By Journalist 1st Class Daniel A. Bristol, USS Theodore Roosevelt Public Affairs
ABOARD USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT (NNS) -- The flight deck personnel on board USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) reached a major milestone Dec. 12.
In just 50 days they performed 10,000 aircraft moves without any mishaps.
According to Air Department’s V-1 Division Leading Petty Officer Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (Handling) 1st Class Brian Ratcliff, most aircraft carriers achieve this many moves in an average of four or five months.
Jets are parked within inches of each other, so precision is a must. “Everyone in V-1 who works on the flight deck acts as a safety observer, making sure there are no "crunches," which is when two aircraft hit each other,” said Ratcliff.
According to Ratcliff, the flight deck directors formulate a plan and are ready to go as soon as they know when and how many jets are launching and landing. They plan where each jet needs to be for each evolution, and with the help of all who work on the flight deck, everything has come together precisely.
“Working on the flight deck is a very demanding, very hard and very physical job. It’s a lot of back-breaking, hard work,” said Ratcliff. “Our guys in Air Department are constantly running across the flight deck all day long in all kinds of weather moving and tying down all the aircraft.”
Just like a well oiled machine operates without any glitches, the flight deck personnel worked long, hard hours as an effective team to meet the milestone of 10,000 aircraft moves without any crunches.
