Aerospace Blog

When you're out to sea aboard an aircraft carrier, you get to see some amazing things, especially weather-wise. Once, we sailed right under a rainbow. It was misty and cool, but there wasn't a pot of gold at the end! Personally, I enjoyed the sunsets at sea the most. The colors of the clouds and skies were truly spectacular. I can still say that the sunsets on land don't come close to the ones at sea.

I remember being down in Australia during the winter when the storms were extremely intense. The whole aircraft carrier rocked left and right like it was a toy. Waves crashed ten feet over the bow. These waves were huge! Still, the best sleep I've ever had was when the ship was rocking like that. There's nothing like sleeping to the rocking of the sea. Of course, not everybody would agree with me on that - especially the sailors who got seasick.

Watching a lightning storm at night was another great sight. The water lit-up when the lighting stuck the ocean. Sometimes, the lightning would travel along the surface of the ocean as if it was surfing. Some other things you saw at sea were the marine life, especially whales and dolphins. I remember looking down from the flight deck and seeing a whole school of hammerhead sharks. It was times like that when you hoped the ship wouldn't sink! It was a privilege to see these animals - and not in a zoo or aquarium.

Port visits were a break and a relief that everybody looked forward to. Kind of like an oasis in a desert. You finally got a day off and could truly relax and blow off steam. Like I said before, you don't get a day off while you're at sea. Usually, a ship is in-port for three days on average - four if you're lucky. Still, you'll usually have duty for one of those days. There were usually three duty sections for a squadron.

Duty is when you have to stay on the ship and do a watch, guard duty, or serve as military police (we called it shore patrol). It's usually an easy day, especially if you don't have a watch because all you might do is just hang around in your shop and clean up real quickly. Or, you basically do nothing and watch movies, read a book, or whatever you want as long as you stay on the ship. A lot of people would catch up on sleep. You also had to muster (usually every eight hours) just so the watch commander could take a head count and make sure you're still on the ship.

You did not want to miss that or be late to a watch . . . because then you're in trouble. If you did, usually as a punishment they'd make you strip and wax your workshop floor, or they'd give you somebody else's watch. And port was something you didn't want to misss.

Editor's Note: Click here for Part 1 of this multi-part series. Parts 3 and 4 will run next week, right here on CR4.