Rhytms....spent the day at Lex's page reading and reflecting. Long morning and then a break to the gun range with an afternoon finish. Flying? Naval Aviation? Life onboard? Read the first one and you will be hooked. Listen to the Warrior Monk.
Welcome to the “Rhythms” home page, a blogvel of sorts in several parts. The author’s attempt was to reveal elements of life aboard an aircraft carrier on the line. He had no idea it would take so long, and leave so very much untold.
Rythms.....
Putting warheads on foreheads…..
He will spend much of the next three to four months preparing himself to jump to the next level of tactical understanding through applied study of a rigorous syllabus, with academic achievement tests and standardization check rides, the latter flown with hard-eyed weapons school instructors, TOPGUN graduates, “patch wearers” men who are not his friends and not his allies. These are men who are only obliquely interested in his success – instead, they concern themselves with tactical primacy, the delicate balance of lethality and survivability, tempered aggressiveness. These are the warrior monks through whom the wingman must eventually pass at first in the middle stage of his long and continuing journey. They are the keepers of the flame, and every junior pilot is acutely aware of the trial that lies before him.
In preparation for those check rides, he will consult with those of his brothers who are senior to him, to learn from them the nuggets that led to their own success. He will lead senior aviators around the ship in training missions. Eventually, he will even lead these men in combat missions over the beach. The entire time he does so, he will be under taut evaluation, his leadership subject to instant revocation in case of an error of judgment, airmanship or leadership. Not everyone will make it – not everyone can think, and fly, for two. For that reason, before ever he leads a junior pilot anywhere, he will lead every instructor-qualified pilot in the squadron several times. He will lead the CO on training missions, talking to him as though he were the rawest nugget, fresh from the training squadron, always aware that his ability to teach and lead is what is being evaluated. He will in fact lead this XO, himself a recent TOPGUN instructor. With that in mind, Hammer 12 watches his lead very attentively. His watching is all the more intent in that, in accordance with the custom of the single-seat fighter tribe, no extraneous communications are permitted. No earnest questions. No careful explanations. He’d heard it before, they all had: You’ve got a question? Take notes. Ask me in the debrief. All I want to hear from you is, “Two,” “Mayday,” and “Lead you’re on fire, eject.”
Rythems part XXXII
http://www.neptunuslex.com/2005/10/09/rhythms-part-xxxii/
