I can truthfully say that I am one of a handful of people in this world that almost had a jet interceptor literally crash into his lap....

On one of our TYT cruises ("type training" - an airwing "getting acquainted" with the procedures and personality of the deployment carrier prior to a deployment cruise), one of the F-4 squadrons had a tiny bit of trouble landing on the ship.

At that particular time, my squadron (an A-7E outfit) was assigned a compartment on the O3 level, directly under the flight deck and about frame 225 (guessing here, I've slept since then). There was one other berthing compartment aft of us and then a tiny living-room sized workout room aft of that compartment with several stationary bikes, a couple of situp benches, a room-length mirror and a Universal gym. The workout room was directly beneath the flight deck where the deck gradually arcs downward toward the ocean at the very edge of the deck. In short, it was the last piece of solid metal on the flight deck and was called the "round-down."

Anyone who worked on a carrier can testify that, over time, you can pretty well know what kind of airplane is flying overhead by only the engine sound. There was the full-throated roar of the F-4's, the quieter rumbling roar of the A-7, the vacuum-cleaner whine of the S-3 and the THRUUUUUMMMMM of the E-2 and C-2 turboprops.

I worked daycheck maintenance in my squadron's AT/AQ shop and had showered and climbed into the top bunk in our berthing compartment. The bunklight was on and I had just settled into a good book when the landing phase of a sortie started. About every 20-30 seconds, an airplane would go over my head and touch down on the deck about four or five compartments forward of ours. At least most of them did....

I heard an F-4 inbound, making numerous throttle adjustments on approach - and not very subtle ones, at that. About the time I expected to hear the engines suddenly advance to full power for a go-around, there was a deafening WHAM!!!!! Paint chips and dust rained from the compartment's overhead; I shot a glance upwards, expecting to see small pieces of Phantom coming down. I don't even remember hearing the F-4's engines after that.

Turns out that the pilot was having some trouble getting stable on final and had been given a couple of "Power" calls by the LSO, but not close enough to the ship for him to command a Wave-Off. The F-4 inexplicably dropped suddenly toward the round-down when it was really, REALLY close to the ship and the LSO immediately pickled the Wave-Off lights, but it was already too late to avoid what is euphumistically called a "ramp strike." The tire marks from the main gear started about two feet down the round-down from the level part of the flight deck and the tailhook impact bashed a new skylight in the workout room's ceiling. All of the light fixtures in there were hanging from their electrical cables and the wall-length mirror was shattered; fortunately, no-one was using the room at the time.

The F-4's main landing gear hydraulic system seals were blown from the impact and it's tailhook suffered severe damage, but the jet was still airworthy; however, landing on the carrier was no longer an option. The pilot was told to take 'er to a shore base - and land gently. I imagine he and his RIO also had some serious laundry to do after that landing......

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"Any technology, no matter how primitive, is magic to those who don't understand it." - Florence Ambrose