A Veteran's Journey

Trivia Questions (Answers @ end)

1. Who said, “Never argue with a fool; onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.”?
2. In what movie (and who said it) did we hear, “I don’t know what’s scarier, losing nuclear weapons, or that it happens so often there’s actually a term for it.”?
3. Who sang (and what song) the following:
   Comin’ to ya on a dusty road
   Good lovin’ I got a truck load
   And when you get it you got something
   So don’t worry cause I’m coming

Thanks to those who commented on my previous blog, “#53 – You Always Remember Your First…”. Several comments were spot on and reminded me of things I’d forgotten. Here’s a few more shared “memories:”

• “NAS Miramar, San Diego, January 1, 1983. I’m from Boston and the first week I was in SD, it was 80 degrees. The family was freezing their butts off back East. I thought…..wow, this is great!”
• “I met my wife on the beach in this photo (Guam) and made three beautiful kids. Now they are making beautiful kids.”
• “NAS Lakehurst NJ. Join the Navy, See New Jersey! LOL! A great station!”
• “I remember walking up to and stepping aboard the USS America CV-66 in Norfolk and thinking. ‘Holy shit… this thing floats?’”
• “Yeah… my lying Recruiter told me I was going to Key West… SOB… sent me to the Indy.”
• “Mine was exotic Millington, TN. Native girls everywhere.”
• “NARF El Centro, Ca. Join the Navy, go to the desert!”
• “First time for me was being sent to Naha, Okinawa in 1966 as a 19-year-old kid!!! Lived in town with a girl in a new apartment; cost $40/month all utilities included!”
• “AIMD Miramar, just as Top Gun was released. Driving down the road to the East gate for the first time with Danger Zone playing. Lol!”
• “Wait for it… Wait for it… BEEVILLE Friggin’ Texas!!! Even the Texans in our company never heard of it!!! But I learned a lot and had an excellent experience.”

---

A Dangerous Place to Work

They say working on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world and a most unforgiving place to work—there is little to no margin for error.

It’s loud, it’s busy, it’s smelly, and you have to keep your head on a swivel, constantly aware of what is going on around you. In one careless second, a fighter jet engine could suck somebody in or blow somebody overboard.

Being behind a jet exhaust is no fun, either. It stinks, and sometimes it is so hot it burns your nose hairs when you breathe.

In the same sense, flight deck operations can be one of the most challenging, rewarding, and orchestrated performances you will ever witness. It takes teamwork from a group of men (and now women) who do not know each other personally, but they know and respect the important roles each must play during this command performance.

Usually, there are between 175 and 200 personnel on the flight deck at any one time during flight ops. The average age of airmen on the flight deck is between 19 and 20 years old. That’s a lot of responsibility to throw at these youngsters, but most of them are one dedicated bunch.

Having worked on the flight deck of USS Kitty Hawk, CV-63 (’75-77), I can certainly attest to how dangerous an environment it is. I’ve written about it several times in this blog.

Navy Aircraft Squadrons

Back in my day, Kitty Hawk carried a variety of aircraft; different squadrons with different missions. When you’re on the flight deck for 16-18 hours a day, you not only get to know the aircraft, you learn to respect them. Part of our job in V-1 Division / Crash was to be familiar with each aircraft, from a fire & rescue perspective.

Twelve squadrons of Navy aircraft accompanied us during the Westpac ’75 cruise. Fighters, attack planes, early warning, electronic jammers, anti-submarine warfare planes, reconnaissance aircraft, and helos. They were different types of aircraft as opposed to today’s multi-purpose F/A-18 Hornets.

I get it. Technology and strategies have transitioned over the years, but I really liked the variety of aircraft we had in the 70s.

All of them made up the Carrier Air Wing, CVW-11.

Fighter & Attack Aircraft

We had two squadrons of F-4J Phantoms: VF-114 “Aardvarks” and VF-213 “Black Lions.” I loved the F-4 Phantoms—they just looked like they could really kick some ass. These fighter jets carried two crewmen: one pilot in the front and one RIO (Radar Intercept Officer) in the back.

We had two squadrons of A-7E Corsairs: VA-192 “World Famous Golden Dragons” and VA-195 “Dambusters.” These were one-seaters.

The A-7 was my favorite aircraft during the cruise. I thought if one guy could go out all on his own and kick some ass, well, there’s got to be gutsy guys in that outfit.

In my opinion, the loudest jets on the flight deck were the A-6 “Intruders,” all-weather attack planes that carried two crewmembers side-by-side, a pilot and a co-pilot.

We had one squadron of these, the VA-52 “Knight Riders,” the most decorated squadron in the history of the A-6 Intruder. Besides carrying bombs, a couple of the Intruders were also configured to serve as in-flight refuelers for the other aircraft.

A close cousin of the A-6 was the EA-6 “Prowler.” These four-seaters belonged to the VAQ-136 “Gauntlets.” They’re basically the same plane as the A-6 Intruder, but with an extended cockpit for four crew members instead of two. Fixed up with all kinds of electronic gizmos, these bad boys did bad things to the enemy’s radar and communications.

Anti-Submarine Warfare

We also had two squadrons of anti-submarine warfare planes, both of which were gasoline powered, twin-engine, propeller-driven S-2 “Spoofs,” originally developed in the mid-50s. They carried a load of sonobuoys–electronic devices that were dropped into the ocean to help track enemy submarines. A long, 20′ antenna extended about 20 feet out of the rear of the fuselage when searching for enemy submarines.

VS-37 “Hacker Trackers” and VS-38 “Claw Clan” joined us for the cruise.

Our HS-8 “Sea King” helicopters served several roles, one of which was the “plane guard.” They would be the first to launch during flight ops, just in case someone had a bad day and went into the drink.

This squadron’s nickname was “Eight Ballers.” They were also anti-submarine and often worked with the S-2s during anti-submarine warfare exercises. They could carry a load of sonobuoys, too.

Eyes in the Skies

Our forward looking eyes were the E-2C “Hawkeyes.” These planes had a distinct loud hum when in full power, thus earning the nickname “Hummer.” We had two of them onboard from the VAW-114 “Hawgs” squadron. A large rotating “frisbee” antenna on top was a distinguishing feature of this aircraft.

They were usually the second plan to launch during flight ops after the plane guard helos because their early warning capabilities extended the battle group’s radar out about 300 miles.

The Hawkeye carried a crew of five who would fly around all day. These planes scared me when they landed. Their wing span was about 80 feet and if they were off so much a hair from the centerline of recovery, it looked like they were coming straight at us.

We also had two RA-5C “Vigilantes” from the RVAH-6 squadron. These were all-weather, multi-sensor, tactical reconnaissance planes. After they landed and taxied out of the recovery area, one of the first crewman to greet them was the squadron’s photography mate—they had to pull the top-secret film out for analysis.

I liked these guys, too. They were long and slinky, kind of like a top-fuel dragster. They would usually launch off Cat #4, which the pilots hated. The nose wheel is about five feet behind the cockpit. When the Yellow Shirt director taxied them onto Cat #4, the cockpit was directly over the water for several seconds before the Yellow Shirt turned him onto the catapult. It was a tight turn, but most Yellow Shirts knew what they were doing.

Old Friends…

Last, but not least, were my old friends from Guam. The VQ-1 “Bats” flew the EA-3B “Skywarriors.” We picked them up as TAD (Temporary Assigned Duty) on our way from Hawaii to the Philippines. These aircraft carried a crew of three and were huge—the biggest on the ship. The Skywarrior was so big, its other nickname was the “Whale.”

The A-3 didn’t have ejection seats, mainly to save weight and because it usually flew at very high altitude. The old timers often joked, calling the A-3D, “All Three Dead.” How the crew could get out even at high altitude still puzzles me. The A-3s on Kitty Hawk during our deployment were outfitted for electronic warfare support.  

Ejection Seats

Almost all aircraft have ejection seats (Martin Baker, if memory serves). Those ejection seats are armed and ready if needed. Prior to “taxi to launch,” the individual aircraft Plane Captain removes the safety pins for both the landing gear and the ejection seat(s) and hands them to the pilot. That way, they all stayed with the aircraft.

When the aircraft lands and taxis out of the recovery area to be parked, the pilot hands the safety pins back to the Plane Captain who then inserts them into the landing gear and ejection seat(s). That’s not a problem… except… when there’s an emergency in the recovery area and Crash has to intervene.

Let me pause here for a quick moment.

Crash firefighters receive a lot of training—both on the job as well as training videos. I remember watching a specific training video of a Crash rescue man, climbing up the ladder to a jet, reaching in to pull out the co-pilot, and somehow in the midst of undoing the seat belts and pulling out the co-pilot, the ejection seat triggered, sending both the co-pilot and the Crash rescue man flying. That’s something you can’t get out of your mind. So…

We in Crash needed to know a) where these pins were located in the cockpit and b) how many and where to insert them. And believe me, because there were different types of aircraft on the flight deck, we had to know them all and they’re not all the same. We worked closely with the squadron Plane Captains–we both knew and understood the significance of Crash knowing what to do in the event of an emergency.

Westpac ’75 “Events”

Fortunately, no “on deck” crashes occurred during the time I was aboard Kitty Hawk. However, we did lose one F-4 Phantom during Westpac ’75 and two HS-8 helicopters. The F-4 Phantom crashed at sea after a launch, but both pilot & co-pilot ejected safely.

One of the HS-8 helos crashed into the water alongside the ship, but everyone got out safely. The other HS-8 collapsed on a main landing gear, but didn’t crash—it took off after we got the tail tie-down chain released. The helo returned to safely on the flight deck on one of our Crash dollies. Unfortunately, we lost a squadron crewman during that accident. A sad day for Kitty Hawk.

One more…

I grew up in Gainesville, Florida. My father was a lawyer (real estate) and if memory serves, he was one of the attorneys who helped bring the Gainesville Raceway here, home of the Gator Nationals.

I only bring that up because in my younger years, I spent many days at the drag strip watching “Big Daddy” Don Garlits, Shirley Muldowney, and Don “The Snake” Prudhomme set world records. Back then, the cost of a ticket for three days was about the same cost as a carton of cigarettes.

I thought I knew what “loud” was, standing next to dragsters in the pit as they burned the bleach off their tires, prepping for the race. That is, until I stood about 20 feet from a F-4 Phantom in full afterburner or an A-6 Intruder ready for launch.

When I joined the Navy, I could hear a rabbit fart at 50 paces. After the Navy, not so far. And as I’ve gotten older–hitting that magic age of 65, my hearing ain’t as good. Memories… yes, but hearing? Not so much.

Anyone else who worked the flight deck? What? Speak up! I can’t hear you!

Winding Down

If you’ve been reading my blog, “A Veteran’s Journey,” you know I often recall my time aboard Kitty Hawk. When you’re 20 years old and have that much responsibility (and a lot of fun, too), you tend to carry that weight of responsibility throughout your life, your family, and your careers.

I truly believe that our experience in the service (no matter Navy, Army, Marine, Air Force, or Coast Guard), molded us to the men and women we are today.

And those experiences help me to better understand how to handle today’s “challenging” times.

Stay safe, my friends.

Until we meet again,
Andy

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.

Previous posts mentioned in this blog:

• #53 – You Always Remember Your First…
• #3 – Between a Rock and a Hard Place
• #10 – You Light ‘em, We Fight ‘em
• #25 – “Livin’ the Dream”: Life Aboard an Aircraft Carrier
• #36 – Gone in an Instant

Answers

1. Mark Twain.
2. Broken Arrow (1996), Giles Prentice (Frank Whaley).
3. Soul Man (1967), Sam & Dave; written by Isaac Hayes & David Porter.