USS Forrestal
By Gail Hultay
 
 
I've been in Bedford since 1987 and I really love it here. In fact, I've only been back home three times since we moved here. I’m from New Jersey, Lakewood, New Jersey, which is seven miles from Lakehurst Naval Air Station. Back in 1958 when Bob Hope was doing his Christmas show that he did every year for the military, my husband Al (we weren’t really together yet) was assigned to the USS Forrestal, which was the flag ship of that year because it was a new ship, the largest aircraft carrier in the world at that time. My husband's job was to be a hot suit man, he wore an asbestos suit. Because if a plane crashed, it was his job to go in and get the pilot out. He had written me a letter and told me that Bob Hope was going to be on the ship. He didn't know what the program was going to be or anything. He said, "You've got to watch it. Tell my mom and tell your mom." We were going together at the time but we were best friends. I think we were the only ones in the world who didn't know we were supposed to be together.
If anybody has watched any of Bob Hope's Christmas programs, there's all kinds of stuff going on. So, this program's going on and the cameraman caught up on the bird's nest some guys standing up there with a sheet with a sign written on it, "Gail, marry the bum." And Bob Hope said, "Gail, I don't know who you are or where you are, but it looks to me like the Navy has spoken." And then they panned around and showed Al and he looked like a giant Easter Bunny because he had the ear flaps up on the asbestos suit that made him look like all ears.
 
He came home in April. He didn't finish out his term because part of his job was, if a plane crashed, they had 40 seconds to get the pilot out. And they have to practice all kinds of weather. A month or so later, during hurricane season in the Caribbean, a pilot who was Al’s best friend from kindergarten is coming in to land. A swell came up and he hit the back of the ship. Al had to dive overboard, go and see if he could get him out, quickly. Well, when the plane rammed into the back of the ship, the hatch jammed and he couldn't get it open. Just as the hatch popped, he heard the gun go off. At this time there was lots of political and combat turmoil – the pilots were required to ensure they were not taken prisoner so they were instructed to kill themselves if it appeared they would be taken. So that really tore Al up. And then it was a couple weeks later, still during a storm and the plane coming in to land, and the swell dropped down. The plane went above the steel strip that a hook catches to slow them down. He missed that and went right into the Crow’s nest and exploded. That was another of Al’s close friends. And I knew both of those guys because anytime Al came home, they came home with him. If you got up in the night and had to walk through the house, you had to be really careful because you had to go around bedrolls laying on the floor. That was a tough time for him. He came home in April, three or four months before his tour was supposed to end. He just couldn't stay after that. We got engaged and then got married a year and a half later.
 
Gail Hultay grew up in New Jersey where she worked in the banking industry. She moved with her husband to Moneta in 1987 and eventually took a job with First Union Bank in Roanoke where she worked in the credit card department until she retired.
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