Ships at sea

Being at sea was a love hate relationship. I loved being at sea, and I hated the work.
There is no better experience than waking up, going up on deck and watching the sun rise over the ocean while smelling the salt air.

Then the world intrudes and planes start their engines and moving about the deck and up and down the elevators in an orchestrated chaos designed to launch and land aircraft on a narrow deck about 150 feet wide and 900 ft long. The ship is bigger than that but that is approximately the size of the landing area.
When it is time to launch the ship turns into the wind to enhance the ability of the aircraft to fly by lowering launch speed. It is similar to land based airports where you take off on the runway that puts the aircraft into the prevailing wind on takeoff.
As the day wears on you take turns getting lunch or order box lunches, depending on how busy you are.
After the forth or fifth launch (they run in 1.5 to 2 hour cycles) it is time to put the birds to bed and fix any problems they had during the day. This last's till the first launch of the next day. The night crew takes over and repairs what the day crew breaks.
This cycle of 12 hour shifts goes from day to day for as long as you are at sea.
The longest period i was at sea was ninety three days.
It was 1979 The Shah of Iran was deposed and the Iranian people took our embassy staff hostage and the navy was dispatched to stand off their shore as a show of force while the politicians worked on a way to resolve the hostage crisis.
We were supposed to be home by Christmas, that never happened, we spent October, November, December and part of January spinning circles in the Arabian sea, Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf.
The only ports we went to were Perth Australia and Mombasa Kenya.
The Perth visit was before the taking of the Embassy and Mombasa was just after, they decided we should have a break before the long at sea period to follow. Ninety three days from Mombasa to Yokosuka. All but the transit time was spent in or near the Persian Gulf and the Arabia Peninsula.
Someday's at the end of a launch or recovery cycle we could see land in the distance. We were told it was Oman which was an ally in the dispute with Iran.
Ahh the sea, It is so peaceful when just traveling from place to place. We still had to work on the aircraft, however the frantic pace slows down and we can do the catch up maintenance on the aircraft. Fix those things that don't affect the mission capability but need to be corrected.
Even during those periods, it is rare when the alerts aren't set.
For those who don't know what an alert is, they are aircraft that are prepped for flight and either manned or unmanned depending on the alert that is set.
Alert 5 is a Fighter manned and ready to launch in 5 minutes. Alert 15 is usually a tanker to refuel the fighter. Alert 30 is usually a bomber armed for a ground strike or a tanker.
For some rates whether the aircraft fly or not doesn't make a difference in the work schedule. Those who work below decks continue their routine whether we fly or not.
These are the black gang. The term comes from the time of the coal fired boilers, that had to be fed by hand with shovels and they were covered in coal dust. They maintain and stand watches on the power plant evaporators and generators that provide power an steam for the ship. Even in-port they have to stand their watches and monitor the boilers and generators. The only exception being in their home port when they hook to shore power and shutdown the internal power systems.
Have you ever stood on the bow of a ship and leaned into the wind and breathed the fresh salt air. We did this everyday for weeks at a time. It is exhilarating.
Unlike the sailors of sailing ships we were never more than 2 weeks from port. A modern war ship can cross the Atlantic in about 2 weeks. We often spent more time than that at sea, but we could be in port somewhere in a few days. Sailors before steam ships were often at sea for months between ports.
Food while at sea ranges from mediocre to excellent. Evening meals are usually the best, however if you are late to dinner, it may be cold canned something that tastes horrible.
There are four dinning areas on an aircraft carrier, the main enlisted mess, forward mess, officers mess and chiefs mess. There may be a fifth if the officers have a dirty shirt mess, and if the admiral is aboard he has his own private dinning area.
Enlisted (E6 and below) are restricted to the two enlisted dinning area's, the main and forward mess. forward is usually fast food, burgers, fries and so on.
Looks like I got off track again.