Warheads on foreheads today
 

While sitting in the Airframes shop of my department on the ship, the Ordnance Handling Officer (OHO) and 2 Chiefs from Weapons brought in a 500lb JDAM guidance tail section with a stripped bolt that holds about 500,000$ worth of taxpayer money onto a 500lb bomb. While we sat there trying to (eventually succeeding) remove said stripped bolt, we turned our 50" flat screen TV to the flight deck channel just in time to see the first aircraft of the day coming back to the carrier, with all bombs still attached... shoot. As we sat there still trying to remove this bolt, we looked back at the TV again, 2nd and 3rd F-18C Hornets came back with all 4 Mk82 and Mk88 bombs still attached; 5 more birds to go. 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th bird, all launched with 2 Mk88 and 2 Mk82 bombs attached to the weapons hardpoints located under the wing, came back EMPTY. Definitely an awesome feeling seeing those guys come back bombless knowing that some of the hydraulic and pneumatic pumps, lines, shocks and struts I work on on almost a daily basis get those guys over the bad guys we need to eliminate. Not too much longer and I'll be headed home.

That's awesome bro. Be safe and hurry home :)

x2....thank you for your service..

X3 Be safe!!! Hurry Home!

Thank you for your service

Thanks for all the things you guys do to keep out country safe

Thanks for your service. Job well done!

More and more planes headed out and returning with missing bombs. Not much in the way of updates on the fight against isis on our end. All we know is planes leave and come back a little bit lighter. Hopefully we're making a difference 500lbs at a time and maybe even a couple 2,000lb'ers too.

Update: We moved into the 5th fleet area of responsibility to drop bombs in Iraq and Syria... holy crap its freaking hot over here. I thought last deployment since I was on the flight deck wasn't bad. Walking just under 1/4 mile from my berthing which now stays at a constant 80~ degrees to my 55~ degree hydraulics shop and I look like I just came out of the shower with how much I sweat. GOOD news is I have just over 10 days left of being out here, then I'm flying off on a logisitcs aircraft, getting on my "MAC" flight back to the states after a stop in Spain and I am done with being active duty for a while! Still feels good to see those planes coming back empty knowing I helped put a few of those back in the air.

If you're looking for a heat estimate, the flight deck is 135 degrees sitting still, about 120 or so with the wind. The shop next door reached 105 degrees this morning at 9...

count the days down, thanks for your service.

8 days left on a US Navy warship for the rest of my hopeful life...

Truly... Thank U and your crew-mates for your service.....

Further update and probably the last one for this post before I'm back in Louisiana: Yesterday started off eventful as Iran decided to try and play chicken with a 90,000 ton diplomacy tool by positioning themselves (5 fast attack boats) directly in front of said diplomacy tool. The US Navy does not change course in the event of a collision, but Iran does. They lost the chicken game and then decided to flank us on both sides and harass us probably yelling aloha snackbar and dumb stuff like that. We called on our weapons department to man the .50 cal mounts and the helo's circled the small boats with their weapons locked on to the boats. We kept up foreign relations like Maverick and Goose did in Topgun. After about 30 minutes of helos descending lower and lower and the jets making low passes near the boats, they decided that living was better than either, 1. drowing or 2. burning and smoldering so they decided to turn in for the rest of the day. These guys were so close you could see the ammo links on their dshk's mounted on the bows of their boats.

Wow...

If a police officer had an armed enemy that close to him...... shooting could be justified if any of them ever made the "first move".

Have a safe trip home to Louisiana and your Bride.