This is Part 7.
To see Part 6 click here.
With so many people on board, there has to be a good plan to care for them.
There was so much more to see that day. We moved from the hanger bays over to meet two guys known as “Fit and Fun.” Fit’s job was to lead out on the exercise routines for the 5000 sailors living aboard the Stennis. Being on a ship for months on end requires a high level of thought process on exercise. The sailors have options from yoga to track. They organized a 5K race the week before on the flight deck (8 rounds) and they have lots of workout options. The bigger guy named “Fun” has recreation leadership for the sailors. Everything from poker tournaments to bingo, including in-port activities – Mr. Fun organizes. He uses the profits from the ship store to fund prizes for the winners of games so that the sailor’s money gets recycled. Both men are civilians who work for the Navy.
We next headed over to the hospital. They did not call this sickbay but I did. They are ready for almost anything including a mass casualty event with 32 beds. They had a doctor, medic, and corpsmen to all help out. I asked about the stairs and they have to use a series of racks and ropes to get patients up or down to the hospital. There are no people elevators on the ship!
We stopped by the dental office as well. They have a staff of 4: dentists, dental assistants, and dental hygienist. They can do any level of dentistry on board including crowns and caps. However, due to the population of 5000 onboard, they limit teeth cleaning to once a year.
Back in Hangar Bay #2, the fire response team had prepared for us an overview of their onboard firefighting techniques.
Everyone on board is trained in basic firefighting and a specialty trained response team has a 2-minute response from anywhere on the carrier to any fire incident.
There are 9 Carrier Air Wings (CVW) in the US Navy. The CVW assigned to the USS John C. Stennis includes Strike Fighter Squadron 97 (VFA-97), also known as the "Warhawks", which are a United States Navy F/A-18E squadron stationed at Naval Air Station Lemoore. Their tail code of "NG" and their radio callsign is Warhawk. Each CVW brings with it to the carrier its own support staff who then serves on the carrier for the deployment. At the dinner the night before, the server was an enlisted person with the Warhawks. The support staff can fill in at almost any part of the carrier and they help greatly with the missions. Each CVW’s Commander pilots the signature jet of the team in the even 100 series numbering. These 100 series jets are usually the only ones specially painted with the colors of the CVW. The other jets insignia is black and white slightly greyed out. Jet 200 from another airwing was in the Hanger Bay on our tour.
The entire fleet was not yet on board in this part of the ramp-up to deployment. These Navy aviators are the best at what they do. They can launch off a catapult, then come back and land – placing their tailhook on a spot the size of a playing card – even at night. The briefing included descriptions of how they line up and land as well as how they approach the ship and circle for their turn to land. We were sitting in the non-classified mission briefing room where seating is pre-assigned by the CVW’s commander. I noticed a bolt hanging above one of the chairs. The tailhook is attached to the jet by a bolt. If you miss a landing, it's called a "bolter." There the joke is you must be missing your tailhook so you get the bolt hung over your chair until the next aviator misses a landing.
Our briefing included a little non-classified lecture on how the weapons systems work with Target Acquisition Systems and how they are able to put “Warheads on Foreheads” during missions. For this level of training, they were holding 90 – 100 launches per 24 hour day. This will grow to 120 launches at the time of deployment. As I was leaving the briefing after scoring some patches and a CVW T-shirt, I spoke to Carl, the Aviator who was working the slide show. Turns out that when Carl was in flight school he lived in the same condo building I now live in – proving that somehow we are all connected!
In Part 8 I will tell - what I can- about the top-secret part of our adventure.
Click here for Part 8.
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