Scoop Deck blogger Lance M. Bacon just completed a 24-hour embark aboard the carrier Harry S Truman. This is the play-by-play.
ABCS (AW/SW) Ernest Taylor (left) gives Scoop Deck a full tour of the flight deck during flight ops (Photos by Lance M. Bacon)
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Scoop Deck has hooked up with ABCS (AW/SW) Ernest Taylor, the safety LCPO. We spend the next 45 minutes traversing the flight deck – 4.5 acres of controlled chaos.
Taylor has 22 years in the Navy, most of which has been spent on sea duty. The overwhelming majority of sailors on the flight deck, however, are under 21 years of age. At best, they were still in diapers when construction on Truman began April 25, 1989.
But you would never know it watching them handle the day’s mission. The crew can launch two aircraft and land another every 37 seconds in daytime, and one per minute at night. Today, Navy and Marine Hornets are launching with vigor, with an occasional E-2C Hawkeye joining the mix. They are running 10 to 11 cycles per day – about 130 launches and traps.
