Meet an Officer of the USS Monterey (CVL-26): Gerald R. Ford. Gerald Ford was practicing law when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941. Single and bored, Ford itched to get in the fight. In January 1942 he applied to the Navy, and by May of that year Ford was stationed in North Carolina serving as an athletic instructor for pilots in training. He began requesting transfers to sea duty, and explained to a friend, “I want to get to sea very badly.” By June 1943 he was transferred to the newly commissioned USS Monterey, an aircraft carrier bound for the Pacific. Within months Ford was assigned to be the ship’s assistant navigator. “Couldn’t have had a better assignment,” Ford said. “I was right there where everything was going on.” In December 1944 a typhoon struck the fleet. Airplanes strapped to the hanger deck were torn loose by the waves. They erupted into flames, engulfing other planes and men. Ford tried to reach the bridge but a wave heaved the ship to starboard, throwing him across the flight deck. As he was about to slide overboard, his foot caught a metal rail that ringed the flight deck, and he tumbled onto a walkway below the flight deck. Lt. Ford left the ship on Christmas Eve, 1944. Ford earned eight campaign medals while aboard. These artifacts are part of the Ford Museum’s “The Rise of the American Aircraft Carrier” exhibit, which runs through Spring 2015.
Posted on: Wed, 22 Oct 2014 14:15:20 +0000
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