The USS Harry S. Truman and Admiral Shortney on the WSJ’s “De Gustibus” page.
“We don’t think of this as a dangerous business,” says Rear Adm. Bill Gortney, an F-18 pilot who also commands the Truman’s battle group of cruisers, destroyers and submarines. “It’s just a terribly unforgiving one.”
On this particular evening, however, the rigors of Navy life seem briefly to melt away. From the foredeck I see a school of dolphins leaping from the water; off to starboard, whales are just breaking the surface. The deck is nearly clear except for a detachment of Seahawk helicopters that has returned from an anti-submarine warfare exercise. Activity will resume at a frenetic pace later tonight as the carrier undergoes qualification exercises. But for now the Truman seems remarkably serene and oddly small, a dot in the ocean tracing a southerly course 100 miles off the Virginia shore.
To spend some time on an aircraft carrier is to be disabused of more than a few “Top Gun”-inspired fantasies. The pilots are low-key and self-effacing. The women in their lives, so to speak, are often their fellow pilots or, in the case of F-18 squadron leader Sara Joyner, their commanding officer. The sleek but unwieldy F-14 Tomcat that Tom Cruise pretended to fly (and that was once the subject of my adolescent day-dreaming) has been scrapped, to the immense relief of the entire profession of naval aviators and mechanics.
“De Gustibus” is like, taste, right?
Huh.
“The sleek but unwieldy F-14 Tomcat that Tom Cruise pretended to fly (and that was once the subject of my adolescent day-dreaming) has been scrapped, to the immense relief of the entire profession of naval aviators and mechanics.”
Why do I hear a great whine starting ?
When your CVN is doing work-ups (or carrier quals) off the east coast you are the de facto VIP tour ship. The parade of Washingtonians and pseudo celebs that come to visit is mind numbing.
Of course, everyone wants to see flight ops and one of the best places from which to do so is the LSO platform. My Air Boss was cool and left it up to me who and when visitors came to see flight ops in the most up-close and personal way available to non aviators.
Some groups were interesting people with interesting questions – some were not.
I particularly remember one group of congressional staffers. They were from the offices of two Northeastern congresspersons of predictable political proclivities. It didn’t take long for the pilots in the air wing to begin referring to this particular group as “The Poetry Club.” When they showed up at frame 185 to follow me up to the platform, I gave them a quick brief about what they were going to see. They put on their “we aren’t impressed” faces and followed me up to start the recovery.
The first 4 planes into the overhead were Tomcats each with fuel dumps raging. (Turns out their strike mission had been scrubbed so they came back with lots and lots of gas) One of the staffers looked up and asked me “What is coming out of those jets?”
I mentally weighed the options – tell the truth “Well, that is gas, and a lot of it, being dumped to fall into the ocean.” Which I am sure would find its way back to the Good Congressperson and would result in some sort of inquiry as to why we were wasting gas AND polluting. Then I tried to see if I could couch it some other way that wasn’t so….so…damning. I had decied that honesty was the best policy and was about to explain when one of the other staffers pointed at the water and shouted “Look Dolphins!!” They all spent the next 5 minutes snapping pix of the Porpoises and the question was forgotten.
I love fish. (And swimming mammals.)
N
Good stuff Nose!
FYI if you are ever in a conversation and want an expedient end to the line of banter, calmly half-point in a direction away from yourself and sort-of half mumble something like ‘oh, check that out’. The key to the con is the subtleness of it, so as to distract your mark’s train of thought. And it’s kinda funny to do to your friends too.
The writer makes it seem like Naval Aviation is a big disappointment.
It’s like saying the only women you see as a Fireman are all covered in soot…
When can I go?
The design, development, training, staffing and safe operation of such a vessel is nothing short of amazing and, a tremendous credit to our military and country. All the people who make this happen deserve our unending thanks.
I wish we could only learn to draw our lines in the sand and fight for freedom from our strengths rather than lower our efforts to medieval contests.
Never the less, my thanks for all the military does to protect us and keep us free.
My son is an OS on the Truman. I have a news program that sifts thru what’s published about her & I receive notices when it finds something. Reading stories like this makes me feel closer to him, even tho I’m clear across the country. Thanks for this one!
Re:”The women in their lives, so to speak, are often their fellow pilots”
Freudian slip about life in the New Navy?
Kris, me too!
Don’t worry, I’m pretty sure that Kris and I would be suitably impressed with it all.
Only thing is, first I want to spend some time with the LSO but it probably wouldn’t be too long before I would be angling for a way to get to the next step… just find me a small corner in a Hornet where I can observe rhe touch and go antics from the inside.
“Gustibus” comes from the Latin epigram “de gustibus non disputatum est.” Rough translation: there’s no accounting for taste.
I was taken aback (another blackshoe expression)by the casual reference to husband/wife and sweetheart relationships within a squadron. I don’t think such arrangements would be tolerated in the suface navy. But maybe I’m just behind the times.
Mary,
God bless you and your son. If you like reading about shipboard life, be sure to check out the “Rhythms” link at the top of the page. Even features some OS’s doing good work!
Nose
Re. Nose’s comment – one of the standing rules we had on IKE for DV visits was we made d*mn sure they spent any time observing flight ops on the flight deck – preferably up on the bow between cats 1 & 2 with F-14′s in burner. They didn’t spend much time kicking back in their a/c’d spaces until well after taps – and they were up early in the AM too. Our goal was to make sure they got a good representation of a full day at sea, and they did…
-SJS
DNM, that whine you hear is Pinch spooling up!
As for this gem: “The women in their lives, so to speak, are often their fellow pilots.” Ignorant reporter. If even a fraction of the sexual tension that exists in corporate America was tolerated in the Navy the entire fleet would sink!
Lotsa good stuff in that article, which I thought was well-written for its General Purpose audience of non-mil types. Aside from the good words about the ship’s company and the Navy, in general, the bit that caught my eye was this:
I think there’s at least a grain of truth in that thought…
And I loved your
WarSea Story, Nose!re- ” The pilots are low-key and self-effacing..”
Gee. What went wrong Lex?
I’ve observed carrier ops since we went with the small Hornet-centric airwing. To me it’s just little pods of action here and there on da desk when viewed birds-eye. I suggest folks go back and watch the old Discovery Wings Channel stuff from the ’80s if’n they don’t believe me. Rather than just bits and pieces of a ballet demonstration we used to be the friggin Bolshoi.
In other words- “as it should be”- if’n we had the $$ to buy enough to populate the FD with 95 or so…We’re running on 6/8 cylinders today!
b2