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Early summer through late fall of 1946, occasionally photographs were in the New York's daily newspapers of Navy fighter aircraft having to ditch in the water off the south shore of Long Island due to engine trouble. The pilot always escaped unharmed by swimming or wading ashore to small crowds of well-to-do and very sympathetic greeters who owned palatial estates. These empathic observers would treat the dear hero pilot as if he had won WWII single-handedly. They housed the pilot in their home for the weekend, feeding him and providing him clothes. They even hosted parties to honor this hero; then on Monday, furnished him transportation back to Floyd Bennett NAS in a limousine.
In early spring of that year, I had enlisted in the naval fighter group based at Floyd Bennett NAS to get more fighter air time. Our skipper was a decorated Pacific fleet four year veteran. Since this was a reserve Navy program, we all had regular jobs elsewhere. Our skipper's job was being a butcher in Brooklyn.
My first day after enlistment, the skipper called me to his office, "Does your flight testing take you south of Long Island?" When he learned it did, he ordered, "I want you to keep me informed as to the location of the best looking, largest estates on the south shore of Long Island. And, you being a test pilot, I want you to check all the older fighter planes assigned to our group and give me a list identifying the worst ones."
Thereafter, I thought I occasionally saw a cadre of the skipper's old WWII buddies in a corner drawing straws.
Wayne Harding, author of his fiction book His Edge, was a civilian test pilot after being a naval pilot in WWII. He tested F4U Corsairs, flying production and experimental. His novel, His Edge, traces a young talented pilot who must deal with life and death dangers while struggling with issues of faith, love, integrity, and good versus evil. Visit http://www.hisedgethebook.com/
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