Flight Deck Barricade Drills: Nothin’ But Net

USS Enterprise (CVN 65)

The Shuttle Newsletter Edition

“We are Legend”

June 1, 2012 Issue

Flight Deck Barricade Drills: Nothin’ But Net Story by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class (SW/AW) Jared King USS ENTERPRISE, At Sea – While underway aboard aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN 65) for the ship’s 22nd and final deployment, Air department’s arresting gear crew conduct monthly drills to test the ship’s flight deck barricades.

The barricade is a mandatory piece of equipment measuring 88 feet long and 20 feet high. Constructed out of nylon webbing, it is used to catch aircraft during emergency landings and is an integral, though rarely utilized, part of successful carrier operations.

The barricade catches the plane just like a normal arrestment

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and cable pay-out process. The only difference is instead of the tailhook engaging the cable, the entire aircraft engages the web assembly.

Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (Equipment) 2nd Class Dan A. Benavides, a topside petty officer, has worked on the barricade drills since he arrived aboard Enterprise in 2007.

“To think that this drill can save lives makes me feel proud of my job,” said Benavides. “We will always be ready on arrival, regardless of when, or how, an emergency landing might occur.”

Low fuel, hydraulic or engine failure are just a few reasons an aircraft may have to make an unconventional landing on the flight deck, requiring barricade assistance.

“Drills contribute to the mission by making it possible for the carrier to be able to provide prompt and sustained combat operations from the sea, regardless of the availability of a divert field,” said Chief Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (Equipment) Mark A. Lundell, the arresting gear crew’s leading chief petty officer.

“My Sailors are always trying to improve, train and perfect their skills and that is what makes them as good as they are with these drills.”

Barricades are heavily regulated and are required to be disposed of after each use. In Enterprise’s storied 50 years of service, there have been seven barricade arrests.

“It takes 85 Sailors five minutes to set-up the barricade and my Sailors are the best at what they do,” said Benavides. “I just want to tell my guys to keep up the great work and hard effort, everything goes noticed.”

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Friday, June 1, 2012

Big E Happenings Enterprise History Information

Assurance Note NEW E-MAIL PHISHING SCAM

Be aware of possible Internet fraud using CitiBank as part of the spoofing scam. The subject of the e-mail contains the following: Subject: Blocked Account Notice.

The e-mail contains language that states the account was closed due to failure to access the account three times.

If you receive an e-mail like this from CitiBank, forward it (without clicking on any of the links) to “spoof@citicorp.com,” which is CitiBank’s Internet Security Specialist team and DELETE it without opening/ clicking on any of the links within the e-mail. If you click on a link, you may be infected with malware that targets your personal banking account informatin.

Do not open any e-mail/ attachments from unknown sources and report all suspicious activity to the Information Assurance Office J-dial 5776 or e-mail issm@cvn65.navy.mil.

The Shuttle USS Enterprise (CVN 65)

The Shuttle is published and printed daily underway and bi-weekly in port by the USS Enterprise (CVN 65) Media Department, FPO AE 09543-2810. This newspaper is an authorized publication for members of the Department of Defense. Please direct all story ideas, questions and comments to MC1 (SW) Steve Smith at smithsw@cvn65. navy.mil.

Commanding Officer Capt. William C. Hamilton, Jr.

Executive Officer Capt. G. C. Huffman

Command Master Chief ABCM (AW/SW) Eric M. Young

Public Affairs Officer Lt. Cmdr. Sarah T. Self-Kyler

Editors MC2 (SW) Kristin L. Grover MCSN Brian G. Reynolds

The first USS Enterprise, a schooner, was built by Henry Spencer at Baltimore, Md., in 1799, and placed under the command of Lieutenant John Shaw.

On 17 December 1799, Enterprise departed the Delaware Capes for the Caribbean to protect United States merchantmen from the depredations of French privateers during the Quasi-War with France. Within the following year, Enterprise captured 8 privateers and liberated 11 American vessels from captivity, achievements which assured her inclusion in the 14 ships retained in the Navy after the Quasi-War. Enterprise next sailed to the Mediterranean, raising Gibraltar on 26 June 1801, where she was to join other U.S. warships in writing a bright and enduring page in American naval history. Enterprise’s first action came on 1 August 1801 when, just west of Malta, she defeated the 14-gun Tripolitan corsair Tripoli, after a fierce but one-sided battle. Unscathed, Enterprise sent the battered pirate into port since the schooner’s orders prohibited taking prizes. Her next victories came in 1803 after months of carrying despatches, convoying merchantmen, and patrolling the Mediterranean. On 17 January, she captured Paulina, a Tunisian ship under charter to the Bashaw of Tripoli, and on 22 May she ran a 30-ton craft ashore on the coast of Tripoli. For the next month, Enterprise and other ships of the squadron cruised inshore bombarding the coast and sending landing parties to destroy enemy small craft.

On 23 December 1803, after a quiet interval of cruising, Enterprise joined with frigate Constitution to capture the Tripolitan ketch Mastico. Enterprise continued to patrol the Barbary Coast until July 1804 when she joined the other ships of the squadron in general attacks on the city of Tripoli over a period of several weeks.

Enterprise was practically rebuilt by May 1805. She rejoined her squadron in July and resumed patrol and convoy duty until August of 1807. During that period she fought (15 August 1806) a brief engagement off Gibraltar with a group of Spanish gunboats who attacked her but were driven off. Enterprise returned to the United States in late 1807, and cruised coastal waters until June 1809. After a brief tour in the Mediterranean, she sailed to New York where she was laid up for nearly a year.

Repaired at the Washington Navy Yard, Enterprise was recommissioned there in April 1811, then sailed for operations out of Savannah, Ga., and Charleston, S.C. She returned to Washington on 2 October and was hauled out of the water for extensive repairs and modifications. When she sailed on 20 May 1812, she had been rerigged as a brig. At sea when war was declared on Great Britain, she cruised along the east coast during the first year of hostilities. On 5 September 1813, Enterprise sighted and chased HBM Brig Boxer. The brigs opened fire on each other. Enterprise captured Boxer and took her into nearby Portland, Maine.

After repairing at Portland, Enterprise sailed in company with brig Rattlesnake, for the Caribbean. The two ships took three prizes before being forced to separate by a heavily armed ship on 25 February 1814. The brig reached Wilmington, N.C., on 9 March 1814, then passed the remainder of the war as a guardship off Charleston, S.C. Enterprise served one more short tour in the Mediterranean (July-November 1815), then cruised the northeastern seaboard until November 1817. From that time on she sailed the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, suppressing pirates, smugglers, and slaves; in this duty she took 13 prizes. Her long career ended on 9 July 1823, when, without injury to her crew, she stranded and broke up on Little Curacao Island in the West Indies.

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In the News

Navy Considers Senior Chief Rating

By Mark D. Faram, NAVY TIMES

Navy officials want to expand the command senior chief program and will convene a panel in June to consider whether these E-8s should have their own rating.

It’s part of an overall effort to grow command-level senior enlisted leaders earlier in their career, but it isn’t yet tied to an expansion of that program to more commands, nor is it designed to make it as universal as the chief of the boat program on submarines. Right now, it’s meant only to increase the pool of senior enlisted leaders.

The command senior chief program was created in 2005, when the first board met and the first CSCs were placed on minesweepers. Many have moved on from that program to become full-fledged command master chiefs. Navy officials are looking for

ways to make that relationship and progression more formal.

“This isn’t an attempt to duplicate the COB program in the submarine community … but there are some very good parts to that program that can be adapted to the rest of the Navy, though,” said Fleet Master Chief (SW/ AW/ SCW) Scott Benning, senior enlisted adviser to the chief of naval personnel.

He said the Navy is looking at creating a new rating for command senior chiefs to help E-8s get the experience they need to become a command master chief before they make E-9 — something that’s becoming harder to do.

On average, he said, it takes 21.5 years to make master chief.

In addition, the number of master chiefs Navy-wide has declined over recent years along with the rest of the

enlisted workforce. By law, E-9s can make up no more than 1 percent of the enlisted workforce in any of the military services.

Those in the command senior chief program advanced to E-9 at a rate of 55 percent this year, a much higher rate than the 9.6 percent of E-8s advancing Navy-wide.

They also retain their rating at which they made senior chief. But that creates a problem — once they are detailed into a CSC billet, they are no longer available for assignment by their rating detailer.

In addition, once a command senior chief makes E-9, he can apply to convert into the command master chief rating and is moved into a CMC billet as soon as possible. Those Sailors also have the option of returning to their rating for assignment.

Panetta Heads to Asia to Back Allies, Avoid Riling China

By Gopal Ratnam, BLOOMBERG NEWS Defense Secretary Leon Panetta leaves today on his first visit to Asia since the Pentagon said in January it would “rebalance” military strategy toward a region President Barack Obama has called critical to U.S. interests.

Panetta’s challenge is to assure the Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore and other nations in the region that the U.S. supports them while stopping short of confrontation with China, according to Stephen Biddle, senior fellow for defense policy at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.

“He’s walking a tightrope,” Biddle said in an interview. Allies in the region want the U.S. to serve as a counterweight as China becomes increasingly assertive in disputes over matters such as mineral rights in the South China Sea, he said. At the same time, those countries have close economic ties to China and don’t want to “get into a conflict with the other major power in the region,” Biddle said.

Panetta will stop in Honolulu, headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Command, before traveling to Singapore for an annual Asian security summit, followed by two-day visits to Vietnam and India.

The trip will be the first opportunity for Panetta to explain fully how the U.S. strategy will be applied in practice, according to defense officials who spoke to

reporters yesterday on condition of anonymity because many of the consultations will be in private.

In January, the Pentagon released its strategic guidance that cited U.S. economic and security interests extending from the Western Pacific and East Asia to the Indian Ocean region and South Asia. It said the U.S. military will “rebalance toward the Asia-Pacific region.”

In the absence of clarity, the strategy may be seen as an effort to contain China, and such “a rivalry will increase friction and conflict,” Singapore’s Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen said at a conference in April in Washington.

Panetta portrayed the strategy as one of both wariness toward China and collaboration in a speech yesterday to graduating midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

“China’s military is growing and modernizing,” Panetta said. “We must be vigilant. We must be strong. We must be prepared to confront any challenge. But the key to that region is going to be to develop a new era of defense cooperation between our countries, one in which our military shares security burdens in order to advance peace.”

The U.S. strategy was described as a “pivot to new realities” by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said in a November article in “Foreign Policy” magazine that it began a long-term engagement with allies in the region.

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June 1, 2012

Sailors of the Day Aviation Ordnanceman 3rd Class Andres Encinales

AO3 Andres Encinales, from North Bergen, N.J., joined the Navy three years and nine months ago to earn educational opportunities. In his spare time, he enjoys MMA training and spending time with his family. He plans to become a strength and conditioning coach, pursue a professional MMA career and start a family.

Aviation Electrician’s Mate 3rd Class Brian Curtin

AE3 Brian Curtin, from Kent, Wash., joined the Navy four years and seven months ago for educational benefits and to see the world. Curtin enjoys working out in his spare time. His future goals include obtaining a great education and becoming a fitness model.

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