BY LT JAKE HAWLEY
N
ot more than two weeks into what would turn out to be a busy ten-month deployment in support of Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), I found myself in a divert situation that would buy me a couple of days away from typical boat life in favor of the arduous living conditions of Hawaii. One evening, my flight lead and I launched from the deck of the USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) to execute what was supposed to be a routine training flight in the waters off Hawaii. Our mission was to practice the time-honored tradi18
tion of unguided air-to-surface roll-in attacks on the open ocean at night. In order to complete our training for the evening, we would first employ a pair of MK-58 marine location markers. We would use them as targets during multiple roll-in attacks with MK-76 light inert bombs. Rather than helping to preserve our night roll-in currency while keeping several of our readiness matrix blocks green, the markers and 76s would instead produce a basic NATOPS check for compound emergencies, a blown tire and a brake fire. Approach
