Eagle3 and the Owl

[Eagle3]

OK, I'll get this started with an oldie but goodie from the SSG archives.

OK, now I know you guys are going to think I'm really full it but this is REALLY a true one; NO SHIT :laugh:

We were one day out of Yokosuka and launching the airwing back to Atsugi. Usually this is a touchy time because throughout the cruise you normally had a hangar queen aircraft that served as nothing more than a parts bin the whole cruise and now you have to get this thing back to beach on it's landing gear if possible. The point here is this aircraft usually doesn't see much sunlight until the flyoff.

So we're launching aircraft and everything is going fine and then I get call on the headset to get my ass to the queen. I get there and the PC tells me there is an owl in the starboard main landing gear well. First I check his eyes to make sure he's not on something. You know, these long cruises you're apt to see just about anything. He looks clean so I crawl up the gear and stare face to face with this big-ass owl perched on a hydraulic line. He must have been a hangar resident that decided to move into a smaller apartment, who knows, but I have to figure out how to get this thing out without fod'ing an engine. By now the WHOLE damn ship knows and I'm hearing crap on the radio like, "Hey Eagle3. OWLS it going back there?". Gggrrrrr.....

It's looking bad like I'm going to have to sishkabob this poor bastard on a long #2 phillips when he get's spooked and screams over my head and flys out and around the island superstructure. I jumped down and took a bow and the whole flight deck laughed, but if that booger had gone down someone's intake they probably would have pitched me over the side.

See, it's really bad form to have to leave a bird on deck when you dock. Doesn't say much for your maintenence dept ;).

[dman012]

Glad to see that there are more than few Midway people that have posted. I've seen quite a few familiar names and places.
The memories of P.I. are as freah as if I was there last week.
And Perth.....Pataya....Singapore....Mombasa....Puson. ...Hong Kong...
Nothing compares to those days.....Months at sea....with days in port....seems like that's all we ever got. Then it was back to sea.....banging airplanes and eating mid-rats. If we weren't flying were getting ready to fly....LOL.
But sailors are made to be on ships and ships are made to be at sea!

[foehammer03]

P.I. ah yes...squadron parties were so much the hoot. Eagles always did there's at Cindy's on Gordon Street. Those were great days when our officers off duty were just another Joe you worked with. We partied hard into the evening and departed in good spirits....

Well sometimes in overt Spiritedness...was it me or did I just see Shinner surfing that Jeepnee in his fruit of the loons? And what in the hell are you dumping in the Mojo Whitaker!

[Eagle3]

For everyone that thought I was full of it....

"Aviation Boatswain's Mate Handling 3rd Class Alex Dieringer holds "Fod," a screech owl that was found on the flight deck of the Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75). The owl was discovered in the left-main wheel well of an F/A 18 Hornet during a pre-flight inspection of the aircraft during flight operations aboard the carrier."

NavyNewsstand Story (http://www.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=56576)

For the record, my owl was in the starboard main landing gear well and a lot bigger than this squab.

[Ojive]

In some relation to the flying creatures: Once during GQ the boss called over the 5MC to open the canopy of a A-6E aft of the island. The PC opened the canopy and a several birds flew out. We were in the I.O and how they got there I'll never know but that was a weird thing to witness in the middle of nowhere.

[WSS]

After all, aircraft carriers are "bird farms".;)

[mikepf]

We on Coral Sea would be many days out of port and every time someone would dump garbage off the fantail there would be many seagulls (Effing SeaRats) How do you figure that?? Same -Same Joe

[Spotter]

I was on a Caribbean cruise (civilian) about 3 days out in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico and was up on deck about 2 AM. This little finch was racing laps around the ship non stop. We were at least 500 miles from land.