The scene where Keenan Wynn's character is killed in a fiery crash landing on the carrier is actual footage of a F9F accident during one of its early test flights. On June 23, 1951, U.S. Navy test pilot George Duncan hit an air pocket just before landing on the USS Midway. The air pocket dropped most of the plane below the landing deck level, but he managed to keep the nose up above the deck at the time of impact, severing both wings and aft fuselage, and expelling the plane's cockpit and nose onto the carrier deck as a fireball erupted behind him. Except for burning his ears, Duncan survived the crash.

The climatic "Christmas Story" rescue was based on a real life event that occurred during the Korean War. On March 22, 1952, Douglas A-1 Skyraider pilot Lieutenant Howard Thayer, from VF-194 based on the USS Valley Forge, came to the aid of fellow squadron pilot Ensign Kenneth Schechter, who had been blinded by anti-aircraft fire. Thayer guided his friend to a safe landing at K-18, a U.S. Marine airfield.

By the way, Schechter died in December of 2013 at age 83. Here's the obit, that contains some of Schechter's recollections of the incident: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/21/kenneth-schechter-dead-dies_n _4486249.html