I am a retired Navy veteran of 21 years working in CSC’s Global Security Solutions. I deployed on two separate occasions to USS Nimitz from Naval Security Group Activity, Athens, Greece to fly with Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron II (VQ-2) aboard the Navy’s biggest, heaviest and fastest aircraft without afterburners in the inventory. That aircraft was the EA-3B Skywarrior, known as the “Whale,“ and it had a complement of seven crew members. It was the oldest plane in the Navy inventory and saw service from 1954 through 1991.

It was a no-frills plane without ejection seats, which meant the crew had to bail out the belly in an emergency. On that deployment I met some great Navy fliers, especially one named Rick Herzing. He taught me everything about the aircraft, which enabled me to become the in-flight Plane Captain and allowed me to sit up in the cockpit back-to-back with the Pilot.

Because of all the Cats and Traps along with vibration and excessive flight hours I have had four lower back discs removed and now have two twelve inch rods and eight screws holding me together and some days are good and some are bad. I’ve ridden Submarines and Surface Combatants, but if asked if I would do it over again being a flier, you bet I would!!!! It was by far the greatest thrill of my life next to finding and marrying my beautiful, supporting wife.

John J. Elko
CSC Security Specialist/Certifier
Global Security Solutions
Global Network Security
Annapolis Junction, Maryland

I was Program Manager for the CVN 21, Future Aircraft Carrier Program, from August 2003 through November 2007. In this capacity, I was responsible for technology development, design and the procurement of the Gerald R. Ford Class aircraft carriers to replace USS Enterprise and the Nimitz Class carriers.

I was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1981 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering. I received my Commission in the United States Navy through the NROTC Scholarship Program, and earned a Master of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California in 1989.

I served as Boilers Officer and Damage Control Assistant in the USS William V. Pratt (DDG 44), followed by an assignment in 1984 as an engineering instructor at Surface Warfare Officer School Command in Newport, Rhode Island, and was assigned as Chief Engineer in USS Charles F. Adams (DDG-2) from 1989 through 1990, in Mayport, Florida.

In 1991, I was designated an Engineering Duty Officer, and was assigned to the Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Conversion and Repair, Jacksonville, Florida, as Ship Repair Officer and Aircraft Carrier Project Officer, supervising maintenance availabilities on USS Forrestal and USS Saratoga. In 1993, I was assigned to Commander Naval Air Force Pacific Fleet in San Diego, California as Aircraft Carrier Maintenance Officer, responsible for maintenance and modernization on USS Independence, USS Kitty Hawk and USS Constellation. I later served as Main Propulsion Assistant, then Chief Engineer in USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) from 1996 to 1999, moving the ship from San Diego, California to permanent forward deployed status based in Yokosuka, Japan.

I then reported to Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, San Diego, California as Shore Systems Installation Manager in 1999. In August 2000, I reported to Program Executive Office Aircraft Carriers, as Assistant Program Manager for Aircraft Carrier Refueling Complex Overhauls, supervising delivery of USS Nimitz, overhaul of USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and planning for USS Carl Vinson, and in August 2003 I assumed responsibility as Program Manager, CVN 21 Future Aircraft Carriers Program.

I joined CSC Dec. 1, 2007.

Michael Schwartz
Chief Engineer
Advanced Marine Center
Washington, D.C.

I was 20 years old, about to graduate from a small college in Iowa, engaged to the young lady I had met my sophomore year and on my way to grad school when the draft notice came in the mail. My dad had been a Navy pilot in WWII and stayed for 20 years because he loved flying. I ran down to the Navy recruiter and signed up. I was accepted into Aviation Officer Candidate School and upon graduation reported to flight training. This is where your first carrier landings take place. We practiced for hours and when the day finally came, the six landings and catapults on the USS Lexington (she had a wooden flight deck !!) were over in what seemed a flash. You concentrate so hard and intensely that you don’t have time to ponder the event, just do what you had been training for the past six weeks. After getting my wings and graduating, my reward was to report to Meridian, Mississippi to begin training students in their first jet. Can you imagine someone training you that had only 250 hours of total flying time? Pilot shortages forced different thinking, and myself and two others were chosen to see if someone just graduating could turn around and train others. The program worked and is still in place today. With the Vietnam war going and a pilot shortage, we flew three flights a day every day, with an occasional day off. This was difficult since I had just gotten married and my wife had to share me with airplanes.

After a year of instructing, I received orders to Virginia Beach to begin transition to the F4 Phantom, the Navy’s top of the line Fighter and also used extensively by the Air Force. This training culminated with 16 carrier landings on the USS John F Kennedy, of which six were at night, my first experience with night landings. Unbelievable is the only word to explain landing a 20-ton jet going 160 miles an hour on a moving, rolling, heaving ship a few hundred miles from land with no horizon, stars or sense of up from down except your instruments. Oh, the acceptable landing area was 20 feet wide and 100 feet long: too short and you flew into the back of the ship, too long and you missed the arresting wires.

After F4 Phantom training I reported to my first squadron, VF 74, the fighting “Bedevilers” on the USS Forrestal. Pilots on the Carrier have real jobs, besides the flying. I was placed in charge of the “line division” in the squadron. The Line Division had 105 young sailors, average age 19 years old. They owned the squadron’s airplanes, literally. Each aircraft had a plane captain. He was responsible for that multi-million dollar F4 Phantom. He washed it, sat in it when it was moved and even slept in it on long days. He had his name painted on the side below the pilot’s. Nobody could work on it without his OK. He checked that the aircraft was properly fueled, checking for water in the fuel, oil, hydraulics, tires, clean windscreen, you name it, he was responsible. When you manned up to fly he presented you with a checklist of everything he had checked on the plane and then signed the bottom. The pilots took these 19 year kids for their word and manned up. This was one of many lessons I really learned out of college in the Navy. If you give a young person the responsibility and accountability, then trust them with a multi-million fighter and your life, they will never let you down. Never, never, never. They would rather die than let you down. This was true in the line division and every other division in the squadron. Every squadron trusted the others and the Airwing trusted the folks assigned to the Carrier to do the same. 5,000 people, all at risk if one person did not do their job correctly. Thousands of young men, and now women as well, some of them not old enough to vote or drink, but doing something of such responsibility for their age that you will never see anywhere else.

The next dozen years flew by, always on cruise or getting ready for another cruise. On USS America, we left Norfolk for Vietnam. A cruise just short of a year, ten line periods flying into Route Pack 6, the most dangerous part of North Vietnam. Everyone racking up 100-200 combat missions. Some Airwings losing a third of their aircraft and the number of POW’s running into the hundreds. All the time, young men doing their jobs in hot miserable places with no air-conditioning and often no water for showers. The planes got washed before the people when the water was short. When you were not flying the fighter pilots manned up in the alert 5, at least two fighters and a tanker to refuel them airborne, ready to launch within five minutes notice. Always set whenever there were not fighters airborne. Fighters were airborne or on alert manned ready to go in 120 degree temperature in the Indian Ocean or with snow on the flight deck and everyone freezing in the Northern Pacific in the winter, 24/7 for an entire cruise of 6-10 months. Once the Carrier leaves homeport it is in a constant state of flying or ready to fly until they get home months later. My tenth wedding anniversary was at sea, deployed, 14 of the first 20, also at sea. That is life in the Navy. Christmas at home was savored like the birth of a child. Homecomings and fly-ins replaced Holidays and other events as the most important and treasured of memories

After the war I was assigned to Grumman Aircraft Corporation doing acceptance flight testing of the then new F14 TOMCAT. Then back to sea with many cruises on the USS Enterprise, commanding Fighter Squadron 114, the “Aardvarks.“ Then command of VF 124, the F14 Training Squadron, and later the Navy Fighter Weapons School, more commonly called “TOPGUN.“ Later I commanded Airwing 14 during Desert Shield and Desert Storm. After a quick tour at the White House I was back to sea on the USS Nimitz, USS Abraham Lincoln and other Carriers. I commanded the USS Abraham Lincoln Battle Group, including over 18 ships and 30,000 sailors able to strike anywhere in the world, totally independent for months on end, if required. Always flying, always excited to be working with people who may not be able to define “teamwork” but nevertheless saw it and did it every day, often for months on end.

Let there be no doubt, the 41/2 acres of the carrier deck is the most dangerous place on the planet. Sometimes 24-30 aircraft all with engines running, jet fuel being pumped, rockets, missiles and bombs all loaded ready to go. Then as soon as they launch the previous launch recovers. While landings are taking place the returning jets are being fueled, checked and loaded for another mission. One second of inattention can kill many, including yourself. There are more ways to be killed or injured on the flight deck during flight operations than you can imagine. On the other hand it is also 41/2 acres of sovereign US territory that can go anywhere in the world and never have to ask permission or explain their movements. My tour at the White House reaffirmed the question that is always the first asked when a crises happens, “Where are the Carriers?“  Someone asked me about the cost of a Nuclear Aircraft Carrier. My reply was that the new Denver Airport cost $14 Billion and the last nuclear power plant built cost $9 Billion. With an nuclear aircraft carrier you get an airport and 2 nuclear plants for only $5 Billion, a steal in my mind.

Looking back I figure somewhere close to 5,000 days or 167 months or over a dozen years was spent at sea on aircraft carriers. North of 1,100 carrier landings (one less landing than takeoff, another story). One half of my life spent in the Navy. I would not trade the worst day of that time because of the opportunity to work with the most dedicated, trusted team players and leaders I have ever met in my life. In the Navy you don’t make friends, you make friends for life.

I joined CSC in 2000 and am very proud that we’re sponsoring this PBS event. I hope you watch the series and tell your friends.

RADM (Ret.) Jay B. Yakeley
CSC Navy and Marine Corps Business Development
Falls Church, Va.

I joined the Navy in 1985. I spent five whole days in DEP [the Delayed Entry Program], and two days after my 19th birthday was sent to boot camp in Orlando, wondering what I had just got myself into! Women weren’t serving on combatant ships at that time, so I had my concerns about where I was to go – but surely knew wherever it was I was destined was purposeful. I regret nothing and sometimes wish I could go back!

Although I was not stationed aboard the USS Nimitz, I did spend two fantastic years aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN75) as my last tour of duty, my last deployment and my third ship. Being aboard was interesting enough – as many people saw it – being both aboard a carrier and a woman. I saw it as being aboard and a sailor – with a job to do! I never really played the part as a woman nor did I use it. I was a Chief Petty Officer – a sailor who wore the same coveralls! But in other uniforms the only difference between me and any one of my female sailors with the males was the fact I buttoned my uniform on the other side. We approached the same jobs or tasks with the same vigor and determination any sailor would have.

I always felt I had pretty fantastic jobs onboard each ship – but aboard the Truman I was Leading Chief Petty Officer of the ADP Shop – the unclassified network – the LAN! I was responsible for e-mail and Internet access for the entire ship to include embarked squadrons and staff – it made me feel like I had so much power! Everyone knew who I was from the Admiral on down – they all called me Chief Z. For a few months, I was the only Chief and actually the only khaki running the ADP shop, with about 35 sailors under me to manage and maintain the network for the entire ship. My DIVO [Division Officer] had transferred and new DIVO hadn’t arrived onboard yet. This was an exhilarating time as it was the Admiral’s Staff, DESRON Staff, all embarked squadrons, not to mention the 3000+ ship’s company whose morale let alone ease of their jobs by the service we provided was partly on my shoulders and my crew! We incorporated the embarked units’ IT technicians in our shop to aide in the trouble calls and managing the embarked units from my shop. There were very few who didn’t count on the network/computers to do their day-to-day jobs! Of course, when it went down or we lost connection and heaven forbid the Internet connection was lost – IT WAS CHIEF Z’s FAULT! – I would get the gripes and take it as part of the job – and use it the next time I needed “extra” supplies or something done for my sailors . If the ship took a power hit, they would see me running to the shop to make sure the servers were OK and the UPS kicked in – a lot of people would clear the passageways when they saw me coming as they knew I had to be in ADP so they could surf the net! Kind of funny – but important to know I was the one they could go to for that service.

The USS Truman entering the Mediterranean through the Straights of Gibraltar during the ’04-’05 cruise.

I had some pretty good collateral jobs too. Not only was I the only khaki in the ADP shop, managing it pretty well, I was also the only Combat Systems chief to step away from the traditional role on the Combat Systems Training Team to lead the Damage Control Training Team for the repair locker on the Island. This was right below the flight deck and our area of responsibility was the entire island – all the way up to the top of the mast. I had little experience as a firefighter – but after some schooling and with the help of some fantastic Damage Control men behind me, let alone the brotherhood of the Chief’s Mess, it was our locker that performed so well for the work ups prior to cruise – the stuff we were graded on was in my locker, and we scored very, very high! Not too shabby! The XO didn’t seem to mind my briefs as I always started out by saying the next drill is to train the trainer as I pointed at myself!! He chuckled but knew with my management skills, we could do pretty well, and told me so as I did pretty well for the whole time I was there. Again, one of the few female Leads, but did it with pride, vigor and yes, I miss it so much!

I finished my 20th year to the day in August 2005, onboard CVN75, my first carrier, but my third ship and entered the Fleet Reserves. I earned my Aviation Warfare wings onboard – and that was a fun time. One of our study groups’ members was the Command Master Chief – who was also shooting for his wings. We had some humorous times in the Chief’s Mess, which provided the training. It took me and Frenchie about three months – not exactly sure – to earn the wings, but we sat the board together and actually helped each other out! Getting my wings helped pass the time during the deployment, and it was – and is – so good to say I did it!

I am blessed and honored serving with those committed to the preservation of freedom. I take pride in patriotism and enjoy the fact I can still continue to serve, this time without wearing the khaki, but knowing I am still a Chief Petty Officer in the world’s greatest fraternity, let alone world’s greatest military. Many thanks are the least I can say to all who served, sacrificed and to those still serving, to include family members, and those that have gone before me.
Jennifer Zearley ITC (SW/AW), USN (Ret.)
CSC Knowledge Solutions Project Officer
Defense Acquisition University

“ … In order to find new oceans, you have to be strong enough to lose sight of the shore … “

I’m a retired Naval Officer with 29 years of service. I joined the Navy as a Hospital Corpsman during the Vietnam War (was lucky enough not to go) and the Navy afforded me the opportunity to become an officer. As an officer, I was a Mission Commander, Instructor, Tactical Coordinator, and Navigator on P-3C Anti-Submarine aircraft with 3,400 flight hours, serving in squadrons VP-40, VP-31 and VP-17. Between my first VP-40 squadron tour and my department tour in VP-17, I was assigned to Carrier Group Three (CARGRU 3), as the Flag Anti-Submarine Officer. I was responsible for coordinating all P-3 aircraft activities with the Battle Group. CARGRU 3 was deployed aboard CVN-70 USS Carl Vinson. USS Carl Vinson deployed to Western Pacific in 1986.

The following was copied from the USS Carl Vinson website, http://www.cvn70.navy.mil/history.html:

1986: In May and June, the ship was involved in a series of high-tempo operations that included RIMPAC ’86 exercise. On Aug. 12, Carl Vinson deployed on its second Western Pacific/Indian Ocean cruise and it’s third deployment in all. During transit west, Carl Vinson became the first aircraft carrier to operate in the Bering Sea.

1987: After conducting extensive operations in the Indian Ocean and North Arabian Sea, Carl Vinson transited the Bering Sea once again in January. During the transit to NAS Alameda, Carl Vinson received the highest grade ever given to an aircraft carrier during an Operational Reactor Safeguard Examination.

Near the completion of my department tour in VP-17, after serving as the operations officer, I deployed aboard USS Nimitz in the Arabian Gulf, as the VP Liaison Officer, attached to the Flag Staff to coordinate P-3 aircraft activities with the Battle Group.

From http://www.navysite.de/cvn/nimitz-history.htm:

On Feb. 25, 1991, NIMITZ departed Bremerton for the Western Pacific and eventually the Arabian Gulf, where it relieved USS RANGER, during Operation Desert Storm. The ship returned to Bremerton Aug. 24, 1991.

Bob R Taylor
Technical Director
CSC Defense Enterprise Networks Service Center
Virginia Beach, Va.