Incidents are unavoidable
Wolverine launched its first aircraft in August 1942, after being refitted and ready for employment as aircraft carriers, while Sable qualified its first two pilots in May 1943. Mishaps, accidents, collisions, and losses from the deck are unavoidable on training vessels. The same might be said of these two modified aircraft carriers. More than 200 such events occurred between the start of the training program in 1942 and the decommissioning of the warships in 1945. Aside from these mishaps, some occurrences resulted in the loss of planes. In total, about 130 planes crashed and fell to the bottom of Lake Michigan.
Amazing Training Missions
Although the bulk of these instances resulted in minor injuries to trainees, there were some fatalities. During the ships' operational years, eight pilots and 40 crewmen were killed in training. Ensign F.M. Cooper lost control of his F4F-3 Wildcat after taking off from the USS Wolverine on October 21, 1942. It swirled into the ocean, and Cooper and the plane went down in 85 feet of frigid water. Cooper and his body were never found, having perished in the dark, murky depths of Lake Michigan. This was the first of many mishaps that occurred during the training sessions aboard these two ships.