My Final Re-Spot: A Young Sailor's Misfortune on the Flight Deck of the USS Forrestal CV-59 - Paperback

by John Pugioti (Author), Wesley E. Etheridge (Author)

Survivors of the January 15th 1978 mishap believe that what happened on that evening was one of the greatest cover up's in US Naval Aviation history. But what really happened on that tragic evening when the FID was on Sea Trials off the coast of St. Augustine, Florida? History and eye witness accounts reveal that unbeknownst to the Ship's Company and Carrier Air Wing Seventeen personnel that they would become participants of the second worst documented aviation mishap on the flight deck of the USS Forrestal CV-59. Our story is literally unknown. It's a contrast in the directions of the authors of this book, two U. S. Navy veterans, John Pugioti and Wesley E. Etheridge Sr., who at the very young ages of eighteen and nineteen both where on the flight deck that evening working as a team of two, as Fly-3 Blue Shirts. Ultimately, the mishap that occurred that evening, would exponentially dictate the direction of both young men's lives forever. In essence, it would be their "Final Re-Spot" together and the last time they spoke or saw each other, until thirty-six years later.