Hats off to the Navy: Trapping & Flight Ops

Posted on August 8, 2007
Filed Under Personal |

Forty-five minutes after boarding a Navy C-2, our crew raised their arms, index fingers pointing up, and made furtive circles in the air. That was the signal to all of us that we were about to “hit the deck” of the USS Abraham Lincoln. Even with all of the pre-flight descriptions, the force of it still surprised me. In fact, it took my breath away. The wheels crunched into the deck, the tailhook grabbed the arresting cable, and the COD came to an abrupt stop. Somewhere within about one second we transitioned from flying speed to zero. Because the C-2 seats face aft, the invisible, but heavy wave of surging G-forces mashed us into our seatbacks and stretched my mouth into a permanent smile. In the midst of this, there was the loud roar and deep vibrations of the engines as the pilot shoved the throttles forward at touchdown, calling for max power. This is done so that, if the tailhook misses, the aircraft can immediately get airborne again rather than take an unfortunate nosedive off the bow of the ship. Missing the cables is called a “bolter” and it isn’t something you want to routinely do—although, amazingly, it is not that dangerous. We saw three bolters while we were on board and each time the pilot successfully recovered, re-entered the pattern and ended with a good “trap” on the next try. (I am a little sorry it didn’t happen to us just for the thrill of hitting the deck again!)

After jumping out of the cargo bay, we were immediately led into a briefing room filled with Abraham Lincoln artifacts and memorabilia that had been donated to the carrier bearing his name. There we were greeted by the Admiral and the Executive Officer, who were both very gracious to us while we were on board. In addition, we met Lt. Commander Kathy Sandoz, who personally hosted us the entire time and arranged all of our tours, meals and quarters. She is a true professional.

We visited a number of places on the first day, which I will try to recount for you, but let me jump to the highlight: flight operations. After a short safety briefing and donning our “craniums” with ear protectors and goggles, we walked out onto the flight deck and spent almost an hour watching the launch and recovery of F-18 Hornets, Super Hornets, EA-6B Prowlers, and SH-60 Seahawk helicopters.

Without the sound effects coming from the jet engines, the afterburners, the steam catapult, the arresting cable hydraulics, and the pounding in my chest, anything I put in words will pale in comparison to the experience of standing a few feet from all of this and trying to take it all in.

First of all, the flight deck is a hubbub of activity and close quarters. The deck is packed with aircraft and equipment and buzzing with a swarm of Navy personnel, each focused on their tasks—tasks which, if not done properly, could result in death, serious injury, or the loss of millions of dollars in equipment damages.

What looked like chaos was actually a well orchestrated and choreographed system of man and machine. Each sailor was wearing a distinctly colored jersey that indicated their specialties. Let me take a stab at describing it to you, knowing that I’m merely summarizing what is most likely a long list of other responsibilities:
–Blue jerseys move the planes around;
–Brown jerseys are the air wing plane captains and chief petty officers;
–Green jerseys take care of the catapults, arresting cables, aircraft maintenance and other stuff I can’t remember;
–Purple jerseys (“Grapes”) are the folks who refuel the aircraft;
–Red jerseys handle the munitions, explosives, crash and fire;
–White jerseys are the inspectors, quality control, safety observers, and medical;
–Yellow jerseys are officers who direct aircraft movement, catapult and arresting operations. This includes the “shooters” who give the final go before launching an aircraft. You can see one giving the command to launch in this photo as well as five different colored jerseys.

Watching these young Americans go about their critical duties with great professionalism left me in awe and filled me with pride. Tomorrow I want to highlight a couple of them and then talk about some of the issues that long deployments bring to the sailors and their families.

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