Article April 4, 2011 Issue

Perfect landings

A US Navy pilot gives wings to prayer instead of accepting the verdict that his career is over.

By Hal Shrewsbury

“New drug slows aging process!” Advertisements like this are popular these days, promising senior citizens longer, more active lives. When I come into contact with these claims, I like to think of how Mary Baker Eddy described the decrepitude of old age as an illusion in Science and Health, and of how I was healed of the impairments associated with age some 40 years ago through my understanding of Christian Science.

I had just landed my A3 Skywarrior jet on the USS Bon Homme Richard aircraft carrier, and was confronted by three solemn-looking Landing Signal Officers waiting for me in the ready room. They were not there to compliment me on my landing. They grimly told me my landing had been  dangerous, as I’d landed too close to the fantail (stern) of the ship, catching the number one wire rather than the number three wire, which is the safest target for landing a jet on an aircraft carrier. They informed me that although I was an experienced naval aviator nearing the end of a 20-year career, I might be growing old, and my aging reflexes might be too slow for this work. (I was 39 years old at the time, with most Navy carrier pilots being younger men in their 20s or early 30s.) They said that without an immediate improvement I would be disqualified from flying off the ship.

I was scheduled to fly the next day, and I decided there was no reason I couldn’t be just as responsive as when I was a brand-new 24-year-old pilot making his first carrier landing.