With all the MECEP types hanging around at my unit, it has been a "better than standards" kind of mentality wrt grooming standards. Not saying that there aren't MIDN who look $hitty....I can think of a few for sure
-
Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?
Go here:
Edit Account Details and Profile
Roger Ball, good and not-so-good questions about the world of "Paddles"
- Thread starter TheDrakester
- Start date
With all the MECEP types hanging around at my unit, it has been a "better than standards" kind of mentality wrt grooming standards. Not saying that there aren't MIDN who look $hitty....I can think of a few for sure
I would agree -- the Indy ---it ain't the America, although either would qualify as a candidate with a "sunken" east coast LSO platform and VF-33 aboard. I don't even like the sound of it ... "sunken". PLUS ... no LSO "dance" when you're standing in a hole. Zumwalt-era sideburns and a USN Photographer's Mate clinch the deal, however
:USS Independence (CV-62)
Lieutenant Michael F. Jordan (center), CAG LSO of Attack Carrier Air Wing Seven (CVW-7), and two other landing signal officers man their stations during aircraft recovery on board Independence. The carrier was operating in the Mediterranean Sea.
Photographed by PH1 Donald Grantham. Official U.S. Navy Photograph 1974
Gotta hear the engines ... big time .... especially @ night and/or during minimums recoveries.
Can't do it with cranials ...... at least none that were available in the 'ol days ....
Do LSOs have problems with hearing loss? Do ear plugs allow you to hear the engines?
. . . . . you mean like shooting a Prowler topside from Cat 4 ???
Short answer: YES.
Longer answer: in many cases, it's "temporary" and reversible. Squishy little ear plugs had not been invented when I waved or were in their infancy and not generally available, and "ears" or cotton was not an option. Again, you have to "hear" the engines ... so let the good times roll .... that was the program.
The worst part was being "caught" behind the platform screen during the last few launches prior to the recovery when someone "big" was being shot off cat #3 or #4 -- while they were in burner, I imagined it as being a close approximation of practicing for hell. Just hunker down, fingers in your ears, and close your eyes and turn your head and wait for the last bird to bang off. And you HAD to be there, as the first A/C of the current recovery would be arriving on the ball shortly after the last bird of the previous launch was airborne -- and you had to get set up and get radio checks, etc., etc., ..... that was why they called cyclic ops, cyclic ops, I guess ....
After a complete day of being the "duty" AirWing LSO and catching every recovery ... I frequently woke up the next morning with my LEFT ear full of wax. The RIGHT ear was clear. When querying a Flight Surgeon later about that, he offered the opinion that it was (probably) the body's defensive mechanism against the pounding the LEFT ear took on a daily basis.
I found it easy to pass Navy flight physicals as you could "see" the guy flipping the switch on the test box -- so I pushed the button. Or just keep pushing it every few seconds. Very scientific. No problem-O ...
When I was physicaled (is that a word? it is now ... ) at the NASA facility in Houston for one of my airlines -- yes, they put us through a complete physical at the NASA medical facility -- the Doc took one look at my hearing test and stated: "You were an LSO, weren't you"?
I asked him how he could know that, and he said:" You have LSO ear" ... a phenomenon of temporary deafness (usually
temporary ) @ 4000 cps. Again, only in the left ear --- and I was relatively "fresh" from waving when I took this physical -- maybe a couple of months prior I waved my last airplane aboard -- and fortunately for me -- he said "it will probably go away, in any case you'll have plenty of looks in the future in case it doesn't ..." and he passed me.He had been a Navy Flight Surgeon prior to employment at NASA.
And today my hearing has returned to where I can hear a flea fart on your dog from 35,000 feet.
Ah, the good ol' days.....and no "sunken" platform here:
Looks like a pretty rough bunch of pirates .... Phil Collins on the right, perhaps?? Looks even rougher as it appears the phone talker is going to wave the recovery using the MOVLAS !!!
Love them old green bags, though .... and a HUD ???? WTF is that ??? We don't NEED no STEEEEENKIN' HUD's ......
Or a Prowler right behind the LSO platform, performing a maint check, engines at any sort of power!!
so when a Marine Hornet or Prowler (not sure if that ever happens) sqdn is embarked with an airwing, do they put their own LSO's out on the platform, or does the other legacy Hornet sqdn provide LSO's? It would seem that all the training and quals to become an LSO would be overboard for a Marine aviator who might go to sea at some point.....of course maybe I am just unfamiliar/ignorant to the way the Marines deploy their jets
There are Marine LSO's and just like for everyone else it is a huge time commitment for all who volunteer: heres some cool gouge on LSO's
LSO School: Where the Teachers go to Learn
And the LSO's Prayer:
LSO School: Where the Teachers go to Learn
And the LSO's Prayer:
That's not the LSO's prayer. That is the PILOT's prayer.
The LSO's prayer is much more simple. We recited it on the platform each day and when I was at LSO school, we did it there a few times too: "Thank God I am so cool."