Hacking It - Brief Article

Approach, Oct, 2000 by Joe Nowicki

Members of the Prowler community have had considerable exposure to the Air Force "crew rest" mentality, primarily because of myriad USAF personnel in our community and because of the expeditionary deployments our squadrons make in support of USAF Operations. Counter to the USAF mentality lies the Navy TacAir "hack-it" mentality: We can do more with less, crew rest is a luxury we often can't afford, and so on.

As we all know, the Air Force takes crew rest to what some consider an extreme. TransPacs of entire squadrons get slid a day if the boom operator in the KC-10 tanker didn't get his 12 hours of sleep prior to the brief ... as if he's not sleeping between ARs anyway.

Many naval aviators, myself included, take a subtle pride in hacking it. Perhaps it's a product of the carrier-aviation identity that we take pride in. It may also exist because we don't want to take the ready-room ribbing that would come after bagging out of a hop for being tired. Or could it be a subconscious resistance to our brethren in the blue bus-driver uniforms, whom we might consider inferior or "weak"?

Nonetheless, naval aviators become accustomed to long days and short nights during work-up cycles and six-month cruises. Even while shore-based, we know the demands on crew rest are tested by the occasional push to burn up OPTAR, late-night FCLPs, frequent weekend coast-to-coast "extended training flights," and long watches as duty officer.

On one such occasion ashore, I found out the hard way that I didn't quite hack it. I stood the day portion of an uneventful SDO watch, and the next day's flight schedule (per NATOPS) allotted for me "at least eight hours of uninterrupted resat." The problem arose with an abnormally busy Friday night as SDO. Multiple incidents requiring my attention were capped off by bailing out a belligerent drunk at 0330.

After a full three and a half hours of sleep, I was up again dragging myself into the ready room for a 0730 functional-check-flight brief. I thought to myself, "I'm only the backseater, so I don't really need a full night's sleep, right? That eight hours of uninterrupted rest is a should, not a shall, right?" I was sure I could hack it, just like many times before. As fate would have it, the two cups of coffee I chugged at the beginning of the brief kept me from napping when we slid the takeoff for three hours for weather. So, I decided to bury myself in mind-numbing paperwork.

Finally, the weather broke, and we walked to the jet around 1200. I had skipped breakfast and never considered lunch or a snack. I quickly preflighted and strapped in for another routine flight, deprived of sleep, and malnourished (even by Navy standards).

After starting engines and just prior to taxi, I noticed our most junior non-rated airman beside the aircraft observing her first launch. His seemingly random motions at me didn't resemble any hand signal I recognized. "What on earth is his problem?" I wondered. Finally, the light bulb, although dim, came on. In my groggy state, I had strapped in without unpinning the ejection seat.

I learned two very important lessons from this potentially hazardous incident. First, no matter who you are, you can't always hack as much as you think. Rules on crew rest are there for a reason. We can't afford to be at our worst when we climb into the jet. Second, I'll never again be so quick to discount the input of even the most junior maintainer. That young airman might have saved my tail that day.

Maybe those guys in blue are onto something.

Lt. Nowicki is an ECMO with VAQ-131.