at sea

After work today Brother Park, the head gunner, took me out on the flight deck to watch the evolutions after dark. It was really neat and very exciting. I have been out there watching flight ops in the day from the sidelines, but to out there in the middle of the deck as the planes were launching and recovering in the dark was absolutely amazing. I had so much fun. Brother Park would not let me be even more than an arm’s length away from him for safety reasons. He gave me a very unofficial safety brief before going up that consisted in making sure it was my responsibility to NEVER leave his side – to step where and when he stepped, to duck when he ducked, and to do exactly as he did. I was vigilant and tried to do that. We were walking around the planes as they were on the launch catapult and ducking under their engine blasts (not the afterburners). We had double ear protection, and it was still very loud and noisy. In fact, our attention was so fixed on a launch that I didn’t even notice that the taxing plane’s wing tips came within about 5-10 feet of my head. When I turned around and found that I was staring at a wing-tip bomb a few feet from my head that I didn’t realize almost ran me over as I was watching another plane I almost freaked out. The deck is extremely hot when you are walking around all the planes with their engines on. But when they are all up in the air and flying around, it gets really cold because the wind is coming across the flight deck so fast. While it was a great time, I am so glad I am a dentist and not a flight deck guy. I can not imagine standing up there all day long for 10 hours at a time walking around and watching the evolutions while breathing JP5 jet fuel exhaust all afternoon. I’m just not made for it. There is a certain rush standing by a large electronic warfare plane as it is taking off. You can feel every joint in your body rattling, including your teeth and their fillings. It is impressive. But all in all, I’m glad I’m down in the skin of the ship.