The flight deck of the USS Nimitz in the Arabian Gulf on 22 June 2007 (date edited to hide the previously classified existence of the Navy’s time machine), conducting operations in support of forces ashore.
You can almost feel it, can’t you? The steam coming up from the cats warring with the sun hammering down from on top and the JP-5 drenched heat coming off the jets turning on the roof?
If that’s the first launch of the day, it’s probably only 105 degrees or so up on deck – it’ll get warmer in a while – and the Fly 1 director there will probably get to go below in another 12 hours or so.
Good times.
Wow, from 22 July 2007? I didn’t know the Navy had a time machine!
How do they keep those guys on the roof hydrated??
How do they keep those guys on the roof hydrated?›
Lex,
It’s 101 here in Dever today and we are all complaining of the heat. How easy it is to forget that there are those in the role of the sheepdog that have it far worse than we do. That photo brings me up short and helps me remember that we have it far easier than those at the tip of the spear. My prayer is that we never forgot those that we are so indebted to.
I’m always amazed at the abilities of our young sailors. They do an admirable job in the most adverse conditions and do it flawlessly.
I too was wondering about hydration …
Camelbaks, Theodore. You’re nobody on the roof if you haven’t got a Camelbak.
I’m watching you, Maldieri
The average age of a sailor on the deck is 19. God Bless those guys!
It’s not the heat. It’s the humidity.
Feedpump watch in the North Arabian Sea, seawater injection temperature 90F, and we’re working a nuclear teakettle. (CGN-36, ca. 1986). But being an ELT, I only had to stand that once per month to keep quals as an MM. Nucleonics was air conditioned– to keep the delicate nuclear measurement instruments in steady state.
Captain, you seem too young to be flying a desk, especially considering all the money we spent training you. Any chance we’ll get you back in that JP-5 haze?
Well, of course.
The Navy has a time machine, so it must be able to take those young sailors below decks to rehydrate without missing a step of flight ops on deck.
D’oh.
I hadn’t heard of Camelbaks before. Now I want one. I don’t necessarily need one, but I want one.
The biggest size I found is three liters, which isn’t all that much for 12 hours in those conditions. Do they get a chance to refill and maybe have a quick lunch between cycles? Is there a head convenient to the flight deck, or is it a matter of finding a private spot on the catwalk?
They do get to take the occasional break between cycles, and refill their Camelbaks. Sometimes a runner refills a several for them. Sometimes they even get a hot meal. Mostly they take a break under a wing in the shade, and scarf down a box lunch in Flight Deck Control. Funny, when it’s as hot as that? You don’t have to “go” so much. You sweat it out. There is a head just inside the island for the flight deck guys though – in the old days, the urinal was on the outside of many of the island structures. I guess we’re more “civilized” now.
No sympathy here.
Back in the day, the heat was the same, the JP was the same, the steam was the same, and the hours and cruise were longer. And the humidity was greater. But no one really cared – we had a mission.
Back then there were no such things as “camelbaks”. Air conditioning was severely marginal ?
No sympathy here.
Back in the day, the heat was the same, the JP was the same, the steam was the same, and the hours and cruise were longer. And the humidity was greater. But no one really cared – we had a mission.
Back then there were no such things as “camelbaks”. Air conditioning was severely marginal – or worse – throughout the ship. Water was more rare than the restricted “water hours.” Lettuce was brown. Stack gas ruined the lungs. And cruises away from home were longer.
Have we gotten so soft that we now complain about so little?
I suspect the current carriers are floating luxuries compared to the previous generations’ flattops.
A check on tomorrow’s weather tells me that Da Nang will be 91F but will feel like 100F.
Meanwhile, Bahrain in the Gulf will be 93F. But because of the low relative humidity, it will only feel like 94F.
So I do not want to hear any petty sniveling.
I may be a liberal, but I also know hardship and war.
Sitting in class last night with P-3 guy who did a shooter tour, talking about the PG and the heat on deck. He sent a guy below after launching a cycle, completely drained. After a half-hour below decks, hydrating, and going through med check-in, he still measured 104 degrees internal temperature. Tough SOBs do those jobs, then and now.
God and I complain when I have to preflight and it’s hotter than say, 85. Standying-by for rude awakening number 7685937 on my first deployment….
~Ens Tim
fliterman-
And of course you walked uphill both ways too….
“…Have we gotten so soft that we now complain about so little?…”
Um, fliterman – did you read the last 2 words of Lex’s post above? “Good times.” He didn’t post this as a complaint; more as an education for those of us who might not know the real details about what these brave men and women do. Seems to me you are the one doing the complaining about how much harder you had it…
Times change. Deal with it.
Nothing new under the sun.Back in the day, the smell of JP-5 on your clothes, on your skin, in your lungs was only eclipsed by the night launch of AD-7s with props spinning that you couldn’t see.Never thought about the heat or cold (snowing and blowing off Hokkaido in December).I just hated those props!
I remember the days. Out in the IO 100+ degrees, launching a helo from spot 3 with 2 Tomcats on the bow cats and 2 more waiting right behind the JBDs, all 4 of their exhausts hitting you in the back. Thank God I was in a helo squadron! We launched our helo and then got to run downstairs back to the line shack. I don’t want to even think about working up there full time like the Cat crews and the Handlers.
Lex,
Thank you for posting this – I just started a new job this week in a steel mill in South Carolina. Kinda redefines hot.
It is tough, dirty, dangerous, backbreaking work and I was feeling a little sorry for myself…and then your post reminded me that kids half my age are working in even worse environments every day for far fewer rewards.
Mike
Camelbacks – what a great idea. Not sure they were around back in ’90 – ’92, but I wish I’d have thought of them for my guys who worked on the roof back then.
I remember being in the PG preflighting and the skin of the A/C being hot enough to burn your hand. I usually drank a whole canteen of water before we even launched. What really sucked for me was being hot as hell and drenched by the time we launched, then when being up on station freezing because I was all wet. Ah, the good ol’ days.
Oh, and fliterman – you’ve *really* gotta throttle back dude.
Brian
Filterman is our resident Troll, please ignore him.
While on WesPac in the IO back in 85 on the good ship Badger we lost our hotel generators, thus no A/C or lights for a week, we managed to get them repaired while we were tied up to a Sub tender.
Hottest week ever, so I thought, Till 05 in Iraq wearing IBA and Kevlar @135 in the shade.
Camelbacks RULE! almost everybody in the sandbox wears one.
See Comment #8, and add (for a typical Machinist Mate, Nuke or Non-Nuke) -
1) It’s been averaging 103 degrees F. in the Main Machinery and Reactor engineering spaces since we left Norfolk (actually, any time the plant is up and running and we’re between 45N and 45S),
2) the relative humidity is constant at 97% (those steam condensate traps have to vent somewhere, right?) in the Main Machinery and Reactor engineering spaces since we left Norfolk (actually, any time the plant is up and running),
3) workdays in the engineering spaces are either 12 or 16 hrs per day (4 and 8′s w/ an 8 hour workday) since we left Norfolk (actually, any time the plant is up and running),
4) copious volumes of air taken from just below the flight deck, infused with the delightful fragrances of JP-5 and burned rubber plus assorted particles of flight deck grit are wafted directly to you by the (non air-conditioned) ventilation system whenever flight operations are occurring, and
5) the scenic view never changes down in the hole.
(CVN-69, Main Machinery Room 1, c. 1980)
unkawill, Resident troll Filterman does seek to provoke a response with his wild rantings…not sure if it’s an act or if he really does have a permanent hair across is ass about life…Best
Oh good gravy! What?
Oh good gravy! What’s next?
“I had to launch pteradactyls in only my loincloth in the Jurassic Age. Just never knew which way those birds would fly…”
Sheesh
(Right post — sorry ’bout that, all)
The Snipes and Snake-Eaters here certainly have the greater credibility when it comes to experiencing and enduring high heat for long periods.
Ergo, this “resident troll” curmudgeon bows to them.
P-3W – great post – almost sprayed my morning OJ all over the screen laughing.
I look at that pic and – just as Lex said – I can feel and smell the heat again. And there’s that extra burst of steam & heat that comes as you step over the tracks of the cats, the slickness of the deck from the non-skid wearing away under as the cruise marches on, the smell of the JP5 mixed with jet exhaust…
It’s a crazy, miserable environment to work in – and by far one of the most memorable and exciting places to be in the world, and I’m forever greatful that I had the priveledge of being a part of it.
Brian
I wasn’t on the roof but I was an MS. If you worked in our supply shop the shop was right over the reactor vessel. Large hatch in the deck bolted down gave it away. And the heat. Lots o heat. Did work on the roof during vertreps. Lots o heat there too.
SE,
As much as I disagree with fliterman 90% of the time..he worked the flight deck on Yankee Station during a time of war in worse conditions than those on today’s flight deck couldn’t fathom. Not that they also wouldn’t adapt, too. I would add there ain’t much humidity in jet exhaust..The fumes, the weapons-dangerous weapons I’d add, LOX (OBOGS nowadays), no APUs, all added it up to something fliterman faced I respect is all.
Fliterman ain’t a troll SE, he’s our own Alan Combs..Personally it’s more entertaining for me reading your sniping at the “Immortal Mercenary Centurion” Casca…LOL.
b2