It was a long flight out to the ship, three hours strapped down in a COD, facing backwards. It was worth it all though, because I’m back at sea again and loving it, frankly. It isn’t just the gentle lift and roll of a warship in the open ocean, nor is it the familiar sights and smells: the fighters in tension on the cat, screaming to be released; the all-pervading flight deck smell of grease and JP-; the ringing of the ship’s bells as the watch is relieved; the always-different faces that somehow seem as familiar as those of your own family - people you’ve never met but instantly know; the way that the sky and sea frolic in the distance, the way both of them seem to tease you, always running on before, always just out of reach no matter how fast you chase after them. Those things are good and precious and there is deep, abiding magic in them, but there is more.
There is the mission: This ship is not just at sea for a training exercise off the SoCal. This ship is at war. And although it almost sounds wicked to say, and although I feel in a way guilty for being out here as an interloper, even perhaps a distraction from the important work they’re doing, it’s also true that I’ve missed the steadfast and dedicated purposefulness that goes along with being on the line, providing combat power to support friendly forces ashore and teaching a harsh lesson on the value of airpower to those who would raise their arms against our friends on the ground.
They’ve been at sea for a long time, this crew – five and a half months already - and they’re still a long way from home. Everyone is just a little tired, and you can see the strain of it in their eyes. There is an easy familiarity between them, they have heard each other’s stories, and they can finish each other’s jokes. Each knows what the man or woman on his left or right is capable of, and they know their own limitations. And finally there is this: A quiet pride, the kind of pride that comes with knowing that your work is making a difference. Not everyone gets that chance, and some that do fail to grasp the opportunity. But these folks understand it, even if they don’t talk about it, even if they can’t talk about it, perhaps because of a becoming reluctance to blow their own horn. Or perhaps because they know that is so precious and so ephemeral that to even talk of it might break the spell, might ruin everything.
They’ve crossed the Atlantic and the Med, patrolled the Arabian Gulf, operated in the North Arabian Sea, flung strike fighters and support aircraft to the efforts in Iraq, to the efforts in Afghanistan. They’ve crossed the Indian Ocean, reached into the Pacific, touched in at Pusan, Hong Kong and Singapore and returned again to bring the fight to the foe. Not much longer now and they can start working their way home – their relief is already en route, just across the horizon.
It is good to see them.
27 responses so far ↓
1
Bill
// Oct 13, 2006 at 5:07 am
Glad you got there and remembered to clue us all in. For a short time I could smell the salt and the feel the tension of flight ops.
Thanks
2
Tom
// Oct 13, 2006 at 5:21 am
Gotta say this:
In my limited literary excursions, I’ve found few writers are capable of weilding words in a way which brings the reader in so close as to be able to see, smell, feel what is being described. The first of this rare ilk I noticed was Zane Grey but then I’m an afficiando of the Old West so suspected I was biased.
Now along comes Lex and it dawned on me this AM that this is the reason I have “Neptunus” bookmarked and check in first thing each day.
Ecce, indeed.
Thanks.
3
Tom
// Oct 13, 2006 at 5:24 am
Ummm. That would be “wielding.” I before E except after C… you know.
4
MajMike
// Oct 13, 2006 at 5:28 am
oh good.
so i assume you made it aboard in time to help cut the birthday cake?
5
CPT J
// Oct 13, 2006 at 5:52 am
“Or perhaps because they know that is so precious and so ephemeral that to even talk of it might break the spell, might ruin everything.”
“…and the hiss of the sap in the smokey wood,
mixed for a moment in something good;
Something outside of peace or war,
Or a fair girl wearing a silver star;
Something as hardly as vain as pride,
And gaunt as the men he rode beside;
It made no promise but it was there,
As real as the color of Lucy’s hair,
Or the taste of Henry Weatherby’s wine;
And he thought: These people are friends of mine.
And we certainly fooled the Yanks last week,
When we caught those wagons at Boiling Creek;
Maybe we’re not such a bad patrol,
If we never get it right on the muster roll;
Maybe next spring we can do it again.”
–from JOHN BROWN’S BODY, by Stephen Vincent Benet
6
Subsunk
// Oct 13, 2006 at 6:00 am
No matter how old we get, life at sea never gets old, does it?
I envy you, CAPT Lex. I truly do.
{turns back to the grindstone, and wipes away the tear in his eye}
Subsunk
7
Snake Eater
// Oct 13, 2006 at 6:48 am
Lex, A warrior’s place by temperment and training is to aspire to be and remain at the very tip of the spear.(just one more operation…just one more patrol goes the re-frain). It makes little difference that circumstances “the suits” and the passage of time say otherwise. I am confident that you will treasure this opportunity, however vicariously, and that most of us never get, to re-visit your days at the tip of the spear. Best
8
SeabeeSeniorChief
// Oct 13, 2006 at 7:03 am
As much as I couldn’t wait to board that Herc, to see green grass, and the family, and beer!, there are still times I want to be there, alongside my brothers-in-arms; I know my time will come again, and I don’t, but yet I do, look forward to it. Don’t tell my wife.
9
bullnav
// Oct 13, 2006 at 7:17 am
I had the same feeling when I was aboard back in March (only a 45min COD ride). I envy you, sir! Good luck and Godspeed!
10
SJBill
// Oct 13, 2006 at 9:28 am
Captain,
Your words made me choke up today. Just six days ago, I was humbled to take a short COD hop for the first time in 38 years.
Compared to a 27-alfa, the flight deck was huge.
The A/C have all changed since my generation. Believe it or not they now use steam to drive the cats.
The noise levels and dangers up on the roof have increased dramatically.
The kids absolutely know the “whats” and “hows” of their job and at the same time know they are underappreciated for what they do.
Carrier sailors are awesome — not supermen but super kids.
At 60, I was elated walk amongst them once again. Short of the scenery, not much has changed in the brotherhood.
Lex, stay safe. Come back home with memories for us. We need them. No one can take them away.
vr/-SJBill
11
badbob
// Oct 13, 2006 at 9:28 am
3hrs eh? Via OOMA probably. Be careful on them ship-ship helo rides!
re- “touched in at Pusan, Hong Kong and Singapore”
Gotta be LEXDEC! Last time the CVN you’re talking about was in those ports B2 was onboard! That is, unless I missed something big.
B2
12
ASM826
// Oct 13, 2006 at 11:39 am
A great post. It made me want to be there, to see it, experience it. To walk out to the birds and know that I had a part to play again.
Semper Fidelis,
ASM826
13
John S
// Oct 13, 2006 at 12:32 pm
Lex- While you are enjoying yourself, make sure you tell everyone you can that all us old retired salts send our best. Our thoughts and prayers are with those out there keeping us safe. Especially those doing the dirty, overlooked, but essential jobs that keep the “screws turning and lights burning”. God bless America, and those who defend her, from the newest swab jockey to the visiting VIPs! Thank you all!
14 Theodore // Oct 13, 2006 at 1:00 pm
B2,
World Cruise 1989-90? That was the last time she was out there.
My next door neighbor is aboard her. Haven’t met him yet - he was at sea when I moved in. I’m sure his wife (and a lot of others) are counting the days now.
15
Byron Audler
// Oct 13, 2006 at 1:12 pm
Another few minutes of literary bliss, oh humble scribe. I’ve done a COD ride myself, being sent back to Mayport after having fixed some stubborn equipment aboard the Sara. Scared the hell out of me, too. No cat shot, just mosey down the angle, nice and slow, and DROP down to the blue Atlantic. I was looking UP at the underside of the sponsons and catwalks, and the damn landing gear had to be sopping wet when they went back into the wells. Noisy, smelly, and shook like car with busted shocks going down a country road.
And CAPT. Lex sir, if the ship you happen to be on is the Big E, please motor down to the VS-21 shop, and say hi to my son-in-law, AD1 Doug Vanderberg, who we are eagerly awaiting to see back home with us again. He’s the ugly squid with the bald head that has all the scars from my daughters’ rolling pin
16
Byron Audler
// Oct 13, 2006 at 1:13 pm
Doh, my bad…Doug is in VS-32, the Maulers.
17
Kris, in New England
// Oct 13, 2006 at 5:54 pm
You do paint wonderful pictures with your words Sir. Thank you for sharing so much of yourself with us.
18
blackeagle603
// Oct 13, 2006 at 6:17 pm
Chief Von Tersch admonished any in our boot company who dreamsheeted for shore duty, “Sailors belong on ships. Ships belong at sea.”
Can still hear the cadence ringing from Pensacola…
“Don’t want to be a P3 sailor.
I wanna sail across the sea.
Don’t wanna be a P3 sailor.
Flight deck is the place for me.”
fair winds and following seas,
dw
19
lex
// Oct 13, 2006 at 9:07 pm
Byron,
I couldn’t catch up with your man Doug, but did check in with his maintenance control people while they were looking for him. They had glowing things to say of him. He’s getting safe-for-flight qualified behind the mx control desk - a signal accomplishment for a first class petty officer. I’ll let him know you said hi, when I see him.
20
Byron Audler
// Oct 14, 2006 at 12:23 am
Thanks, Lex. This time next year, Doug will be sleeping in the goat locker, and wearing a flat hat. I’m damn proud of him, he’s an outstanding sailor, and a pretty good husband to my daughter, and father to my grandson. And Lordy, we miss him so…
21
badbob
// Oct 14, 2006 at 3:44 am
Theodore-yep
Byron- Mentioning VS-21 vs Maulers must have been one of those Freudians, but the R-tails did do most of the 80’s deployments on said ship before going to Japan and CVN coming east.
B2
22
kent
// Oct 14, 2006 at 9:04 am
Lex,
Thanks for the stimulus to relive fond memories. They return and are remembered in the same way you put them to words. We almost crossed paths, just a 17 year gap. I flew to the same boat on a 1.8 hour C2A (162148) flight, 17 Oct 1989. Was on board long enough to listen to the World Series Earthquake while you were probably heading home on the Connie.
kent
23
Byron Audler
// Oct 14, 2006 at 3:09 pm
Alas, B2, those Maulers won’t be with us much more. It’s going to be Hornets passing gas to Hornets in the near future…kinda incestuous, when you think of it
24
badbob
// Oct 15, 2006 at 5:51 am
Byron- They’ll be around for longer than they thought 6 months ago! Small beer as Lex would say. Wish your son-in-law the best. He’ll be fine. He’s a “keeper”.
Kent- you should have stayed aboard the rest of that PACEX. Biggest formation of ships since WWII. (anybody have the pic electronically, Sid?) Cold, dangerous flying around the Aluetians and into S. Korea where ships company was very anxious after the Quake… Also, my first experience fueling Hornets-perhaps I gassed Lex..really persistent work.
B2
25
Byron Audler
// Oct 15, 2006 at 11:38 am
B2, three years ago, he almost got out at 15. He was up for orders, and the choices were either Norfolk (gag) or VS-32 and a deployment on the Enterprise. Doug said no way he was moving the family away from us to Norfolk, and sure as hell, no way he was going on no damn boat. I invited him outside, at which point, I informed him A) your a sailor, and sailors go to sea, B) your wife has health issues, and needs your military coverage, and C)you only have 5 more years till your 20, and D)if you get out, I will slap the dumbass right out of you, so wake the hell up, shipmate, and get your airdale ass to sea!
He went, life wasn’t easy, but it was better for him…especially when he got to be a REAL sailor.
26
badbob
// Oct 16, 2006 at 4:28 am
Great advice from F-in-law! I’ll bet he’s glad you’re in the area, too!
He’s also got a good engine to work on. No J-52 woes for him!
b2
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