On the 31st of March, I was to make an aborted take-off and a water landing but not of the variety of controlled landings a pilot likes to make whether good or bad. This take-off was bad! As a matter of fact it wasn't a take-off, it was a crash! Who or what was at fault? Who's to say! I would probably get an argument but as far as I am concerned the crash was due to circumstances beyond my control. The sequence of events leading up to the crash and the experience of the crash goes exactly like this: The skipper's division in which I was in the fourth plane was scheduled for a pre-invasion strafing mission on Okinawa. The weather was very heavy and when we were called to man the planes the ship was rolling from one side to the other with about a 12 degree roll. While I was sitting in the plane waiting for my turn to do a fly-away take-off, I could look out the right side of the plane and be looking very nearly straight down into the water. This was partly due to the hydraulic shock absorbers on the landing gear, which allowed the plane to roll even more than the 12 degrees of the ship. Then I would look out the left side and see nothing but blue sky. In the next minute the ship would roll to port and I would look out the left side and see water and the right side and see sky. My position on deck at the time was slightly right of the fore and aft center line of the deck and at an angle of about 30 degrees to that line. When it came my turn to be positioned for take-off the deck officer directed me to the center of the deck but left me spotted at that 30 degree angle. There I got the signals for checking the engine and the two finger wind up (full power) and the signal to release the brakes and go. I did. Unfortunately the tail of the plane was down hill on a starboard roll. With full throttle and hard right brake I could not get the plane lined with the deck. By the time the ship had rolled even keel the plane was very close to the port side. I had an instant to decide whether to go ahead and try to gain control or use the brakes and try to stop. My instant analyses of the situation was that if the right brake didn't work before then why should it work now. And if the left brake does work then I'm going to cartwheel this plane over the side. The other option was to continue on and try to gain control with the engine, the right brake (if any) and the rudder. I opted the second. The rudder never had a chance to take effect and the plane continued at it's 30 degree angle right over the side.

Photo sequence showing the author in failed take-off attempt

I pause here to say that if that deck officer had spotted me straight down the deck or had given me the release sign when the roll of the ship was approaching an even keel then none of this would have happened and I would have completed the mission. No one was injured.

The plane went over the side the ship just aft of the port stack and just forward of a 20 millimeter gun mount. The left wing struck the gun and spun it like a top. The port drop-able gas tank was torn off and 60 gallons of 100 octane gasoline was sprayed down the catwalk and under the flight deck. Fortunately, the fuel did not ignite and all the deck hands had scattered to safer places.