Out of the pages of the NYT, of all places:
American Navy officers have a line they repeat passionately and often: A nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is an imposing and versatile manifestation of the United States’ power. A ship like the Stennis, they say, which was sending aircraft on missions over Iraq one day and over Afghanistan 36 hours later, allows Washington to project influence, unrestricted by borders or basing rights.
To that, Chief Petty Officer Jaime L. Evock, 33, added her own line.
She was watching over the sailors in the red shirts, the uniform that signifies ordnance handlers. They were putting together the parts that allow a carrier and its aircraft to reach inside another country and kill.
Whatever anyone thinks of air power, without munitions and the people who know them, she said, “this ship would just be a floating airport.”
You bet. “Whatever anyone thinks of air power.”
Everyone of those ordies has the same look on his/her face: “Hey fly boy, you’re just a delivery man for my bombs.”
What’s the expression I’ve read & heard? “Warheads on Foreheads”? Not without those redshirts!
Poor bastards. Another job where fewer men do more lifting to make up for the women.
Zane..my triglodite friend…suggest you lighten the fu*k up…quit sucking lemons, take a couple of Midols and kick back and enjoy the rest of the day…if your able. Best
Why? What he said was true. Methinks you are the man that needs the Midol, Snake.
Snake, boys are, in general, bigger and stronger than girls.
I mind a female Marine who used to post on the Web. She had the heart of a lioness, but the body of a human woman. She kept up with the boys alright on the long-distance runs while running on a stress-fractured pelvis, but got a medical discharge for her trouble.
If you ain’t ordnance, you ain’t (edited for the NYT).
Who doesn’t like things which go boom?
I dated a gal, a time or two, who later went Ordnance when she got her commission. Yes, her name was Barbara, after the patron saint of all who deal with the kabooms, and she even became Major Barbara (G.B. Shaw joke) before she left the Army.
Now that I think about it, most of the gals with whom I’ve rubbed mucous membranes have had “Barbara” as one of their names.
God seems to have made me a pyro-type guy. What can I do, but wallow in it?
LT B, that’s one word you don’t have to worry about editing from the NYT. They are just full of it!
Ahem…
http://www.motifake.com/purpose-navy-pilot-fighter-jet-ordnance-air-craft-carrier-demotivational-posters-77945.html
You’ll have to forgive me. I’m a former ordie and know nothing of html, or this would look much tidier.
Those ordies are thinking… “IYAOYAS.”
SNO was a AOC till they made EOD a separate rate.
The tip of the spear would be impotent without the shaft that supports and holds it.
You know, I never had to consider it, carriers being mostly where I was not but I wonder what the Net Explosive Weight of a CVN deployed is. I’d think at least as much as an Ammo Ship or MPF ship.
F n A, Chief.
Have you ever seen a more bored group of people in your life?
From the expressions the thoughts might be something like ” Ya think dumbass will remember the master arm this trip?”
My son tells amusing stories about new USMC pilots and the FA-18 OFF switch.
Paul
WestPac -not a good thing to see overly excited ordys.
True that, Ron. Similarly, EOD, especially if you see one actually running….”If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, you probably haven’t grasped the seriousness of the situation” springs to mind.
My son used to have a T’Shirt that said “Bomb Technician” and under that “If You See Me Running, Try To Keep Up.”
The Maxim for March: An Ordnance Technician at a dead run outranks everybody.
The senior guy in our church’s music party had his “Road to Damascus” experience while seated in a head aboard USS Enterprise, when The Bad Fire happened. He tells a somewhat amusing story about playing a fire hose on a bomb while the flames were licking around it. It seems his CPO told him and his guys to be sure and run if the bomb went off. They all looked at said Chief, who immediately left. He came back a bit later with “belay my last.”
I mind a line from “Danger! UXB”: “Can you run a hundred yards in a thousandth of a second?”
That fire, and the Forrestal fire, are why the USN’s bombs are sprayed with insulating coatings, to give you time to roll them overboard before they cook off in the fire.
Bored? Sure. Add to the list sleep deprived and fagged out.
Constant flight deck/engine heat and noise wears on ya. All the while keeping head on a swivel and aware of the turning and burning in close quarters.
Back in the old days, Ordies didn’t have to be too bright, just strong.
Humping 22 Mk82s onto an Intruder called for a strong back.
But with all the goodies dropped/shot from the birds these days, and the wide variety of ordnance, you need someone with a good deal more brainpower.
Saw the “Wall of Water” caused by a couple VA-115 Intruders off the Indy once. Methinks Lex was there too. Not sure it was 22 of them, but it was damn impressive nevertheless.
“Mini Arc-lights” we called ‘em in Vietnam, Tuna.
“constant flight deck/engine heat and noise wears on ya”
No doubt.
I wasn’t intending to be critical. I was the guy living, if you can call it living, in the 8 man JO stateroom in the top bunk directly underneath the flight deck.hip
Every time the maintainers had the option of working on the A-6s, I had paint chips ad bolts and screws falling into my face from the overhead.
Can any of your fall asleep without a buffer climbing a wall?
I can’t but nobody’s shooting at me.
It’s not as if taking potentially explosive devices in your bare hands and hauling them around is a rare skill achieved only after years of training. After all, meth dealers seem to do it all the time.
(this fact revealed solely to bait former ordies)
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-01-23/meth-burns-hospital/52759026/1
However, I believe this general idea that ordies are all strong back and slow mind is misplaced.
These ordies look bored. As well they should be. They’ve finished their job of strapping warheads onto an aircraft, are done with the dangerous stuff, and merely watching a mail-man go to work.
– Max
If the Red Shirts are running, its best not to be behind them…
Roachman:
I suggest that it’s also not good to be in front of them unless one is matching or exceeding their rate of speed.
Paul
“However, I believe this general idea that ordies are all strong back and slow mind is misplaced.
These ordies look bored. As well they should be. They’ve finished their job of strapping warheads onto an aircraft, are done with the dangerous stuff, and merely watching a mail-man go to work.”
I hope nobody got the impression I thought ordies are slow minded.
I noticed the expressions on their faces and pointed out how bored they look. But that’s an expression I can relate to. I often had that look on my face myself. In my case it was more often because I was too tired to rustle up the energy to look like I cared. I did care, don’t get me wrong. I just couldn’t make myself look like it.
My dad retired as a Chief Radioman from the Coast Guard. Growing up I used to marvel at his ability to fall asleep under conditions no normal human being should have been able to fall asleep under. Then I joined the Navy. If there’s a larger collections of suggestions and ideas for how to interfere with one’s ability to get some sleep then the Navy has in its database, I haven’t heard about it.
When I look at those faces, I see boredom. But not slow minds. As a matter of fact, I see people who must be pretty sharp to get by on whatever sleep they can get in enlisted berthing and a diet of Top Ramen because you can’t make it through the line in the Galley and get back to work in the time the chief’s allowed. And still not accidentally blow the wrong stuff up.
a lot of rates can make that claim. I will add that a carrier without cats and gear is a large ferry.
agree…to restate the obvious…nobody/no one group/rate/mos ect…especially in the military ever does anything towards accomplishing the mission, whatever that might be, totally by themselves. Best
They’re not bored. They’re focused and intent on something. Look at their eyes, every one of them is scrutinizing the same thing…
It should be obvious to anyone of the meanest understanding that one should not set foot on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier which is doing aircraft operations without having all of his wits about him, and also having been previously certified as having sufficient wits to do that.
My Dad, who was an Ordie (called an Armourer in RAN parlance, I’m sure SpazSinBad will back me up,) adds his approval.
Bombs, bullets and bullshit was their motto, the three things they dealt most in. Ejection seats were a side hobby, engaged in for a giggle.