climb through icing and an emergency profile to an unfamiliar — and dark — Adak. The seas below seemed rough, but without a ship on them to help him judge, Zavitz couldn’t assess how rough. He keyed the ICS.
“We gotta get out of here, Danny. The C-2 guys are probably below bingo. We got here on time, we did our job, and we need to bingo to Adak. Maybe they’ll send us back here tomorrow.”
As he contemplated the low-state C-2 next to them, Rogers knew Zavitz was right. “Yeah… let’s turn north and begin our profile. I’m showing a steer of three-five-eight degrees for four-ten.”
“Concur. Bill, let’s bring it left.”
Smith turned the yoke left and gave a head nod to Toth for him to follow. Even in clear air, the two big carrier planes bounced from the turbulence. Smith looked up from the instrument panel to scan the horizon and exclaimed, “Oh, look at this!”
Zavitz lifted his head in time to see a Rhino in a knife-edge turn coming at them. Pulling the Super Hornet hard, Olive approached from below at 450 knots. She wanted to thump them and get their attention to follow her back to Hancock.
Olive passed only 200 feet under the Hummer. With the C-2 next to it in cruise formation, the pilots of both aircraft would have to see her. She tightened her leg and abdomen muscles as she inhaled while closing her windpipe—hoookkk—and pulled the stick into her lap. The crushing g pressed her body further into the seat as she strained her neck to keep sight as the two turboprops kept their left-turns in. With her vision graying,” she maintained sight of the two aircraft against a wall of cloud as she brought her nose around. Her first instinct was to boresight-lock the E-2 on radar, but she fought it—EMCON—and rolled out behind them about a mile. Having bled airspeed in the turn, she lit the cans to catch up quick.
“Yes, and that Rhino was from the Gun Fighters!” Toth exclaimed. “Hancock has gotta be nearby! Petty Officer Battistini, prepare for arrested landing. How are our passengers doing back there?”
“Roger, sir. They are all secure.”
“Roger that, will try to bring us aboard with no more force than normal!” Toth was energized, even though he was at a bingo fuel level that compelled him to skip trying to find the ship and head to Adak. If he stayed here and didn’t find the ship, they wouldn’t have fuel to make Adak. Chu knew this, too.
“Chewy, if we’re no closer to getting aboard in five mikes, we’re outta here,” Toth said. A skeptical Chu nodded and bit his lip.
Olive brought her throttles to idle as she sprinted up on the formation. She slid under to Zavitz’ left and stabilized next to him at 250 knots. Through hand signals, she took the lead and turned east into the formation and toward the carrier. She then dropped her tailhook, the familiar carrier aviation signal to get ready for recovery on the ship.
With a flurry of hand signals Zavitz communicated that the C-2 was low state, and he crossed under to Olive’s left so Toth could get on her right wing and communicate his plight. With Olive’s knowledge of E-2/C-2 fuel states, she realized that the COD needed to come down first.
Wilson stood on the bridge next to Blower. A sudden rain spotted the bridge windows as they observed Hancock’s increased pitch and roll.
“Looks like the beginning of frontal passage,” Wilson said.
“Yep… and we’re going to be in this for the next hour at least.”
“The temp is dropping, too. What do you think?”
“I think we have to do what it takes to catch them, and if Mullet and the LSOs need to make a sugar call to get them aboard, then so be it. We have to hope that nobody is out here taking an ESM cut to find us.”
Wilson nodded in agreement. Just then The Big Unit opened the bridge door, and, before a nearby sailor could call the bridge to attention, Johnson put his finger to his lips, not wanting to disturb the watchstanders. Wilson whispered to Blower that the admiral was on the bridge, and Blower turned in his chair.
“Guys, what’s the latest?” Johnson spoke in a low tone. Wilson answered.
“Sir, we’ve got a Rhino out there looking for them to bring them back. Olive Teel is flying it, and I think they’ll be here in the next ten minutes. If not, they had to divert to Adak.”
Blower added. “And, Admiral, I’ve authorized my LSO to come up on the radio if required and nonprecision needles are radiating.”
Wilson nodded. “Admiral, our recommendation is to do what it takes to catch everyone now. We’ve gotta have those AADMs and HAVE REELs aboard.”
Johnson smiled when his eyes picked up a series of twinkling lights to port. “There’s a welcome sight.”
Wilson and Blower followed his eyes and picked them up: a Super Hornet leading a COD with the E-2 in trail. Yes! Blower thought as he picked up the phone to call the Air Boss. Wilson grabbed a nearby phone to call the LSO platform.
“Lieutenant Commander Krueger, sir.”
“Mullet, CAG here on the bridge. Do you see them coming up from the south?”
“Yes, sir! Hope we can catch them before we go into that stuff off our bow.”
“Okay, if you have to jump in and talk, do it. I’ve just spoken with the Captain and Admiral. Transmit only if you must, but if it’s warranted, go ahead.”
“Aye, aye, sir,” Mullet said. “We’ll get them.”
“Roger that, Paddles. See you later.”
The angled deck landing area was clear as sleet began to pelt the bridge windows and flight deck. Whitecaps now broke in the fifteen-foot seas, and Hancock bucked and swayed in them with a natural forty knots of wind down her flight deck. Olive was still leading the C-2 with the Hawkeye trailing, all three aircraft dark silhouettes against the gray clouds that surrounded the carrier.
Olive saw a white plume rise from Hancock’s bow two miles to her left. Ahead, the weather appeared thicker, and there wasn’t much more she could do for the aircraft she was leading. The E-2 had read her mind and had dropped its gear and flaps to take separation on the C-2 ahead of it. Olive looked at Toth off her right wing — a pilot she had never met — and, after pointing at the ship over her shoulder, tapped her helmet and pointed at Toth.
Toth tapped his helmet and pointed ahead, the standard lead-change signal they had learned in flight school. Olive banked away left and pulled toward the ship, engaging the burners again in a tight turn to place her behind both turboprops. She was in a sustained 4 g turn at 500 feet to remain in the small area of visibility in which Hancock and the three aircraft found themselves.