Charlie Farrell and I had a pretty hairy sea story happen to us when on a night flight in bad weather when we were bingoed to Okinawa and flew through rough weather all the way. Then we had our S-2s serviced and went to the B.O.Q. to get some sleep. As we checked in we had a call from operations and were told that a message from the ship ordered us to return immediately. So off again through IFR weather. About half way there he called and said he If I remembered it right I asked him if he had any signs of a fire like smoke or engine instruments indicating a problem. He said no and I was relieved because the sea was boiling and I didn't think they could survive a ditching; and I doubted I could even keep them in sight with smoke lights. So I told him to start with a Hail Mary. He must have because it turned out to be a short caused by the rain that caused the light to light up. When we got to the ship as I remember it was IFR but with good enough weather that we made the recovery. He could tell you about it.

J.P. Enright, Captain (Ret.)