CARRIER 9: ARCTIC FIRE By: Keith Douglass

thirty knots across the deck. Even if he had an aircraft ready to launch,

there was no way they were getting off the deck. Not with that wind.

And where would they go, anyway? The nearest air base was well out of

tactical range, unless the carrier launched tankers to support a divert.

No, he decided, better keep the aircraft on deck.

“Sir. A strange request from Tomcat Two-oh-one,” the operations

specialist said. He pointed toward the air boss’s communication panel.

“Button three, boss.”

The air boss picked up the receiver, acknowledged the call-up, and

listened quietly for a few moments. A slow smile spread across his face.

After a few short comments, he hung up the receiver and turned to his tower

crew. He surveyed them quickly, finally fixing his eyes on Petty Officer

First Class Berkshire. The operations specialist sported an Enlisted

Surface Warfare insignia on his neatly pressed dungaree shirt.

“Berkshire! Get over here,” the air boss said. “Time for you to lay

some of that black shoe magic on me. Here’s what I want to do …”

Thirty minutes later, the enlisted men and women had rigged up a

sound-powered phone circuit between the tower and after-steering, the

auxiliary compartment in the aft end of the ship that housed the rudder

mechanism and alternative steering capabilities.

“With the bridge and Combat out of control, I reckon that makes me

about the senior officer around,” the air boss said. He straightened and

took a deep breath. “But this is a hell of a lot different from flying an

F-14. People, you got any good ideas, I wanna hear them immediately.

Don’t make me look stupid on this.”

Berkshire, now seated in the miniboss’s chair, swallowed nervously.

“Boss, I had to stand some conning officer watches to get my pin, but

that’s been a couple of years.”

The air boss turned and glared at him. “Are you saying you don’t

remember?”

“No, it’s just that … I …”

The technician’s voice trailed off.

Berkshire started to wilt under the air boss’s glare. His hand

reached up involuntarily and touched the ESWS insignia ironed on his shirt.

It did mean something, didn’t it? His mind flashed back to the endless

hours of study, the grueling written exam, and the six-hour oral

examination he had to pass to win his water wings.

Yes, it did, he decided, feeling his confidence return. He’d survived

hours of questioning by the captain, the executive officer, and the senior

enlisted men aboard. They wouldn’t have qualified him if they didn’t

believe in him, didn’t trust him to know his stuff. And now was the time

to prove it.

“Yes, boss, I know what to do,” he said confidently. “The first thing

you want to do is shift the steering to after-steering. We’ve already done

that. Now you’ll want to test your rudder. I’ll relay your orders for you

to after-steering–put ’em in the right language, and make sure we’re not

doing anything, uh-uh-”

“Stupid?” the air boss queried. He nodded sharply. “That’s exactly

what you’re supposed to do, Berkshire. Keep me from doing anything stupid.

And don’t you forget it.”

“Right, then. The first thing you’ll want to do, boss, is order five

degrees right rudder. I’ll pass that on to them, and you watch the

repeater to make sure we change course. Then, we’ll go back the other way.

That way, we know we can maneuver. Make sure the linkages are all set

correctly.”

“Make it so,” the air boss answered, turning to his right so that he

watched the forward part of the ship.

“There’s only one thing that worries me a little, boss,” Berkshire

continued. “Usually, you want to do a visual check on both sides of the

ship to make sure there’s no traffic around you before you turn. We don’t

have a clear look at the right side of the ship, so we’re going to be

working on faith. Not a bad bet in this neck of the ocean, since there’s

not likely to be any traffic around, but it’s something to be aware of.”

“Turn this puppy right five degrees,” the air boss responded. “I’ll

take full responsibility for any mishaps.”

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *