Looking For Navy Veterans with Stories or Video to Share
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
Have you lived on an aircraft carrier or have a family member who has? In conjunction with the Carrier series starting April 27, 2008, we’re looking for a few good stories or video to share with viewers.
Click here for more: http://www.thirteen.org/carrier/
2 Responses to “Looking For Navy Veterans with Stories or Video to Share”
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My husband is active duty navy. He is currently on a 7 month deployment. His ship is engaged in daily combat operations. He has been in for 14 years and he has many different career path’s in the Navy. When he first started out he was on the carriers but then changed career path’s. Although enlisted my husband always had dreams of flying and was able to do so as an FE on the PE Orion and as an air crewman on a cod. As exciting as it is being on an air craft carrier is, it also gets old really quickly. Working 12 hour shifts every day until you get a few days off for a port call which can happen as often as every 30 days or so, but my husband’s ship has missed their last 2 port calls so I can imagine they are all just itching to get off. There are a lot of exciting things that he has been able to witness and do. But as with anything he misses us, and can’t wait to get home.
I servved aboard an aircraft carrier the USS Essex,CVS-9, life aboard a carrier can be both dangerous and tedious depending where you are , the flight deck where i spent much of my time is as described”controlled Chaos”for the time the announcement of flight operations begins you need 10 pairs of eys and your head constantly in motion.I was also on flight duty assigned to the COD plane, if the flight deck isnt hairy enough , the being catapulted off and then an arrested landing can certainly put an apple in your throat . first time i saw the shp from the air it looked like a postage stamp, and it grows large in a hurry. Between launch and recovery , those blessed moments if you have no assignment you try and find a spot out of the wind or sun for a few winks, under a wing if you are licky.Night time on the flight deck is a whole differenr world.After operations was when the tedium set in ,especially after 3 or 4 months away from home . we did not havge any of the amenities and activities available today, so we speent our time playing cards , studying and the repeat the process all over again, Foreign ports were really great,beer, girls and sight seeing.But the homeward leg was always the best, tyhat hopefull anticipation as we cruised closer to home. In 1963 on our return home we ran smack into the worst storm in the north atlantic in 100 years, middle of the night we were awakened to generat quarters, the main mast had snapped and 17 tons oof it falling across the flight deck crushing two jets,we had the fuel pouring into the ship, 13 days, battered but still floating and listing we made home port and then th Brooklyn Navy Yard for 3 months of repairs.I would never trade my experiences in the navy and certainly have given me a lot of good memories.