This program was made possible by the corporation for
public broadcasting and by contributions to your PBS
station from viewers like you.
Thank you.
♪ It's a long road to paradise and, oh, I feel the pain ohh
they tell me things are different now but I still hurt the same
haze gray and underway a world away from you
and miles and miles of blue ♪
♪ well, we know where we're going but we don't know where we've been
and we know what we're knowing but we can't say what we've seen
and we're not little children and we know what we want
and the future is certain give us time to work it out ♪
This is a hard job on many different levels, and the
rewards are, you know, sometimes these transparent
things to a lot of people.
♪ We're on a road to nowhere come on inside... ♪
It's probably the hardest thing I've ever done I think.
♪ Taking that ride to nowhere we'll take that ride... ♪
We have to be able to protect ourselves and our
brother and sister countries. I mean, that's the whole purpose
of the Navy. That's the whole purpose of the military is to
provide protection for our freedoms. If we're not around
and something happens, what are we good for, what are we here for?
I guess I basically do this to put it on my resume, you
know. And now that it's on my resume, I'm ready to move on.
Join the Navy see the world, give me a break. You play the
game, you do your time, you get what you can out of the Navy.
I've changed a lot since I've been in, a lot. Like, I've
just grown more independent, more... I don't want to say
aggressive, but more defensive, always, kind of like why are
they asking, what do they want, what are they going to do?
I definitely ain't moving back in with my mother. Mom, I
love you, but it ain't happening.
The Navy's been a roller coaster ride. Uh, it's had its
ups and downs and more downs than not.
I should have tried a little bit harder in High School, but I
didn't, decided to come to the Navy, but it's all working out
good. Get a nice paycheck every first and fifteenth. Can't complain.
I was up here for last cruise where it was a big deal.
Now I think we're kind of out here just showing support, but
we're really not doing that much now.
I guess I'm grateful that we don't have such a big part in
the war. It might sound cowardly, but it works for me.
I'll never regret doing this. This is my third
deployment, and I love it. I love what I do.
♪ We're on a road to nowhere aah!
We're on a road to nowhere aah, aah!
We're on a road to nowhere ♪
OK, this is our last fly day in the Gulf. By this time
tomorrow night, we'll be in the straits of Hormuz and headed
out into the Gulf of Oman and into north Arabian Sea. It's
important to know that we have a lot of cruise left in front
of us. This is the close of one chapter, I'll admit, the close
of a hard one, but we... We're not done until we're done.
Wrap the waist, wrap the waist. Make a ready deck. Light
is on. I feel like it's time to go the other direction. We've
been here for 70 days.
It's hot.
Yes. This is my last flight over Iraq. Where am I going
today? I'm going up to Mosul again, the same as yesterday.
That's where we're scheduled to go. Could change.
Last day.
If we need to drop ourselves into Assad, into Baghdad, into
Bhallad, we'll go ahead and make those intentions known and
then... And we'll see how it plays out.
But again, fuel monitoring.
There's a lot of supposition that, all right, the Navy's
leaving, let's give them a bomb to drop so there's a lot of
sort of inside bets kind of, kind of jokingly about OK, here
it comes, somebody's gonna go out and drop a bomb in a field
or something.
Ultimately, we are here to be, obviously,
proponents of war, but with war, there's peace. If we are
deterrents, then that's just as good if not better than
dropping a bomb. Now, they've spent a lot of money on me to
train me to do that. At the time in the middle of the heat
of the battle, we were all thinking, "this is bull... I
can see that guy right there. I can deal with the problem right
now, and, I mean, clearly that guy's a bad actor, and I will
fix this, and there's one less bad guy to deal with," but, you
know, we don't always have the bigger picture.
Looking good.
163, plus or minus 3. We're ready to spin.
113 lined up all 4. 6. Auto.
1 Charlie 7 November delta.
You know, ordnance dropped... Zero... but that wasn't the
mission when we came here. Have there been bombs dropped while
we were here? Yes. Are we frustrated that it was not off
of one of our airplanes? That's very frustrating to me, and part
of me thinks it's wrong.
I think there's a lot of bugs
that need to be worked through in the chain to get... to get the
ability to clear people for weapons release at a level
where it's usable and not to where it hinders the
operations. There are some serious issues.
What's frustrating to me is that the army doesn't really,
in my opinion, understand how to use us. I don't know. Do you
think that's fair to say?
I think it's... I don't know. No, I wouldn't agree,
but... because I think it's hard to use us right now. If we
start using some of our weapons, it's not the level of
where they're operating. The targets that they're chasing
are people that quickly disappear into a crowd of
friendly people and kids. We're still evolving to today's
kind of warfare.
My XO and I actually see fairly eye to eye. I mean,
my biggest feeling is that the carrier is not an asset that is
needed or necessary, I believe, in the situation we are currently in.
For this specific time and place, no, but the concern is
that you don't just put a carrier in the... In the closet
with moth balls and expect to come... Bring all of those
people, all of those skill sets, and all of the abilities
and lessons learned from previous things, you can't just
start that off from scratch.
Hey, guy. Pull your pants up and get your shirt tucked in.
Tighten your belt up. Ok? How we doing?
Doing pretty good, master chief.
All right, we don't roll like that. Go ahead and handle
that, all right? That's not the way we swab decks in the Navy,
all right? The only thing we're doing is putting stuff down on
the deck right here and swabbing it up. That's not cleaning. Hey,
guy, hey put your uniform on there. Let's get busy, let's get
busy. Bubba, you got your head back in the game there, shipmate?
Yes I do, master chief.
You sure?
I'm positive, master chief.
All right. Good morning. How you doing?
All right, now how are we doing? My name is command
master chief Christopher Lawrence Penton. There's 2,900
enlisted sailors on board, and I'm the senior enlisted of the
2,900. Hey, watch that language.
What's that all about? We got highs and lows throughout the
deployment, and right now we're sky high because we start our
transit home today. All right, we got a lot of guys standing
around. What's going on there, shipmate? What's going on?
Who's supervising?
I'm supervising.
So what are you guys doing?
Cleaning.
Come on now. I... come on.
Don't even try it, you know.
The excitement is starting to build up. At the same time,
we've got to make sure that all of the sailors on board get the
job done.
Hey, guy, we'll be out here. So even though we've started our
transit home, we've got to keep good order and discipline.
Basic math. When does 1 plus 1 equal 45/45?
When? Anybody want to take a guess at it? Here it
is. When one knucklehead go out with another knucklehead
and get themselves in trouble, OK? 1 knucklehead plus 1
knucklehead equals 45/45.
Anybody know what 45/45 is?
Restriction/extra duty.
That's restriction/extra duty. So 1 plus 1 equals 45/45.
You got two knuckleheads hanging out together, all right?
I learned a long time ago, if you're too serious, people
really don't listen to you, or if you're a clown, people
really don't listen to you, but if you find that medium,
then your point gets over a lot quicker, I think. So I just
found that balance a long time ago, not to be too far to the
left or to the right. Matter of fact, I found that balance about life.
Did anybody drop?
You?
No.
You didn't?
Dude. Nay. We did nothing.
Did you drop?
Yeah, right.
Come on.
Doing circles in the sky.
I thought for sure somebody would drop. No?
I don't think dropping a bomb in anger would any more or
any less validate my career. All right, so there's
the target. I mean, you know, life is timing, and my timing
has been such that when I show up, peace breaks out, which, you
know, in some respects is a good thing.
Right before we were leaving, a little bit of a
firefight going on, and then they called and said, "hey,
oh, yeah. You're to continue with your frag tasking."
I'm like, "that's all you called to tell me? Ok, I'll continue
doing nothing." That's exactly what I'm doing. There are guys
who, every cruise I go on they end up going to the show, as
we refer to it. I think that guys like me who have gone on
4 cruises and haven't gone to the show, um, you know,
probably are, I would like to think, are at least as valuable
as those guys that have.
Cruise almost over. It's not over yet. It ain't over
till we get home, but I want to say I appreciate the great
hard work you did on deployment. No, we didn't drop
any bombs, we didn't frickin'
kill any people, didn't shoot anyone, didn't blow anything
up, didn't break any ... , but you now, you guys are ready.
You were called upon to do a job, do a mission, and you did
it with pride, and you did it with professionalism.
Our aircraft weren't... We weren't the weapon of choice
for that mission.
We fail only when we can't launch that aircraft off the
end of the flight deck. That's when we fail. Otherwise, our
mission is successful.
I feel it's doing good. I mean, I already know we've
helped at least 8 Iraqis personally.
I think it's stupid. Uh, nobody asked us to come over here and help.
I don't agree with a lot of... we do, either, but it's
not my job to agree or disagree. It's my job to follow
the orders and ensure that my marines are taken care of.
If you don't remember anything else about the brief,
cruise is not over. Cruise is not over. I kind of use the
football analogy. You know, this is the fourth quarter of the
super bowl. We're gonna go at it with the same enthusiasm in
the last quarter of deployment that we went at it in the first
quarter of deployment. So we just need to be ready all the time.
Every day, the routine is the same, but what we need to avoid
is the complacency of "I just did this yesterday, I'm doing
it again today" because when we start getting complacent,
that's when we leave ourselves open to mishap. So it's kind of
keeping guys interested in what they're doing so they don't get
to that point. You know, one slip-up can be catastrophe.
1 Charlie 7 November, go.
Units set 4-4 rhino.
Units set 4-4 rhino cleared deck.
That's good.
Easy with the power, easy with it, easy with it, easy with it.
Look at this guy. Look at this guy. Right across the deck.
Reset it.
Not gonna make it.
No chance, paddles, no chance.
Let's bring that guy up here, please. Let's get the red
shirt somehow and get him up here.
There you go. To to your box.
Reset it.
Unbelievable.
This transit home is actually, like, the hardest
part. It's this time of the deployment that if the hair on
the back of your neck's not standing up and if you're not
constantly watching out for complacency, it's this part of
deployment that something's gonna happen.
Basically, he crossed the L.A., and the jet was about 4
seconds to touchdown, so you see the video, you see him run
from the left side of the screen, you see the jet coming
down in the background with the tail hook on final approach.
I wasn't even thinking about stopping. I was just... want to
keep going, you know. I knew if I stopped, I would have been gone.
We pulled out of the Gulf, and then everybody drops their
guard. They're like "... We're on the way home now," and
then it takes two incidents where someone almost
gets killed, and everyone opens their eyes again. Still
got... we're on the way home, but we still got a month to go. You
don't want to lose anyone in the last month. That would...
That would suck.
I'm very happy that... That I'm done flying over Iraq.
They started giving us the platoon at the end to follow
them. You know, right when they were trying to talk us onto
them it's like, "dude, we need to go, or we're not gonna get
back," because the sun's going down.
Going back to teaching the junior officers, bringing them
up to speed and helping them get their quals so that when
the old guys leave, uh, the new guys have to step up.
A little bit scary at night with a big fat arrow in your head.
Hey, you're level, turn it off.
They're the future, I'm the past. They look at me as the
past. I realize I'm the past, but I think I still have a lot
to teach them.
I am gonna retire. It's just kind of scary. It was a tough
decision, but I'm comfortable with it.
What's up, David? Coming to practice?
Being on the ship, you need to relax. Everybody has their
own stress release, and me, I like Salsa dancing. My mom
always told me if you ever want to meet a woman, learn how to
dance. So I learned how to country dance with my best
friend in High School in his bedroom. He was the girl, I was
the guy. We went to Billy Bob's that night, and out of the
3 steps that I knew, I tried to dance, and it just sort of
carried on from there, but I met my wife at, uh, cafe
Sevilla, and I saw her and her best friend, Gabrielle, Salsa
dancing, and I'm like, "wow, yeah, I need to learn." And I
joined a dance group, Salsa Suave. That was the dance group
my wife was involved with. Not that I planned that, but
it worked out well.
I remember the first time I seen him, I mean, I didn't know
it was him. I didn't know a little chubby white boy could
some of those moves that he was doing.
I like to call him twinkle toes because he just spins
around almost like a Tasmanian devil, just going all about it.
It's always a nice sight to see because he's a good dancer.
You're just not used to seeing people with his build twirling
around like that.
There are moves that I do with my wife that I only do
with my wife just because they're that intimate. Dancing
with Campos, we get tons of comments about, "are you guys
dating? Are you guys together?"
I'm like, "she's married, I'm married. " I'm like, "that is
the last thing that I even want to think."
When we dance, we dance in hangar Bay 3. Where
hanger Bay 3 is a chiefs'
smoking pit. So every chief that goes and smokes and stuff
like that walks by there. The little whispers and the
murmurs, you know, and they're... Chiefs are a tight group. They
all talk. And guess what? Word gets around. I still enjoy
dancing with her, and she still enjoys dancing with me, but
it's not as much fun anymore.
Randy just enjoys dancing, but the perception out here on
the ship is very bad. I mean, you can have a... just be
friends with someone forever.
As soon as they see you talking or dancing or something, uh-oh,
here goes the rumor mill.
Stand by for a word from the commanding officer.
Good evening, Nimitz and airwing eleven. Ok, in about an
hour and 20 minutes or so, we're gonna turn the corner at
the northern part at the strait of Hormuz. So let's keep
everybody's head on a swivel and take care of business
tonight, and we'll get alongside tomorrow. That is all.
Tomorrow is our crossing the line ceremony, where we
navigate below the equator.
Personnel aboard ships that have done that before are
considered shellbacks.
Personnel that haven't... Like, uh, some of these young marines
over here... Are considered pollywogs.
The infamous wog day, or crossing the line, it's
basically... it's a ceremony that they've been doing for a long
time. All of the people who've done it before will get
together and, you know, kind of pick on the people who haven't
and call them the... Call them wogs, wog day.
The, uh, the fact of the matter is, several years ago
the crossing the line ceremony was a pretty physical thing. It
was... it was an initiation. It was, uh... heck, it was an
8-hour whacking if you... If you got right down to it, and
that's not the case anymore.
We cannot have anything that could be construed as hazing.
It's not gonna happen. We can't have it happen. You guys
understand that? It's just too sensitive.
It's like boot camp. Back in the forties, fifties, and
sixties they beat the ... out of them. They don't have to
touch them nowadays, and you can still break an individual.
There are 3 officially sanctioned activities the talent show,
the breakfast, and the ceremony in hanger bay 2 and 3, and that's it.
It is a rite of passage, so let's keep in mind what the
rules are and keep in mind the spirit of the event.
Ok, all right. How many pollywogs do we have out here?
Ok. How many shellbacks do we have out here?
This contest is gonna work just like "the gong
show," and we will encourage your vote and participation as
we make a decision on whether the gong should ring.
Arr! Everybody ready?
XO and your department heads, man this stage.
♪ Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale
a tale of a fateful trip ♪
go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go.
Hey, shipmate! Shipmate!
Shipmate! Down here, shipmate!
Shipmate, what is this? Do I, do I look like a clown with a
big red nose, some floppy shoes?
♪ Where you can learn to fly planes
study oceanography sign up for the big band or sit in the grandstand
when your team they others beat? ♪
♪ in the Navy ♪
♪ you can sail the 7 seas ♪
♪ in the Navy ♪
♪ you can put your mind at ease ♪
♪ in the Navy ♪
♪ now, people, make a stand ♪
♪ in the Navy in the Navy in the Navy ♪
♪ come on, protect the motherland ♪
♪ in the Navy ♪
♪ come on and join your fellow man ♪
♪ in the Navy ♪
♪ people, make a stand ♪
♪ in the Navy ♪
♪ ohh ♪
end our misery.
Thank you.
That's it. That's it for the show tonight. Looking forward
to a great day tomorrow, a great day tomorrow, and, uh,
we'll see you out there, and taps means taps, OK? No
shenanigans between taps and reveille. That's it. Have a good night.
The crossing the line ceremony, it's not as fun as it
used to be. There's a lot of new rules that apply now
that we didn't have before when I went through. I feel like
they used to be better than what they are right now.
I've heard of people getting whipped by fire hoses, like,
cut-off pieces, and they'd dip them in the saltwater or
something in the ocean and let them dry, and then
people get hit with that. Of course they can't do that
anymore because we got a bunch of crybabies and they had to
ruin it for everybody.
Lucky wog.
You [Beep] [beep]! Die, bitches!
And the Navy says we can't do this. Do you see anything wrong with it?
No. There's nothing wrong with this [Beep]!
Let's go.
This is the only time on this entire cruse when we can
dress up like complete idiots and the ship's total chaos. You,
like, try and have as much fun as possible with all the rules
set in place, you know what I mean?
There you go, salsa wog at your service, and remember,
your mom's a shellback.
Get dressed, get dressed. In fact, why don't you get on your
face right now and give me 20! Why are you moving so slow?
1, 2, 3.
Do you need help?
Why are you yelling at me?
Why are you looking at me?
Shipmate!
Over here, wog!
You gonna knock who out?
Hit it! Push-ups!
Dude, did you see Stockard just now? They said a bunch of
chiefs just came through while they had them all there in the
berthing and told them that they were only allowed to make
them stand there. They couldn't even talk... They couldn't even
yell at them!
That's stupid.
It gets worse every year, dude, and that's why I really
didn't want to get up for this one. Because they take away all
the fun, dude. You can't even yell at people now. You know
who to do it to, and you know who not to do it to, you now
what I mean?
You are nothing but a lowly pollywog. You will not be
physically abused or inappropriately touched during
the ceremony. Does everybody understand?
You will not be physically abused... Or inappropriately touched.
From the front, from the swabbed ones. Go, go, go.
You will not be inappropriately touched.
Get up, get up. Get up.
It's the infamous crack right there.
This is it, this is it.
How about you quit talking and get down on the ground.
Roger that!
♪ Who let the wogs out? ♪
♪ who, who? ♪
♪ who let the wogs out? ♪
♪ who, who? ♪
what's two plus two?
4.
Wog, go away! How old are you?
22.
Wrong answer! Get over there! Are you ready to become a shellback?
Yes.
You're not ready. Get out of here.
Why do you want to be a shellback?
Because I'm worthy of it.
No, you're not. Go get cleansed, wog!
I'm a shellback! I'm a shellback! Whoo-hoo!
First things first. What I don't want to have happen now
I don't want to have a crew that is either brand-new into day
ops and a crew that's brand-new into night ops. Right now, I am
leaning more toward staying the way it is. Of course if you ...
Everything up, I'll switch that.
I'm about to move up from a staff sergeant to a gunny.
The majority of it lies on me and my performance and my
actions, but the other part comes from the guys that... they
make me look good, and they do.
I will tell you right now, when I get promoted if they give me
an opportunity to speak, I'm gonna thank the guys that work for me.
Staff sergeant Brock, report to the commanding officer.
Good evening, sir. Staff sergeant Brock reporting as ordered sir.
Randy R. Brock, I do appoint this marine a gunnery sergeant
in the United States Marine Corps. Signed, M.W. Hegge,
commandant of the marine corps.
Gunny freed.
Now, you remain a staff NCO, but there becomes
a lot more responsibility by pinning these things on. You've
been mentoring a lot of our NCOs, sergeants, corporals, and
you've been mentoring a bunch of our staff NCOs, too, and you've
been doing an outstanding job.
I couldn't ask for any better.
There's nobody more truly deserving of this. Carry on
that tradition, continue to mentor, not only our NCOs but
our staff NCOs and take care of the rest of the marines, too.
Aye, aye, sir.
Congratulations.
Thank you, sir.
Gunnery sergeant Brock, the floor is yours.
Thank you, sir. Um, at ease, please. Real quick. A lot of
hard work from my guys. A lot of mentoring and guidance from
my senior staff NCOs and officers. I appreciate it. I
appreciate everyone being here for me. Let's just hope I keep
doing what I'm doing and keep training the guys that I'm
training. Thanks a lot. I appreciate it.
You know what was going on?
Yeah, where it is and everything.
All right. Here's my pig sty.
Holy ... That's all your crap?
No, it's right here.
The damn Navy and their freaking thing on the ship is,
you separate e7 and e6s because that's their rule. Well,
it's not ours, and I don't play by everybody else's rules.
I play by the Marine Corps'.
Which is, if I go on deployment somewhere, I can rack with an
e7, because we're all staff NCOs. When we come out to the
ship, we are no longer staff NCOs. We are staff sergeants. I
don't think it should make a difference.
Now I've got to
separate myself and segregate myself from the guys that I
work with on a day-to-day basis. You know what, and
that's the Navy's policy, and that's the Navy's standard, by
keeping the chiefs separate and stopping the fraternization,
which I think is horse[Beep].
Freaking ship. Go get the other crap.
All right.
Get the other stuff.
♪ The sun goes down there's a new day coming ♪
Good evening, my Nimitz family. This is airwing chaplain
Brian Jacobson. Lord, it is nights like tonight that we
remember our families at home and our friends and we ask you
to watch over them and keep them also with safety. And
remember, don't worry about biting off more than you can
chew. Your mouth is probably a whole lot bigger than you think.
♪ And the lights go down ♪
Taps, taps, lights out.
All hands, turn in to your own bunks. Maintain silence
about the decks. Taps.
Secure for sea. The ship's moving around a little bit.
It's gonna move around some more. You know, you walk around
and you don't see people covered with sweat today for a
change, and, uh, the boat's moving, it's a little dryer,
it's gonna get even dryer than that, and the boat's gonna move
some more, so let's get out, tie things down, and make sure
we're ready for that.
Dang, man. This ship keeps rocking crazy, man.
I know, dude.
You almost fell out of your rack last night I saw.
I know. But you don't need to say that.
Yeah, I was, I was grabbing onto my sheets the other night,
dude, to keep me from rolling out of my rack.
We're heading down to Australia. The sea's pretty good
size, good swells. I think the deck's all the way up to 30-plus feet.
I haven't seen pitching decks like this since maybe
1985, 20 years ago, in the north Atlantic. And, uh, and not
seen the deck move quite this much.
You'd think that 5 months into cruise we would be
pretty proficient, and I think we are, but, you know, here
we're out doing pitching deck.
Do I agree with it or disagree?
It's not for me to say. It's probably a little bit beyond
where we need to be.
Taking off and landing on an aircraft carrier is, uh... from a
pilot's standpoint is a... Is a perishable skill. We've learned
over the years that a certain amount of practice in certain
conditions is required to maintain the capability to do
that professionally and well.
2-0-1. Airborne. 2-0-1.
This is absolutely more dangerous than it was actually
flying missions in the Gulf.
Go get them.
We got lucky in the Gulf. The seas are pretty calm...
But out here, pitching decks,
this is scarier. We still got to come back and land on the boat.
Like if this is the landing area, normally it looks about
like that. All of a sudden, you're kind of seeing it like
this and then seeing it like that. So you have to do all
your normal procedures, but now you add to it the visual
perception here that is changing, and you can't decide
if it's your mind or the boat.
That's... That's why it's such a challenge.
Your brain, when you come aboard, you kind of start to
think of the runway as a fixed object. That's what you
reference things on, where it's not a fixed object, and it's
actually moving.
And it... it will kill you in a second. You know, you won't
be the first one to fly into the water behind the ship...
Or hit the back of the ship or miss the whole landing area or
do a long bolter and end up in the water. It's a dangerous job.
Wrap the waist, wrap the waist. Make a ready deck.
Paddles, you have control.
31/2 to 3 glide slope.
Targeting 3 wire. Stand by to recover aircraft.
What a paddles does is, we go up onto the back of the ship,
and we're there in case the, uh, the pilots need us to help
them, uh, land their aircraft.
For us on the platform, we have simply the Platt camera. We
have set of crosshairs on there where the plane should
be... right in the middle of those crosshairs. We, uh, we
have the radios. We talk to the pilots. We give them more
information than they can receive from the ship
basically to help them get aboard.
Yes, hello. CAT cc. Hi, paddles.
Hey, what's happening?
How are you? Happy case 3!
Oh, yeah, case 3.
Man, the Hummer is gonna come first.
Ok. Ok.
Thank you.
1-7-4, approach final bearing. 1-7-4 over.
Fighting 2-niner-0.
A little power. Easy with it.
He's in a good spot.
Easy with it. Easy with it.
When you're coming aboard, you're aiming for that third
wire and the OK pass.
When you don't hit a wire at all, if you put in a little bit
too much power there at the end, and, uh, you touch down
past the wires and have to go back around again, it's called a bolter.
Just watching. I got some pilots that I worry about
because, you know, the first thing you don't want to lose
anybody, and number two the airplanes are pretty expensive
and it's tax dollars, you know.
If they go to the bottom of the ocean, there's not a whole lot
you can do with them.
If he misses, we're low, OK.
You're gonna need to wag them. Wag them now.
He's looking pretty good though.
Easy with it. Easy with it, easy with it, easy with it.
Till he's climbing now.
Keep the Hawk on him means we need to keep the tanker
armed and watch him because if he misses again he's gonna have
to be tanked for sure.
2-0-3 around ball 5 point 5.
Roger ball. 28 knots.
Here we go, see if he lands.
He won't miss. Chicken bone, chicken bone, chicken bone.
He did last time. And not by a little either. He about hooked it.
Look at him now. Beautiful, symmetrical, beautiful.
No, now he's chasing.
Uh, no, no, no, he's in there. Look at that. That's pretty.
Down. Down. Down.
See you.
Out of there.
Keep the Hawk on him.
Keep the Hawk on him for sure.
Yes, sir.
He'll definitely be trick or treat for 2 point 5.
Yes, sir. Trick or treat 2 point 5.
2 point 5 he's going in front of 101.
Trick or treat means that, you know, it's like going door
to door, trick or treat, and then he's gonna give him 2,500
pounds of gas.
We cannot afford to have an aircraft that's starved for
fuel. The Nimitz is 700 miles away from the nearest divert
field. No one was going to make it 700 miles.
It's simply a different feeling when you know there's
no divert available. There's no safety net out and around the
aircraft carrier that you can go to if you have some
emergency with your airplane.
You have to land back on the ship.
Come left steer course 1-1-2 degrees.
Come left steer course 1-1-2 degrees. Aye.
The choices are either to land on the ship or jump out
alongside the ship. I'm uncomfortable with the
conditions, so we decided to scrub the remaining night
events, but we still had aircraft that we needed to
recover in the dark.
No matter how long you do this business, you never... you
never get used to the nighttime.
At night, your visual is not as accurate as
it is in the daytime.
So you can get vertigo.
You know, they always tell people to respect nature,
respect the sea. Never turn your back on the ocean. I mean,
all the little things that you learn. It's the same thing, you
better respect the night.
This is where it gets dangerous. You really got to
keep your head up because there's not a lot of lights on
up there for us, you got to do everything in the dark.
Let's go.
We've got, uh, 12 airplanes airborne, and we're gonna have to launch
3 tankers to put some extra gas in the air in case guys
have trouble getting aboard.
The problem with doing that, though, is we also have to land
those airplanes. So the more... The more people to put in the
skies, the more planes you have to land.
One of my jobs this evening is to be a recovery
tanker for the jets coming down, and I'm feeling like
basically this is crazy and what... You know, what's the
point of doing all this? When I think I'm gonna go, the deck is
down, so I actually sit there and wait for another 5 or 6
seconds so they don't shoot you in the water, more or less.
When it comes to pitching deck, I would say that I am more
of a novice or at least my experience has been limited.
And I know enough to know that the conditions were
starting to get... Uh, extreme would be a fair way to
characterize them.
Look at that. That was a good sound.
Huh?
I didn't know a big rig like this could move like this.
Having been around for a little while, if I really don't
want to be out there, then I don't want my brand-new people
out there. So Kone, lieutenant Dietrich, is getting ready to
fly one of the tankers so we had gas for that recovery. Um,
it's her first cruise. We had not done a lot of pitching
deck. I told maintenance that I was taking it, and they radioed
up to the roof and told her "hey, just, you know, stand by."
And I said, "you know, you don't understand it now, but in
about 20 minutes when people start trying to land on
this, you're gonna realize why I'm getting in this jet for you."
2-1-2 course.
4 point 4.
Power, power.
Bolter, bolter, bolter.
He's gone.
Did you guys do 1-13?
2-0-3 around ball 5 point 5.
Easy with it. Easy with it... This is ridiculous.
After the seventh guy in a row boltered, you know, I
wonder how many tankers I can launch and how long this goes
before I we start getting some people aboard and recovered.
We've got a ball 5-1.
And we've got... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14,
15... 15 bolters or wave-offs so far.
When the ship gets to the side-to-side rolling, it makes
your instruments kind of do funny things in the cockpit, so
you're just kind of coming down and you're kind of blinking
your eyes, trying to make sure you're on center line.
Look at him... move... Oh, my God!
Low power.
Coming down. Coming down.
And then all of the sudden, I'm like, "holy cow, I'm a
little high," and next thing you know...
And so now you're in the bolter wave-off pattern, and
you're looking at all these other airplanes that are in the
bolter wave-off pattern with you.
5-0-3, fly a low line pass right around course. Mile and a half.
That potsy?
Stay with it.
5-0-3, you're on line pass flight left course, 3 course mark.
Holy [Beep]
Keep the power on.
Keep steady, keep steady bingo on the ball.
Course fixed on the ball.
5-0 auto.
Seriously, that was the first time I ever really felt
like "I am about to hit the back of the ship. I am about to
smash into the back of the ship and go into a million pieces."
Little power to catch it.
Little power. Power.
So, uh, you know, you're bringing the power on,
bringing the power on, and I'm like, "that's all I'm giving you, man!"
Come on, buddy.
Oh!
Easy with it, easy with it.
Yes!
He's in there. Yeah.
Whoo Whoo!
We got a couple more.
It was... it was just a... I've never breathed so fast, so hard
in my life. It was just unbelievable. I was just... I
was shaking. God. Ha ha ha!
Definitely one of the most stressful experiences I've ever had.
Do you want to look at Isis?
Did you watch the deck?
Dude, all I know is, I was in close, and they were like,
"little power." I look down, and I saw the [Beep] back of the
ship above me, and I was like, "ahhhhhhhh."
There's been times it looks like guys are probably looking
down on the deck, and the deck comes up and
catches them, and they trap.
I could just hear paddles, like, "give it power," so I gave
it power, and all of a sudden it just, like, from the deck,
like, being above me, it just goes whooom!
And I was like, "hey, everybody down there. How ya'll
doing? I want to stay up here.
It's safe up here."
"Ahhh. I need a drink.
No, I'm just [Beep] shaking still.
Easy with it. Easy with it.
We're almost done.
Jar-jar is going around. The deck's steady, Jar-jar's going around.
Here we go. Out of there.
Wave off, wave off.
Now I'm starting to get pretty nervous. Realizing that,
hey, this is no joke, and the deck is everywhere.
Get in here.
He'll come up a little.
He got it, he got it.
Yes.
He's good, he's good.
Ohh!
He goes around.
Shaaaa. Hook skip.
The deck was coming up, he deck was coming down. He hit so
hard that he bounced over all of the wires. So he skipped the
2, 3, and 4 wires.
Next thing I knew I was getting airborne again, and
that's when I started becoming very anxious.
I'm thinking to myself, "well OK," looking at my gas, "hey,
I've got about two more tries here, and then I'm going...
They're going to start thinking about giving me some gas, and I
don't want to be that guy. I'd like to just get aboard
quietly and have my moment of sheer terror and then
go find somewhere to have an aneurysm and call it a day."
1-0-2, dirty up.
1-0-2 getting dirty.
Oh, boy.
No it's settling out, dude.
He's going to make it.
Easy with it. Easy with it.
He's in there! Whoo.
Yes.
Good job, Jar-jar.
Thanks, paddles.
You're going to send your mojo to skipper Fravor?
Man, he don't need it.
Huh?
He don't need it.
He don't need any mojo.
1-0-2, rhino. Ball. 7-5 auto.
I always get an eerie feeling when I'm the last guy
on board, I'll tell you that.
1-0-2 on course. 5 miles.
There's no one to save you.
There's no gas airborne. You got to do what you need to do
to get on deck.
Look at that.
Deck pitching. He stays right there.
It's just like... sex. What do you guys think?
If he goes around one time, it's going to be in his head,
and he's going to be pissed off, and it's going to affect his
next break. It's going to take an approach.
He's gonna get aboard.
No, [Beep] mind game. He's going around twice.
Think I'm going to be the, uh, I'm going to be the,
uh, pessimist for the whole, uh, for the whole radio. I
don't think he's getting aboard.
I don't think so either.
Starting a dutch roll, dude.
That's all it's doing.
Just wait. It's going to continue to get worse and worse.
I'm telling you. He's going around. He's going around.
Ohhhhh.
He's going around.
Already out of sync.
No, no. It's going to settle out.
I'm with "d. " It's gonna settle out.
Oh, I don't think so.
He's going around.
2-0-7 Roger ball. 5-2.
Roger ball, working 30 knots.
He's going around.
Don't know what to do.
Look at that. Steady down.
Oh, he's gonna get aboard.
Oh, rock steady!
Send him around, paddles!
Send him around!
Show him the love. Show him the love.
Ohh!
Whoo-hoo-hoo!
Yeah!
Thanks, paddles. Glad to be here.
Glad to be here!
I told you.
That was good. Everyone, that was a stellar, stellar, stellar
performance.
That was not my first pitching deck experience, uh,
but it was my last. It's something that I really like to
do, and the thought of not doing it anymore... I guess,
slightly relieved but slightly depressing.
All right, man.
Thank you very much.
You guys have a good night, all right?
You, too.
Whoo-hoo!
Subs rip, edit, and resnyc by © VJ Me 2010