BALLAD OF JOHN GREENE

come all the young sailor men listen to me I'll sing you a song of a man and the sea his ship is on Vulcan his fist is a floor I'll sing who say after war evilly evil [Music] his will is of iron his ways are of go [Music] his sales are thunder his death [Music] his ocean just say me the islands of the ocean a cloud flying high his vision are the star was that's where in the sky IVA weighing heavily [Music] his will is a lion his way I'll go the dawn is this morning the dawn is today his watchin is the waters that wash old cat made the sea sleeps in silence the day holds its breath for Duncan will bring it to me or does will bring death [Music] [Music] [Applause] what you see is a fragment detached from the earth a coastal city wrapped in steel and sent to sea to fight a war this morning within this siren metropolis a population of five thousand directs its attention toward one objective to hurl Navy attack pilots out into the angry winds over enemy lands and then to bring them safely back again welcome to the United States naval attack carrier Ranger somewhere off the coast of an embattled land [Music] his will is a vine his boy go [Music] we're get out a little quietly background okay gents we're event $7.00 we've got the 1600 launched 1745 recovery mission for today is strike we're going against that bridge which is on highway two about seven miles north the point 42 it's a well-defended bridge about 150 feet long he's up there in the area the other day and I know that they'll shoe that jump there so we've got to keep heads up jack they open up on us after I start the roll is only true to try to put the flag side out okay is anybody got any questions okay you can hit over the target or after two we go feet wet this morning at a time when many men are fighting freeway traffic this young man is preparing to do battle with a bridge if it remains standing Americans to the South will die perhaps hundreds of them this man will risk and perhaps give his life to find the bridge and destroy it it's his job [Music] on today's mission has armed those before and those to come the Navy's best will fly the Navy's newest the a7 Corsair 2 for the next hour the machine and the man will share a single heartbeat primary one minute to launch catapults thirty seconds standby volunteer craft [Music] [Music] [Music] who is this young sailor man racing the Sun who knows his name and from where does he come he comes from the country he comes from the town of boy when he sailed and a man coming down [Music] his will is the van Gogh who is this man racing the Sun across the China Sea toward an angry bridge in the jungle Johnny wait Johnny green [Music] [Laughter] [Music] to fly new people are all volunteers for this program we're gonna probe up on your minds and we're gonna build your bodies we're gonna prepare you for the cockpit of that aircraft first thing we're gonna teach you people is how to get your feet on the ground how to get coordinated automark to fly here at the Naval Air Training Command Pensacola Florida young men educated to be journalists are engineers brokers or bankers preachers or poets trading their white collars for wings of gold but before these fledgling aviators can fly they must first learn to walk Naval Aviation is among the most demanding professions in the world the aviator will work with tools as delicate as those of a surgeon as powerful as any man has ever made he must be ready physically his body must be as carefully tuned as the machines he will fly [Applause] [Music] [Applause] and he must be ready mentally as the naval aviator his mind must conquer concepts few men have ever met he must be parched physicist part electronics and armaments expert part mathematician and part tightrope walker to become this airborne Renaissance man the pilot undergoes training unparalleled in depth and scope before he ever touches an airplane the result is a special kind of man bottom level off to the left-hand side and swim out you're ready ready [Music] after 16 weeks of exhaustive pre-flight training 249 hours in the classroom 12 flights with an instructor and endless hours of briefing the aviator doesn't last what he was born to do [Music] after four more solo and six dual instruction flights John Green is well on his way to becoming a naval aviator he receives his commission and is ready for his next Plateau primary jet training at Meridian Mississippi during the next six months he lives and breathes the t2 Buckeye trainer in high altitude flights high-speed formation and aerobatic flights day and night instrument flying he gets his first experience in modern jet aircraft [Music] and on the ground more courses aerology communications engineering principles of flight special weapons and naval officer training and then the reward [Music] [Music] once carrier qualified it's off to Texas to the Advanced Training Command and a new aircraft the f9 cougar a swept wing fighter capable of speed in excess of 550 knots in it he will make 80 flights totaling 120 hours in the air precision and formation flying become a matter of routine after a year of training John Green at last feels confident and perfectly at home in the air John Green is a saner his eyes on the eagle his Horrors on the land a life to be lived is much richer by far when shared the mother at home in the star evil way [Music] his will his of iron his winds are good [Music] for the cinema chooses is hard there's some where his path he wanders the earth and he wanders the skies of Magellan with steel in his eye [Music] evil way [Music] his Wilton is a vine and his [Music] this is Jason drawing modern [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] Jason tell this is Jason [Music] we refer you to her Roger dance which at Eastwind can give you [Music] no way to blood in a cloud so you cinch up your harness and spit Nitai the bets are on the sky now as you leave the wing transfer switch an emergency learn all there is to know about the a7 Corsair to within the shortest procurement time of any modern weapons system this aircraft was off of the drawing boards and into the air you are going to learn to fly it but before you do you are going to learn every function of its smallest component part let us begin our discussion today John's destiny with the corsair ii began with his college dreams as he dreamed the corsair ii was being designed when he first learned to fly the corsair was in manufacturing and testing now proudly as part of the Navy team John's dreams become reality system [Music] see sleeps in silence we're done we'll bring victory or done [Music] nice to step off the list I was hot with physiologist when a naval aviator makes a combat strike there are only two things that can happen the plane either comes back or it doesn't the modern attack jet can take an amazing amount of punishment but in today's combat conditions it's subjected to ground fire as concentrated as any that planes have ever faced if the aircraft is crippled to the extent it is unsafe to land on the carrier the pilot must eject techniques for survival in this event or a vital part of the aviators training they come under the heading of being prepared for the unthinkable [Music] the suppressor is still modulating however my gear indicates down and locked [Music] [Music] [Music] Oh see this is a monkey his fist is a boy I'll say avisail you say either way he will [Music] No at what point in his life can a man say to himself I know who I am and what I can do at what point can he say my life is my own my destiny a product of my will for Johnny Greene that moment has come we've seen the airplanes the ones these pilots make their first unpracticed Hopson and the one that Rockets them through the clouds to their home in the wind we've seen the people and the places that imbue these pilots with their capability and their honor we've seen the giant ships that move them to the breach where that honor is challenged and where that challenge is answered but most important we've had a glimpse of a man lieutenant JG John Greene naval aviator one among the many men of a unique cast who because of their skill and character chose the way of the eagle I'll sing of a sailor now understands his life is his own and his fates in his hand there's more to this life than a merry go ride where there's no place to see and no place to hide heave away he will [Music] his will is a vine he'll go some men live quiet and some Hanley some men are tellers and others are told and if you search for the uncommon men go look for the sailors at home in the wind IVA way he'll believe evil way home his will is of iron his wing [Music]