My poor shipmates there just came back from a 7 month deployment, a couple of weeks before they were jerked out to sea for my tests. They'd been in near constant flight ops with 2 helo's for most of that period. Can't chip n' paint in those conditions (you want the helo's to be able to take off and land
).
The ship was in a stand-down (no ops, most of the crew home with their wives and kids) period from intense operations prior to refit. That's what "rode hard and put away wet" looks like. You should see the CVN's ... Unfortunatley we had a high priority project which screwed up their normal schedule. They were very good to my team - and extremely cooperative. When I was in the Navy, we wouldn't have been. Probably thrown all the frickin civilians over the side.
The brunt of G.W.O.T is borne by units like this.
I used to always try and tell my friends who go to airshows and such, just how hard the current operational forces have it - but most don't believe me.
The pilot house picture with the "notes" is from the window right in front of the CO's chair. Those are his little "words of inspiration" for tough times. I intentionally blurred those in respect for his privacy. They were mostly emails from other Officers and Admirals.
S~
Gunny
