I found this over at Kim du Toit's site, and it was just too good not to post.

Insurance people make their money by measuring risks. Lloyds of London says that the deck of an aircraft carrier is the most dangerous working environment in the world, and it's not hard to see why. On the deck of a Nimitz -class carrier, there is constant motion among dozens of aircraft, fuel lines, catapults, jet blast deflectors, and arresting wires. The cats launch aircraft and the arresting wires catch landings in a rhythm that recovers one aircraft and launches another in the space of about sixty seconds.

In the middle of this controlled chaos swarms a horde of sailors moving and fueling aircraft, recovering the arresting wires, loading bombs and bullets, hooking the catapults to the aircraft, and checking things over and over to make sure they're good to go.

The article is about the USS Harry S. Truman, but I opted to snag a photo of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, instead. For personal reasons, she is my favorite ship. I've taken short cruises on the Ike, and have fond memories of standing on the pier, waiting for her to pull into port. You see, my dad was on the Ike. He was the Chief Boatswain's Mate, and was responsible for seeing that aircraft were deployed and returned safely. Sure, he worked on other carriers, like the Essex and the Lexington, but the Ike was always my favorite.

He retired from that job after 21 years in the Navy. Of course, that was over 20 years ago. He's retired twice now, and today, my pop turned 64. Happy Birthday Pop.