Lap Around the Boat

Posted by Jolly on June 20, 2012

Here's a great video of a T-45 taking a lap around the boat.  I had the opportunity to spend a night on the USS Independence a few years back (OK--more than a few).  Pags, a Hornet driver from the World Famous Dragons, invited me out when we were flying out of the Gulf back during WW Southern Watch.  He was stuck in Bahrain for a few days with a broken jet and our squadron took care of him while he waited to return to the Indy.  It was a great opportunity to see carrier ops up close and personal.

 It was definitely AF appreciation day for me.  Pags had me with the LSO for the night recovery.  During the night recovery, there was a Tomcat that skipped all the wires and went off the edge of the angle deck into the dark abyss of the Persian Gulf.  He was late to go to burner on the bolter call and disappeared below the deck as his burners kicked in.  I could hear the Air Boss calling for him to “eject” about that same time.  He fortunately was able to recover and climbed out at a rather steep angle and informed the Boss he and his RIO would like to spend the night on the beach.  Then the LSO turned to me, slaps me on the back and says, “hey that’s pretty cool, you almost got to see an ejection.”  It was at that point I realized why those Navy guys were wired a bit different then us AF types. 

Enjoy the video and you Navy alumni feel free to comment and give us any of your war stories from the boat!

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