and the pulsing aircraft glow illuminated the deck around him. That was the signal he was ready. Wilson watched the LED display on the clock: 17:59:49… 50… 51…. The
Hornet remained stuck to the deck, burning fuel at a prodigious rate. A familiar pop and zipper sound started the
Hornet down the track, its afterburner exhaust tearing at the deck. Wilson kept his eyes on the PLAT as the
Hornet got to the end and went airborne. Another
THUNK of the Cat 3 water brake shook the ship’s frames down to the keel.
Ding ding, ding ding. The sound of four bells played over the 1MC loudspeaker, signifying 1800 hours. Valley Forge prided itself on “launching on the bells.”
Another Hornet roared off Cat 2. Olive’s husky voice sounded over the departure frequency. “Four-one-two airborne.” Wilson watched her aircraft on the PLAT, and with a positive rate of climb, she deselected burner to save fuel to remain aloft for the planned 90 minutes. The skipper launched off the waist one minute later, and Wilson recorded their times in a log book. Seven more jets to go. Wilson had to steady himself as he wrote. The ship was still moving appreciably in the heavy seas.
The marshal frequency radio crackled over the loudspeaker as the first returning aircraft began its approach: “Marshal, Spartan one-zero-three commencing out of angels six, state seven-point-eight.”
“Roger, one-zero-three, check-in approach on button fifteen.”
“One-zero-three, switching fifteen.”
The recovery commenced. Each minute, as one aircraft, with the hook down for landing, pulled power and pushed the nose over, another pilot or aircrew entered a precision realm of absolute concentration. Airspeed, heading, and rate of descent were monitored to maintain position in an exact sequence as the aircraft lined up behind the ship. More than anything else, the fuel state of each aircraft dominated everyone’s thinking.
The instrument scan, the voice calls, the procedures were rote, all trained into each pilot to become second nature, even to Sponge Bob at the beginning of this, his first deployment. Also common to all the aircrew was a level of tension that, at times, bordered on fear. Wilson knew tonight was going to be one of those bordering-on-fear nights; everyone faced low overcast with sporadic rain, a pitching deck, and unfamiliar divert fields that were over 200 miles away.
* * *
At sea, away from the cultural lighting of shore, an overcast sky at night blocks out even the moral support starlight can offer. With no discernible horizon, the sea and the sky become a whole.
