Near Miss?
Well there we were somewhere over the Med on a bright sunny day flying off the carrier doing some training. I was in the front seat with my Officer-in-Charge of our detachment. We were in an AD-1 Skyraider, single engine prop with a Curtis-Wright 3350 Recip engine. All of a sudden a F4D Skyray came past us about 300 feet away going down. He was moving fast. The F4D was the fastest time-to-climb jet aircraft in the Navy at that time. Don't remember the exact top speed but it probably came close to the speed of sound in level flight. This all happened in the summer if 57.

Needless to say the Officer-in-Charge of the Skyrays got a royal chewing out by our Officer-in-Charge when we landed back on the carrier. Such is the life in the service. Carriers can be a dangerous place to be. We lost 6 people on that cruise. Not our group but others.

Our detachment lost an aircraft but the crew all got out safely.

Ray E. Strode