My Life Aboard

Its a stand alone story, but would make a bit more sense to read A Profound Place first.



I enjoyed my time in the navy. The schooling I received in electronics set me on the path my life took, designing computers. On my first cruise I discovered I could “Feel” the ship and I loved it. The vibrations were there because 150,000 HP turning four screws (propellers) pushing 47,000 tons of aircraft carrier at 18 knots (21 MPH) through the water vibrates.

I spent hundreds of hours lying on a catwalk hanging off the side of the aircraft carrier I was stationed aboard, my hands palm down on her feeling the power and marveling at the sky and the infinity of stars. I discovered later that I could really only see about 2,000 of them.

I maintained a large radar used for seeing what’s out there for 300 miles in all directions so the ship sat in the center of a 600 mile diameter radar circle and nothing on the surface could sneak up on us. Our air search radar covered the same range so nothing could approach that way either and the ship had been rebuilt with hunting and killing enemy subs in mind so we were covered under the water too, but not quite as far.

The equipment for one of the radars I worked on was located just below the admirals bridge in the forefront of the island structure, the big tower sticking up on the flight deck. There was a hatch to get out and a catwalk I could sit on and see flight operations with the vantage point the captain had. I could see everything on the forward flight deck.

The planes you see in the picture are covering the starboard side catapult and my perch was on the fore of the island, 30 feet from the planes taking off.

The ship would turn into the wind then up speed to 25 knots or so to launch aircraft.. If surface wind is at 10 knots and we are cruising at 25 I have a 35 knot wind in my face. They calculate the weight of the plane and the catapult adds just enough “Ummpff” to get the plane to flight speed by the time it reaches the end of the flight deck.

Sometimes they miscalculated and things got very exciting; the pilot would blow the canopy of the aircraft then eject, riding a rocket at 10 plus gravities of acceleration and the plane usually fell off into the ocean. Man overboard was called and the ship slowed and started a turn to stay close to the pilot.

One or two of the destroyers we had for escort protection would go to general quarters and head into the rescue. They always had a rescue helicopter ready and it would be airborne in a couple minutes. I saw that happen once.

To launch the plane wound its engines up to full power and it added another 20 or more knots of speed to the wind slamming into me. it was cool for propeller driven aircraft, but almost uncomfortably hot sometimes if it was a jet. The propeller exhausts had a more oily smell to them because they didn’t burn the hydrocarbons as well. I had to change clothes down to skin and shower every time because of the stink of unburned fuel. I was probably explosive by that point if someone had struck a match

An added feature was the 5 inch gun mount that was on the starboard side just fore of the island structure. Sitting out there watching target practice was marvelous. With the gun pointed directly away from me on a clear day when that thing went off several things happened over approximately 5 seconds; first a black dot that quickly shrank to nothing against the sky, the tail end of the 5 inch round they’d just fired, there was usually in a smoke ring that expanded and moved away rapidly. Next was sound, very loud and followed quickly by a pressure wave.

If I’d forgotten shooters ear muffs the sound and pressure wave, which was quite hot at times, would hit me like a soft hammer and and simply turn off my ears. I couldn’t hear for minutes afterwards. I only did that once and only stayed for one shot. Even with the muffs my ears rang for minutes afterwards. A really dumb thing to do actually, about 6 years ago my ears started singing and I hear a constant 19 kilohertz buzzing. Tinnitus.

Four and a half seconds later I could see the splash of the round hitting the water 5 or 6 miles away. The gun had a 15 mile range and if they were shooting at a target sock towed behind an aircraft it went past the 11 mile horizon seen from the flight deck and I didn’t see it hit.

I probably did that 50 or 60 times and every time I would come away so filled with power I thought I’d explode. I wasn't supposed to be there, but I was never caught. Sometimes at night I lie staring up into that black infinity over my bed and remember. I can bring back the vibrations and smells and sounds with pictures and movies playing on my closed eyelids and feel a tremendous sadness. I miss it right then and badly want to go back because the memories are fading.

I plan on making it a stop when I finish my time machine.