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- NATION, Page 41American NotesTHE NAVYCruising for A Bruising
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- The U.S. Navy, says retired Rear Admiral Eugene Carroll,
- "is a pretty tough place to earn a living." No kidding. During
- one four-day period last week:
-
- A pilot making his first attempt at an aircraft-carrier
- landing crashed into the deck of the U.S.S. Lexington, killing
- himself, three crew members and a civilian.
-
- An F/A-18 pilot from the U.S.S. Midway accidentally dropped
- a 500-lb. bomb on the guided-missile cruiser U.S.S. Reeves,
- injuring five sailors.
-
- A sailor on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Carl Vinson was
- swept overboard and drowned in the Pacific.
-
- Three sailors -- and $4 million worth of nonnuclear
- missiles -- on the U.S.S. Dwight D. Eisenhower were washed away
- by heavy seas near Cape Hatteras; only two of the men were
- recovered.
-
- Nine sailors were injured when fire broke out in the boiler
- room of the U.S.S. Monongahela as it cruised near Spain.
-
- Despite the string of mishaps, experts insist the Navy's
- safety record has improved in recent years. During the 1960s,
- naval aviators averaged 15 accidents for every 100,000 hours of
- flying time. By the mid-1980s, the accident rate had dropped to
- two.
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