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The primary mission of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) is to launch and recover aircraft. Day or night, this doesn’t stop. In order to facilitate that, a crew is needed at all hours.
“When the airwing comes onboard, you’ll see that about half of the flight schedule is at night,” said Cmdr. Andrew Babakan, the mini boss aboard IKE. The mini boss is second in command of the Air Department.
According to Babakan, flying at night is an essential part of a pilot’s training because adversaries operate at night.
“As long as they continue, so will we,” Babakan said.
For Air Department, everything the day crew does, the night crew does as well. However, the dangers associated with launching and recovering aircraft become amplified at night.
“Flight operations are harder to do at night,” said Babakan. “It is a perishable skill. If you don’t practice it, you’re not going to be ready when you have to use it.”
Pilots flying at night initiates a “domino effect,” where all departments need to provide night-time support starting with Air Department. This effect trickles down to every department. For example, Air Department needs Sailors to launch and recover the aircraft. Night crew Sailors need to eat, meaning Supply Department needs culinary specialists to prepare meals during these hours.
Multiple departments are awake during these hours and require personnel to provide their services to these Sailors. The list continues into every department; no department being less important than the next.
“Personnel’s night check is a necessity to the ship’s mission because every single Sailor on nights relies on the services we provide throughout the night,” said Personnel Specialist Seaman O’Donnell.
O’Donnell has been on the night check since the first fast cruise during the first week of November. He admitted the sleep schedule change was hard to overcome initially; however, he enjoys meeting all of the other night crew Sailors.
Babakan recalled a time where a night crew Sailor prevented a potentially fatal casualty from occurring. A Sailor was near the nose of an aircraft prior to take-off and noticed it was hot, although it should not have been. It ended up being a small electrical fire that had not yet set off any indicators in the aircraft.
“If the aircraft had taken off, it could’ve spread into the cockpit of the aircraft and caused loss of aircraft and loss of aircrew, a situation we clearly want to avoid,” said Babakan.
From the moment the last glimpse of sunlight dips below the horizon until the first rays of light break through the clouds overhead, IKE’s night crew ensures this mighty warship completes the mission of launching and recovering aircraft.
| Date Taken: | 12.06.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 03.12.2023 16:04 |
| Story ID: | 438804 |
| Location: | NORFOLK, VIRGINIA, US |
| Hometown: | NORFOLK, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 30 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, IKE at Night, by PO3 Ray McCann, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
