A Veteran's Journey

Trivia Questions (Answers @ end)

1. Who said, “One you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.”?
2. Match the following one-liners with the appropriate movie:

“It’s alive! It’s alive!”	2001 A Space Odyssey
“What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.”	Apollo 13
“Nobody puts Baby in a corner.”	Frankenstein
“Open the door, Hal.”	Cool Hand Luke
“Houston, we have a problem.”	Dirty Dancing

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USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63). Westpac ’75.
Somewhere in the South China Sea.

Imagine this…

You work on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier and you learn that one of the recently launched aircraft cannot lower its tail hook. He could be in deep trouble.

Since the ship is at sea in the middle of nowhere, there’s no other place for the aircraft to land. There are only two options. While there may be some discussion about the pilot punching out, that BS is quickly squashed. Especially if that aircraft is an A-3D Skywarrior, which carries a crew of three and is not equipped with ejection seats.

The only option: We bring ‘em back on board.

My “home” was USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63), an aircraft carrier, from March 1975 until I was honorably discharged from the US Navy in July 1977. My “office” was the flight deck. When I first arrived from NAS Agana, Guam (my first duty station), I was assigned to V-1 Division Crash & Salvage. I made the Westpac ’75 cruise in the Pacific Ocean. Our overseas home port was the Philippine Islands (“PI”).

Our job in Crash was simple: wait until an aircraft crashed, then try to put out the fire and rescue the crew.

Obviously, there was more to it than that and we never fought fires alone—the entire flight deck crew and aircraft squadron personnel were always there with us. We just happen to be the ones who donned the “sexy” silver asbestos “hot suits.”

Back during my time, our Carrier Air Wing (CVW-11) comprised twelve squadrons of the Navy’s finest. This included attack & fighter jet aircraft, electronic early warning & electronic jammers, anti-submarine and cargo, and helicopters. Back then, almost all were different aircraft, as opposed to today’s squadrons, which consist primarily of the multi-purpose F/A-18 Hornets.

Don’t get me wrong, the F/A-18s are stupendous aircraft. But I still liked the variety we flew back in the 70s. I’ve written about those aircraft several times in the past.

Back to the Scenario

An A-3D Skywarrior was probably the biggest & heaviest plane we carried in the air wing. It was huge—over 75 feet long with a 73-foot wingspan. It just so happens this Westpac ’75 squadron, VQ-1 “Bats,” were my old friends from NAS Agana, Guam, and joined us as we cruised past the island on our way to PI.

The A-3/D weighed in at about 70,000 pounds, depending on armament and fuel. That’s a whopper, so to speak, and it’s no wonder its nickname was the “Whale.”

Depending on the speed of the carrier and the wind speed coming across the deck, you would expect the Whale to hit the flight deck anywhere from 120 to 150 miles per hour and stop within about 300 feet. That’s a lot of weight coming in at high speed. And to think if he can’t lower his tail hook, we have to rely on the aircraft barricade.

The Aircraft Barricade

The easiest way to describe what an aircraft barricade looks like is to imagine a giant 20-foot-tall tennis court net, stretched across the flight deck in the recovery area, between the #3 and #4 arresting gear wires.

During flight operations, it’s stored on the starboard side in a compartment located just underneath the flight deck. The barricade has expandable nylon webbing with two arresting gear size cables, one on the top and one on the bottom.

When needed, the barricade was pulled and stretched across the deck using a tow tractor and connected to two stanchions hinged to the flight deck and then raised. All flight deck personnel take part in raising the barricade and the requirement was to “rig the barricade” within five minutes.

We’d train on rigging the barricade once or twice every at sea period (usually every week or so). That way, when the time came, we not only knew what to do, but we’d be both physically and mentally prepared for what came next.

Fortunately…

… for me, during our 6-month Westpac ’75, while we trained dozens of times to “rig the barricade,” we never needed to trap an aircraft in the barricade. There were several other unfortunately incidents—I’ve written about a few times in past blog posts.

And, if you’ve seen the new Top Gun: Maverick movie, I won’t spoil you with the ending. The only thing I’ll state—which every airdale who’s seen the movie will say—is that there’s no effing way flight deck personnel can keep their flight jerseys, float coats, and cranial helmets THAT CLEAN!

One last note:

I recently volunteered with our church to be part of an “Early Response Team” for disasters. I was a bit hesitant at first, asking myself, “at my age, what do I have to offer?”

But after an invitation by a church friend and the initial training sessions, I realized that while my disaster recovery skills need a bit of refining, I’ve actually done much of this stuff as a necessity, living in Florida.

A hurricane does a lot of damage and oftentimes, is widespread. I’ve lived in north central Florida most of my life and while I’ve experienced a lot of wind and rain through the years and spent a few sleepless nights on sofa cushions in the hallway (away from windows), cleanup is always required.

Many times, there’s a bunch of “salad,” as we call branches, leaves, and moss, all over the yard that needs to be picked up. Other times… well, let’s just say it takes longer and there’s a lot more heartache and emotions involved.

Be Prepared…

Not too many years ago, a hurricane made its way up the east coast, causing a lot of damage. I have a close friend whose house sat on the St. John’s River in St. Augustine; literally about twenty feet away from the bulkhead. They’d been through many hurricanes over the years. But this one… well, it decided to hang around a little longer than others.

That and the fact that it was high tide—a disastrous combination and unfortunately, further defining a “storm surge.”

Long story short, I went over the day after the hurricane to help. Where does one start? First, I couldn’t get to the house—there were downed trees and power lines, so I had to back trail it down some unknown (to me) county roads, across a potato field or two, then, “turn left when I got back to the main road.”

Believe it or not, the hurricane “surge” pushed the St. John’s River back enough to not only flow over the river bulkhead, but through the house. Truly, “a river ran through it.” We measured the waterline about six inches up the walls… the house was already on concrete blocks.

It was a mess, but because he elected to stay there during the hurricane surge, he managed to save most of their possessions by piling things on beds & tables. I helped with what I could. It was not only physically exhausting, but equally emotionally exhausting. Besides pushing water out of the house with brooms and mops, we ripped up all the carpets and took them outside.

It took several trips, but we got most of their belongings out of the house and into storage.

I don’t know how much of my Navy training, both in Crash firefighting and working on the flight deck played in this event. But I know that when I got there, my instincts took charge, and I had the confidence of a veteran to tackle what I could and when I could.

My new “venture,” or whatever you want to call it—part of an ERT—will certainly rely on training and experience. But having served in the Navy and spending a few years as a city firefighter will definitely help when the time comes to “rig the barricade.”

Of that, I’m sure.

Until we meet again,
Andy

Answers

1. Willie Nelson.
2. Match the movie one-liners:

“It’s alive! It’s alive!”	Frankenstein (1931)
“What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.”	Cool Hand Luke (1967)
“Nobody puts Baby in a corner.”	Dirty Dancing (1987)
“Open the door, Hal.”	2001 A Space Odyssey (1968)
“Houston, we have a problem.”	Apollo 13 (1995)

Previous posts mentioned in this blog:

• #53—You Always Remember Your First…
• #49 – Westpac ’75: After Six Months, We’re Coming Home
• #54 – Westpac ’75 Aircraft Carrier Squadrons
• #3 – Between a Rock and a Hard Place
• #36 – Gone in an Instant

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Andy Adkins is a US Navy veteran (’73-77) and the author of several books. His newest novel, NEVER FORGET, is the story of A Vietnam Veteran’s Journey for Redemption & Forgiveness. NEVER FORGET is FREE (eBook, PDF) for all veterans. Download your FREE copy HERE.