{"id":181,"date":"2010-08-16T10:00:25","date_gmt":"2010-08-16T14:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joeclarksblog.wordpress.com\/?p=181"},"modified":"2018-06-27T21:43:17","modified_gmt":"2018-06-28T01:43:17","slug":"vacuum%c2%a0cleaners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/?p=181","title":{"rendered":"Vacuum\u00a0Cleaners"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My friend Mike commented he wanted to \u201csee\/hear\u201d more A-7E stories.&nbsp; I read his email just before going to sleep last night, so of course, I was thinking of the days of the Corsair as I drifted off to sleep.&nbsp; As a result, I spent another night at sea\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes a night at sea is a good thing, sometimes not.&nbsp; Depending on how the weather is in my dreams, and the sea conditions, as well as my fuel state.&nbsp; If the weather is good, I am flying around during the day, the sea is calm, and my fuel state \u201cabove the ladder,\u201d it is a good night at sea.&nbsp; I have had those other nights at sea, however, when the deck was pitching, the weather was bad, and gas was a question.&nbsp; Those are not good nights \u2013 in both my dreams as well as back in the days of real life.<\/p>\n<p>We referred to the S-3 Viking affectionately and sometimes coldly as \u201cThe Hoover,\u201d short for Hoover vacuum cleaner.&nbsp; This was because of the way the engines sounded.&nbsp; But there was also a sinister side to the Viking and all the other jets onboard any carrier.&nbsp; Just like the Viking\u2019s unofficial moniker, every turning jet engine on a flight deck was a dangerous vacuum cleaner waiting to suck down any hapless crewman walking by.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Man sucked into A-6 Intruder jet engine intake\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5jxcSY1AwrM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n(Found at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=5jxcSY1AwrM\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=5jxcSY1AwrM<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Late one afternoon, we were practicing before going to The Gulf by preparing to launch a strike against Southern California.&nbsp; It was going to be a great flight.&nbsp; My A-7 was loaded with six Mk 82 GP \u201cslicks\u201d and two \u2019Winders.&nbsp; Five hundred fifty rounds of high explosive incendiary (HEI) 20mm canon rounds complete my ordnance load.&nbsp; This was a mission everyone wanted to be a part of and we were all consuming a steady concoction of adrenaline and \u201ccan do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I finished up with my cockpit duties and looked up to realize there was only one airman standing in front of my jet twirling his fingers.&nbsp; While that sounds like someone who is slacking, it was actually a very important part of his job.&nbsp; Typically, four to six airmen would stand around in front of the intake of a turning jet holding their hands up and twirling their fingers.&nbsp; This was the universal sign the engine they were standing watch over was a live jet engine.&nbsp; This warned others on the flight deck the intake area of the jet was dangerous.&nbsp; This was important because it was difficult to tell which engines were turning on a flight deck packed with 90 jets.<\/p>\n<p>I exchanged looks with my solitary airman.&nbsp; Both he and I knew this was not a good situation and there should be others helping him keep my intake clear.&nbsp; As we are telepathically having this conversation, I looked to my right and see a senior chief walking down the line of other A-7s; he passes just in from the intakes of each jet.&nbsp; If he continues on his present path, my jet engine will suck him into the intake.<\/p>\n<p>I look at the airman in front of my jet.&nbsp; Then I look back to the senior chief.&nbsp; The airman looks at the senior chief also.&nbsp; We again have a telepathic conversation \u2013 we both know the senior chief is about to become grub for the TF-41 turning tens of thousands of rpm in the bowels of my jet.&nbsp; My left hand pushes the power control lever (PCL) outboard.&nbsp; I am primed to shut down the engine if the senior chief gets any closer.&nbsp; Both the airman and I know that if I shut down this jet, we will lose the mission.&nbsp; There\u2019s no way we can get this jet ready again in time for the launch.<\/p>\n<p>I am about to yank the PCL aft to shut down when my airman, who is probably 19 years-old, 6 foot 2, and about 220 pounds, breaks his position and tackles the short, 160 pound senior chief.&nbsp; They both go to the deck and the senior chief pops up first with clenched fists in a fighting stance ready to beat the hell out of the kid who just took him down.<\/p>\n<p>My airman has an apprehensive look on his face.&nbsp; He starts twirling his fingers and moves back into position in front of my jet.&nbsp; The senior chief turns and looks up to the cockpit and our eyes meet.&nbsp; Suddenly he understands, looks a little sheepish, and raises his hands. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>He starts twirling his fingers and takes his position with my airman.<span id=\"_marker\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%; font-family: &amp;;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\">-30-<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%; font-family: &amp;;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\"><em>\u00a9 2010 J. Clark<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My friend Mike commented he wanted to \u201csee\/hear\u201d more A-7E stories.&nbsp; I read his email just before going to sleep last night, so of course, I was thinking of the days of the Corsair as I drifted off to sleep.&nbsp; &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/?p=181\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,9],"tags":[247,408,1435,1687,2208,3114,3519,3715,4142],"class_list":["post-181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-flying-2","category-personal","tag-a-7e-corsair","tag-another-night-at-sea","tag-flight-deck","tag-good-night-at-sea","tag-live-jet-engines","tag-s-3-viking","tag-tf-41","tag-the-hoover","tag-vacuum-cleaners"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=181"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5746,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181\/revisions\/5746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}