High Adventures
A Memoir of Flying in War and Peace
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It was early April in 1970. My squadron mates and I, in VF-53, flying the F-8 Crusader fighter from the deck of the attack carrier USS Bon Homme Richard (CVA-31) were headed west, passing by the Hawaiian Islands. We were on our way to Vietnam for what would be a nine-month war cruise. As we had been at sea for a week without flying, our Air Boss had commanded the ship's complement of tactical pilots to get into the air that night. The proximity of US military air bases in the Islands afforded us an emergency divert field option, if needed. The F-8 had a reputation for being difficult to land aboard an aircraft carrier, especially at night. The weather was miserable for night operations; a moonless night, a very low cloud ceiling, storms in the area and thick clouds up to 13,000 feet above the sea which was moving with six to eight foot waves. I launched from the deck of the Bonnie Dick (as she was known to us) at 2200 (10 pm). Within seconds, it was apparent to me that I had no attitude information (pitch and roll) from my limited array of flight instruments. I was blind at less than a hundred feet above the waves of a very dark ocean as the fighter was within seconds of stalling, consigning me to a cold, dark, watery grave before my 26th birthday. My salvation rested upon a very archaic pair of remaining instruments----the turn needle and the angle-of-attack devices. Using these two instruments allowed me to very carefully maintain some semblance of roll control and a speed above the stall speed of the wing as I managed to fly upward through the cloud mass and into clear air. The three to four minutes it took to break out of the clouds seemed like an eternity. Upon reaching 13,000 feet, I could see the glow of the big island to my north. I landed at Barber's Point Naval Air Station twenty minutes later. In retrospect, I survived that near-death experience by not succumbing to panic and because I had a lot of self-confidence. This had been instilled in me by my parents, my athletic coaches and my classmates and instructors at the Naval Academy. But it was primarily due to the absolutely superb flight training that I had received from the US Navy in the past thirty months.
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About the Book
David Palmer, who grew up fascinated by airplanes, looks back at a lifetime flying in this memoir. Beginning with his graduation from the Naval Academy in 1967 to starting his own air charter business at age fifty-five, he celebrates a series of increasingly fulfilling adventures. Whether it’s fighting in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, being a test pilot for General Dynamics, or serving as a member of the navy’s Reserve Air Forces, he shares a candid picture of what it is like to be a pilot in war and peace. “This book captures not only an individual’s drive to be the best he can be in a very difficult and demanding profession but also adds the flavors of camaraderie and fears experienced in extended combat. It adds in the demanding precision of an experimental test pilot. Carrier-based naval aviation provides a unique ‘living on the edge’ sense of accomplishment that stays with each of us privileged to have had that opportunity, for the rest of our lives.” —Capt. Jim Ruliffson USN (Ret.), Navy Fighter Weapons School (Top Gun) plank owner (1968–70) and Commanding Officer (1975–76)
About the Author
David Palmer was born in New Jersey in 1944. He graduated from the Naval Academy, flew fighters in Vietnam, was a Navy test pilot, and joined General Dynamics as an experimental test pilot in 1977. He ran his own charter flight business until 2016. He lives with his wife, Shivaun, in Texas.