THE SECOND BATTLE OF MIDWAY

I'm Jean good and these two gentlemen sitting in the cockpit of the super constellation radar plane and they pilot seat pilot and Commander Martin Dana also a pilot but sitting in the engineer seat at the present time is that Burke and also a commander these two men have been flying the Pacific barrier flights for quite some time and represent many many fliers who have been trying to compete with the gooney birds on the island of Midway commander I wonder why we're getting the flight crew ready for this flight if we may talk with you and the commander a bit about that goony bird have you had any trouble with them out in the Midway Island I surely have if you actually had a collision with one I've had quite a few I had a real bad one the Davis after last Christmas all right what happened at that time sir I was in the right seat another qualified aircraft commander was actually making a takeoff and just as we broke ground a bird hit right about there on the pilots windshield the west and these planes is a double pane of glass for safety however this broke the outer pane and fortunately did not break the inner pane if the bird had hit in the center just a few inches down from where it actually hit as we could tell after the flight I'm sure he would have come through and killed the POW who did not see it until the last minute no you were sitting over in this all right we're always prepared to do that we always also hope that we can do it in a situation like that when you're flying a plane such as this with the 20 crew members aboard at that time or what plane no this was a super consolation transport we had about 70 people in the back of that plane when this bird kid we know that besides yourself and the copilot or vice versa as that case was you have around quite a problem they can't see these universe Bennett well they really sweat it out when they're on the ground they laugh and joke about it because aviators are like that but every time they take off and land they know they're playing Russian roulette with these birds when our command are you not just having one the cruise or the exhibit ii of officers some 18 crews I would imagine you have some real that is correct gene as long as the money holds out the meter squadron can repair the planes and patch up the damage fortunately we haven't lost a crew yet nobody can replace people that's our greatest concern well thank you very much commander Martin Dana I would like to talk with the commander Ed Burke and the commander have you having any trouble with these goony bird yourself yes I've had eight bird strikes the last and most serious was in April with here I was like bird strikes like you're doing a lot of bombing runs but actually they're striking you is that right that's right it's impossible to avoid them on takeoff well now this one you're talking about in last April what actually happened that time well we hadn't developed a moderate hydraulic link from this and we didn't know what our damage was until we were about halfway through our barrier flight what had you found out right immediately after takeoff but you have to abort your takeoff if we had known what the damage was on takeoff we would have aborted the point yeah what would have happened then what you have to go through some procedure in order to get your plane back in the ground well our takeoff weight is well above our maximum safe landing weight what is your takeoff weight with the word you have to burn something up before we get back down on the ground that's right 6,000 gallons I can figure this out of 60 or 20 cents a gallon there's a lot of money besides possibly losing some of the crew well thank you very much sir and thank you commander Dana and commander Burke an we've been talking with two pilots who represent the pilots that fly in the Pacific barrier area out of Midway who have been competing with the gooney birds and I'm quite sure all of them will say just exactly these two men have that it is a real problem now let's work out to meet some of the crew members of this plane this is chief aviation machinist mate Gerry McCann Mack has been flying as a flight engineer in these super cunnies for about six years blowing what this has been flying air transport planes landing at Midway Island so he knows all about the bird problem mark I understand the - one of these gooney birds an engine one time is that right yes sir that's correct would you like to explain what happened at that time well we were in an our 5d about liftoff speed leaving Midway in route to Honolulu when we got a bird in the carburetor air scoop this imagine but killing a killin engine rather quickly wouldn't it yes sir cause total loss apart our number three engine on our 5d that's a four engine plane yes sir uh roughly half the weight of one of our barrier craft did you have to go back and land at that time yes we did this is a different type plane and you have half the weight of this one we're talking about the super Connie no on a barrier Pacific what would actually happen if you took a goony bird in the air intake of one of these super constellation radar plane I don't believe I'd be around to tell you about it in other words you think he would crash on takeoff is that it yes I do that'd be total loss the plane and personnel more than likely most likely and there you have it from people who know what they're talking about these men men who spend about one-third of their living hours airborne it's hard for them to understand the continued existence of the goony bird here on Midway Sand Island they maintain there are other more desirable islands nearby that could absorb with keys the bird population here fury at all for instance only 50 miles from Midway it is almost void of nesting goony this is due to an overall covering of dense trust called nepata or caviola this nepata prevents the birds from nesting on the ground and they won't habitate in numbers in the near future a program to enhance habitation is to be carried out under the auspices of the Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics the plan calls for the complete clearing of thickets and the recontouring of the terrain it is hoped these measures will entice the albatross here professors Hubert and wife Mabel fringes zoologists of Penn State University points out that this island is nowhere nearly supporting the number of albatrosses that its foot and there is lisyansky island here on lisyansky the 1957 estimate brought up at the goony population stood at about ninety five thousand license and seven thousand black foot they Penn State professors said that the land area here could support over a million nesting birds so from these figures we can see that only a small fraction of the possible numbers nest on this island further here on license zoologists have determined that there is room for more nesting birds even though it's licensed along with Midway are they to principle breeding atolls of the albatrosses now between these two islands that is place on and Midway researchers estimate that three-quarters of the total nesting bird do so here so as we have seen there are other homes available to the goony but something like 35 thousands of these obstinate creatures seem determined to nest and brood here on sand the one item is a lot where they're bothered incessantly by a 24 hour a day activity noise and perils imposed by aircraft and other type vehicles in fact to all other known types of bird life such constant harassment complete and a departure with gusto but not the Goonies in spite of the most strenuous efforts and craftiest scheme to divert them to the other more desirable islands nearby they get more stubborn and run rampant and anger by attempts to oust them such determination used to bring about laughter but the Cold War backed up by modern science and technology has changed all that in the meantime the flight and the work has to go on so does the one-sided battle bird against man the government has and will expend hundreds of thousands of tax dollars or goony bird nesting would it not be prudent to displace these birds from this vital early warning bait ow certainly we laymen can't solve this problem but someone has to and soon meanwhile the men who fly the radar sentinels and the island residents alike will watch them fly away into my on their journeys to the far reaches of the Northern Pacific but thousands of them will be back in October and November on that you can depend the residents will again be amused by the goonies antics and the flight personnel will again be in danger and the battle for Midway will start at 1960 cycles a cycle that may claim the lives of many of our Airmen unless positive action is taken to claim this one's fault this one small but important island or the undisputed use of our vital sentinels and the North Pacific Ocean and now we will go to the Barbers Point Naval Air Station on Oahu and make the barrier commander Rear Admiral Benjamin E more in a specific barrier headquarters it is true that the gooney birds provide a source of amusement I stated Midway Island but this feeling is derived solely from the amusement of the Guney but those of us who have to fly the Pacific barrier the goony bird is a source of danger our feelings are based on the facts during the operation of the barrier but this past year the facts are that barrier operation of being disrupted to an intolerable degree by these obstinate duty buyers this is done by their big imposing a tremendous work load on our hair craft maintenance crews and more importantly they are causing tremendous mental and physical stresses on our flight personnel I can think of no military operation having to undergo such harassment and his people being so helpless or means of self-protection the scenes you have seen thus far are they doing the last week of May of this year the period when most of the adult gunas have departed and the young birds are still too small to be playing but as spices to acquaint you with the geographical setting the birds and our Pacific barrier operation - it offered you the chance to see the other islands from Hawaii Island along this runway which unfortunately is also heavily used runway dr. Frayn zoologist and state university made a study of the albatross problem for the Navy last him reported that the albatross population on Sand Island is more this year than it was in demeaning mediate this may be the number of there were 33 plates aborted due to duty bird strikes when a plane to the bots on takeoff he has to don't about 3000 gallons of fuel to bring his aircraft down to the maximum safe landing weight and 3,000 gallons of gasoline to the Navy in the ocean yeah is a raid over six feet high which was struck by one goony bird that radome cost eleven thousand dollars and one goony bird run complete here is the hole left at this point the aircraft structure it's unbelievable besides an amount of damage - how would you like to event in this aircraft hole that size between the wing to the aircraft even consider what would have happened at one of these goony bird strikes then on the pilots windshield our personnel are assigned in minimum numbers for the sport of the barrier program flight crews a home based at Barbara's point on Oahu and deploy to Midway for 18 days out of every 34 days a maintenance personnel a divided approximately half bothers plant and the other half at Midway the Midway contingent works for three days and are all for one day but for the past few months this has not been true to keep the aircraft flying numerous men have had to work seven day on work weeks now for a typical flight crew schedule a pretty plate preparing the aircraft for the mission takes about four hours the plate is 14 to 15 hours and they spend about an hour after the flight checking out the discrepancies which have occurred a total of 19 to 20 hours of continuous work for a flight to they rest for about 32 hours and then are off on another flight this cycle continues for 18 days of a deployment at Midway an aborted flight means a hole in the berry this hole can't be filled unless we either lunch the next plan through early our launch the aborted crew in a replacement aircraft neither of these procedures are operationally sound because by advancing the crew launching schedule in proportion to the number of abort we create an unacceptable chain reaction it would play havoc with the complete operational schedule in the interest of flight safety and is deemed unacceptable to launch the aborted crew in a replacement aircraft this would pose a severe fatigue problem brought about by approximately eight hours of work preceding a 3,000 mile flight a flight demanding the uttermost and diligence we are not allotted extra aircraft and personnel to compensate for these adverse factors imposed by the goony bird the culmination of these factors are taking their toll and making themselves apparent in the men's morale there is overwork danger and the integrity of the barrier is being seriously threatened this is the true price being paid by the personnel must live with this problem many of them feel and I cannot disagree that is just a matter of time until an aircraft and is true or lost etc these facts the issue is simply this if either remove the gooney birds from Midway's sand island and keep the men of keep the birds and eventually bury a flight crew of 22 men I hope I'll never have the task of explaining to some mother or wife that hosono husband was killed by this [Music]