In This Issue: Cableway Team | Rugby | New CNO | Around the Vinson
Vol 02 No 68 | September 25, 2011
Flight Deck Visitor Ruffles Feathers STORY & PHOTOS BY
MC3 Jessica Tounzen| USS Carl Vinson Staff Writer
O
The Carl Vinson Voice is an inter nal document pro duced by and for the crew of the USS Carl Vinson and their families. Its contents do not necessarily ref lect the official views of the U.S. Government or the Departments of Defense or the Navy and do not imply any endorsement thereby.
f the many things to fly on Carl Vinson’s flight deck, you wouldn’t normally expect to see the feathered variety. But a few Vinson Sailors met one such winged visitor Sept. 23, and he’s ruffling quite a few feathers. Flight operations were in progress, and Chief Aviation Electronics Technician (AW/ SW/NAC) Mike Craycraft and his Sailors were preparing to begin the next aircraft launch cycle, when one of the plane captains called out to Craycraft. “He said, ‘Chief, there’s a bird over here!’, and pointed to the deck-edge scupper,” said Craycraft, a flight deck coordinator with Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 25. Craycraft immediately ran to the scupper and there it was: a tiny owl, with brown-and-white markings and vivid yellow eyes, hunkered down in the scupper. Craycraft was shocked at the discovery. “I thought, ‘How on Earth did an owl get out here?’. It was a very bad place for him to be,” he said. So Craycraft did the first thing that popped into his head: he gently scooped up the tiny creature with gloved hands, rescuing the bird from what might otherwise have been a tragic fate. But duty called, and there was an aircraft waiting to be Continue ‘OWL’ on Pg. 2