Admiral Aurand ... aaahhhh,
The Cigars made my nightmares come back. hahhaa ... as the skipper 
didn't want cigars smoked on the bridge the Admiral would venture 
to the air control tower where I  worked. I will note we called 
Attention on Deck when he showed up and he then asked for permisson 
to smoke his cigar, like I was going to object much. Somehow he 
managed to show up when the CDR was out to lunch too hummmmm.

As for rockets on S-2's, great idea if they had all launched most of 
the time, but some always came back hung up. So as typical sailors 
we started betting pools on how many rockets per plane or longest 
run on the deck before falling over the side.  I do remember one 
plane crew that really gave Charlie a chance rather then shoot him 
out of the water first. They buzzed them and then came back. 
Charlies pulled off the tarp and blasted holes in the belly of the 
plane. What a chore that was to get the plane down and into the 
hanger deck before they hydo system failed which it did anyway. 
Thats where we let guys like Jim Stanley dragged them off the elevator.

I must admit as an E-3 I was impressed with Admiral Aurand, not that 
he sat and told old sea stories, but he openly talked about 'why can't 
we do this?' His mind was thinking all the time. I say I really liked 
his Hot Refuel helo's off Tin Can's idea gave the helo crew something 
to do other then sit.

To sum it all up today, I still feel that navy pride seeing a Sailor 
in uniform whch may explain why I watch JAG so much.

Steve & Kathy & Da Dog Sophie
The Jacobson's out in the bushes
http://www.bmi.net/sjacobso/homepage.htm