Neptunus Lex

When I was an adversary pilot in Key West, we’d get the chance to work with just about all of the east coast Hornet squadrons, a fair number of Tomcat folks and reservists from pretty much everywhere. We put the visiting squadrons through a two-week course of instruction: Academics in the morning for most of […]

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I’ve told the story before of the “mother of all sandstorms” that overcame my ship one night in March, 2003. And I’ve written about being struck by lightning while trying to get some gas off an S-3 tanker.
Here’s how these kinds of stories look from the other side.

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Fleet operations in the Southern California op-area during the late 80’s, and your humble scribe was on the LSO platform, basking in the summer sun and topping it the grandee, on account of the pickle which he held in hand.
(And may I add parenthetically that, if you yourself, gentle reader, were to go a-Googling for […]

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Pictures of Arleigh Burkes refueling Russian Federation destroyers brings back memories that even in the bad old days, we still managed to have some fun. I’ve written before about the Bear Box and Gate Guard missions but may have failed to share a story I heard about that occurred during one ship’s transit through.
This particular ship was […]

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It is often said in mult-seat aviation that you should never fly in the same cockpit with someone braver than yourself. A pilot should be a little bit afraid. We are but soft and vulernerable creatures: Our evolution has not kept pace with our technology, we were never meant to move through space at such enormous speeds. Our craft are […]

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Every job has its aggravations of course, but apart from specialized jobs within the services, firefighters and police, there are few, I think that require the daily mastery of physical fear. Carrier aviation certainly does, at least in the beginning when an aviator is first building the shell of self-confidence to hermetically surround and enclose his […]

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It may be hard to imagine today, but when I was a lad an entire generation of naval aviators had grown up to fill middle and even upper leadership roles in line squadrons without ever having “seen the wolf.” The long peace between Vietnam and Desert Storm meant that nearly 20 years had gone by with […]

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Got an email from occasional reader Steve, who was apparently in town for the graduation of the last OCS class in Pensacola. Sent along a neat pic from the Aviation Museum of 50 prospective ensigns.

Steve said that the commissioning speech was given by VADM Harvey, DCNO MPT&E. Said, “Gave a good speech with emphasis on […]

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They don’t fade away, either.
In fact, some of them end up getting told by Marine infantry:
“Oyster’s Tale.”
Otherwise known (along with Gretzky’s Tale) as a cautionary example of what can happen to an email once you pull the trigger on that thang.

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It’s been hot in San Diego the last couple weeks. Cargo shorts and flip flops, t-shirts only out of mere modesty. The heat only really broke last weekend. Now it’s back to what we think of as “San Diego” weather, like it’s some sort of entitlement. Warm, sunny days. Cool evenings, perfect for sleeping with the windows […]

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