How Twitter Rocked My World. By John Mason-Smith Part 6

This is Part 6. To see Part 5, click here.
The DV's were out on the Vulture's nest at night and we watched the recovery process begin.

If I thought to land a jet going at take-off speed onto a flight deck and hitting a cable was tough – think about doing that in the dark. The skill of these aviators was incredible. I only saw one missed cable that night. In one landing, we were all watching the incoming aircraft. You can see its aircraft lights as it approaches. At the last minute we suddenly became aware that it was actually two aircraft as one of them broke off at the last second and the other landed. We found out the next day that the one landing had lost communications and the other jet was guiding it home. It was pretty intense in the Vulture’s Nest as it looked as if every plane was off course and about to hit the tower over our head.

After the nighttime process of flight operations was winding down, we all headed back down and visited the chapel area. The Navy provides the Chaplaincy for every conceivable religious background. Chaplin Dinkins and his staff shared that going into battle the numbers in church services go way up on attendance and tend to fall off during training.

We then headed to our staterooms for the night. There was an intercom general announcement of lights out in 15 minutes followed by a nightly word from Chaplin David Dinkins with a prayer. The lesson was about being a person who is a leader and how your good behavior or your bad behavior influences all those who follow you. It was a perfect end for the day. An aircraft carrier is a non-stop operation and as busy as my day had been I was only able to get about five hours shut-eye. The wake-up knock at the door came at 0615 and it was no problem as no one was sleeping! While I was waiting for our escort to breakfast I checked out the logbook for the room. In this book, people signed in and dated the entry. While the titles and names were highly connected – some politicians – the dates were all within the last two weeks. Apparently, these DV visits happen every single day except Wednesdays which is a no-fly day. We were an unusual group in that most of us were just regular civilians. The PAO’s felt that we would be a good group to help get the word out on how the Navy works. They asked us to use the late Senator John Stennis’s favorite phrase as a hashtag #LookAhead. Search for that hashtag on Twitter and see how we are doing!

The breakfast meal was in the enlisted dining area. Several of the DV’s made an effort to sit with some of the sailors in the mess. The food was very good and, being buffet style, it was all they could eat.

After breakfast, we cleaned off our own tray (A little different from the Officer's mess with the enlisted waiters the night before) and headed out to an area in the stern called the whale tail. After a night in the dark halls of the DV sleeping rooms and the enlisted mess, we walked out of the back deck of the ship into the bright, beautiful sunshine. It was my favorite part of the USS John C. Stennis. We all stood in the sun and drank it in. I was thinking about the sailors who work inside and barely get out – what a treat this area could be. It wasn’t all pleasure out there as they had two 50 caliper machine gun mounts on the rail. I spoke to the sailor who had side stern watch and she told me that she loved it out there. Women make up 18% of the sailors and aviators on the aircraft carrier. The goal for the Navy is to get the number up to 21% in the coming few years. Recruiters have found that so few high school graduates qualify these days for the Navy that without more women they would not be able to support the growing needs of the service. As with all the sailors on the Stennis, I found nothing but complete professionalism and teamwork regardless of who they were.

It was time for more exploring on day two so we headed next to the giant hanger bays below deck. Planes are stored and moved back and forth on 4 giant elevators from this area. For the DV’s it was an area with lots of room to spread out and absolutely no stairs or long corridors to wind through for a refreshing change. Huge openings where you could see the ocean were at the aircraft carrier elevator openings. In the hanger bays, all aircraft in maintenance mode or storage mode are stored. The big openings inside the hanger bays would have to be closed in case of an attack on the ship to keep the munitions from exploding or the ship from sinking. Our PAO explained that these doors can close in 20 seconds, and are strong enough to cut a jet in half if it is trapped.

One jet they use for crash and fire training. It is a regular drill. It looks pretty rough from the wear of it all.

Walking around was a little tricky, but no stairs!

I really enjoyed the waterfront views from the hangar bays.

One of the dangers for the jets is foreign objects on the decks of the hangar and the flight decks that could cause damage (FOD). To prevent this issue, there are regular FOD walks looking for anything that might be ingested by a jet engine.

In Part 7, I will share about how the John C. Stennis (CVN 74) provides for its 5000 sailors. Click here for Part 7.