Posted by
AmeriDan on Monday, November 20, 2006 9:40:12 AM
Becoming the Commanding Officer of an Aircraft Carrier is one of the
hardest things in the world to achieve. First off, you must be a pilot.
A pilot who's way of taking off is to literally be catapulted off the flight
deck- when you land, you aim for a small dot below you and pull the
throttles back to full power. You have to land at high speed because
you may miss the thick steel cable that will yank you to a stop, and have
to take off again for another try
With an empty fuel tank, because you must dump most of your fuel
before landing- in case you crash into the flightdeck loaded with people
and other planes. Get the picture? Not an easy job. But that is the easy
part, because a plane aloft is at war. Or at least training for war.
No matter if it's "peace" time or not.
So you've become a Carrier pilot and then moved up to the Top Gun
and Blue Angels rank. Now all you have to do is master every science
aboard ship. Propulsion, electronics, and on and on. Everything.
I served under three Captains while aboard Ranger:
Anthony A. Less Captain USN
A. H. Fredrickson Captain USN
W. J. Davis Jr. Captain USN
They where all brilliant people who did their hard jobs very well.
Mr. Less and Mr. Fredrickson will be spotlighted in later Ranger Tales
post. Today, we'll spotlight Mr. Davis.
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Working at the bottom of the ship, you don't see the Captain very
often. Not on a ship with over five thousand people and more then
one hundred planes and helicopters. I did get the chance to see and
talk to Captain Davis a lot though.
Commanding Officers of Aircraft Carriers are constantly watched
over by armed Marines. They have their own security team much like
the Secret Service protects the President. They, like anyone else, also
need their own private time.
I have no ideal where Capt. Less and Capt. Fredrickson would sneak
away to, but I knew where Capt. Davis went.
#2 Main Machinery Room
There are many access and exit points in a Machinery Room. Captain
Davis would tell his security detail to wait at the door on the upper
deck, then he would descend the long and steep stairs down into the
"hole". His first few visits where all "OFFICER ON DECK!!!!!!! with the
apporiate standing at attention. I would give him the V.I.P. tour and
introduce him to all of my fellow shipmates on watch.
He kept coming back, and would leave from a different exit.
Not taking into account the words of jon carrey, we military folks can
spot a trend. We have a brain that works. Believe it or not. So the
Marines upstairs and the Sailors down below knew what was going on.
He would leave them and come down to us.
No more "ATTENTION ON DECK!!!!!!!". Just a "Hello Captain Davis, how
are you doing?" He wanted it that way. It was his escape.
After a few minutes he would leave from a different access way to
shake off his security team. Only to be met by a new group of armed
Marines wherever he happened to pop up.
Captain Davis, we enjoyed your visits, but as you know- You can't
outrun the Marines. Good try though.
-AmeriDan (11/19/06 2:00pm)