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U.S. Naval aviators, much like professional athletes, constantly train for “game day.” Cyclic flight operations, formation flying and training scenarios prepare them for what a real combat mission might entail. Similar to how athletes will practice, memorize plays, and run together in patterns during a game, their success is due to muscle memory. Training and muscle memory, however, might not be the only things that allow pilots to keep chalking-up wins. Superstitions may play a larger role than the non-aviation community believes.
Some athletes might wear the same socks for good luck or slap a motivational poster in the same spot whenever they leave the locker room because they believe the items have mystical powers. Some say the machine-like success in the skies for aviators embarked aboard the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) is due to rigorous training, while some maintain that their routines and tics are what drive their success.
Lt. Edwin Jackson, from Yorktown, Virginia, assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 41, insists that the “one wire,” the aft-most arresting gear wire on the flight deck, is a thing to revere and steer clear of.
“You simply do not step over that wire,” said Jackson. “If you step over it, like during foreign object debris (FOD) walk-down, you’re bound to hit it when you’re landing. I will go out of my way to walk around it.”
That superstition pales when compared to the significance of a squadron ready room’s hanging bolt.
“We have a large bolt that gets hung over a pilot’s seat [in the ready room] if he or she bolts on a landing, or misses catching an arresting gear wire,” said Lt. Jacob Spitzer, from Ocala, Florida, also assigned to VFA-41. “You cannot touch the bolt, for fear that you will be the next pilot who bolts.”
Other pilots have more personal superstitions, like Lt. John Conaway, from Orange Park, Florida, assigned to VFA-14, who carries an Elvis Presley poster with him on every flight.
“It’s silly, I know, but ‘the King’ flies with me all the time,” said Conaway, who has spent almost two years in his squadron. “I fold it up and tuck it in my flight bag. This poster was gifted to me by another pilot and it has flown about 20 combat missions over hostile territories and has come back every time, so it must be a good luck charm. I don’t even like his music that much.”
Superstitions are not limited to strike fighter squadrons who fly F/A-18 Super Hornet variants.
Lt. j.g. Morgan Walberg, from Los Angeles, assigned to Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron (VAW) 117, who flies the E-2C Hawkeye, is adamant about the ear plugs he wears in-flight.
“I flat-out refuse to wear two red earplugs under my helmet,” said Walberg. “I have to put a green plug in one side, like port and starboard lights.”
Aviation superstitions can be traced back to World War I, when military pilots refused to wash their scarves, believing that washing them would strip the garment of its luck. Traditions like not washing scarves or carrying items for their perceived supernatural powers are powerful, unwritten rules in the realm of arrested landings and catapult shots. In the minds of some aviators, these are more than mere tradition and should be regarded in the same capacity as the black-and-white world of pre-flight checks and aviation laws.
Whether the mission calls for combat sorties over foreign regions or more routine patrols, a combination of demanding training and pre-flight ritual contribute to aviators’ success in the skies, enabling them to fly and fight another day to accomplish the strike group’s duties.
The John C. Stennis Carrier Strike Group is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations in support of naval operations to ensure maritime stability and security in the Central Region, connecting the Mediterranean and the Pacific through the western Indian Ocean and three strategic choke points.
For more news on John C. Stennis, visit www.stennis.navy.mil or follow along on Facebook at www.facebook.com/stennis74.
| Date Taken: | 12.17.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 12.21.2018 03:29 |
| Story ID: | 304716 |
| Location: | ARABIAN SEA |
| Web Views: | 226 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Ready Room Rituals, by PO2 Jacob L. Greenberg, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
