IT’S GETTING HOT IN HERE By Lt. Levi Loschen, VFA-147
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TO SET THE SCENE, WE WERE IN MONTH ONE OF DEPLOYMENT. TRANSITING ACROSS THE HOT AND HUMID TROPICAL PACIFIC OCEAN. OUR HOME SHIP, OR “MOM,” WAS WORKING BLUE WATER OPS, OVER 400 NAUTICAL MILES AWAY FROM THE NEAREST DIVERT OF WAKE ISLAND, AN ATOLL IN THE CENTRAL PACIFIC OCEAN. IF THERE WAS ANY EMERGENCY, THE ONLY PLACE TO GO WAS USS CARL VINSON (CVN 70). I WAS LEADING OUR MOST SENIOR DEPARTMENT HEAD ON A BENIGN UNIT-LEVEL TRAINING FLIGHT AT SUNSET. BOTH BEING RELATIVELY NEW TO THE PLATFORM, MY WINGMAN AND I HAD ROUGHLY 350 HOURS IN THE F-35C LIGHTNING II. HOWEVER, MY WINGMAN HAD CLOSE TO 2,000 HOURS TOTAL TIME COMPARED TO MY 600.
U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Shannon E. Renfroe
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