The FOD Pouch Caper By AE2 Jacob Perkins
O
ur flight-deck pants pockets are sewn shut to prevent us from carrying any unauthorized gear from the shop to the flight deck or into the aircraft. People subsequently carry personal gear in their FOD pouches, which are meant only for FOD, nothing else. Using the FOD pouch for anything but FOD defeats its purpose. Before my evening shift with VAW-115 on USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63), I decided to use my FOD pouch to carry a set of keys from berthing to my work center. I figured it would be fine because several people I knew used their pouches to carry MP3 players, money, and other personal gear. Because of the inconvenience of our sewn-shut pockets, I jumped on the bandwagon. In my hurry to get to work, I locked my keys in my locker without realizing it. I went to work and never thought to deFOD my pouch. I completed my shift and never checked to see if my keys still were in my pouch. I was getting ready for bed that night when I first realized my keys were not in my FOD pouch. I quickly started searching everywhere I had been that day. “Where might I have placed my keys?� was the thought running through my head. I remembered being on the flight deck earlier in the morning for the Alert 30 man-up of our aircraft, and later, I was in an aircraft in the hangar to remove an aircraft part. I also remembered I had run around
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Navy photo by MCSA Anthony Martinez
Sailors conduct a FOD walkdown aboard the USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63).
Mech
