The Flight Deck

Comment from Babs
Time: April 5, 2007, 7:07 am

Here is the story, to date, of two Navy parents and their son currently in flight training at NAS Pensacola:
Tim was sent to Pensacola last July to join flight training. Due to the Navy backlog in flight training, Tim was put “on hold” for 5 months. During that time he volunteered to run the flight simulator at the NAS Pensacola museum. He developed an extreme interest in fishing and poker! Want to know something about the fish currently running in the gulf, ask Tim. He was also assigned to answer the phone at squadron headquarters pulling shifts of 6 PM to 6 AM. I once asked him what, exactly, he was doing at 3 AM. He told me “I am defending freedom Mom, If you don’t understand that well, there is nothing I can say”… O-Kaaaay…
He spent many hours showing school classes and visitors on a simulator at the museum how to land a jet on a deck… This only helped him, as a naval aviator, as the first few (many) times he tried to do this he crashed… Ha! His poor Mother was there while he tried to land a jet on the deck in front of tourists, only to crash the thing. The tourists went on to lunch, I went on to wondering if this was the best career field for my son…
A few months later, the real thing started to happen; flight training. No sooner did Tim enter the training pipeline than he contracted UV eitis… This is a malady of the eye that is caused by antibodies, bla, bla, bla. Bottom line, can’t fly with UV eities… He spent 30 days “med down”. Toward the end of the 30 days (and much hand ringing by his loved ones) the “Squadron Party” took place. During the course of this party, the 5 greenest in the squadron are asked to do something well, outrageous… This year it was karaoke. The first few went and, when it came time for Tim, he was totally outrageous; jumping up on the head table and wagging his butt in the face of the Officer’s wives! Needless to say, he won!
As an aside, most of you reading this know of “the grog”. For this party, the grog was in a toilet bowl; a pale yellow brew with tootsie rolls floating in it. The “non-alchoholic” grog was in a potty chair… Tim sat next to two officers from the KSA Air Force, rather underdressed for the occasion but, had the “deer in the headlights stare for the entire event!
The following week, even though the flight surgeon had told Tim the week before that he thought Tim would be washed out of the flight program due to his eye condition, he told Tim he thought he would be good to go after another week of “med down”. I have no idea if the Squadron Party and Tim being named “The Bull” for the year had anything to do with the Dr’s recommendation…According to the Ophthalmologist, Tim only has “2 white blood cells” in his eye… The flight surgeon seemed to think this was OK and sent him on to flight school.
Well great but, what about throwing up when 3-5 G’s hit you? It turns out that you can only throw up 3 times in a row before you are placed on meds. The meds are a combination of downers and uppers… If you continue to throw up, you are sent to a special school where they spin you up in some kind of “vomit-tron” to help you get over the air sickness. Needless to say, Tim threw up the first two flights so, the heat was on… Would he have to go on the meds? Would he have to go to “vomit-tron” school?
Tim called last night. He made it through his flight without getting sick and, for a kind of sick reason… He said the instructor was so obscene that he was laughing his head off and didn’t even have the thought of getting sick. I will not bore you with the details but, suffice to say that “love conquers all”.
The Lt. Cmdr that was Tim’s flight instructor for the day had taken a look at Tim’s chart. He knew that Tim was one throw up away from further action by the Navy. He told Tim that air sickness was 10% physical and 90% mental… I can’t help but think all the “dirty talk” was an effort by this officer to take Tim’s mind off throwing up. His obscene talk was also heavily laced with thoughts like “I can’t believe we are actually getting paid to do this! This is the most fantastic thing a person could possibly do!” Well, it worked!
Being the mother, some of the conversation that Tim related to me; “Mom, it was the worst kind of boy locker room talk you have ever heard” was a bit revolting…
On the other hand, having a conversation of a sexual nature running in the back of your mind juxtaposed to “this is the most incredible thing you could possibly want to do” just might be what the Dr. ordered…
I’m not sure how this conversation might translate for female flyers.
In any event, the Navy moves on, training young men and women to go into harms way real fast!
If anything I say is deemed to be inaccurate, please take it from where it comes… Two parents that thought they had gone through the exit gates of the roller coaster when their son left the Academy only to find themselves standing online at another one…

Comment from Michelle
Time: April 5, 2007, 12:57 pm

Cool story, Babs!

They say that “where there’s a will, there’s a way” and I guess if you’re cr-aaa-zy enough to be want to be one of those fighter pilot types … you will find a way!

Tell Tim congrats. He made it this far, I don’t see how he could possibly not make it the rest of the way. So, other than the locker room talk, how are mom and dad dealing with it all? It must be almost the same thing as going through it yourself except from whatever distance away.

Oh yeah, welcome to TFD.