Flight of the Intruder

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The starboard bow catapult fired, and the A-6A Intruder accelerated down the flight deck with a roar that engulfed the aircraft carrier and reverberated over the night sea. The plane’s wings bit into the air, and the machine began to climb into the blackness. Fifteen seconds later the bomber was swallowed by the low flying clouds.

In a few minutes the climbing Intruder broke free of the clouds.

The pilot, Lieutenant Jake Grafton abandoned the instrument panel and contemplated the vaulted stars. A pale slice of moon illuminated the cloud layer below. “Look at the stars tonight, Morg.

Lieutenant (junior grade) Morgan McPherson, the bombardier-navigator, sat on the pilot’s right, his face pressed against the black hood that shielded the radar screen from extraneous light. He straightened an glanced up at the sky.

“Yeah,” he said, then readjusted the scope hood and resumed the never-ending chore optimizing the radar presentation. He examined the North VietNamese coastline a hundred miles away. “I’ve got an update. I’m cycling to the coast-in point. He pushed a button on the computer, and the steering bug on the pilot’s visual display indicator (vdi) slipped a quarter-inch sideways, giving the pilot steering information to the point on the coast where the Intruder would cross into North Vietnam.

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