My imagination boggles when I think of the level of concentration displayed by not only the pilot of the aircraft approaching its moving target, but all the others who work in step with others to bring their multi-million dollar rides down to rest at precisely the right moment and position on their never motionless multi-billion dollar floating airfield...The pilot must not only keep his or her aircraft steady at a prescribed rate of descent and decreasing speed, but must remain alert for signals from the ship's traffic controllers who have the final say in whether the recovery is a go, or whether to abort and circle around for another attempt...In the case of the F/A-18 fighter, its driver must also remember that his ride was designed to fly at supersonic speeds, and doesn't necessarily perform at its best at carrier approach speeds, usually 150-165 mph...He must also bear in mind that the goal line is also moving forward against the prevailing wind at a speed of 40-50 mph...
If the traffic controller onboard the carrier does not feel the aircraft can make a safe landing (considered by most to be a controlled crash at best), the pilot is waved off for another attempt...In this case the pilot must remember that he is seldom alone in the air, and while circling for another try at recovery, the air is already crowded by those others who flew with him in his mission, and that they are awaiting their chance to be back aboard their home...In addition, flying at their own predetermined altitudes and tracks, are the aircrews of the unarmed EA-18G Growler versions of their own fighter, equipped for electronic warfare, and probably a Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeye which was launched from the same carrier to maintain its AWACS function, as well as at least one F/A-18 which was launched unarmed but carrying three fully loaded external fuel tanks prepared to act as a flying gas station when a landing must be aborted by an aircraft with not enough fuel for another attempt...Another possibility for airborne interference could be a rescue helicopter prepared to recover an aircrew forced to eject before a successful recovery...
The foregoing scenario would be enough to induce the early onset of old age in the more timid souls who remain earthbound for their existence, but is routine business for the professionals of the US Navy...Now imagine the same scene taking place in darkness, during a thunderstorm and possibly in the vicinity of an active enemy force...The same goal is there for the incoming aircrew, possibly bringing in a stricken or damaged aircraft hoping for a chance to land, be debriefed over coffee, sleep and repeat the same job a few hours later...This is compounded by the necessity to bring home all those support aircraft still in the sky after the last of the combat crews come in, all this in day or night, in any kind of weather, and in the presence of those ships surrounding the aircraft carrier, the cruisers and destroyers which make up its protective screen, any one of which could be mistaken in poor visibility for the targeted mother ship...At the same moment a combat air patrol (CAP) must maintain its launch and recovery schedule in its own mission to defend the ships under it...
But to those engaged in the business of defending our nation, it's all just another day on the job, and that job is being performed around the clock in all the world's oceans where somewhere you can be assured, conditions are dark and stormy...But these people, from aircrews, to commanders, to deck crews and all those in support of the mission, are all continuously trained to perform their jobs proficiently...Millions of defense dollars are spent constantly in that training...The knowledge that was imparted during that training was paid for at an even greater cost...It may be embedded in textbooks and software now, but it was bought and paid for by those who first lived it in battle, some who came home to talk of it, and some who couldn't because their actions were only witnessed by others at the time of their deaths...
Much of this subject was learned the hard way during the Battle of the Philippine Sea, 6/19-20/1944, sometimes referred to as the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot...It was a resounding victory by US forces against the Japanese Imperial Navy, but also came at a terrible cost in lives...The Marianas Islands were secured for Allied forces during that battle, and paid for with the lives of at least 109 Americans who could not celebrate their own victory...But it might not have even happened if not for the uneasy decision made by Adm. Mark Mitscher to strike the newly discovered JIN carrier force knowing that a night recovery by the striking air groups would become likely...As the returning aircraft approached, Mitscher also made the unprecedented decision to illuminate his carriers for the recovery as night landings at sea were never an event trained for by his aircrews...The success of this battle was the beginning in a new era of naval training...A more detailed contemporary telling of this decisive battle can be found in Volume VIII of Samuel Morison's monumental History of US Naval Operations In WWII...
We're coming up on Memorial Day as I compose this, and it is appropriate to think of all the brave souls who launched from their floating homes, never to return to it, and those who gave life and limb to teach what today's aviators take as common knowledge in their everyday actions...
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