The fighter pilots of Air Group USS Saratoga (CV-3) proceed to their aircraft on the flight deck.  Pilots wear the standard life jackets with pockets for bullets and flares. In the right part of the photo is a Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat with an external fuel tank.

On the flight deck

It was August 16, 1942, around 0603 hours in the morning, when US Navy blimp L-8 took off from Treasure Island, San Francisco Bay to conduct an anti-submarine patrol of the coast of California. The crew consisted out of Lieutenant Ernest DeWitt Cody, the pilot, and Ensign Charles E. Adams. An hour and a half into the patrol, Lt. Cody radioed that he and Adams had located a possible oil slick in the water and would go out and investigate. Three hours later the blimp came ashore just south of San Francisco, eight miles off course. The blimp struck a cliff on Ocean Beach, knocking off one of its two depth charges from its rack and fell to the ground. After it continued drifting further inward, it finally plummeted to the ground in Daly City. After various people went to the crash site in order to help any of the survivors, they were stunned, as the doors were open and nobody was in the cabin. Several possible explanations were given including that one of them went out to repair something on the blimp, the other one went to assist, and they both fell out or they spotted a Japanese sub, lowered to investigate, and were captured.(Argunners)

US Navy blimp L-8 mystery


"USS New Mexico (BB-40). Ship's 5"/25 battery prepares to fire during the bombardment of Saipan, 15 June 1944.