Carrier Episodes 7 & 8

They are on a roll now. Is there any way I can just buy the last 4 episodes? That pitching deck really brought back some memories of rock’n and roll’n in high seas.

When they said the Indian Ocean is hot…it is hot and the sea state almost never changes. Smooth as glass, no clouds in the sky and the sun beating down. We had guys in the shop that just couldn’t drink enough water back in ‘94 off the coast of Somalia. They would have to go on a routine visit to medical for an IV to replenish their fluids. We didn’t have Camelbaks in those days so we had to run to the nearest water fountain on the flight deck as often as we could. When we finally got off the deck at the end of our shift, our red shirts would have salt stains that looked like white rivers from front to back. It was 108 degrees in the early morning BEFORE the birds starting turning…brutal. I would have killed for a Camelbak.

OK…I have to talk about PC. Political Correctness. Somebody has gone and ruined tradition. PC don’t got no business when it comes to crossing the line. To me…those folks are still WOGS! I didn’t see a Royal Baby…I didn’t see any Shillelaghs no old food…no tubes of hair saved up from the barber shop. LAME LAME LAME LAME LAME LAME LAME
When I crossed the line on the America, we weren’t allowed to walk anywhere…we had to crawl! The event started about 0430 and we started by crawling out of our coop toward the mess decks. The passageways were covered in old food and lined by shellbacks barking orders to us WOGS. As we made our way to the hangar bay, that is when the fun really started. Many a padeye had to be cleaned out by us WOGS in order to gain entry onto the deckedge elevator and onto the flight deck. I can’t remember everything that we did up there except for these highlights:  a) crawling through long cloth tubes filled with a weeks worth of hair saved up from the barber shop. b) toilets set up on the flight deck filled with water, dye packs and hamburgers and hotdogs..which we had to fish out with our teeth c) the Royal Baby….his belly covered in peanut butter with a cherry in his belly button…which you had to fish out…again with your teeth. d) and finally, being immersed as a WOG and raised as a SHELLBACK!  At the end of the ceremony the entire back portion of the flight deck was covered with boots and scraps of clothes that were just pushed over the side…nothing was salvageable. What I saw last night was LAME LAME LAME LAME….I hope you PC folks are proud of yourselves…you ruined another fine Naval tradition.

I was wondering if they edited all of the bolters together from more than one flight ops cycle? I don’t think I have ever seen such chronic bolters happen in one landing evolution. I have seen it happen to one guy but not like that to so many pilots. Hmmmm….and we spent how much money to train these guys to fly? Pitching decks are just a part of the game. These guys wouldn’t fair very well in the North Atlantic if that was the case.

Hey AOAN (red shirt with the $500.00 SAT phone bill)…dude…gotta tell ya…Tanya has other plans. I haven’t seen the rest of the episodes yet, but I can tell by my sailors intuition that it ain’t going to end well for ya. Go ahead and set up the allotment and write this one up to a learning experience.

My wife has always wondering why me and my Navy (and even my Jarhead) buddies often grab each others booty (as seen last night between VFA-41’s CO & XO). I say, if you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with… just joking. It all has to do with the circle of trust…I wouldn’t do that with any of my buddies that I work with now at HP…we haven’t been to THAT place yet. THAT place meaning they haven’t been through a trial by fire yet. JP, Delvin and Jacques…they have. They are some of my best friends in the world. I could not see them for 20 years and reconnect with them in an instant because of that bond that we share. We have all been there. They are deep into my circle of trust as only people can be who have powered through experiences that have tested intestinal fortitude. The military builds bonds that can’t be replicated from any other life experiences. Bonds that go deeper than family even in some cases. I know that these guys have my back and I have no doubt that if I asked for help, they would be there for me and I for them. A true Band of Brothers…so what if I think JP has a firmer booty than Delvin? Is that so wrong?

So far so good on Carrier. It has me hooked. I can admit it.

 

~ by Running Rooster on May 1, 2008.