An Aircraft Carrier by Ernie Pyle
Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 6:30 am
"An aircraft carrier is a noble thing. It lacks
almost everything that seems to denote nobility,
yet deep nobility is there. A carrier has no
poise. It is top-heavy and lopsided. It has the
lines of a well-fed cow. It doesn't cut through
the water like a cruiser, knifing romantically
along. It doesn't dance and cavort like a
destroyer. It just plows. You feel it should be
carrying a hod. Yet a carrier is a ferocious
thing, and out of its heritage of action has
grown its nobility, I believe that every Navy in
the world has as its No. I priority the destruction
of enemy carriers. That's a precarious
honor, but it's a proud one."
Ernie Pyle
(Written while Pyle was aboard the USS Cabot in February
1945. From: The Last Chapter by Ernie Pyle, Henry Holt &
Co., 1945.)
almost everything that seems to denote nobility,
yet deep nobility is there. A carrier has no
poise. It is top-heavy and lopsided. It has the
lines of a well-fed cow. It doesn't cut through
the water like a cruiser, knifing romantically
along. It doesn't dance and cavort like a
destroyer. It just plows. You feel it should be
carrying a hod. Yet a carrier is a ferocious
thing, and out of its heritage of action has
grown its nobility, I believe that every Navy in
the world has as its No. I priority the destruction
of enemy carriers. That's a precarious
honor, but it's a proud one."
Ernie Pyle
(Written while Pyle was aboard the USS Cabot in February
1945. From: The Last Chapter by Ernie Pyle, Henry Holt &
Co., 1945.)