“Holy shit!”
“Find Dutch and Smoke, maybe they can help the LSOs up there. Break out the premishap plan.”
“Aye, aye, sir. Dutch is up there waving now,” Prince said.
Wilson realized he was powerless to do anything. The Captain had decided to barricade Sponge, and that was that. He looked at Commander O’Shaunessy hunched over his desk with the phone receiver in one ear. He saw the PLAT crosshairs moving slowly relative to the S-3 on glide slope. Cajun is airborne. CAG isn’t here. XO isn’t here. Even if they were, he realized, they couldn’t overturn the Captain’s decision. The book says when a Hornet gets to 2.0 at night, you barricade him. The captain was nothing if by the book. Rig the barricade! Yes, sir! Aye, aye, sir!
The barricade was a nylon web net made of heavy-duty nylon bands that hung down vertically from a steel cable rigged across the landing area. It was held up by two great stanchions that lifted it some 20 feet above the deck. This allowed the aircraft to make a normal carrier approach with the barricade net stopping the aircraft. Typically, the arrestment ended with significant damage, and the pilot had no option to eject once the aircraft was caught. The pilot shut down the engines on LSO command as the aircraft crossed the ramp, which further reduced the scant 10-foot hook-to-ramp clearance. The aircraft had to roll into the net with little drift — drift would cause the aircraft and the net to veer over the side or into the jets parked alongside the foul line. Too high was disaster. If the top loading strap were to snag the hook or landing gear, the aircraft would be slammed to the deck with back-breaking force, and the fiery wreckage would slide down the angle and into the water. And once inside a certain point subjectively determined by the LSO, there was no way to wave-off. It was rare for the Navy to barricade an airplane, maybe once a decade. And when it happened, it was an event felt throughout the fleet. Hey, did ya hear Valley Forge barricaded a Hornet last night?
I can’t believe we are doing this, thought Wilson. Night, dog-squeeze weather, pitching deck barricade! If all works well, if the barricade is rigged in time, if the deck steadies out, if we don’t steam into a squall, if Shakey or Stretch give him the right sugar calls, if Sponge flies a solid pass, everything will be fine. Just trap him! He has one, maybe two looks. If he doesn’t get aboard, then eject alongside.
