A Veteran's Journey

Trivia Questions (Answers @ end)

1. Who said, “Every successful person you admire survived a season you didn’t see.”?
2. In what movie (and who said it) did we hear, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”?
3. In what song (and who sang it) did we hear:
   One child grows up to be
   Somebody that just loves to learn
   Another child grows up to be
   Somebody you‘d just love to burn

I’m writing a multi-part series of articles about a US Navy cruise in the Pacific, commonly known as a “Westpac.” I made one Westpac in 1975. It made quite an impression on me and it’s something I love to write about.

If you missed the prior blog posts, check them out:

• Westpac ’75
• Westpac ’75: Flight Ops
• Westpac ’75: Transit to PI
• Westpac ’75: Liberty Call

WESTPAC—A US Navy deployment from the west coast to the western Pacific Ocean involving a variety of ships, including aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers, and submarines, as well as aircraft and other supporting units. Back in my day (mid ‘70s), the forward deployment base was Naval Station Subic Bay, Philippines. Currently, the forward deployment base is Yokosuka, Japan.

Leaving Port – The Mission

PI (Philippine Islands) was always great. Even though midnight curfew was in effect, you learned to abide by the rules, otherwise…

Great food, lots of cheap beer, and a warm welcome—every time we stopped in port and took liberty.

Kitty Hawk wasn’t the only ship in port, and our carrier task force wasn’t the only one to visit PI. I’d heard rumors that most bars knew way beforehand when ships would arrive, about how many sailors would be aboard, and even the names of the ship’s commanders.

Of course, that was just a rumor. Except when you’d see your ship’s name on a banner spread across Magsaysay Drive (the main road in Olongapo), and “Welcome, USS Kitty Hawk,” signs in the bars.

But alas, good things must come to an end.

At Sea Routines

While I enjoyed my free time in PI (our normal work hours while in port were 0730–1530), I always looked forward to setting sail again.

It’s hard to explain but being at sea… on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier… with the constant challenges and dangers… well, let’s just say the old adage, “You can take the sailor out of the Navy, but you can’t take the Navy out of the sailor,” is true.

Settling back into our normal routines at sea was pretty easy for me. Since I had my early morning radio show, “KRAL Country Chet Adkins” from 0600-0800, I was up and at ‘em early. A little coffee, a little Chet Atkins, Merle Haggard, and Patsy Cline, and I was good to go.

After my radio spot, I’d head to the flight deck for morning muster (roll call), then down to the galley for a quick breakfast, then back up to Crash.

Flight ops usually began at 1000 and continued throughout the day and into the night, ending around midnight. Crash personnel needed to be on deck an hour before and remain an hour after flight ops. It made for long days, but they blew by quickly. It became a daily routine, and not at all boring.

I’ve written many times about the flight ops cycle, but here’s the quick version:

1. We’d spot aircraft (move them around the flight deck) for the first launch, usually off Cats #3 & #4 (waist cats, port side of the ship). We’d launch about 12-15 aircraft, beginning with the helo plane guard, the E-2 Hawkeye, then a smattering of F-4 Phantoms, A-7 Corsairs, and A-6 Intruders. The launch cycle usually took about 10-12 minutes, unless something went wrong, which (thank goodness) was rare.
2. After launching these aircraft, we’d respot the flight deck for the next launch, usually about 45-60 minutes after the first launch. Same setup, though we might switch to launch off Cat #2 (bow cats). Again, the launch cycle lasted about 10-12 minutes.
3. We’d now need to recover the first launch aircraft, so we’d again respot the deck, moving aircraft forward to the bow and to the starboard side, aft of the island, to clear the recovery area.
4. The returning aircraft would usually fly over by squadron or by aircraft type, enter the recovery pattern, then recover, one by one.
5. As one aircraft recovers (catches the arresting gear cable), the Fly 3 Yellow Shirt at the angle would signal the pilot he’d caught the wire, release his brakes, raise his arresting hook, then taxi him out of the recovery area to the starboard side of the ship, clearing the foul line. All of this takes about 20 seconds, which is good…
6. The next aircraft is about 20 seconds out, already on a flight path to recover.

When you do this all day long, 14-16 hours every day, it NEVER leaves you, even when you’re 70 years young. I can tell you that’s the honest truth. I still feel the wind in my hair, what little there is. Now and then, I’ll get a whiff of diesel fuel, or a jet will fly overhead and I’m right back there, aboard Kitty Hawk on the flight deck… in my mind.

Danger at Sea

I never knew where we were, but that was always above my pay grade. I knew we operated in the South China Sea, but I never saw land. I could tell which direction we were headed, if the sun or the stars were out, but other than that, it was wide-open blue ocean.

And the sunrises and sunsets… well, I’ve written about them many times. I’m sure there’s a scientific reason for the clarity and the magnificent palette of colors, but at the tender age of 20, it really didn’t matter. We all appreciated those moments.

I realize there were many sailors who rarely saw the sun and stars simply because they worked below decks. They were one strong and coordinated team that kept the ship moving, kept the crew fed, and kept the lights on. I know a few of them, but like most of my airdale buddies, we are all appreciative of the work done that we never saw.

We’d always have training drills, and not all were General Quarters. I can remember several times while on the flight deck an announcement, “This is a drill. This is a drill. We have an incoming torpedo bearing down on the starboard side. Brace for impact.”

Even though I (WE) knew it was a drill, I’d try to imagine what I’d do if it wasn’t a drill. Where are the lifeboats? How do we get down to them? Do we jump down into the water, 60 feet below? If the torpedo hits on the starboard side and I’m on the port side, will I slide off the flight deck? Stupid things like that tend to float through your mind. All the while, I’d be squatting down on the flight deck, my fingers wrapped around a padeye.

At least once every at-sea period, we’d train to “rig the barricade,” in the event a landing aircraft couldn’t lower its tail hook. We’d watch training films and walk through scenarios, but fortunately, it never happened during Westpac ’75.

We had one death on the flight deck during Westpac ’75; I wrote about it earlier in a blog, “Gone in an Instant.” I won’t repost it here, but it was one of those events that remains laser-etched in my mind. After I wrote that post, several shipmates who witnessed it from different viewpoints shared their memories. There was nothing any of us could do but to keep moving forward. However, the impact of that accident remains with us all.

Of course, the Russians still flew overhead (Launch the Alert 5!), and the Russian trawlers kept cruising alongside us, but we never had any “eerie” encounters.

Replenishment at Sea

How long can an aircraft carrier remain at sea without hitting a port? Theoretically, forever, assuming we don’t pull a Captain William Bligh “stunt.” I say that jokingly, of course.

Kitty Hawk was one of the last diesel fuel carriers in the fleet. And with 5,500+ men aboard, we needed “fuel,” too.

Every few days, we’d pull alongside an Ocean Escort ship, cruising 12-16 knots on a parallel course heading, about 50-60 yards apart (about the width of a football field). It doesn’t seem that close, unless you’re on the ship… then, you wonder “what if” one of the ships drifted off-course a fraction of a degree.

The Boatswains Mates rig the ships with lines, both transfer lines and communication lines, pull the fuel lines over (for a carrier, both carrier fuel and aircraft fuel), then other supply lines. It’s really quite a well-orchestrated spectacle to observe. On an aircraft carrier, the transfer takes place on the starboard side at the hanger deck level.

When the ship is alongside making the transfers, it’s called an “underway replenishment,” or UNREP for short. Oftentimes, helicopters would also help with the replenishment using cables to transfer pallets of supplies from the Ocean Escort to the carrier’s flight deck. This is called a “vertical replenishment.”

Either way, the carrier would summon crew members from various departments and divisions for “work parties,” to help transfer and move the received supplies from the hangar deck (or flight deck) down to the ship’s storerooms.

After the transfer, we’d often have another training drill called an “emergency breakaway.” That was sometimes scary, but a much-needed practice.

In fact, a week before I reported aboard Kitty Hawk in March 1975, while it was out on a RIMPAC (Rim of the Pacific) training exercise, there was an “incident” involving an Ocean Escort (USS Kiska, AE-35) coming a bit too close to Kitty Hawk, taking out part of the catwalk just outside the Crash compartment on the starboard side. Fortunately, there were no casualties.

So, yeah… training was always a good thing.

Additional Liberty Calls

My Westpac experience was limited: I only made one Westpac cruise, though it was certainly memorable. In addition to PI liberty, we spent a week in Hong Kong and a week in Japan.

Both were also great ports for liberty. I tried to explore as much as I could in Hong Kong and in Japan, which were completely different types of liberties from PI.

I never felt threatened or uncomfortable, though I’ll admit I couldn’t speak the language nor understand it. I remember being a little more cautious in Hong Kong when hanging out in what we called “Thieves’ Alley.” But I was with other Crash guys, so we watched out for each other. Fortunately, neither Hong Kong nor Japan had a curfew, like PI.

I ate well, I drank well, and I tried to take in the culture as best as I could. You make great friends when you work with guys all day long, and when you hang out on liberty, you get to know them a little more. Some of us still stay in touch, though it’s mostly through Facebook.

Great times, great places, great memories…

Next time: Heading Home

Until we meet again,
Andy

Andy Adkins is a US Navy veteran (’73-77) and the author of several books (www.azadkinsiii.com), many of which are free downloads (PDF, eBook format). He is currently retired and lives in Gainesville, Florida with his wife and life-long soulmate, Becky.

---

Previous Blogs mentioned in the Post:

• #185—Westpac ‘75
• #186—Westpac ’75 Flight Ops
• #187—Westpac ’75 Transit to PI
• #188—Westpac ’75 Liberty Call
• #20—Port Call: Philippines
• #39—Good Morning to Ya, Kitty Hawk!
• #10—You Light ‘em, We Fight ‘em
• #68—Flight Ops: Another Fine Day in the Navy!
• #54—Westpac ’75 Aircraft Carrier Squadrons
• #98—Flight Ops: Aircraft Recovery
• #47—Memorable Moments, Part 1 – the Flight Deck
• #64—General Quarters, General Quarters…
• #127—Rig the Barricade
• #33—Launch the Alert 5!
• #43—Port Call: Hong Kong
• #23—Rough Seas: Sea of Japan

Answers

1. Leila Hormozi.
2. Jaws (1975), Brody (Roy Scheider).
3. Family Affair (1971), Sly and the Family Stone; written by Mary J. Blige, Bruce Allen Miller, Andre Romell Young, Melvin Charles Bradford, Asiah Louis, Luchana N. Lodge, Camara Yero Kambon, Michael A. Elizondo Jr.