I served with Task Force 77 in November 1952 on a destroyer running anti-submarine and mine detection for those floating "bird farms". I also put in 30 years working with Naval Aviation logistics; this movie is an excellent look at carrier operations in the jet age. I recommend it to all who are interested in aviation, especially naval aviation. The one thing not depicted is the problems experienced by the destroyers in heavy weather as the carriers turned into the wind and out of the wind during flight operations, especially during chow times. This could probably be shown in a separate movie, but I still have vivid memories of my ship diving into the sea and the foam combing over the flying bridge and down both sides of my ship. Trying to log sack time during these times was also an experience unto itself. Incidentally we did lose on fly boy as a result of his ditching. We were told that exposure of more than 5 minutes in those waters could prove fatal, and this guy's case it was so. Not a happy time.
Reviews
2 Reviews
Men with Wings
(1938)
An excellent movie for its time
10 March 2000
I was fortunate enough to tape this movie off of a local PBS station in New Jersey, and I consider it one of my treasures. My copy is very viewable. I liked this movie as a youngster, and like it so much I made a model of the Fokker DVII in the black and white motif the same as the one Pat Falconer (Fred McMurray) shot down in the WW I sequence. It too is one of my prize possessions. As I said in the summary, considering the year it was made it holds up well.
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