Dad's worst landing, c. 1953, Korea. (OC from his archive) Checkerboard Squadron, VMF 312. A bullet was involved. One bullet.
Posted by MamaCassegrain@reddit | aviation | View on Reddit | 172 comments
Katana_DV20@reddit
What a picture and look at your Pops pose. Hope you have this framed and in the living room!
MamaCassegrain@reddit (OP)
We have a different pic in that room, of him in the left seat of N711NA (or maybe 712), looking back over his shoulder at the camera, with a shit-eating grin. A secretary took it during a flight at Dryden while they were developing the space shuttle landing.
Katana_DV20@reddit
I just looked up that N#, the Convair 990?
MamaCassegrain@reddit (OP)
Yes. 711 was not too much later destroyed in a midair with a Navy P-3.
OCFlier@reddit
Looks like a great landing to me. The plane will fly again and so will dad.
MamaCassegrain@reddit (OP)
He spent the rest of his life flying, for USMCR and NASA.
juanmlm@reddit
You guys have great ancestors. Mine was a PoW in Germany, and another one fought in the Spanish civil war... for the baddies.
heybuggybug@reddit
I actually had a German foreign exchange student in college once and he told me his great grandfather was a tank driver during the battle of France in 1940, I don’t recall if he ever made it though
KFSX@reddit
France? Probably. Russia? Probably not so much.
eubulides@reddit
If 1940, then France. Germany didn’t attack Soviet Union until 1941.
KFSX@reddit
Yes but if you were involved in France you were inevitably going to be roped into the Russian conflict the next year unless you somehow managed to get yourself captured in combat.
corporate-citizen@reddit
“Baddies?” In Spain these “baddies” fought against the Bolshevik commies who killed over 10,000 Catholic clergy. Franco was based AF.
DaimonHans@reddit
Mine just on TikTik 24/7 and doesn't give a damn about anything.
Rafal0id@reddit
The US aren't the good guys either in Korea...
IPlayGames1337@reddit
Still, their stories matter too. I love reading about the other guys story. They are a person with their own life and experiences.
Can't blame kids for what their (grand)parents did ages ago.
devoduder@reddit
“My grandfather was the toughest man I’ve know, killed 20 soldiers in one day and spent the rest of the war in an Allied POW camp, these days he puttering around down in Argentina.” D. Schrute
Kardinal@reddit
Hear hear. Their stories matter, too.
flightwatcher45@reddit
His-story!
MattheiusFrink@reddit
...rob schneider's grandfather...
"Vell I vas sleeping in ze mohning..."
IndigentPenguin@reddit
Which baddies?
juanmlm@reddit
The ones who won.
MamaCassegrain@reddit (OP)
One of dad's favorite experiences was hearing Hannah Reitsch talk about test flying the German Komet rocket planes, at an SETP symposium. History can be weird.
SoyMurcielago@reddit
Ah the ME-163
I see that and shudder. It’s so tiny and so dangerous and yet… well… some folks flew it and survived i guess.
TheBrettFavre4@reddit
It’s so beautiful though!
SirPiffingsthwaite@reddit
I hear flying it was to die for, face melting stuff. ...and torso, limbs, just the whole shebang really
MamaCassegrain@reddit (OP)
Hannah apparently said that ground crews were scared to approach after landings, because the fuel was so dangerous. So she'd sit in the cockpit writing notes until they'd eventually come help get her out. She had big balls.
MamaCassegrain@reddit (OP)
Ha! That neatly summarizes Dad's opinion of Hannah.
TangoRed1@reddit
Once a Marine. Always a Marine.
This makes me happy hahahaha
haribobosses@reddit
You know how Japan was bombed to the ground in WWII?
Korea got 12x as many bombs per square mile as Japan.
American pilots are not heroes. They participated in one of the greatest crimes against humanity ever perpretrated.
Cocomorph@reddit
Hmm. What do we call this unit. Bomb flux?
KFSX@reddit
Nothing wrong with that!
danit0ba94@reddit
All history is important. Whether to embrace and be proud of, fumbles and mistakes to learn from, or as a cautionary tale to grow from.
I am an absolutist when it comes to being as objective, disconnected and unbias and as possible when talking about history. Helps keep it accurate and less altered.
moving0target@reddit
If only any appreciable amount of reddit thought that.
sileegranny@reddit
Evil deeds are a lot more relevant than evil sides in wars of competing ideologies.
Ass4ssinX@reddit
Oh, don't worry. We weren't the good guys in Korea.
moving0target@reddit
Mine have been on the wrong side of civil war as well. 🙄
Guess the family name made up for itself in wars since then.
GrandpaShark1@reddit
According to my dad, all of ours were hanged.
The sad part is that I’m not so sure he was kidding. 🤭
Conscious_Raisin_436@reddit
Did they wear skulls on their hats?
False_Measurement843@reddit
At least he didn't end up flying a cargo plane full of rubber dog shit out of Hong Kong😅
MamaCassegrain@reddit (OP)
No, but they did bring a few things home from places like HK. There are some advantages to entering the US at what's basically your own airport, even if it does say Naval Air Station on the door.
Ficsit-Incorporated@reddit
Would LOVE to see anything he has in his archives from his NASA days. NASA does incredible flying and always has.
MamaCassegrain@reddit (OP)
I have quite a lot. Just yesterday I rediscovered his log books from the 50s and 60s. I plan to post a few of the interesting pages along with pics, when I get time.
ParadoxTrick@reddit
This would be amazing.
Ficsit-Incorporated@reddit
Fantastic! Can’t wait.
According_Big_5638@reddit
I'm jealous your dad got to fly a Corsair. Coolest plane ever.
MamaCassegrain@reddit (OP)
I swear the guy had the best career ever. Corsair, P-51, F-86, A-4, F-104, X-14, P-1127, CV-990, Concorde. And DC-3.
When he retired, first thing he did was get a Seaplane rating. Somehow NASA didn't see the need for that.
dsyzdek@reddit
After getting the seaplane rating, there is only one left — the famed "amphibious blimp" rating. It's available, just in case anyone ever builds one!
MamaCassegrain@reddit (OP)
He never got any LTA rating. Blimp, hot air balloon, whatever. Ironic, because Moffett is famous for its three enormous dirigible airship hangars. His office was a stone's throw from Hangar 1.
dsyzdek@reddit
That is an amazing list of aircraft. I had to to lookup the X-14, the P-1127, and the Convair 990. My dad was a USAF mechanic and worked on P-51s, P-80s, F-82s, F-86s, F-100s, F-105s, F-4s.
That was a such amazing time in aviation!
MamaCassegrain@reddit (OP)
For your amusement : Ryan VZ-3, Bell XV-15 Tiltrotor, YO-3 Quietstar, VZ-9 Avrocar, Bell XC-142, NASA 716 Augmented Wing
He occasionally got to fly normal airplanes, too. 😁
According_Big_5638@reddit
That is cool
chitochitochito@reddit
😮
GuaranteeUnhappy3342@reddit
Just wondering about his NASA career. I was at Edwards (civilian) working as a peon in the Performance And Flying Qualities shop (early 1970s) and we had some contact with the NASA people. I recall one NASA pilot that a rather ‘famous’ crash in one of the lifting bodies but it took him quite a while to get back on flight status with NASA and the Marine Reserves.
CactusPete@reddit
Was that Major Lee Austin?
SirPiffingsthwaite@reddit
"We have the technology..."
MamaCassegrain@reddit (OP)
Did you know Mary Shafer? SR-71 team?
Dad worked at Ames / Moffett Field NAS, but did a lot of work with the Edwards / Dryden folks. In particular, development of the Shuttle landing profile using a F-104 and a CV-990.
onlyrelevantlyrics@reddit
November 14th, 1953?
That's the incident record for VMF-312.
There's a dude in Columbia, Ca that has an Extra300 and was an F-18 pilot with 312.
MamaCassegrain@reddit (OP)
Dad ended his USMCR career as CO of a squadron of A-4. Quite a while ago.
onlyrelevantlyrics@reddit
My dad wrapped up his Navy career in 77 - but never lost his love for the beloved A-4..
Londoil@reddit
According to Chuck Yeager, it's just a good landing - he walked from it, but probably couldn't use the plane the next day
Specific_Iron3332@reddit
Spoken like a true Kerbal. XD
DeOptimist@reddit
One bullet?!
Would love to hear that story some time..
MamaCassegrain@reddit (OP)
Thats his story. He says it went through the oil cooler, which then bled out, and the engine siezed.
cdunham@reddit
"We're poor little lambs who've lost our way, Baa, baa, baa. We're little black sheep who've gone astray, Baa, baa, baa. Gentlemen songsters off on a spree, Doomed from here to eternity, Lord, have mercy on such as we, Baa, baa, baa."
Traditional_Drama_91@reddit
What’d it hit?
Funny_Yesterday_5040@reddit
Some things in here don't react well to bulletsh
The_Hairy_Herald@reddit
"Yeah. Like me"**
MamaCassegrain@reddit (OP)
Ping!
Osmirl@reddit
Main gear deployment mechanism 😂
Castun@reddit
Could be wrong, but if you have to ditch in water or land on a soft surface like sand, you keep your gear up so that it doesn't suddenly catch and flip the plane over nose-first.
dsyzdek@reddit
Yep, that's the recommendation.
MamaCassegrain@reddit (OP)
The oil cooler. Turns out, an R-2800 doesn't run well without engine oil. Who knew?
Traditional_Drama_91@reddit
Yeah that’d do it!
Every aircraft is one golden BB away from a landing like that!
Isgrimnur@reddit
[i]scoffs in A-10[/i]
/s
Kardinal@reddit
Makes me wonder if there's any one place a 30cal round would be a mission kill on an A-10.
I suspect there is, I just don't know enough about where it would be to know.
Legitimate-Sky-6820@reddit
Well, i mean the pilot would do it. But the a10 is one of the only planes ever build that really can survive a couple hits with reliability, not that that is helping it much in the current era of missile spam.
Against a bullet its pretty ok,
Kardinal@reddit
They build nearly every plane to take hits. Look at things like the F-15 coming back with only one wing. There are other examples.
The A-10 was definitely built to take hits. But you can't armor the whole thing, of course. There's a lot of redundancy built in as well.
I suspect that there are very well paid engineers to do single-point-of-failure analyses on these systems to identify the things that are going to mission kill and devise mitigations. They know. We probably don't.
Jessie_C_2646@reddit
FMEA: Failure Modes and Effects Analysis. This is done in the design phase to try and eliminate pointe of failure.
Ask "What can go wrong with this system?" then "How do we control against this failure?"
HarryTruman@reddit
Nothing. The flying gun is perfect!
karateninjazombie@reddit
Between the pilots eyes should do it.
hoppertn@reddit
“I’ve still got one engine, no hydraulics, and 53% of the stabilizers, I think I can make it home” - Capt Kim Campbell
MamaCassegrain@reddit (OP)
🤔😂
SN_Mac_91@reddit
lol, funny after I saw the 1 bullet angle came here to say sounds like the opening scene of Air America where the Vietnamese farmer pulls out his old rifle, plucks one off at the plane, throws it back over his shoulder and begins to walk away as the plane starts to smoke.
njsullyalex@reddit
It does run fine without water though!
(Kind of a marvel that that 18 cylinder 2,000 horsepower monster was air cooled!)
MamaCassegrain@reddit (OP)
The ones on Ames' CV-340 had water injection for MGTOW takeoffs.
Blue_Etalon@reddit
Nothing is perfect
Big_Spicy_Tuna69@reddit
The plane
badpuffthaikitty@reddit
Good landing, not a great landing.
Comfortable-Table-57@reddit
Very well done to him.
Kickstart68@reddit
One bullet involved? Seems a bit harsh to shoot him for a forced landing!
budget_rare_plants@reddit
Wasnt VMF-312 also the squadron where an F4U-4B shot down a MiG-15?
anbeck@reddit
Even in that state, the Corsair is just beautiful
Conscious_Raisin_436@reddit
Corsair’s in 3rd place for me. 2nd place is the mustang, and first is the British spitfire.
MamaCassegrain@reddit (OP)
I was on the Dorset coast last fall. One day a Spit passed at about 1500 feet. It was the two-seater, giving rides up and down the coast. Apparently it made a forced landing on a meadow about a month later.
Seeing one unexpectedly, in the wild so to speak, with that lovely engine sound, was quite a thrill.
KFSX@reddit
109 is the most aesthetically pleasing
waffling_with_syrup@reddit
What, no Lightning?
All iconic picks, though.
CaptainSholtoUnwerth@reddit
Inverted gull wing geometry gets me all hot and bothered
DisregardLogan@reddit
I’d argue it looks even better. Looks all beaten up and battle scarred. Awesome
anbeck@reddit
I need to find somebody who looks at me like you look at this Corsair!
GoldWingANGLICO@reddit
My dad and yours probably crossed paths. Dad started WW2 with VMF-215, Then VMF-542.
Korea VMF-513, VMF-311 F9F Panther.
He went on to fly the FJ Fury and then F8 Crusader in Vietnam with VMF-235.
He finished his career with VMFA-333 in the Phantom.
I really miss him. He passed away in 2016.
Avi8tor_Zeus@reddit
I’ve heard of the “Golden BB” but never seen a photo of it for proof.
I think Gen Chuck Yeager said, “… any landing you walk away from is a good landing and any landing the airplane still flies afterward is a great on!”
DogsOutTheWindow@reddit
Amazing photo!! My grandfather also flew Corsairs for the checkers, I’m almost certain our relatives knew each other. Do you have any photos of the squadron? Where’d he retire after the Marines?
DefDefTotheIOF@reddit
Wild that Americans proudly post pics admitting their fathers were involved in genocide. The US in the Korean war destroyed every single building in the north and killed 20% of the entire population. Your father is a genocidal war criminal.
aviation-ModTeam@reddit
Your comment has been removed for breaking the r/aviation rules.
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MamaCassegrain@reddit (OP)
Removal wasn't necessary, in my opinion.
MamaCassegrain@reddit (OP)
Possibly, but he's dead now.
LaughingGravy13@reddit
The Golden BB.
Bigfeeetz3@reddit
Where’s R2D2?
rhit06@reddit
Found the plane on a list of Korean War plane losses. Gave the date as November 14, 1951. Circumstances “ Hit by small arms fire, forced landing”
MamaCassegrain@reddit (OP)
But the real story is that (according to his brother, who was there) he continued to fly strafing runs after his amino ran out, to draw fire.
rhit06@reddit
I saw there was another guy in his unit with the same last name and wondered if it was his brother, very cool. Thanks for sharing
MamaCassegrain@reddit (OP)
Yeah. Bro was also one rank higher, LOL. Sibling rivalry in a tent in Korea.
Aggravating-Pattern@reddit
"Mom said it's my turn in the Corsair!"
MamaCassegrain@reddit (OP)
😂
Crazy__Donkey@reddit
Seriously, who is your father?
Id like to read more of his service.
Imentioneveryone@reddit
That would potentially dox the OP so I don’t think he’d put himself like that
SirPiffingsthwaite@reddit
While true, once a record like that with a DFC is posted, it's rudimentary to find. ...not that I'll be posting details.
lonememe@reddit
Continued to fly to draw fire. My god man, the balls on these guys. Hats off to him. Sounds like a hell of a pilot.
Kardinal@reddit
Hero, no question.
The loyalty these fighting people have to one another is just next-level from anything us civilians can really understand.
There's also hundreds of men (and probably some women) who gave their lives and their heroism never noticed, who did similar. Drew fire when they had nothing else to contribute.
All are worthy of memory.
MindfuckRocketship@reddit
As an infantry veteran, I just want to say that man was an absolute stud. Balls of steel.
Briank982@reddit
I dunno. Looks only marginally worse than a normal carrier trap. Maybe a 1 wire.
MamaCassegrain@reddit (OP)
Lol!! Too bad he's passed, I could ask. He did carrier trials for a few things, A-7, and (I think) F4D Skyray.
Zilla7854@reddit
When u say one bullet, do you mean that the Corsair was hit by only one bullet.do you know what part was hit?
MamaCassegrain@reddit (OP)
The official record is "small-arms fire". Dad said it was a single round into the oil cooler, so the oil system bled out.
Zilla7854@reddit
Single round, that's crazy. Yo father is a bad ass.😎
Lavasioux@reddit
What a fkn LEGEND!
F4U Corsair Is my favorite!
F1fan-123456789@reddit
Processing img gtfq42qa9ewg1...
MamaCassegrain@reddit (OP)
😁
BurpelsonAFB@reddit
I have lots of great pics of my dad standing next to his Caribou cargo plane in Vietnam, pointing at all the bullet holes in the cockpit area and grinning. Thankfully, he made it out safely.
MamaCassegrain@reddit (OP)
That smile. Yes.
Jkid789@reddit
Korea is so interesting to me regarding aviation. Like we're running fighters and bombers that are both propeller and jet engines and I find that cool.
MamaCassegrain@reddit (OP)
Even done in Viet Nam, with the A-1
yhzcdn@reddit
The smirk on his face. What a badass.
MamaCassegrain@reddit (OP)
He's thinking, now I have bragging rights over my brother. They shared a tent. Brother was one rank higher. 😁
HortonFLK@reddit
I thought this was a model diorama when I first saw the picture.
MamaCassegrain@reddit (OP)
That wrinkly background is because I posted a cell phone pic of a kodachrome slide being projected on an old roll-up screen. Damn screen must be sixty years old.
Budget-Lobster-5252@reddit
I thought so too.
Turbo_Pilot@reddit
He’s out of the plane, standing on his own two legs with a shit eating grin on his face. That’s a great landing.
DiverDownChunder@reddit
Any landing you can walk away from...
Animeniackinda1@reddit
One rifle shot killed the Red Baron
Nice_Classroom_6459@reddit
Any landing you walk away from.
MoeSzyslakMonobrow@reddit
You know, I've personally flown over 194 missions and I was shot down every one of them. Come to think of it, I've never landed a plane in my life.
T-wrecks83million-@reddit
Golden BB
K_VonOndine@reddit
Classic G2 goatskin jacket!!!
K_VonOndine@reddit
Love it, love it, love it! What self awareness to save such an event for posterity in the heat of the moment.
HallEqual2433@reddit
F4U-4B, one of 300 built with 4x20mm cannon armament.
I love how current day VMFA-312 legacy Hornets still have checkerboards prominently featured. The Marines know how to honor their heritage. I hope when they switch to F-35Bs in 2028 they figure out a way to keep the checkerboards.
Imentioneveryone@reddit
Have a checkerboard in the cockpit is the answer here
EuphoricWorker9115@reddit
Any landing you walk away from is a good one!
UltraViolentNdYAG@reddit
Cool stories OP. Thanks! Always love the F4U!
Embarrassed_Draw6485@reddit
The Commies got their money out of that one.
bicball@reddit
I didn’t realize these flew after WW2. Awesome.
ryushe@reddit
I see a Corsair, I upvote.
Also, nice picture!
adv_cyclist@reddit
Outstanding photo! TBF… I’ve worked with some big damn bullets in my lifetime… not all bullets are created equal.
foxhunter@reddit
If you can walk away from a landing, it’s a good landing. - Chuck Yeager
WarriorGma@reddit
My late FIL, WWII Pacific theatre pilot, said any landing you walk away from was a good landing. I see a good landing here. Glad he did well & what a great grin! 😁
Hideo_Anaconda@reddit
...any landing you can walk away from.
crankyanker638@reddit
Is a good landing. Any landing you can walk away from and use the playne again is a great landing.
Haldron-44@reddit
And any landing you can walk away from, use the plane again, and not have to call "that nukber" is a fantastic landing.
crankyanker638@reddit
Usually if you have to call that number you may not be allowed to fly anymore...lol
Haldron-44@reddit
Yarp!
Carrot_1075@reddit
Worst landing >>> best crash
scigs6@reddit
This might be one of the coolest photos I have seen. Glad he made it out safe and sound 👏
Vasto_LordA@reddit
TheRussianBadger may have been involved
Shoddy_Act7059@reddit
Definitely not to the same scale AT ALL, but when I read that this plane was brought down by ONE bullet, the maritime history nerd in my mind immediately thought of the RMS Lusitania, and only ONE torpedo caused it to sink in \~20 minutes, give or take. Granted, Lucy had a notable design flaw that caused her sinking to be so quick; but, yeah, an nearly 790' ship sinking in only, again, \~20 minutes is super fast.
Also, great to see OP's Dad continued flying from what they said in the comments. Any landing you can walk away from is a good one.
Prestigious-Elk-9061@reddit
Your dad’s best landing. Awesome photo!
MamaCassegrain@reddit (OP)
I only have it on a Kodachrome slide. The pic posted is a cell phone photo of the slide projected on an old wrinkled screen.
Gives it that authentic look 😁
jaimi_wanders@reddit
There are services that can digitize slides for you!
MamaCassegrain@reddit (OP)
I know. I have dozens of the old Kodak Carousel slide carriers, all full. Its intimidating.
Money_Sock@reddit
This is an awesome shot, thanks for sharing
TigerIll6480@reddit
Good lord, the Corsair is a sexy aircraft. Even crashed.
Evelyn_Tentions@reddit
The Golden BB
Chankla_Rocket@reddit
Badass