Carrier (2008) s01e02 Episode Script
Hour 2. Controlled Chaos
This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your PBS station from Subs rip, edit, and resnyc by © VJ Me 2010 it's a long road to paradise and, oh, I feel the pain oh oh oh they tell me things are different now but I still hurt the same haze gray and underway a world away from you and miles and miles of blue It's a dangerous place.
We all know it.
We all have to deal with it.
We just all got to work as a team.
If you don't work as a team, everything's gonna fall apart.
The whole ship, they all come together to make it look easy.
It's really an incredible orchestra.
There's birds turning, jet blasts.
You've got the props that are turning.
That's probably the scariest thing.
It's just a superstitious thing, but we never use the "C" word.
The "C" word meaning crunch, you know, is when we impact two aircraft together.
We don't eat Crunch candy bars, and you never tell me to be safe out on the deck.
Keep your head on a swivel, constantly looking around.
Everything changes every 10 seconds.
As I like to say it, we are trying to control chaos.
It's just high tempo up here, man.
Our blood runs about a thousand miles an hour.
You ready? Once you leave Hawaii, my morale started to do this, because they say, "oh, I got "five more months to go.
" I'm writing to my best friend.
I'm starting to get to a point where I'm getting homesick.
I've been trying to become a yeoman, which is in administration.
And I took the test, and I'm just waiting for the results to come back.
So I'm just hoping.
All right, "Nimitz," welcome back to your Tuesday edition of your Red Devil fod walk-down! Arr! A little Black Sabbath coming at you.
If you're still at your work centers, you still got time, babies.
Get on up on my flight deck and walk that fod! The fod walk is getting any kind of pieces of debris and stuff like that are on the flight deck.
You got to get out there and pick it up every day.
Great.
On fod! You'd be surprised at the amount of damage a small screw could do to a multimillion-dollar jet engine.
Right now, we're transiting to the Persian Gulf, and we've got a limited amount of time to get everybody ready.
Squadrons, the flight deck, crew, the ship as a whole, all of us are depending on everybody else to do their job and to do it right.
So when it comes time to do it for real, everybody's got their game face on and they're ready to play.
Reset cat 3.
Tell them to reset it.
Tell 'em to set it.
Set that.
All right.
Here we go.
Hand is out, thumb is up, military power winds, crosswind.
Swoop, final.
Ready? 520 to 4 light, light.
Winds crosswinds, thumb, thumb, heading steady.
Fire.
Oh, yeah.
The thrill of shooting planes.
It's pretty rowdy.
There's a sense of urgency; It's dangerous.
And it's just mad physics.
I don't even know what else to say.
It's just violent, you know.
I'm lieutenant Lonnie Fields.
I'm the V-2 division officer.
I'm responsible for managing over 200 people.
It's the largest division on the ship.
We do aircraft launch and recovery.
I went into the aerospace industry because I wanted to become an astronaut.
And I really didn't even know how to do that.
You know, I said, all right, you know, I'd get on a spaceship, you know, kind of like the mother ship connection.
I couldn't get a job back in 1995 in the aerospace industry, and the military was knocking on my door, and I was knocking back, like, let's do it.
Taking tension.
Good stroke.
Good hook But I chose to become a shooter because I wanted to do something to get me, you know, nice and dirty.
Man's out.
His thumb is up.
Military power winds I mean, this is it.
This is where it's at.
Fire.
This is the pointy end of the spear.
And we have a core.
You know, Scott Small, myself, Brian Erickson, Dave Cummings, and Ketrick Brooks, you know, that's the core shooters right now.
This is the circle of trust.
You guys know about the circle of trust, right? You guys know about the circle of trust? There's people that try to come and invade the circle of trust, but we know those people.
And we get 'em out! We purge them, you know, like the old-school days.
We purge them.
You know? That's chaplain Dufour.
He's on the outskirts of the circle of trust.
He's always trying to invade us.
He tries to come over like that, and then I'll put Brooks over here to block him.
And then you have some T.
A.
D.
Shooters that come over like from the "Stennis.
" And they get to marinate in there just a little bit.
But you know what? They're only here for a temporary amount of time, and we just kick their asses out.
Lonnie makes the rules.
We just live in his world.
A lot of times, it's just Lonnie.
It's just Lonnie.
You know, we talk about what goes on up on the flight deck, come back down here, and have a good time, build morale and then, boom, we're back up on the deck plates working it.
Here we go.
Taking tension, cat 4.
We'll bring the aircraft up.
He weighs a certain amount.
We factor the atmospherics in.
We set the catapult.
The pilot, he knows at that point that he's behind a loaded gun.
And it's good We're ensuring that the deck is clear.
There's no small bodies running across and that everything is good in the air bosses' eyes as far as at the deck level.
Salute.
Final.
Ready.
540 540 I look up, give one final sweep of the deck, and I'll hit the fire button.
Getting the shot off the front of a carrier and going from zero to 130 in a couple of seconds, it's just amazing.
You get fired off that front end.
You just scream the whole way down.
Doing all right a little jiving on a Saturday night and come what may gonna dance the day away doing all right ooh a little jiving on a Saturday night yeah and come what may ooh gonna dance the day away yeah It's awesome.
Strapping on a big piece of metal with a couple of giant engines and going off and flying as if you had wings strapped onto your own arms.
It's a challenge.
It's exciting.
It's a rush.
The sheer capability of that aircraft in your hands is just amazing.
The base price is about $57 million without all the toys.
I would say it's freedom.
It's a little bit of an escape.
Get off the boat, get above the clouds, see the sun.
Ooh driver's seat yeah A carrier landing is kind of like having sex during a car accident.
There's a great reward to it, it feels wonderful, but, man, is it violent.
And when it's over, it's over pretty quick.
If you want the truth, you can consider me a spoiled brat.
I think I look at it every day as I'm extremely fortunate.
I don't know anyone that once you get in one wants to get out.
I'm Dave Fravor.
I am the CO of VFA-41, the Black Aces.
I enlisted in the Marines November of my senior year in High School.
I'd just turned 17.
I got recommended in boot camp to go through a school called NAPS which is the Naval Academy prep school.
If you complete that successfully, you can go to the Naval Academy, which is what happened to me.
I did my midshipmen's cruise on-board the "USS Nimitz" and stood up on vultures' row and watched guys from VA35 and VF41 Then decided I really want to do that, and so I went to the Navy so that I could fly jets off carriers.
No problems at all, sir 20 years later, I'm back on-board the "Nimitz" and I'm the c-o of a squadron that I watched fly 20 years ago.
Thank you again, sir.
Dude, this is no problem at all.
No problem at all.
Commander Fravor, he was prior enlisted.
He recognizes what we go through.
He's very supportive.
All the time, he's always encouraging us.
He'll take his time.
And we'll crack smiles.
We can laugh, we can make fun of each other.
And it's a real close atmosphere.
You always know it's him in the airplane when he's on the catapult.
The yellow shirts love him.
He gets a lot of response up there.
The helmet's $60,000.
It's a little Mercedes on your head.
Ok.
Time your light, Dell.
Time your light.
My executive officer, Dell Bull, and I are very good friends, and I think that's important because when the commanding officer and the executive officer are that close, I think it plays well for the rest of the squadron.
Our leadership styles are very similar.
We're both fairly emotional with our people.
And I try to be the bad cop, and Dave always tries to be the good cop.
Sometimes we switch roles on occasion, but we talk to each other before we do that.
"Top gun's" on TV.
Live it.
Be it.
Living the dream right there.
You can see it for the 23rd time.
This movie's the sole reason why your job is so cool.
That's right.
The people that make it through flight school and get assigned to a squadron like this, once you come in as a new lieutenant and you're around these type of people, you become somewhat like those type of people, and that's why we're all the same in one way or the other.
If it weren't for this movie, you'd be married to a troll.
That's [Beep.]
up, dude.
Hey, what's the deal? Why do we come on-board a Navy ship and have to pay for our own food? Well, who do you think's going to pay for it? The Navy? Taxpayers? Yeah.
You're not getting a free ride here in the Navy, partner.
You could have joined the Air Force.
They'd have paid for your food, but then you would have married another dude if you had gone into the Air Force.
And you'd wear a scarf for flight safety.
And since you know who your parents are, you didn't qualify.
It's almost exactly like a fraternity.
A lot of camaraderie, a lot of brotherhood, a lot of social interaction, a lot of like personalities.
We work hard, but we also play really hard, like a college fraternity probably would.
A lot of people live by the work hard, play hard rule.
They work hard, they play hard.
They work hard, they play hard.
And that's sort of a shop motto.
Work hard, and I'll play hard, and I'll drink whenever I want.
We have a philosophy in the squadron that you will work very hard but we also promote playing very hard.
And the Black Aces play as hard as they work.
And our motto is not just work hard, play hard.
Mine is work hard, play harder.
It's all or nothing.
Work hard, play hard.
She was all upset.
That's why I let him beat me today 'cause it ruined his whole day, I could tell.
If you stop doing this so much, then we could get out of the airplane.
He doesn't like to lose at anything.
There's no room for individualism out here.
There's one cohesive unit.
That's why we all wear a uniform.
Eleven-three.
Eleven-eight.
"Do you love me, Dell?" Yuke sucks at math.
I spend half my flight redoing his math.
What keeps you humble is all your friends because no one is going to let you start gettin' too big for your own head or start thinking that you're better or more important than you really are.
There's thousands of people on this boat and if all of them aren't doing their exact job at the exact time, especially with what I am familiar with, which is flight deck operations, you know, lots of bad things can happen up there.
There's a lot of moving parts, and a lot of those moving parts are people.
People look on the flight deck and say what a ballet it is, and it is.
To watch everyone integrate and move just so smoothly and safely and efficiently.
I'd say the whole ship's like that.
There's 20 ballets going on, and we're all part of it, and when it comes together right, it's just awesome.
I had no idea what the "Nimitz," was.
I knew I was going to an aircraft carrier, and I knew I had no decisions about it.
I am Charles Laulis.
I'm an e-3 in the arresting gear on the "USS Nimitz.
" To tell you the truth, I was 18 years old, you know, and the father was getting mad that I was coming in too late.
You know, "join the Navy.
That would be the "best thing you can ever do.
" And then one night, we just had a complete breakdown.
You know, "you came in too late," "you're not working.
" So I just took it upon myself, called the guy, said, "yo, come and get me.
" Four days later, I was gone right out of Chicago.
Big deal about it.
I get there, walk up.
Master Chief Guerrera said, "all right, this guy, V-1," "this guy, V-4.
" You know "Laulis" I'm praying the V-1 for this time.
You know, "let's go, V-1.
"Hoorah.
" He said, "V-2.
" And I was, "ooh!" That was it.
I knew I was in for it.
It's like, ohh, that's the gear dogs.
You're the deck monkeys, the deck apes, grease monkeys.
You know, just the guys that roll in grease, eat it all day long.
When a plane comes down, you've got one guy that unhooks the cable and tells him to retract it.
And you got another guy that runs out and pushes the cable.
You wait for the next one to come back in.
V-2 division is probably the hardest working division on this ship in terms of just physical and mental exhaustion day in and day out.
They work at least 18 hours every day.
I got to keep my mind on the game.
'Cause you know a bird may drop the wrong way.
If I don't do what I have to do, when the wire snaps, I get chopped in half.
It is some crazy job.
And I hear that when a cable snaps, you know it makes a real high-pitched noise, you know, right before it does.
But anything and everything can happen up there.
I think that if it's going to happen, it's going to happen.
You know, and if you make it, then you make it, and if you die, then, hey, that's just the way it is.
You signed up for it.
Clear cable extensions People are surprised at the crew's level of professionalism and their dedication and their willingness to do really hard work for not much compensation, really.
And you get asked, how do you get 'em to do it? And I don't know, frankly, how we get 'em to do it.
Why they keep coming back and why they keep doing the hard stuff, I think, they do it for each other.
You know, they do it for their buddies.
It's that mentality of, we're all in this together.
The teamwork involved in making this weapons system work is huge.
Our main mission is to make sure that all the weapons are here on the flight deck for the squadrons so they have everything to be able to meet their mission.
The squadron ordies.
They belong to the squadron; They're attached to the squadron.
They'll come over and check their weapons, check the aircraft, do a final q.
a.
, make sure everything is good to go and it's all safe and ready for launch.
You're dealing with high explosives.
We deal with stuff that's going to kill somebody, OK? That's what it's designed for.
Cut and dry.
The deal is we don't want that to happen on the deck.
Live bombs, live 1,000-pound bombs.
One thing happens to that bomb and it goes off, everything else is going to go.
The jet's going to go.
All the fuel in the jet's going to go.
It's going to catch other jets.
Missiles will start shooting off because they're too hot.
They'll just shoot to other jets.
Those jets will blow up, and it'll just be a chain reaction.
Bad enough we got to deal with the [Beep.]
flight deck with jets turning on you, heat blasting on you.
Then you got to deal with the ordnance side with the bombs going off during [Beep.]
cook-off times.
Then you got [Beep.]
fuses that if you hold wrong will [Beep.]
blow your hands off.
That [Beep.]
can go off, and then [Beep.]
you sitting there burning at 3,000 degrees.
1, 2, 3.
My job is very dangerous.
Someone will be careless in their job, and the next thing you know, they're down for the most minor thing.
It could be the foot or it could be somebody's head.
Bring them up.
Everyone has to be a team player.
You have to set aside dislikes and understand each other because you never do know.
It may be that person that you don't like that may have to save your life.
First experience getting trapped behind a cod.
Oh, it's crazy, man.
I thought I was going to blow away.
You're sure you're gonna know what to do if you're back there alone one day and that happens? Get the [Beep.]
down and hold onto something, dude.
All right? It's no joke over there between them cats, man.
Ok, we're gonna finish up flight ops tonight at about 2200.
The air-wing and decks are doing great.
Stay focused.
I'm tired a lot.
I just don't sleep 'cause they pound on my head at night.
That's the other thing.
You have to realize that the ship never sleeps.
On a flight deck, they have the catapults.
I mean, they're loud as hell.
The piston going through the trough, "whoosh.
" But right bellow where they shoot them off is a person.
So I mean you got to imagine at nighttime, you're trying to sleep or even if you're sleeping during the daytime, you're sitting there and all of a sudden, bam! You know? Ha ha ha.
The vibration.
Can't sleep through that.
Aircraft come back in at different times.
It's Ow.
Ow.
This is my first deployment.
I'm the first person in my family to be in the military and also the first person in my family to fly.
My parents don't really understand exactly what I do.
I called my mom one night, and she said, "oh, where have you "been?" I said, "I've been at work.
" And she said, "what were you "doing?" And I said, "I was flying.
That's what I do.
" And she said, "you fly at night? Is that safe?" I was like, "yeah, if you knew "what I was doing when I was " You know.
I'm excited.
I mean, I don't know any better.
I've been in the Navy almost four years now, and this is the first time I've actually done something real.
Could you put up there "new problems"? I'm lieutenant Laurie Coffey.
I'm a nugget, a term of endearment.
Nuggets are guys that have not deployed before.
Generally, they're just out of school, maybe in the first year, year and a half or so.
"Okino Daito"? I don't even know where that is.
That's the The nugget experience? I would summarize it as, keep your eyes open, keep your mouth shut kind of thing.
My name is Jeremy Newton.
I've only been in the squadron for five months.
They usually say you're not even a part of the squadron until your six-month time.
It's a tough love atmosphere.
You mess up, you're gonna hear about it.
There's no two ways about it, you're gonna hear about it.
You do well, you're gonna hear about it.
I guess you sailed in under a lucky star, didn't you? I didn't ruin it, man.
You know, everybody's in competition.
You know, we all get evaluated.
All the pilots in the squadron have their names on this board.
And then as we grade their pass, green is really good, yellow is good, and browns are a little below average, but it's a hard job.
So, sure, this is added stress.
I'm in control I've got you glued To train an F-18 fighter pilot, cost of the tax dollars is upwards of a million dollars.
If they're having a little trouble, it might be beneficial for a few extra flights to keep them going.
Probably used to just wash your hands of them and throw them out.
For a nugget, they get put through a pretty rigorous training schedule.
We really want to make sure that all of our nuggets are combat ready by the time we get on station in the Persian Gulf.
See if I follow get down turn around no control don't move coat on watch out no control The skipper made it clear.
We're going to do this for real here in a couple months.
And there's gonna be marines on the ground.
And there's gonna be people dying, and they're gonna need you to have your bombs on target and on time and accurate in order to stop your buddies on the ground from dying.
Everybody thinks about Iraq.
I don't know exactly what if we'll be dropping bombs, if we'll be, you know, just flying overhead.
I can't really get my mind around the terror and the terrorists and who they are and why they are terrorizing us.
So I don't think about it a lot.
I leave that up to the politicians.
I'm in control I've got you glued I want to ensure that when this squadron is called, we will hit the target exactly where we're supposed to, when supposed to.
And if we don't do that, then there's gonna be some issues.
I've got you glued I'm in control all that you wanted was hello 304 on deck.
The pre-brief page.
Can you bring that up at all? When Tasha told me the news, we were just sitting down and the Captain came on and he announced that the results were back.
I said, "come on.
"Let's go find out.
" She said, "no, I don't want to.
I didn't make it.
I didn't make "it.
" The questions that I saw on the test, I came back and I looked them up, and I'm like, "dang, I got that one wrong!" "Dang, I got that one wrong.
" So I was like, man, forget it! You know? And so I didn't want to go down there.
So I said, "you know what? "I'm going down there.
" And I saw her name.
I was so excited.
But I was trying to play a trick on her to tell her, "I'm sorry.
"You didn't make it.
" That's not it So I came up to the berthing.
And I tried to tell her, but she looked so sad.
I told you it could be hanging up.
This is right in your face.
She kind of played on me a little bit, 'cause she had a little look in her eye and then she just came back.
I was like, "you made it! "Congratulations!" And she just broke up, jumped up and down, and started crying and fell out on the floor, crying.
And I'm just so proud of her.
I didn't believe it till I went down and saw my name.
But I'm a Petty Officer.
Petty.
That's the key word.
Not a "salute you," just a petty, but I made it, so, hey.
Oh, she put my name on it.
Oh I will now be a leader, a working supervisor.
That's basically what I'll be.
And now I get to tell people what to do.
So I think I worked I worked damn hard for this.
More responsibility.
Yeah, I heard.
A lot more.
And everybody's gonna look up at you like, you know better, 'cause now they expect you to know.
There's third-classes that are out there who treat you like and they forgot where they came from.
And I want to be the person that knows, "hey, I remember how that feels.
"I was once an airman.
" You know? And, you know, I'm gonna make sure I'm a great leader.
That was a great day.
It's like when you walk across the stage for High School.
It's like that feeling.
I have a picture of my grandmother that inspired me to succeed.
When I was at her grave, I just said, "grandma, I'm gonna keep my promise and I'm gonna, you know, make "something of myself.
" So here I am.
I'm doing it, and I think I'm doing a good job.
Ok, we're about 120 miles or so off of target, a rock named Okino Daito out here in the middle of the Pacific and the air-wing's just pounding the snot out of it all day with live bombs and all kinds of ordnance and just having a blast over there, literally and figuratively.
So, you know, it's a good day for the air-wing, a big day, doing some air combat maneuvering training How are you guys doing? Good.
How are you, sir? I'm doing well.
Hello, sir.
My name's Brian Foster, Major, United States Marine Corps.
This is my first cruise on an aircraft carrier, and this is my second flying tour with the Red Devils.
The primary difference between Navy and Marine pilots is we've been through six months of ground training.
I know those guys on the ground.
We have a common experience.
I can tell you after doing a forward air controller tour in Iraq that I have a newfound respect and love for close-air support, and that's because I've been on the receiving end of it.
As we approach our roll-in, we'll go ahead and tighten down.
My name's Justin Knox.
I'm a Captain in the VMFA 232, the Red Devils.
Roll wing's level.
The squadron itself hasn't been on a carrier in over 30 years.
So all these Marines that are in the squadron, this is the first time they've ever done maintenance on a carrier.
And it's a completely different ball game than it is back on the shore.
We're trying to minimize TFOAS, which is something that's been an issue each time you go flying.
A TFOA? What's that? What's a TFOA? Things falling off aircraft.
We're definitely the red-headed stepchildren of the air-wing as the marines, but I think we enjoy that role and we take it with pride.
That's because they all want to be us.
You're killing me, Fister.
You're God damn killing me.
You know, obviously I've never been in a Navy squadron, but the marine squadrons that I've seen tend to be a little bit tighter, a little bit more rowdy, a little bit more rambunctious, I guess.
John Moss, another northern California boy, his call sign's Fungus.
Call signs are not cool.
Call signs are the anti-Christ.
Call signs are things you do when you're drunk or you do something stupid in the jet.
My call sign is Fungus.
Stands for, "[Beep.]
You, new guy, you suck.
" Yoda, who's our grumpy old bear.
They don't really care much about the pilots on this ship.
Do they, Johnny? Not a whole lot.
Call him the Silver Back.
Pretty much the hairiest guy I've ever met in my life.
There is a bombing range near Yuma, Arizona, called Yodaville.
And I went out and managed to drop a bomb square dead center in the middle of a fake little town that's been built out there.
And I wasn't supposed to be putting bombs right there, but I was pretty stressed about it as a new guy, so I got the call sign Yoda.
Hey, dodo, don't give him any places to hide his chips like last time.
Yeah, no kidding.
Let's do this thing.
Eric Jakubowski's call sign's The Big.
My last name's Jakubowski, so the big Jakubowski, just like the movie "The big Lebowski.
" Come on, Fister.
Fister's one of our more experienced pilots Brian Foster And his is just a play off his last name.
Uh, Fister Foster.
Yeah Fister? String betting fool.
Dodo? His call sign's pretty funny.
Unfortunately for him, he joined the squadron literally right as they were going off to war.
He didn't have any of his qualifications or anything, so he ended up spending most of the war standing duty for the squadron so we call him the dodo bird, or the flightless bird.
That's how we roll! What's funny is they don't know everybody's name.
You go around the air-wing, we'll know call signs and if you said the guy's name, I'd scratch my head and go, huh? Another favorite call sign in the squadron is Dahigi.
Dahigi got his call sign 'cause in Iraq he works a lot of deals on the side, so "don't ask how I got it" became his call sign.
Some of them are funny; Some of them are not funny.
From Drum Heller, it devolved to Bung Holer.
And from there, my call sign became Bung.
His last name is Hass, so we had things like Inya.
They call me Sex.
'Cause my last name is Fravor.
Get it? Favor.
Get it? Actually, there's a really good story to it.
I just can't tell you on camera.
This is what we're going to do today.
We're going to go out and deploy the gun behind the ship.
We'll roll into our 15-degree dive and basically fire bullets at the wake that the ship's making, and that's our target, so Basically evaluate how our runs are going and determine who's the better gunner.
Sorry.
I already know that.
Oh, do you? Do you, now, laddie? When was the last time you beat me in anything, Dodo? Besides poker? Ha ha! I'll see you up there.
I grew up in the Midwest in Columbia, Missouri.
All my family are farmers back home, so I was the first one to move away from Missouri, do something different, and out of there.
My father's a dairy farmer, and we never had a whole lot of money, and my parents struggled quite a bit.
So I'm a middle-class kid living a dream, basically.
302 airborne.
Launch complete, launch complete.
Two Hornets.
They're gong to come in, and they're gong to strafe the wake, which means they're going to shoot their 20-millimeter, 20 mike-mike cannon, at the wake for target practice, if you will.
Oh, here they are right there.
302 Clear radar.
Ok.
Ok.
Ok.
Should be at a little bit more of an angle.
You know, like, a Level off? Yes.
Yeah.
I didn't see any bullets that time.
Yes, sir, I saw them.
They were a little short.
Just short of the wake.
Channel 601.
Go ahead.
Battles, left alone.
You have control.
31/2 degrees, ISO, targeting the two-wire.
Targeting the two-wire.
That is fun.
I don't care who you are.
That was really cool.
We dropped multiple twos, and he came around, and I came around, and I came around and I came around raging around at 500 miles an hour.
That's pretty good [Beep.]
.
I don't care who you are.
This is me.
This is me as dash two.
This right here is the Pipper that I was trying to tell you all about.
The center is what we were trying to put on the target.
Strafe the wake Putting the piper on the wake there.
There goes the bullets.
And we're off.
That's all she wrote.
My tape did not work.
Oh, you were talking some good smack, and now we have no tape to back it up.
I know who's better.
I don't need to prove it.
Very, very interesting.
I'd say it's a good team effort.
We both win.
'Tis true.
It's a good team effort.
I saw every run in the tower, and you were short every time and Fister was long every time.
You want to see it on the tape? You want to see it on the tape? What? I don't need to see it on the tape 'cause I saw it in real life.
You can't see the wake from where we were.
Yes, I could.
I could see the wake from where I was and you were short every time.
The Captain was critiquing your pattern, too.
Oh, was he, now? What did he say, "we suck"? No.
I thought you guys were doing fine.
He was, you know, demonstrating how he wanted the pattern to be perpendicular to the way the ship was going.
The strafing was fine.
It just wasn't, like, right nuts on.
So It was good, though.
I mean, I thought it was good.
Man, I'll show you loading bombs, standing for a good 12 long hours.
Did you see that thing where it said "navy" and it said "the dream" and it showed the guy jumping out of the helo, and then it said "the reality," and it showed the guy washing the window.
Washing the window on the helo.
Out of any other shop in the Navy, a group of ordies is always the closest family.
What's missing from this table, dude? Texas Pete.
Texas Pete.
All out, hear? We stick together like you wouldn't believe.
Yeah, we go Every place we go, we go out in groups, and it's always with somebody from our shop.
That's why people when they see us, they tend to not get close to us because they just can't get in that group.
We tend to be protective of the girls.
Why am I going to returning to the intimacy class? Because I foresee you finally getting a steady boyfriend.
Oh, yeah? Yeah.
You got to learn the difference between one of those just "come here [Beep.]
" And one of those, "come on, baby, let's go and "make memories.
" Yeah, they are very protective.
Probably makes my mom happy.
Dubai.
It's right down the street.
You been there before? Oh, man, we're a mafia.
We run [Beep.]
on this boat, dude.
Does the ordie mafia exist? Uh Uh Y'all didn't hear this from me, but, yeah, it exists.
Buy me some Texas Pete, man.
We don't have it.
You got to look for some.
We don't have it.
You got to go ask somebody.
They got none on the boat.
They ain't got none in chief's mess? None in first class? Ski, best friend, he's one of the coolest guys in the shop.
Marrero, he's a good guy.
He's married, you know, a father.
You let them steal your [Beep.]
? Hodges.
Always the one who's smiling.
And the guy's happy every time I see him.
Fourteen AOs, yeah, we kind of bond like family.
See, they pretty much all my family right now.
Everybody wants to be an ordie.
That's what they always tell us.
I'm taking that one.
I requested to come to VFA-41 mostly because I didn't want to be the only female in the squadron.
What time did you get up this morning And I didn't want to first.
I was really confused.
Did you really get up at 4:30? Yeah.
I was still confused.
I'm sorry to throw you.
I'd be lying to you if I said I didn't have moments where we just shake our heads at the guys on the boat.
We say a lot to each other without saying much.
But there's definite days that you're glad you have 34 brothers and there's days that you wish you had zero.
Come on, Alex.
You know you want to play.
You want to play? No, I don't.
It's just different.
Guys are different.
Sometimes you don't want to talk about sports and flying and porn, you know? All right.
Welcome, everybody, to the "Nimitz" strike group eight-x tonight.
I learned from an early age, you know, there's gonna be no concessions for you based on the fact that you're a girl.
If anything, you need to be that much better.
Laurie is the first female pilot in the hobos ever.
It's got to be a tough spot to be in.
I can't imagine being in her shoes at this point.
You know, she's stuck in a sea of testosterone 24/7.
I feel more like a pilot than I feel like a woman because we all do the same job and we all strive to do it as well as we can.
I mean, I went to Naval Academy, so since I was 18, I've been, you know, at a 10:1 ratio.
And, you know, it's tough to work in an all-male environment just because Just the nature of it.
Critical to flying safety? Right.
Laurie is, she's a physical specimen.
I mean, she's a fantastic athlete.
She is physically a large woman.
No, these are en route.
She's a stud.
She stands out as a stud first, the fact that she's a woman, second.
She's got red hair, third, you know? Throw those all together, and she certainly, she stands out no matter where she goes.
I mean, I was always very accepted by guys because I was an athlete.
I could snowboard or I could play basketball and I could beat them at basketball.
And flying and being a pilot's the same way.
If you can fly well, if you can do your job well you regardless of gender.
Come on.
I'm pretty sure that he did.
Come on.
Should I call your wife and have her help you dress? That would be nice.
Can I go on emergency leave for that? Why don't you take off your skirt, drop your purse, and get you ass in the game, man? You ready? Finally.
Well, since we pulled out, I guess your body kind of starts to deteriorate.
I mean, just being up on the flight deck, hydraulic fluid.
It's all oils and dirts and grease that just don't leave your skin or your pores.
It worked out there better today anyway, man.
That was a [Beep.]
hot shot.
So everybody started getting heat rash from their sweat, you know, and working in grease.
I broke out with it.
I actually think it mutated into a contact dermatitis.
My face, I guess you can see where it's kind of like blotchy.
It swells up.
My forehead feels like it's like a mosaic, dry.
You just start scratching and trying to rip it off.
Itching feels great with it.
If I could do it, I'd do it all the time.
So, I'd like to go to the berthing, you know, somewhere, somewhere where it is cooler, you know, the working conditions are less are a little bit less difficult.
Good morning.
On-board "Nimitz.
" This is the XO.
It's time for cleaning stations.
Let's all hands get out and about and clean up the ship.
Get the music on, the tvs on.
Let's get the ship looking real, real good.
That is all.
That one's clear.
In primary, my responsibility as the female up here is to clean up after all the guys.
I let it sit there for, like, a week to see if they are going to throw it away, but they don't, although we have four trash cans.
Although I just made third-class petty officer, I'm still cleaning up after people, you know, just like when I was an airman, and it seems like now I'm doing it more.
But I'm supposed to be doing it less, but I feel like if I don't do it, who else is going to do it? And you could ask somebody else to do it and they'll just get an attitude and don't want to do it.
So I just go ahead and do it.
But it really ticks me off to clean up after other people.
I feel that the v-2 division is a political game, like the rest of the military.
Lieutenant Fields is our div-o.
He is the head honcho, I guess, of the v-2 division.
I feel that personal relationship kind of thing between you and the man I kind of hoped would have been a little stronger.
Told him to move to ac-3 Managing a whole bunch of young aviation bo'sun's mates is a good experience for me.
Are they rowdy? Yes.
They didn't get to become an a-b because they were, you know, valedictorian in High School.
Let's just put it that way.
But I will tell you something about the a-b rate.
I mean, they have the biggest heart, you know.
And I do what I can to take care of them.
How you doing? We need to get you in the rack? No.
Chief work you too hard? No, not too hard.
We just had some stuff last night we had to be up here with.
All right, a-b 1.
Ok.
All right.
We'll see you.
Ok.
I was trying to strike as an aircrewman, search and rescue, you know, anything to move into a better position.
It's like, "well, I'm sorry.
"You know, I can't let you go.
" You know, so I kind of have a personal problem with the guy.
You know, and haven't I worked, haven't I been your horse for long enough? You working hard there, Laulis? Yeah.
What you listening to I guess this day, I'm never going to be able to find out, you know, why the guy had to say no, you know, but I'm gonna look at it as one of the guys that helped ruin my career, you know, here in the military.
When are you gonna come see me about your stuff? What, the air crew package, sir? Yeah.
I know you've been wanting to talk to me.
I can see it in your eyes.
Yeah, you're right.
You're right.
I ran into l-t in the p-way and he said, you know, "what's up "with your air crew package," you know.
It's like, come on, man.
You know exactly how it's going.
You're the guy that said no.
Don't you remember? It's like, why would you ask me something like that? If it's just one man that could've gotten me, well, it was you, you know, and you still denied it.
Airman Laulis, he wants to be an a-w.
Unfortunately, the rate is closed up right now.
He had a little issue in the past that's also preventing him from striking that rate.
He had a career development board.
I mean, he's an awesome person.
They didn't recommend anything for him.
He'll have to wait a little bit longer for one the rate to open up, and two for that thing in the past to clear.
What happened in my past, you know, I got in trouble for underage drinking.
I guess the day that happened, you know, it was like, bam, you're automatically held back for 24 months.
I waited that time period out, and I submitted and still got turned down.
It depends on the liberty risk board.
They're the ones.
I mean first thing I did was You're powerless to the next guy that's above rank than you.
They've got you.
I mean, it's "choose your rate, "choose your fate.
" That day that Master Chief Guerrero said, "you're v-2," you know, it was like, that day I knew they had me.
You know, there's no getting out from there.
There isn't.
And they'll do anything and everything to keep you in Everything and anything.
I'm trying to figure out, I'm trying to work the system, but it's just not working for me.
You don't know how.
Teach me.
You don't know how.
Teach me.
What are you trying to do? A normal boss you can argue with.
No.
Chiefs, no, no, no, no.
That's what pisses a lot of people off 'cause even though the person's, like, stupid, you know, or they might not be right, it doesn't matter.
If you're higher rank, you're higher rank.
Hello? I just wanted to see how things are going.
I miss the hell out of you.
That sounds so funny, though.
What sounds funny? What you say.
What, "I miss the hell out of you"? You miss the hell out of me? That's funny.
Whenever I call, she doesn't really say much.
It's like she's real shy to talk to me.
It looks like she doesn't know who I am sometimes or something.
I don't know.
She doesn't have a lot in her answers, and she just laughs a lot.
Ha ha.
But it's cute.
It's the way I remember her.
I just want things to work out, man.
I don't want to go home and her just be, like, not even know who I am, you know? My worst fear is that there's another guy involved, but, I mean, I doubt that's going on with her being pregnant and all, but I don't know.
That's every guy's worst fear, man.
No, she's not bad.
You know how she is.
I know.
You know how I am, though, dude.
I know.
I worry.
I worry about everything.
I just hope I go back, you know, the kid's born, everything's fine, she moves in with me, and we just pick up where we left off, dude.
That's all I want.
Good evening, "Nimitz" and air-wing eleven.
It's a great day for flying out here today.
We'll continue with the flying.
We do this on the way across here to keep the air-wing and the deck and the air ops folks all sharp and on top of their game so when we get into theatre, we'll be ready to go.
Be aware of the heat.
I want to make sure everybody's hydrated and eating the right stuff and you're taking care of yourselves, as we get acclimated to go to the Arabian Gulf, where it's really gonna be hot over there in the middle of the summer.
I'm starving, man.
Today wasn't a bad day, dude.
I think it was all right.
I thought we had more to do.
What the hell is going on here? I don't know.
It's complete chaos.
It's like the whole Navy Organized chaos, baby.
I know, man.
Aw, man, that's a big ball of grease.
Ha ha! We're going too fast.
Too fast.
We're AOs.
We always walk fast.
I'm just anxious to get off the flight deck.
Subs rip, edit, and resnyc by © VJ Me 2010
We all know it.
We all have to deal with it.
We just all got to work as a team.
If you don't work as a team, everything's gonna fall apart.
The whole ship, they all come together to make it look easy.
It's really an incredible orchestra.
There's birds turning, jet blasts.
You've got the props that are turning.
That's probably the scariest thing.
It's just a superstitious thing, but we never use the "C" word.
The "C" word meaning crunch, you know, is when we impact two aircraft together.
We don't eat Crunch candy bars, and you never tell me to be safe out on the deck.
Keep your head on a swivel, constantly looking around.
Everything changes every 10 seconds.
As I like to say it, we are trying to control chaos.
It's just high tempo up here, man.
Our blood runs about a thousand miles an hour.
You ready? Once you leave Hawaii, my morale started to do this, because they say, "oh, I got "five more months to go.
" I'm writing to my best friend.
I'm starting to get to a point where I'm getting homesick.
I've been trying to become a yeoman, which is in administration.
And I took the test, and I'm just waiting for the results to come back.
So I'm just hoping.
All right, "Nimitz," welcome back to your Tuesday edition of your Red Devil fod walk-down! Arr! A little Black Sabbath coming at you.
If you're still at your work centers, you still got time, babies.
Get on up on my flight deck and walk that fod! The fod walk is getting any kind of pieces of debris and stuff like that are on the flight deck.
You got to get out there and pick it up every day.
Great.
On fod! You'd be surprised at the amount of damage a small screw could do to a multimillion-dollar jet engine.
Right now, we're transiting to the Persian Gulf, and we've got a limited amount of time to get everybody ready.
Squadrons, the flight deck, crew, the ship as a whole, all of us are depending on everybody else to do their job and to do it right.
So when it comes time to do it for real, everybody's got their game face on and they're ready to play.
Reset cat 3.
Tell them to reset it.
Tell 'em to set it.
Set that.
All right.
Here we go.
Hand is out, thumb is up, military power winds, crosswind.
Swoop, final.
Ready? 520 to 4 light, light.
Winds crosswinds, thumb, thumb, heading steady.
Fire.
Oh, yeah.
The thrill of shooting planes.
It's pretty rowdy.
There's a sense of urgency; It's dangerous.
And it's just mad physics.
I don't even know what else to say.
It's just violent, you know.
I'm lieutenant Lonnie Fields.
I'm the V-2 division officer.
I'm responsible for managing over 200 people.
It's the largest division on the ship.
We do aircraft launch and recovery.
I went into the aerospace industry because I wanted to become an astronaut.
And I really didn't even know how to do that.
You know, I said, all right, you know, I'd get on a spaceship, you know, kind of like the mother ship connection.
I couldn't get a job back in 1995 in the aerospace industry, and the military was knocking on my door, and I was knocking back, like, let's do it.
Taking tension.
Good stroke.
Good hook But I chose to become a shooter because I wanted to do something to get me, you know, nice and dirty.
Man's out.
His thumb is up.
Military power winds I mean, this is it.
This is where it's at.
Fire.
This is the pointy end of the spear.
And we have a core.
You know, Scott Small, myself, Brian Erickson, Dave Cummings, and Ketrick Brooks, you know, that's the core shooters right now.
This is the circle of trust.
You guys know about the circle of trust, right? You guys know about the circle of trust? There's people that try to come and invade the circle of trust, but we know those people.
And we get 'em out! We purge them, you know, like the old-school days.
We purge them.
You know? That's chaplain Dufour.
He's on the outskirts of the circle of trust.
He's always trying to invade us.
He tries to come over like that, and then I'll put Brooks over here to block him.
And then you have some T.
A.
D.
Shooters that come over like from the "Stennis.
" And they get to marinate in there just a little bit.
But you know what? They're only here for a temporary amount of time, and we just kick their asses out.
Lonnie makes the rules.
We just live in his world.
A lot of times, it's just Lonnie.
It's just Lonnie.
You know, we talk about what goes on up on the flight deck, come back down here, and have a good time, build morale and then, boom, we're back up on the deck plates working it.
Here we go.
Taking tension, cat 4.
We'll bring the aircraft up.
He weighs a certain amount.
We factor the atmospherics in.
We set the catapult.
The pilot, he knows at that point that he's behind a loaded gun.
And it's good We're ensuring that the deck is clear.
There's no small bodies running across and that everything is good in the air bosses' eyes as far as at the deck level.
Salute.
Final.
Ready.
540 540 I look up, give one final sweep of the deck, and I'll hit the fire button.
Getting the shot off the front of a carrier and going from zero to 130 in a couple of seconds, it's just amazing.
You get fired off that front end.
You just scream the whole way down.
Doing all right a little jiving on a Saturday night and come what may gonna dance the day away doing all right ooh a little jiving on a Saturday night yeah and come what may ooh gonna dance the day away yeah It's awesome.
Strapping on a big piece of metal with a couple of giant engines and going off and flying as if you had wings strapped onto your own arms.
It's a challenge.
It's exciting.
It's a rush.
The sheer capability of that aircraft in your hands is just amazing.
The base price is about $57 million without all the toys.
I would say it's freedom.
It's a little bit of an escape.
Get off the boat, get above the clouds, see the sun.
Ooh driver's seat yeah A carrier landing is kind of like having sex during a car accident.
There's a great reward to it, it feels wonderful, but, man, is it violent.
And when it's over, it's over pretty quick.
If you want the truth, you can consider me a spoiled brat.
I think I look at it every day as I'm extremely fortunate.
I don't know anyone that once you get in one wants to get out.
I'm Dave Fravor.
I am the CO of VFA-41, the Black Aces.
I enlisted in the Marines November of my senior year in High School.
I'd just turned 17.
I got recommended in boot camp to go through a school called NAPS which is the Naval Academy prep school.
If you complete that successfully, you can go to the Naval Academy, which is what happened to me.
I did my midshipmen's cruise on-board the "USS Nimitz" and stood up on vultures' row and watched guys from VA35 and VF41 Then decided I really want to do that, and so I went to the Navy so that I could fly jets off carriers.
No problems at all, sir 20 years later, I'm back on-board the "Nimitz" and I'm the c-o of a squadron that I watched fly 20 years ago.
Thank you again, sir.
Dude, this is no problem at all.
No problem at all.
Commander Fravor, he was prior enlisted.
He recognizes what we go through.
He's very supportive.
All the time, he's always encouraging us.
He'll take his time.
And we'll crack smiles.
We can laugh, we can make fun of each other.
And it's a real close atmosphere.
You always know it's him in the airplane when he's on the catapult.
The yellow shirts love him.
He gets a lot of response up there.
The helmet's $60,000.
It's a little Mercedes on your head.
Ok.
Time your light, Dell.
Time your light.
My executive officer, Dell Bull, and I are very good friends, and I think that's important because when the commanding officer and the executive officer are that close, I think it plays well for the rest of the squadron.
Our leadership styles are very similar.
We're both fairly emotional with our people.
And I try to be the bad cop, and Dave always tries to be the good cop.
Sometimes we switch roles on occasion, but we talk to each other before we do that.
"Top gun's" on TV.
Live it.
Be it.
Living the dream right there.
You can see it for the 23rd time.
This movie's the sole reason why your job is so cool.
That's right.
The people that make it through flight school and get assigned to a squadron like this, once you come in as a new lieutenant and you're around these type of people, you become somewhat like those type of people, and that's why we're all the same in one way or the other.
If it weren't for this movie, you'd be married to a troll.
That's [Beep.]
up, dude.
Hey, what's the deal? Why do we come on-board a Navy ship and have to pay for our own food? Well, who do you think's going to pay for it? The Navy? Taxpayers? Yeah.
You're not getting a free ride here in the Navy, partner.
You could have joined the Air Force.
They'd have paid for your food, but then you would have married another dude if you had gone into the Air Force.
And you'd wear a scarf for flight safety.
And since you know who your parents are, you didn't qualify.
It's almost exactly like a fraternity.
A lot of camaraderie, a lot of brotherhood, a lot of social interaction, a lot of like personalities.
We work hard, but we also play really hard, like a college fraternity probably would.
A lot of people live by the work hard, play hard rule.
They work hard, they play hard.
They work hard, they play hard.
And that's sort of a shop motto.
Work hard, and I'll play hard, and I'll drink whenever I want.
We have a philosophy in the squadron that you will work very hard but we also promote playing very hard.
And the Black Aces play as hard as they work.
And our motto is not just work hard, play hard.
Mine is work hard, play harder.
It's all or nothing.
Work hard, play hard.
She was all upset.
That's why I let him beat me today 'cause it ruined his whole day, I could tell.
If you stop doing this so much, then we could get out of the airplane.
He doesn't like to lose at anything.
There's no room for individualism out here.
There's one cohesive unit.
That's why we all wear a uniform.
Eleven-three.
Eleven-eight.
"Do you love me, Dell?" Yuke sucks at math.
I spend half my flight redoing his math.
What keeps you humble is all your friends because no one is going to let you start gettin' too big for your own head or start thinking that you're better or more important than you really are.
There's thousands of people on this boat and if all of them aren't doing their exact job at the exact time, especially with what I am familiar with, which is flight deck operations, you know, lots of bad things can happen up there.
There's a lot of moving parts, and a lot of those moving parts are people.
People look on the flight deck and say what a ballet it is, and it is.
To watch everyone integrate and move just so smoothly and safely and efficiently.
I'd say the whole ship's like that.
There's 20 ballets going on, and we're all part of it, and when it comes together right, it's just awesome.
I had no idea what the "Nimitz," was.
I knew I was going to an aircraft carrier, and I knew I had no decisions about it.
I am Charles Laulis.
I'm an e-3 in the arresting gear on the "USS Nimitz.
" To tell you the truth, I was 18 years old, you know, and the father was getting mad that I was coming in too late.
You know, "join the Navy.
That would be the "best thing you can ever do.
" And then one night, we just had a complete breakdown.
You know, "you came in too late," "you're not working.
" So I just took it upon myself, called the guy, said, "yo, come and get me.
" Four days later, I was gone right out of Chicago.
Big deal about it.
I get there, walk up.
Master Chief Guerrera said, "all right, this guy, V-1," "this guy, V-4.
" You know "Laulis" I'm praying the V-1 for this time.
You know, "let's go, V-1.
"Hoorah.
" He said, "V-2.
" And I was, "ooh!" That was it.
I knew I was in for it.
It's like, ohh, that's the gear dogs.
You're the deck monkeys, the deck apes, grease monkeys.
You know, just the guys that roll in grease, eat it all day long.
When a plane comes down, you've got one guy that unhooks the cable and tells him to retract it.
And you got another guy that runs out and pushes the cable.
You wait for the next one to come back in.
V-2 division is probably the hardest working division on this ship in terms of just physical and mental exhaustion day in and day out.
They work at least 18 hours every day.
I got to keep my mind on the game.
'Cause you know a bird may drop the wrong way.
If I don't do what I have to do, when the wire snaps, I get chopped in half.
It is some crazy job.
And I hear that when a cable snaps, you know it makes a real high-pitched noise, you know, right before it does.
But anything and everything can happen up there.
I think that if it's going to happen, it's going to happen.
You know, and if you make it, then you make it, and if you die, then, hey, that's just the way it is.
You signed up for it.
Clear cable extensions People are surprised at the crew's level of professionalism and their dedication and their willingness to do really hard work for not much compensation, really.
And you get asked, how do you get 'em to do it? And I don't know, frankly, how we get 'em to do it.
Why they keep coming back and why they keep doing the hard stuff, I think, they do it for each other.
You know, they do it for their buddies.
It's that mentality of, we're all in this together.
The teamwork involved in making this weapons system work is huge.
Our main mission is to make sure that all the weapons are here on the flight deck for the squadrons so they have everything to be able to meet their mission.
The squadron ordies.
They belong to the squadron; They're attached to the squadron.
They'll come over and check their weapons, check the aircraft, do a final q.
a.
, make sure everything is good to go and it's all safe and ready for launch.
You're dealing with high explosives.
We deal with stuff that's going to kill somebody, OK? That's what it's designed for.
Cut and dry.
The deal is we don't want that to happen on the deck.
Live bombs, live 1,000-pound bombs.
One thing happens to that bomb and it goes off, everything else is going to go.
The jet's going to go.
All the fuel in the jet's going to go.
It's going to catch other jets.
Missiles will start shooting off because they're too hot.
They'll just shoot to other jets.
Those jets will blow up, and it'll just be a chain reaction.
Bad enough we got to deal with the [Beep.]
flight deck with jets turning on you, heat blasting on you.
Then you got to deal with the ordnance side with the bombs going off during [Beep.]
cook-off times.
Then you got [Beep.]
fuses that if you hold wrong will [Beep.]
blow your hands off.
That [Beep.]
can go off, and then [Beep.]
you sitting there burning at 3,000 degrees.
1, 2, 3.
My job is very dangerous.
Someone will be careless in their job, and the next thing you know, they're down for the most minor thing.
It could be the foot or it could be somebody's head.
Bring them up.
Everyone has to be a team player.
You have to set aside dislikes and understand each other because you never do know.
It may be that person that you don't like that may have to save your life.
First experience getting trapped behind a cod.
Oh, it's crazy, man.
I thought I was going to blow away.
You're sure you're gonna know what to do if you're back there alone one day and that happens? Get the [Beep.]
down and hold onto something, dude.
All right? It's no joke over there between them cats, man.
Ok, we're gonna finish up flight ops tonight at about 2200.
The air-wing and decks are doing great.
Stay focused.
I'm tired a lot.
I just don't sleep 'cause they pound on my head at night.
That's the other thing.
You have to realize that the ship never sleeps.
On a flight deck, they have the catapults.
I mean, they're loud as hell.
The piston going through the trough, "whoosh.
" But right bellow where they shoot them off is a person.
So I mean you got to imagine at nighttime, you're trying to sleep or even if you're sleeping during the daytime, you're sitting there and all of a sudden, bam! You know? Ha ha ha.
The vibration.
Can't sleep through that.
Aircraft come back in at different times.
It's Ow.
Ow.
This is my first deployment.
I'm the first person in my family to be in the military and also the first person in my family to fly.
My parents don't really understand exactly what I do.
I called my mom one night, and she said, "oh, where have you "been?" I said, "I've been at work.
" And she said, "what were you "doing?" And I said, "I was flying.
That's what I do.
" And she said, "you fly at night? Is that safe?" I was like, "yeah, if you knew "what I was doing when I was " You know.
I'm excited.
I mean, I don't know any better.
I've been in the Navy almost four years now, and this is the first time I've actually done something real.
Could you put up there "new problems"? I'm lieutenant Laurie Coffey.
I'm a nugget, a term of endearment.
Nuggets are guys that have not deployed before.
Generally, they're just out of school, maybe in the first year, year and a half or so.
"Okino Daito"? I don't even know where that is.
That's the The nugget experience? I would summarize it as, keep your eyes open, keep your mouth shut kind of thing.
My name is Jeremy Newton.
I've only been in the squadron for five months.
They usually say you're not even a part of the squadron until your six-month time.
It's a tough love atmosphere.
You mess up, you're gonna hear about it.
There's no two ways about it, you're gonna hear about it.
You do well, you're gonna hear about it.
I guess you sailed in under a lucky star, didn't you? I didn't ruin it, man.
You know, everybody's in competition.
You know, we all get evaluated.
All the pilots in the squadron have their names on this board.
And then as we grade their pass, green is really good, yellow is good, and browns are a little below average, but it's a hard job.
So, sure, this is added stress.
I'm in control I've got you glued To train an F-18 fighter pilot, cost of the tax dollars is upwards of a million dollars.
If they're having a little trouble, it might be beneficial for a few extra flights to keep them going.
Probably used to just wash your hands of them and throw them out.
For a nugget, they get put through a pretty rigorous training schedule.
We really want to make sure that all of our nuggets are combat ready by the time we get on station in the Persian Gulf.
See if I follow get down turn around no control don't move coat on watch out no control The skipper made it clear.
We're going to do this for real here in a couple months.
And there's gonna be marines on the ground.
And there's gonna be people dying, and they're gonna need you to have your bombs on target and on time and accurate in order to stop your buddies on the ground from dying.
Everybody thinks about Iraq.
I don't know exactly what if we'll be dropping bombs, if we'll be, you know, just flying overhead.
I can't really get my mind around the terror and the terrorists and who they are and why they are terrorizing us.
So I don't think about it a lot.
I leave that up to the politicians.
I'm in control I've got you glued I want to ensure that when this squadron is called, we will hit the target exactly where we're supposed to, when supposed to.
And if we don't do that, then there's gonna be some issues.
I've got you glued I'm in control all that you wanted was hello 304 on deck.
The pre-brief page.
Can you bring that up at all? When Tasha told me the news, we were just sitting down and the Captain came on and he announced that the results were back.
I said, "come on.
"Let's go find out.
" She said, "no, I don't want to.
I didn't make it.
I didn't make "it.
" The questions that I saw on the test, I came back and I looked them up, and I'm like, "dang, I got that one wrong!" "Dang, I got that one wrong.
" So I was like, man, forget it! You know? And so I didn't want to go down there.
So I said, "you know what? "I'm going down there.
" And I saw her name.
I was so excited.
But I was trying to play a trick on her to tell her, "I'm sorry.
"You didn't make it.
" That's not it So I came up to the berthing.
And I tried to tell her, but she looked so sad.
I told you it could be hanging up.
This is right in your face.
She kind of played on me a little bit, 'cause she had a little look in her eye and then she just came back.
I was like, "you made it! "Congratulations!" And she just broke up, jumped up and down, and started crying and fell out on the floor, crying.
And I'm just so proud of her.
I didn't believe it till I went down and saw my name.
But I'm a Petty Officer.
Petty.
That's the key word.
Not a "salute you," just a petty, but I made it, so, hey.
Oh, she put my name on it.
Oh I will now be a leader, a working supervisor.
That's basically what I'll be.
And now I get to tell people what to do.
So I think I worked I worked damn hard for this.
More responsibility.
Yeah, I heard.
A lot more.
And everybody's gonna look up at you like, you know better, 'cause now they expect you to know.
There's third-classes that are out there who treat you like and they forgot where they came from.
And I want to be the person that knows, "hey, I remember how that feels.
"I was once an airman.
" You know? And, you know, I'm gonna make sure I'm a great leader.
That was a great day.
It's like when you walk across the stage for High School.
It's like that feeling.
I have a picture of my grandmother that inspired me to succeed.
When I was at her grave, I just said, "grandma, I'm gonna keep my promise and I'm gonna, you know, make "something of myself.
" So here I am.
I'm doing it, and I think I'm doing a good job.
Ok, we're about 120 miles or so off of target, a rock named Okino Daito out here in the middle of the Pacific and the air-wing's just pounding the snot out of it all day with live bombs and all kinds of ordnance and just having a blast over there, literally and figuratively.
So, you know, it's a good day for the air-wing, a big day, doing some air combat maneuvering training How are you guys doing? Good.
How are you, sir? I'm doing well.
Hello, sir.
My name's Brian Foster, Major, United States Marine Corps.
This is my first cruise on an aircraft carrier, and this is my second flying tour with the Red Devils.
The primary difference between Navy and Marine pilots is we've been through six months of ground training.
I know those guys on the ground.
We have a common experience.
I can tell you after doing a forward air controller tour in Iraq that I have a newfound respect and love for close-air support, and that's because I've been on the receiving end of it.
As we approach our roll-in, we'll go ahead and tighten down.
My name's Justin Knox.
I'm a Captain in the VMFA 232, the Red Devils.
Roll wing's level.
The squadron itself hasn't been on a carrier in over 30 years.
So all these Marines that are in the squadron, this is the first time they've ever done maintenance on a carrier.
And it's a completely different ball game than it is back on the shore.
We're trying to minimize TFOAS, which is something that's been an issue each time you go flying.
A TFOA? What's that? What's a TFOA? Things falling off aircraft.
We're definitely the red-headed stepchildren of the air-wing as the marines, but I think we enjoy that role and we take it with pride.
That's because they all want to be us.
You're killing me, Fister.
You're God damn killing me.
You know, obviously I've never been in a Navy squadron, but the marine squadrons that I've seen tend to be a little bit tighter, a little bit more rowdy, a little bit more rambunctious, I guess.
John Moss, another northern California boy, his call sign's Fungus.
Call signs are not cool.
Call signs are the anti-Christ.
Call signs are things you do when you're drunk or you do something stupid in the jet.
My call sign is Fungus.
Stands for, "[Beep.]
You, new guy, you suck.
" Yoda, who's our grumpy old bear.
They don't really care much about the pilots on this ship.
Do they, Johnny? Not a whole lot.
Call him the Silver Back.
Pretty much the hairiest guy I've ever met in my life.
There is a bombing range near Yuma, Arizona, called Yodaville.
And I went out and managed to drop a bomb square dead center in the middle of a fake little town that's been built out there.
And I wasn't supposed to be putting bombs right there, but I was pretty stressed about it as a new guy, so I got the call sign Yoda.
Hey, dodo, don't give him any places to hide his chips like last time.
Yeah, no kidding.
Let's do this thing.
Eric Jakubowski's call sign's The Big.
My last name's Jakubowski, so the big Jakubowski, just like the movie "The big Lebowski.
" Come on, Fister.
Fister's one of our more experienced pilots Brian Foster And his is just a play off his last name.
Uh, Fister Foster.
Yeah Fister? String betting fool.
Dodo? His call sign's pretty funny.
Unfortunately for him, he joined the squadron literally right as they were going off to war.
He didn't have any of his qualifications or anything, so he ended up spending most of the war standing duty for the squadron so we call him the dodo bird, or the flightless bird.
That's how we roll! What's funny is they don't know everybody's name.
You go around the air-wing, we'll know call signs and if you said the guy's name, I'd scratch my head and go, huh? Another favorite call sign in the squadron is Dahigi.
Dahigi got his call sign 'cause in Iraq he works a lot of deals on the side, so "don't ask how I got it" became his call sign.
Some of them are funny; Some of them are not funny.
From Drum Heller, it devolved to Bung Holer.
And from there, my call sign became Bung.
His last name is Hass, so we had things like Inya.
They call me Sex.
'Cause my last name is Fravor.
Get it? Favor.
Get it? Actually, there's a really good story to it.
I just can't tell you on camera.
This is what we're going to do today.
We're going to go out and deploy the gun behind the ship.
We'll roll into our 15-degree dive and basically fire bullets at the wake that the ship's making, and that's our target, so Basically evaluate how our runs are going and determine who's the better gunner.
Sorry.
I already know that.
Oh, do you? Do you, now, laddie? When was the last time you beat me in anything, Dodo? Besides poker? Ha ha! I'll see you up there.
I grew up in the Midwest in Columbia, Missouri.
All my family are farmers back home, so I was the first one to move away from Missouri, do something different, and out of there.
My father's a dairy farmer, and we never had a whole lot of money, and my parents struggled quite a bit.
So I'm a middle-class kid living a dream, basically.
302 airborne.
Launch complete, launch complete.
Two Hornets.
They're gong to come in, and they're gong to strafe the wake, which means they're going to shoot their 20-millimeter, 20 mike-mike cannon, at the wake for target practice, if you will.
Oh, here they are right there.
302 Clear radar.
Ok.
Ok.
Ok.
Should be at a little bit more of an angle.
You know, like, a Level off? Yes.
Yeah.
I didn't see any bullets that time.
Yes, sir, I saw them.
They were a little short.
Just short of the wake.
Channel 601.
Go ahead.
Battles, left alone.
You have control.
31/2 degrees, ISO, targeting the two-wire.
Targeting the two-wire.
That is fun.
I don't care who you are.
That was really cool.
We dropped multiple twos, and he came around, and I came around, and I came around and I came around raging around at 500 miles an hour.
That's pretty good [Beep.]
.
I don't care who you are.
This is me.
This is me as dash two.
This right here is the Pipper that I was trying to tell you all about.
The center is what we were trying to put on the target.
Strafe the wake Putting the piper on the wake there.
There goes the bullets.
And we're off.
That's all she wrote.
My tape did not work.
Oh, you were talking some good smack, and now we have no tape to back it up.
I know who's better.
I don't need to prove it.
Very, very interesting.
I'd say it's a good team effort.
We both win.
'Tis true.
It's a good team effort.
I saw every run in the tower, and you were short every time and Fister was long every time.
You want to see it on the tape? You want to see it on the tape? What? I don't need to see it on the tape 'cause I saw it in real life.
You can't see the wake from where we were.
Yes, I could.
I could see the wake from where I was and you were short every time.
The Captain was critiquing your pattern, too.
Oh, was he, now? What did he say, "we suck"? No.
I thought you guys were doing fine.
He was, you know, demonstrating how he wanted the pattern to be perpendicular to the way the ship was going.
The strafing was fine.
It just wasn't, like, right nuts on.
So It was good, though.
I mean, I thought it was good.
Man, I'll show you loading bombs, standing for a good 12 long hours.
Did you see that thing where it said "navy" and it said "the dream" and it showed the guy jumping out of the helo, and then it said "the reality," and it showed the guy washing the window.
Washing the window on the helo.
Out of any other shop in the Navy, a group of ordies is always the closest family.
What's missing from this table, dude? Texas Pete.
Texas Pete.
All out, hear? We stick together like you wouldn't believe.
Yeah, we go Every place we go, we go out in groups, and it's always with somebody from our shop.
That's why people when they see us, they tend to not get close to us because they just can't get in that group.
We tend to be protective of the girls.
Why am I going to returning to the intimacy class? Because I foresee you finally getting a steady boyfriend.
Oh, yeah? Yeah.
You got to learn the difference between one of those just "come here [Beep.]
" And one of those, "come on, baby, let's go and "make memories.
" Yeah, they are very protective.
Probably makes my mom happy.
Dubai.
It's right down the street.
You been there before? Oh, man, we're a mafia.
We run [Beep.]
on this boat, dude.
Does the ordie mafia exist? Uh Uh Y'all didn't hear this from me, but, yeah, it exists.
Buy me some Texas Pete, man.
We don't have it.
You got to look for some.
We don't have it.
You got to go ask somebody.
They got none on the boat.
They ain't got none in chief's mess? None in first class? Ski, best friend, he's one of the coolest guys in the shop.
Marrero, he's a good guy.
He's married, you know, a father.
You let them steal your [Beep.]
? Hodges.
Always the one who's smiling.
And the guy's happy every time I see him.
Fourteen AOs, yeah, we kind of bond like family.
See, they pretty much all my family right now.
Everybody wants to be an ordie.
That's what they always tell us.
I'm taking that one.
I requested to come to VFA-41 mostly because I didn't want to be the only female in the squadron.
What time did you get up this morning And I didn't want to first.
I was really confused.
Did you really get up at 4:30? Yeah.
I was still confused.
I'm sorry to throw you.
I'd be lying to you if I said I didn't have moments where we just shake our heads at the guys on the boat.
We say a lot to each other without saying much.
But there's definite days that you're glad you have 34 brothers and there's days that you wish you had zero.
Come on, Alex.
You know you want to play.
You want to play? No, I don't.
It's just different.
Guys are different.
Sometimes you don't want to talk about sports and flying and porn, you know? All right.
Welcome, everybody, to the "Nimitz" strike group eight-x tonight.
I learned from an early age, you know, there's gonna be no concessions for you based on the fact that you're a girl.
If anything, you need to be that much better.
Laurie is the first female pilot in the hobos ever.
It's got to be a tough spot to be in.
I can't imagine being in her shoes at this point.
You know, she's stuck in a sea of testosterone 24/7.
I feel more like a pilot than I feel like a woman because we all do the same job and we all strive to do it as well as we can.
I mean, I went to Naval Academy, so since I was 18, I've been, you know, at a 10:1 ratio.
And, you know, it's tough to work in an all-male environment just because Just the nature of it.
Critical to flying safety? Right.
Laurie is, she's a physical specimen.
I mean, she's a fantastic athlete.
She is physically a large woman.
No, these are en route.
She's a stud.
She stands out as a stud first, the fact that she's a woman, second.
She's got red hair, third, you know? Throw those all together, and she certainly, she stands out no matter where she goes.
I mean, I was always very accepted by guys because I was an athlete.
I could snowboard or I could play basketball and I could beat them at basketball.
And flying and being a pilot's the same way.
If you can fly well, if you can do your job well you regardless of gender.
Come on.
I'm pretty sure that he did.
Come on.
Should I call your wife and have her help you dress? That would be nice.
Can I go on emergency leave for that? Why don't you take off your skirt, drop your purse, and get you ass in the game, man? You ready? Finally.
Well, since we pulled out, I guess your body kind of starts to deteriorate.
I mean, just being up on the flight deck, hydraulic fluid.
It's all oils and dirts and grease that just don't leave your skin or your pores.
It worked out there better today anyway, man.
That was a [Beep.]
hot shot.
So everybody started getting heat rash from their sweat, you know, and working in grease.
I broke out with it.
I actually think it mutated into a contact dermatitis.
My face, I guess you can see where it's kind of like blotchy.
It swells up.
My forehead feels like it's like a mosaic, dry.
You just start scratching and trying to rip it off.
Itching feels great with it.
If I could do it, I'd do it all the time.
So, I'd like to go to the berthing, you know, somewhere, somewhere where it is cooler, you know, the working conditions are less are a little bit less difficult.
Good morning.
On-board "Nimitz.
" This is the XO.
It's time for cleaning stations.
Let's all hands get out and about and clean up the ship.
Get the music on, the tvs on.
Let's get the ship looking real, real good.
That is all.
That one's clear.
In primary, my responsibility as the female up here is to clean up after all the guys.
I let it sit there for, like, a week to see if they are going to throw it away, but they don't, although we have four trash cans.
Although I just made third-class petty officer, I'm still cleaning up after people, you know, just like when I was an airman, and it seems like now I'm doing it more.
But I'm supposed to be doing it less, but I feel like if I don't do it, who else is going to do it? And you could ask somebody else to do it and they'll just get an attitude and don't want to do it.
So I just go ahead and do it.
But it really ticks me off to clean up after other people.
I feel that the v-2 division is a political game, like the rest of the military.
Lieutenant Fields is our div-o.
He is the head honcho, I guess, of the v-2 division.
I feel that personal relationship kind of thing between you and the man I kind of hoped would have been a little stronger.
Told him to move to ac-3 Managing a whole bunch of young aviation bo'sun's mates is a good experience for me.
Are they rowdy? Yes.
They didn't get to become an a-b because they were, you know, valedictorian in High School.
Let's just put it that way.
But I will tell you something about the a-b rate.
I mean, they have the biggest heart, you know.
And I do what I can to take care of them.
How you doing? We need to get you in the rack? No.
Chief work you too hard? No, not too hard.
We just had some stuff last night we had to be up here with.
All right, a-b 1.
Ok.
All right.
We'll see you.
Ok.
I was trying to strike as an aircrewman, search and rescue, you know, anything to move into a better position.
It's like, "well, I'm sorry.
"You know, I can't let you go.
" You know, so I kind of have a personal problem with the guy.
You know, and haven't I worked, haven't I been your horse for long enough? You working hard there, Laulis? Yeah.
What you listening to I guess this day, I'm never going to be able to find out, you know, why the guy had to say no, you know, but I'm gonna look at it as one of the guys that helped ruin my career, you know, here in the military.
When are you gonna come see me about your stuff? What, the air crew package, sir? Yeah.
I know you've been wanting to talk to me.
I can see it in your eyes.
Yeah, you're right.
You're right.
I ran into l-t in the p-way and he said, you know, "what's up "with your air crew package," you know.
It's like, come on, man.
You know exactly how it's going.
You're the guy that said no.
Don't you remember? It's like, why would you ask me something like that? If it's just one man that could've gotten me, well, it was you, you know, and you still denied it.
Airman Laulis, he wants to be an a-w.
Unfortunately, the rate is closed up right now.
He had a little issue in the past that's also preventing him from striking that rate.
He had a career development board.
I mean, he's an awesome person.
They didn't recommend anything for him.
He'll have to wait a little bit longer for one the rate to open up, and two for that thing in the past to clear.
What happened in my past, you know, I got in trouble for underage drinking.
I guess the day that happened, you know, it was like, bam, you're automatically held back for 24 months.
I waited that time period out, and I submitted and still got turned down.
It depends on the liberty risk board.
They're the ones.
I mean first thing I did was You're powerless to the next guy that's above rank than you.
They've got you.
I mean, it's "choose your rate, "choose your fate.
" That day that Master Chief Guerrero said, "you're v-2," you know, it was like, that day I knew they had me.
You know, there's no getting out from there.
There isn't.
And they'll do anything and everything to keep you in Everything and anything.
I'm trying to figure out, I'm trying to work the system, but it's just not working for me.
You don't know how.
Teach me.
You don't know how.
Teach me.
What are you trying to do? A normal boss you can argue with.
No.
Chiefs, no, no, no, no.
That's what pisses a lot of people off 'cause even though the person's, like, stupid, you know, or they might not be right, it doesn't matter.
If you're higher rank, you're higher rank.
Hello? I just wanted to see how things are going.
I miss the hell out of you.
That sounds so funny, though.
What sounds funny? What you say.
What, "I miss the hell out of you"? You miss the hell out of me? That's funny.
Whenever I call, she doesn't really say much.
It's like she's real shy to talk to me.
It looks like she doesn't know who I am sometimes or something.
I don't know.
She doesn't have a lot in her answers, and she just laughs a lot.
Ha ha.
But it's cute.
It's the way I remember her.
I just want things to work out, man.
I don't want to go home and her just be, like, not even know who I am, you know? My worst fear is that there's another guy involved, but, I mean, I doubt that's going on with her being pregnant and all, but I don't know.
That's every guy's worst fear, man.
No, she's not bad.
You know how she is.
I know.
You know how I am, though, dude.
I know.
I worry.
I worry about everything.
I just hope I go back, you know, the kid's born, everything's fine, she moves in with me, and we just pick up where we left off, dude.
That's all I want.
Good evening, "Nimitz" and air-wing eleven.
It's a great day for flying out here today.
We'll continue with the flying.
We do this on the way across here to keep the air-wing and the deck and the air ops folks all sharp and on top of their game so when we get into theatre, we'll be ready to go.
Be aware of the heat.
I want to make sure everybody's hydrated and eating the right stuff and you're taking care of yourselves, as we get acclimated to go to the Arabian Gulf, where it's really gonna be hot over there in the middle of the summer.
I'm starving, man.
Today wasn't a bad day, dude.
I think it was all right.
I thought we had more to do.
What the hell is going on here? I don't know.
It's complete chaos.
It's like the whole Navy Organized chaos, baby.
I know, man.
Aw, man, that's a big ball of grease.
Ha ha! We're going too fast.
Too fast.
We're AOs.
We always walk fast.
I'm just anxious to get off the flight deck.
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