Mostly teenagers, he amended. Not all of them. Ten of them were coming from the Fleet or the Corps, maybe had some idea of what to expect. They’d have been through boot camp at least. Knew how to march. Must have done something right or they wouldn’t have earned one of the few slots at the Naval Academy reserved for fleet sailors and marines.
He’d check their records out first, try them out in some leadership positions and see how they shaped up. Not every enlisted man was cut out to be an officer — but then, not every college grad or senate nominee was, either. At least the priors knew what an officer did.
And there he was, the one he’d been looking for. Hanging back on the last rank, quietly at attention, watching everything without seeming to look at it directly. The staff sergeant let his eyes linger on the young sailor, wondering how much of what he’d heard was true. No matter — he’d find out soon enough for himself. But there was one thing this particular plebe was going to learn right off, and that was that Staff Sergeant Carter was his god for the next two weeks.
Smith felt the staff sergeant looking at him, but kept his eyes caged, staring straight ahead as though they were encased in iron bars. It was a lesson from boot camp that had come back immediately in the first moments that the Marine had barked at them.
He still couldn’t believe he was here. Not after… not after Greece. Just to have survived without being court-martialed, not losing a stripe, no punishment at all unless you counted the flack he’d had to take from some of the guys on the boat. Especially after they found out about Annapolis.
Admiral Magruder’s words came back to him. It was just before they shipped him off, maybe two weeks after everything had been resolved.
“You ask questions. That’s good. You’re not afraid to make a tough call. Also good. I’m going to make sure you know how to ask the right ones from now on — and how to live with the answers,” the admiral had said.
Annapolis.
“You got something on your mind, slimeball?” a voice shouted in his right ear. Smith barely repressed a flinch.
“No, Staff Sergeant Carter.”
“Then wipe that shit-eating grin off your face. Now, asshole.”
Smith’s inadequate attempt earned him five laps around the field. He loved every single one of them.
Glossary
0–3 level: The third deck above the main deck. Designations for decks above the main deck (also known as the damage control deck) begin with zero, e.g. 0–3. The zero is pronounced as “oh” in conversation. Decks below the main deck do not have the initial zero, and are numbered down from the main deck, e.g. deck 11 is below deck 3. Deck 0–7 is above deck 0–3.
1MC: The general announcing system on a ship or submarine. Every ship has many different interior communications systems, most of them linking parts of the ship for a specific purpose. Most operate off sound-powered phones. The circuit designators consist of a number followed by two letters that indicate the specific purpose of the circuit. 2AS, for instance, might be an antisubmarine warfare circuit that connects the sonar supervisor, the USW watch officer, and the sailor at the torpedo launched.
C-2 Greyhound: Also known as the COD, Carrier On-board Delivery. The COD carries cargo and passengers from shore to ship. It is capable of carrier landings. Sometimes assigned directly to the air wing, it also operates in coordination with CVBGs from a shore squadron.
Air Boss: A senior commander or captain assigned to the aircraft carrier, in charge of flight operations. The “Boss” is assisted by the Mini-Boss in Pri-Fly, located in the tower onboard the carrier. The Air Boss is always in the tower during flight operations, overseeing the launch and recovery cycles, declaring a green deck, and monitoring the safe approach of aircraft to the carrier.
Air Wing: Composed of the aircraft squadrons assigned to the battle group. The individual squadron commanding officers report to the Air Wing Commander, who reports to the admiral.
airdale: Slang for an officer or enlisted person in the aviation fields. Includes pilots, NFOs, aviation intelligence officers and maintenance officers and the enlisted technicians who support aviation. The antithesis of an airdale is a “shoe.”
Akula: Late model Russian-built attack nuclear submarine, an SSN. Fast, deadly, and deep diving.
ALR-67: Detects, analyzes and evaluates electromagnetic signals, emits a warning signal if the parameters are compatible with an immediate threat to the aircraft, e.g. seeker head on an anti-air missile. Can also detect an enemy radar in either a search or a targeting mode.
altitude: Is safety. With enough airspace under the wings, a pilot can solve any problem.
AMRAAM: Advanced Medium Range Antiair Missile.
angels: Thousands of feet over ground. Angels twenty is 20,000 feet. Cherubs indicates hundreds of feet, e.g. cherubs five = five hundred feet.
ASW: Antisubmarine Warfare, recently renamed Undersea Warfare. For some reason.
avionics: Black boxes and systems that comprise an aircraft’s combat systems.
AW: Aviation antisubmarine warfare technician, the enlisted specialist flying in an S-3, P-3 or helo USW aircraft. As this book goes to press, there is discussion of renaming the specialty.
AWACS: An aircraft entirely too good for the Air Force, the Advanced Warning Aviation Control System. Long-range command and control and electronic intercept bird with superb capabilities.
AWG-9: Pronounced “awg nine,” the primary search and fire control radar on a Tomcat.
backseater: Also known as the GIB, the guy in back. Nonpilot aviator available in several flavors: BN (bombardier/navigator), RIO (radar intercept operator), and TACCO (Tactical Control Officer) among others. Usually wear glasses and are smart.
Bear: Russian maritime patrol aircraft, the equivalent in rough terms of a US P-3. Variants have primary missions in command and control, submarine hunting, and electronic intercepts. Big, slow, good targets.
bitch box: One interior communications system on a ship. So named because it’s normally used to bitch at another watch station.
blue on blue: Fratricide. U.S. forces are normally indicated in blue on tactical displays, and this term refers to an attack on a friendly by another friendly.
blue water navy: Outside the unrefueled range of the air wing. When a carrier enters blue water ops, aircraft must get on board, e.g. land, and cannot divert to land if the pilot gets the shakes.
boomer: Slang for a ballistic missile submarine.
BOQ: Bachelor Officer Quarters — a Motel Six for single officers or those traveling without family. The Air Force also has VOQ, Visiting Officer Quarters.
buster: As fast as you can, i.e., bust yer ass getting here.
CAG: Carrier Air Group Commander, normally a senior navy captain aviator. Technically, an obsolete term, since the air wing rather than an air group is now deployed on the carrier. However, everyone thought CAW sounded stupid, so CAG was retained as slang for the Carrier Air Wing Commander.
CAP: Combat Air Patrol, a mission executed by fighters to protect the carrier and battle group from enemy air and missiles.
Carrier Battle Group: a combination of ships, airwing, and submarines assigned under the command of a one-star admiral.
Carrier Battle Group 14: The battle group normally embarked on Jefferson.
CBG: See Carrier Battle Group.
CDC: Combat Direction Center — modernly replaced CIC, or Combat Information Center, as the heart of a ship. All sensor information is fed into CDC and the battle is coordinated by a Tactical Action Officer on watch there.
CG: Abbreviation for a cruiser.
Chief: The backbone of the Navy. E-7, 8, and 9 enlisted paygrades, known as chief, senior chief, and master chief. The transition from petty officer ranks to the chief’s mess is a major event in a sailor’s career. Onboard ship, the chiefs have separate eating and berthing facilities. Chiefs wear khakis, as opposed to dungarees for the less senior enlisted ratings.
Chief of Staff: Not to be confused with
a chief, the COS in a battle group staff is normally a senior navy captain who acts as the admiral’s XO and deputy.
CIA: Christians in Action. The civilian agency charged with intelligence operations outside the continental United States.
CIWS: Close In Weapons System, pronounced “see-whiz.” Gatling gun with built-in radar that tracks and fires on inbound missiles. If you have to use it, you’re dead.
COD: See C-2 Greyhound.
collar count: Traditional method of determining the winner of a disagreement. A survey is taken of the opponents’ collar devices. The senior person wins. Always.
Commodore: Formerly the junior-most admiral rank, now used to designate a senior navy captain in charge of a bunch of like units. A destroyer commodore commands several destroyers, a sea control commodore the S-3 squadrons on that coast. Contrast with CAG, who owns a number of dissimilar units, e.g., a couple of Tomcat squadrons, some Hornets, and some E-2s and helos.
compartment: Navy talk for a room on a ship.
Condition Two: One step down from General Quarters, which is Condition One. Condition Five is tied up at the pier in a friendly country.
crypto: Short for some variation of cryptological, the magic set of codes that makes a circuit impossible for anyone else to understand.
CV, CVN: Abbreviation for an aircraft carrier, conventional and nuclear.
CVIC: Carrier Intelligence Center. Located down the passageway (the hall) from the flag spaces.
data link, the LINK: The secure circuit that links all units in a battle group or in an area. Targets and contacts are transmitted over the LINK to all ships. The data is processed by the ship designated as Net Control, and common contacts are correlated. The system also transmits data from each ship and aircraft’s weapons systems, e.g., a missile firing. All services use the LINK.
desk jockey: Nonflyer, one who drives a computer instead of an aircraft.
DESRON: Destroyer Commander.
DICASS: An active sonobuoy.
dick stepping: Something to be avoided. While anatomically impossible in today’s gender-integrated services, in an amazing display of good sense, it has been decided that women do this as well.
DDG: Guided missile destroyer.
Doppler: Acoustic phenomena caused by relative motion between a sound source and a receiver that results in an apparent change in frequency of the sound. The classic example is a train going past and the decrease in pitch of its whistle. When a submarine changes its course or speed in relation to a sonobuoy, the event shows up as a change in the frequency of the sound source.
Double nuts: Zero zero on the tail of an aircraft.
E-2 Hawkeye: Command and control and surveillance aircraft. Turboprop rather than jet, and unarmed. Smaller version of an AWACS, in practical terms, but carrier-based.
ELF: Extremely Low Frequency, a method of communicating with submarines at sea. Signals are transmitted via a miles-long antenna and are the only way of reaching a deeply submerged submarine.
Envelope: What you’re supposed to fly inside of if you want to take all the fun out of naval aviation.
EW: Electronic warfare technician, the enlisted sailors that man the gear that detects, analyzes and displays electromagnetic signals. Highly classified stuff.
F/A-18 Hornets: The inadequate, fuel-hungry intended replacement for the aging but still kick-your-ass potent Tomcat. Flown by Marines and Navy.
Familygram: Short messages from submarine sailors’ families to their deployed sailors. Often the only contact with the outside world that a submarine sailor on deployment has.
FF/FFG: Abbreviation for a fast frigate (no, there aren’t slow frigates) and a guided missile fast frigate.
Flag officer: In the Navy and Coast Guard, an admiral. In the other services, a general.
Flag passageway: The portion of the aircraft carrier which houses the admiral’s staff working spaces. Includes the flag mess and the admiral’s cabin. Normally separated from the rest of the ship by heavy plastic curtains, and designated by blue tile on the deck instead of white.
Flight quarters: A condition set onboard a ship preparing to launch or recover aircraft. All unnecessary person are required to stay inside the skin of the ship and remain clear of the flight deck area.
Flight suit: The highest form of navy couture. The perfect choice of apparel for any occasion — indeed, the only uniform an aviator ought to be required to own.
FOD: Stands for Foreign Object Damage, but the term is used to indicate any loose gear that could cause damage to an aircraft. During flight operations, aircraft generate a tremendous amount of air flowing across the deck. Loose objects — including people and nuts and bolts — can be sucked into the intake and discharged through the outlet from the jet engine. FOD damages the jet’s impellers and doesn’t do much for the people sucked in, either. FOD walkdown is conducted at least once a day onboard an aircraft carrier. Everyone not otherwise engaged stands shoulder to shoulder on the flight deck and slowly walks from one end of the flight deck to the other, searching for FOD.
Fox: Tactical shorthand for a missile firing. Fox one indicates a heat-seeking missile, Fox two an infrared missile, and Fox three a radar guided missile.
GCI: Ground Control Intercept, a procedure used in the Soviet air forces. Primary control for vectoring the aircraft in on enemy targets and other fighters is vested in a guy on the ground, rather than in the cockpit where it belongs.
GIB: See backseater.
GMT: Greenwich Mean Time.
green shirts: See shirts.
Handler: Officer located on the flight deck level responsible for ensuring that aircraft are correctly positioned, “spotted,” on the flight deck. Coordinates the movements of aircraft with yellow gear (small tractors that tow aircraft and other related gear) from maintenance areas to catapults and from the flight deck to the hangar bar via the elevators. Speaks frequently with the Air Boss. See bitch box.
HARMS: Anti-radiation missiles that home in on radar sites.
Home plate: Tactical call sign for Jefferson.
Hot: In reference to a sonobuoy, holding enemy contact.
Huffer: Yellow gear located on the flight deck that generates compressed air to start jet engines. Most navy aircraft do not need a huffer to start engines, but it can be used in emergencies or for maintenance.
Hunter: Call sign for the S-3 squadron embarked on the Jefferson.
ICS: Interior Communications System. The private link between a pilot and a RIO, or the telephone system internal to a ship.
Inchopped: Navy talk for a ship entering a defined area of water, e.g., inchopped the Med.
IR: Infrared, a method of missile homing.
isothermal: A layer of water that has a constant temperature with increasing depth. Located below the thermocline, where increase in depth correlates to decrease in temperature. In the isothermal layer, the primary factor affecting the speed of sound in water is the increase in pressure with depth.
JBD: Jet Blast Deflector. Panels that pop up from the flight deck to block the exhaust emitted by aircraft.
USS Jefferson: The star nuclear aircraft carrier in the U.S. Navy.
leading petty officer: The senior petty officer in a work center, division, or department, responsible to the leading chief petty officer for the performance of the rest of the group.
LINK: See data link.
lofargram: Low Frequency Analyzing and Recording display. Consists of lines arrayed by frequency on the horizontal axis and time on the vertical axis. Displays sound signals in the water in a graphic fashion for analysis by ASW technicians.
long green table: A formal inquiry board. It’s better to be judged by six than carried by six.
machinists mate: Enlisted technician that runs and repairs most engineering equipment onboard a ship. Abbreviated as “MM” e.g., MM1 Sailor is a Petty Officer First Class Machinists Mate.
MDI: Mess Decks Intelligence. The heartbeat of the rumor mill onboard a ship and the defin
itive source for all information.
MEZ: Missile Engagement Zone. Any hostile contacts that make it into the MEZ are engaged only with missiles. Friendly aircraft must stay clear in order to avoid a blue on blue engagement, i.e., fratricide.
MiG: A production line of aircraft manufactured by Mikoyan in Russia. MiG fighters are owned by many nations around the world.
Murphy, law of: The factor most often not considered sufficiently in military planning. If something can go wrong, it will. Naval corollary: shit happens.
national assets: Surveillance and reconnaissance resources of the most sensitive nature, e.g., satellites.
NATOPS: The bible for operating a particular aircraft. See Envelope.
NFO: Naval Flight Officer.
nobrainer: Contrary to what copy editors believe, this is one word. Used to signify an evolution or decision that should require absolutely no significant intellectual capabilities beyond that of a paramecium.
Nomex: Fire-resistant fabric used to make “shirts.” See shirts.
NSA: National Security Agency. Primarily responsible for evaluating electronic intercepts and sensitive intelligence.
OOD: Officer of the Day, in charge of the safe handling and maneuvering of the ship. Supervises the conning officer and other underway watchstanders. Ashore, the OOD may be responsible for a shore station after normal working hours.
Operations specialist: Formerly radar operators, back in the old days. Enlisted technicians who operate combat detection, tracking, and engagement systems, except for sonar. Abbreviated OS.
OTH: Over the horizon, usually used to refer to shooting something you can’t see.
P-3’s: Shore-based anti-submarine warfare and surface surveillance long range aircraft. The closest you can get to being in the Air Force while still being in the Navy.
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