Page 64 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2025 - Online Magazine
P. 64
by Katherine McLamore Lowrance,
Gentiva Hospice Manager of Volunteer Services
aircraft trying to land as other
pilots sought refuge.
“I was at the top of the stack,
meaning last to land. The ship was
forced to turn into the weather
due to our weight and approach
speed. Descending below 1000 feet,
my back seater was looking over
the side to notify me when water
appeared. At 400 feet he signaled,
and I saw the boat at 200 and was
startled to see the ship’s unique
shape blurred by black smoke
belching from the stacks. I had
were down to 6K. Safe landing seconds to assess and land. By the
was impossible, so our approach time we taxied and shut down, the
was waved off. The ship was not weather was zero/zero again. God’s
visible, and now we had even less
wenty-six-year-old Navy fuel. grace and the ability of the Midway
Lieutenant Tom Lawson’s to step up saved us from a trip to
Tfirst deployment was flying “Enterprise launched a(n air) tanker a runway 1000 miles away at night
F-14s on the USS Enterprise which zero/zero; we refueled in air and in precarious weather. That was the
entailed locating Soviet aircraft “to were instructed to land 1,000 first and last time Tomcats landed
confirm they didn’t get within 200 miles away in Shemya, Alaska in on that ship.”
miles without a fighter aircraft on the Aleutian Islands. Impending Tom was born in Odessa, TX, and
their wing.” darkness and unpredictable played football for Permian High
weather awaited us. On the
One overcast day in the North Enterprise, my shipmates in the School— Texas State Champs in
Pacific, 2000 miles from Hawaii Ready Room started to bet on 1972. He adds this comment about
to the east and Japan to the when and where we would jump his childhood: “I was raised by
nd
west, Tom faced his fears. “We out… and who would get my Chuck, a Navy Petty Officer 2
flew out a hundred miles max stereo. Class turned oil field roughneck
speed only for it to be a false and Vona, a schoolteacher who
alarm. Due to weather conditions “En route to Shemya we received taught where I attended. She knew
WOXOF (Weather Obscured Zero orders to divert “Schoolboy” my grades before I did.
Visibility and Fog), we returned (tactical call sign for the USS “In high school my adventurous
to ship on max conserve fuel. Ship Midway) about 250 miles away. nature found a pathway when
personnel decide if they have No F-14 Tomcats had ever landed a US Naval Academy Recruiter
visibility to land us, so we were or taken off from it, and we were sought me out. I excitedly agreed
holding overhead for an hour. larger and heavier than their to higher learning and seeing the
Prior to approach, we dumped current aircraft. Complicating world. One had to be nominated
fuel. Initially loaded with 20K, we matters, they had numerous
64 Lubbock Senior Link
