![\"\"](\"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/789px-A-7E_VA-37_landing_on_USS_Saratoga_CV-60_1980.jpg\" "\\"789px-A-7E_VA-37_landing_on_USS_Saratoga_(CV-60)_1980\\"")
<\/a>VA 37 A-7E trapping aboard Sara<\/p><\/div>\n
A little more than 20 years ago, that phrase also excited me.\u00a0 However, I was going to a different ship and I was \u201cgetting aboard\u201d in a very different manner.\u00a0 Nah, I was not going to walk the gangway to board my cruise ship; I would be making a \u201cball call\u201d and a landing signal officer (LSO) would respond in the time honored tradition of, \u201cRoger ball!\u201d<\/p>\n
Then I would slam onto the deck at about 133 knots.\u00a0 Or, for those who prefer miles per hour, 153 mph.<\/p>\n
What an exciting time!\u00a0 During the day, flying around the boat in good weather was great fun.\u00a0 In fact, it was so much fun it should have been illegal.\u00a0 I am sure I would have paid as much as required to have all the fun.\u00a0 Of course, we did have to pay quite a hefty fee for all the daytime fun; the nighttime operations were pretty hairy indeed.<\/p>\n
The job became even more interesting when the deck was pitching and rolling.\u00a0 When it was really<\/em> pitching and rolling, that was when the LSOs truly earned their money.\u00a0 They were responsible for keeping the rest of us in the Air Wing out of trouble on the blunt end of the boat.<\/p>\nThere was another set of aviators and sailors who were also good at keeping tactical jet aviators out of trouble.\u00a0 They were the helicopter pilots and rescue swimmers.\u00a0 Every time I had a chance to do something good for the helo pilots and their crews, I always took the opportunity.\u00a0 They were one bunch of gentlemen I wanted to be sure knew me by name and face.\u00a0 If ever I had to jump out of my Corsair at sea, I wanted to know they would work extra hard because they knew I was the guy who bought them beer at the last port of call.<\/p>\n
As I sit here tonight, I wonder what ports of call my friend, Ashley, is destined to visit.\u00a0 I do know there will be vast differences between her cruise boat and mine.\u00a0 The boat I cruised on was very large; in fact, very few ships are larger than a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier.\u00a0 We also did not have alcoholic beverages with umbrellas in them.\u00a0 There were also no slot machines on any of the decks of the carrier.<\/p>\n
The nicest thing about Ashley\u2019s boat, however, is the fact her boat will not have airplanes landing on the roof at all hours of the night and day.<\/p>\n
-30-<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2011 J. Clark<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We have the ability today to stay in contact immediately with anyone around the globe.\u00a0 Facebook is a case in point.\u00a0 As I was thinking of a topic for tonight\u2019s blog, I stopped in on Facebook to check in and … Continue reading →<\/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":[3,6,8,9],"tags":[247,329,339,363,441,1051,1157,1348,1468,1473,1584,1812,2055,2124,2355,2391,2505,2557,2558,2795,2897,3040,3126,3437,3632,3707,494,515,557,581],"class_list":["post-2705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aviation","category-flying-2","category-life-in-general","category-personal","tag-a-7e-corsair","tag-airplanes","tag-airspeed","tag-altitude","tag-at-sea","tag-cruising","tag-discipline","tag-facebook","tag-flying","tag-flying-around-the-boat","tag-friends","tag-helicopter-pilots","tag-judgment","tag-landing-signal-officer-lso","tag-memories","tag-military-service","tag-navy","tag-nighttime-operations","tag-nimitz-class-aircraft-carrier","tag-pilots","tag-professional-pilots","tag-rescue-swimmers","tag-sailors","tag-tactical-jet-aviators","tag-the-deck-was-pitching-and-rolling","tag-the-guy-who-bought-the-beer-at-the-last-port-of-call","tag-ball-call","tag-getting-aboard","tag-roger-ball","tag-were-going-to-the-ship"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2705","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=2705"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3123,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2705\/revisions\/3123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}