Capt. Gene Nelson USN-Ret
on July 10, 2014 at 4:04 pm
July 10, 2014
Hi Nick…..Googled you up today and got a few websites, this being one of them. I’ve thought of you a lot over the past years, and hope you’re healthy and living life with gusto. Things are fine up here in Wisconsin. Take care, and God Bless… Gene
Captain John L. Nicholson
on May 5, 2019 at 8:10 am
Great stuff! Remember vividly HANCOCK’s deck routinely being turned into ‘teak toothpicks’. Fortunately, the aluminum cladding did a nice job of protecting the mostly controlled, crash-landing area. I think it was at the end of our ‘65-‘66 deployment, that we stopped at NSY Yokosuka to have the teak area’s of the flight-deck repaired. The Japanese ‘yardbirds’ (i.e., highly skilled carpenters) flocked aboard with their ancient, woodworking tools (adzes, chisels, wooden mallets, augers, etc.) to replace damaged flight-deck planking. I captured video of the workers going about their assignment of shaping and custom fitting each plank. The plethora of threaded steel attachment studs and a/c tie-down (pad-eyes) made certain that there was plenty of need for the woodworkers’ skills, in fitting the teak planks, caulking the joints with jute cording, then sealing the joints with hot tar, before finally coating all with the lovely, Naval, haze gray paint.
July 10, 2014
Hi Nick…..Googled you up today and got a few websites, this being one of them. I’ve thought of you a lot over the past years, and hope you’re healthy and living life with gusto. Things are fine up here in Wisconsin. Take care, and God Bless… Gene
Great stuff! Remember vividly HANCOCK’s deck routinely being turned into ‘teak toothpicks’. Fortunately, the aluminum cladding did a nice job of protecting the mostly controlled, crash-landing area. I think it was at the end of our ‘65-‘66 deployment, that we stopped at NSY Yokosuka to have the teak area’s of the flight-deck repaired. The Japanese ‘yardbirds’ (i.e., highly skilled carpenters) flocked aboard with their ancient, woodworking tools (adzes, chisels, wooden mallets, augers, etc.) to replace damaged flight-deck planking. I captured video of the workers going about their assignment of shaping and custom fitting each plank. The plethora of threaded steel attachment studs and a/c tie-down (pad-eyes) made certain that there was plenty of need for the woodworkers’ skills, in fitting the teak planks, caulking the joints with jute cording, then sealing the joints with hot tar, before finally coating all with the lovely, Naval, haze gray paint.
Ron Jones
Henry Eugene (Gene) Nelson passed away April 12, 2022 in Manitowoc WI.
His obit is here: https://www.harriganparksidefuneralhome.com/obituary/captain-henry-gene-nelson