The plane continued over the safety rail, nosed down, dove through the radio antennas and smashed nose first into the sea. The first thought I remember having after the decision to go ahead with the take-off was to get out of the plane. Waves were breaking over the top of the cockpit and water was gushing in on top of me. I reached down, unhooked the safety belt and began to crawl out of the cockpit. Because of the water I couldn't see any thing and was totally outside the plane when I found that I couldn't go any further. Not knowing or seeing what was causing the problem, I climbed back into the plane and sat down. By this time the cockpit and I were under water and I came up straight out of the cockpit with no trouble. I could look up and see the surface of the water. I was not too deep and had no problem getting to the surface. This was the first of two occasions I was to use the experience of the "Delbert Dunker".

Once on the surface I looked around and saw the carrier moving away from me at some distance. At this time I decided to inflate my "Mae West" (life jacket). I reached down pulled the lanyards on the CO2 bottles and the jacket inflated. Unfortunately, I had not unsnapped the parachute harness and I was immediately squeezed in the harness. After getting out of the harness I decided to get out the two-man raft which was attached to my parachute pack. The parachute and raft were used to sit on when in the plane.

At this point I think it is necessary to explain why I had my parachute and raft with me. They should have been with the plane slowly sinking to the bottom of the sea or floating somewhere other than on my bottom. I now knew why I had been hung up in the plane. I had not unhooked the two front strap snaps of the chute from the harness. The parachute with the package containing the raft and survival gear is a separate unit from the parachute harness. The parachute and raft unit is a part of the plane equipment and is in the plane when you climb in the cockpit. The parachute harness is a part of the pilot's gear. It is adjusted to his size and remains with him through out his tour of duty aboard the carrier. He is wearing the harness when he enters the plane and it is only necessary to connect four snaps to make a single unit of the chute, the raft, the harness and the pilot.