Comments on: The Unbearable Lightness of Paddles

By: Mongo

Mongo — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 22:27:38 +0000

A debrief vid of the Army Helo guys who went into Grenada contained a short blurb from the Briefing Ossifer as to how the Navy guys were whiners about having to land on a moving deck.

Yeah. Okay. Sure…Included photos showed calm seas in broad daylight.

All my buds and I just shook our heads…long jump competitions up in Fly 1 come to mind. I think somebody finally put a stop to those…or not.

By: Maritime Monday 136

Maritime Monday 136 — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 04:53:58 +0000

[...] in rough seas in “Ah, Memories“. After watching that, be sure to read his post “On being a landing signal officer in rough weather…” and at [...]

By: SrA Crew Dawg

SrA Crew Dawg — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:50:52 +0000

Well, I gotta say, as a crew chief, I have seen a few breath removing, hairy landings, and bought a beer or two for the pilots who held off on pissing themselves long enough to bring me back my jet, perhaps a little dinged, but nothing a little crew chief magic can’t fix, and I have to say that you flight suit inserts are the bravest, brass set wearing, cool headed bunch I’ve ever known. I couldn’t even imagine attempting half the stuff you squid boys do without being a little less than sober…Hooyah sir.

By: fropa

fropa — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 06:37:19 +0000

As a former army pilot (blunt-nosed twin turboprop, usually with two miles of concrete to land on), you scare the bejeezus out of me with your tales of carrier landings.

I’ve always admired Navy pilots for doing what they don’t get paid nearly enough to do. Thanks for sharing your experiences in your own special writing style.

By: Neptunus Lex » Flotsam and jetsam, II

Neptunus Lex » Flotsam and jetsam, II — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 16:35:01 +0000

[...] Those of you paying attention to the comment thread here got to see Oyster – one of the few men whom I know personally who has landed aboard an aircraft carrier at night, with one engine not just out but shattered (not before having taken most of the other one with it) and with what damned little gas he had left more or less feeding a raging airframe fire – and I engage in a bit of reminiscing about the old days. The “bad night” we were talking about was the subject of one of my earliest posts on the old blog, reproduced here. I wrote it before I had developed the characteristically taut prose for which I have so often been complimented by you, my dedicated readership, who have been awfully generous with your correspondent over the course of the last several and for which I thank you kindly – gratitude being one of the last barricades for comity in a world where civil correspondence is everywhere encroached upon by those who would instead craft their words almost as missiles, like, for the purpose of hurting others, the bassids. *cough* [...]

By: CG 23 Sailor

CG 23 Sailor — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 21:53:19 +0000

This Brings back memories of my last deployment. I just transferred to Kitty Hawk right before she deployed on her ‘94 WESTPAC to Korea. We were off Japan and bucking pretty heavy seas (i.e. for a Cruiser Sailor I could actually feel the deck move).
As an EW I was responsible for the Stbd Aft Chaff Sponson (Right under the ramp) and it was from there I was watching landing Ops at about 2330. I had just stepped off the sponson and back thru the lightlocker when a Tomcat did exactly as you described here except the deck didnt go back down. Tomcat nose-high struck the ramp and fireballed down the deck. Both the RIO and Pilot got out (Ejecting AFTER impact as the fuselage was sliding down the deck. RIO Sprained an ankle when he came down on a parked S-3. The Pilot wasn’t so lucky. He landed in the flaming mess at the back of the ship. He recovered later and I hear is still Flying. I cant remember what Squadron it was but we had only two F-14 squadrons aboard and the other one was VF-111 Sundowners.
From what I heard Later, the Pilot had tried to catch himself from rising high on the ball when in reality it was the deck dropping away. When he increased his sinkrate the ship came back up on the next swell and bang.