Our options are: 1.Fly from NAS Brunswick, ME to NAS Argentia, Newfoundland and re-fuel there, 800 miles away. 2. Install an auxiliary 500 gallon fuel tank in the aircraft bomb bay and fly 2300 miles to Naval Station Larges Field on Terceira Island in the Azores island chain. The pilot, Lt Frederick, decides to cover both options by installing a full bomb bay fuel tank and monitoring our fuel useage in flight and decide if we have to divert to Newfoundland or go onto the Azores when we reach the point of no return. The Point of no Return is where you don't have enough gas to divert to Newfoundland and must continue to the Azores to refuel. With the bomb bay tank it's not an issue. After refueling in the Azores it will be another 1100 miles to Rota, Spain. We'll either overnight in Argentia, Newfoundland or in the Azores.
The day before we leave, the crew installs the bomb bay tank, puts some fuel in it, and make sure it works, then fill it full. After all, we don't want to run out of fuel and have to ditch the aircraft at sea. Ditching at sea usually results in half of the flight crew dieing in the crash when the aircraft hits the water. We don't want to take any chances!
The next morning we load our gear and our clothes into LK-10, our aircraft, and takeoff. Loafing across the skies to conserve fuel and practice overwater navigation. When we are about an hour away from the Point of no Return and have to decide whether to turn off to Newfoundland or continue on to the Azores, Lt Frederick ensures the bomb bay tank works. It does and he calls me over the ICS and says, "Well Lambert, your bomb bay tank works." "Shall we continue on or divert to Newfoundland?" My answer, "Since when is it my bomb bay tank? And since when does a pukey little Airman get a vote?' He laughs and says, "Well I guess we go to the Azores."
Two hours past the point of no return and the bomb bay tank won't pump fuel. He calls me on the ICS and tells me it doesn't work. "You have to fix it or we have to ditch. We have no other options." Shit.
The fuel tank is in the bomb bay. You can only reach it by twisting through the electronic equipment bay. Very tight space. There is an ICS plug-in in the bay so I can talk to the pilot while I'm working on the tank pump. Of course I have to go into the bomb bay and lay on the closed doors to even barely touch the pump on the bottom of the tank. If the pump is bad it can't be changed with the 500 gallons of fuel in the tank and there isn't enough room to remove the pump even if the tank was empty. My toolbox won't fit through the electronic equipment bay so I just take a voltmeter and some wiring repair tools with me. There's power to the pump but it doesn't run. Bad pump? Sometimes all electric motors stick and work when you tap on it with a tool. Tap Tap. Tap. It doesn't work. Crawl back out of the equipment bay and get a tiny wrench out of the toolbox to remove the wiring off the pump and closely examine the wire terminal connectors, for a loose wire crimp, cracked insulation, dirty terminals, whatever I can think of. Everything is good. Hook the wiring back up and the pump won't run. I lay there thinking what now? Then I remember I have a small piece of sandpaper I left in my tool box some time ago. Climb and wiggle my way out of the equipment bay, get the sandpaper, back into the equipment bay, take the wiring back off the pump, sand the wire terminal ends lightly, then sand the wire mounts on the pump, connect the wiring back on the pump, call the pilot on the ICS and have him try the pump and it works!
After getting out of the equipment bay and back to the flight deck, I tell Lt Frederick that my big fear was someone would accidently open the bomb bay doors and I'd fall thousands of feet into the ocean. He smiled and showed me he'd pulled the bomb bay doors circuit breaker and posted a guard on it, the co-pilot, all the time I was down there. Everyone is applauding as I crawl through the aircraft back to the after station where I normally sit. Once I'm back there and back on the ICS, I call Lt Frederick, and say, "Mr Frederick, we are NEVER DOING THAT AGAIN!" "We will always divert to Argentia, Newfoundland." He agrees, "Yes we will!"
I've been in the Navy about 18 months, I'm nineteen years old, certified for nuclear weapons release, and I've just saved maybe 10 lives and a Navy aircraft. When we get to Rota and I don't show up for work for a few days, no one says a word.
All that has happened since arriving at VP-26 is overwhelming and intimidating. All these E4 and E5 Petty Officers who are helping me learn to be an aircraft electrician and it doesn't happen to them. Those guys are who get my respect and admiration. But the "stuff" comes my way. It's a little scary.
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| P2V bomb bay |
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| Bomb bay fuel tank |
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| Ditching at sea |
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