OpenTube

Why 19-Year-Olds Run the Most Dangerous Workplace in America

Not For Export

1,188 views

The US Navy calls a carrier flight deck the most dangerous four and a half acres in the world. Aircraft launch and recover every forty-five seconds, in the same space, at the same time, with a hundred and fifty people walking around in the middle of it.

The people running that surface are mostly between eighteen and twenty-five, with an average age under twenty-one. This is how a system that dangerous gets handed to people that young - and why it does not fall apart.

You'll learn:
What the seven jersey colours on a flight deck actually mean
Why the entire crew, officers included, walks the deck by hand before flying starts
What a catapult does to an aircraft in two seconds, and who checks the number
The 8.9-second figure that explains why deck crews lose their hearing
What the Navy's own data says about how much sleep sailors actually get

Watch next - the Air Force side of the same idea:
Why the Pilot's Name Isn't the Only One on a Fighter Jet
Why the Pilot's Name Isn't the Only One on...

Chapters:
0:00 - The Most Dangerous 4.5 Acres
1:39 - The Colors
2:56 - The Walkdown
4:11 - Two Seconds to 165
5:21 - Two Seconds to Zero
6:35 - 8.9 Seconds
8:01 - Who Is Actually Out There
9:28 - Five Hours of Sleep
10:44 - Written in Blood
12:02 - The Limiting Factor

Sources include US Navy and Department of Defense publications, Government Accountability Office reports on Navy readiness and fatigue, and peer-reviewed occupational noise research.

Footage: DVIDS / U.S. Department of Defense (public domain). Independently researched, scripted, narrated and edited. The appearance of U.S. DoD visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.

#aircraftcarrier #usnavy #flightdeck #military #navy

6 Comments

@notforexporthq Creator 4 weeks ago Pinned

Chapters:
0:00 · The most dangerous 4.5 acres
1:39 · The colors
2:56 · The walkdown
4:11 · Two seconds to 165
5:21 · Two seconds to zero
6:35 · 8.9 seconds
8:01 · Who is actually out there
9:28 · Five hours of sleep
10:44 · Written in blood
12:02 · The limiting factor

The number I keep coming back to is the average age. The median person on that deck is around twenty. Not the pilots — the ones running the catapult, chaining down 25-ton aircraft, standing three metres from an intake that could kill them.

Most organisations respond to high stakes by adding experience. The Navy can't; the job is physically brutal and the turnover is structural. So instead of experienced people they built a system that makes inexperienced people safe: colour-coded roles, a rigid signal language, and procedures written after each fatality.

Would you rather be somewhere run by twenty-year-olds with a perfect system, or by veterans with a loose one?

@juditrotter5176 5 days ago (edited)

My husband deployed aboard the USN Ranger, Air Wing VA165 A-6 Intruders. fall of 1967. He was A Green shirt Mechanic. He got activated from the Naval Reserves in January of 1967. Because of his reserve time he was An ADJ 3. He was in Boot Camp In the Summer of 1964. I was ironing some clothes that summer and watching TV when the conflict about the Gulf of Tonkin was announced. I rationally thought no small countries would dare attack a USN Aircraft Carrier. By ‘67 my boyfriend was my husband, playing College football. Our Christmas present from the Navy was orders to report to active duty in January 67, first to Treasure Island and then to NAS Whidbey Island, training squadron VA 165 on 2/16 1967. Close to our home in Seattle. I’m pretty grateful that I was only 18 years old and very ignorant of the danger.

@CdA_Native 3 days ago (edited)

Folks, let me tell you a story. Many years ago, after the fall of the Soviet Union, I worked in Russia and had the chance to visit Russian war ships. The Russians who "steered" those ships were 20 year veterans ...... when asked about the US Navy, I told them that 19 to 25 year old Americans steered our ships. They refused to believe me! One of them actually said: "if that's true, then we are doomed."

@S.Nedzia 3 weeks ago

The Navy, as with all the services., gives alot of responsibility to those serving.
Doesn't matter the rating, job, you are given responsibility that would never happen as a civilian.
Go Navy ⚓️⚓️⚓️⚓️⚓️

@eawisner 12 days ago

Lol. I am an ABE Bubba, i spent my time on that deck before i could legally drink. Back before the new rules got put in place.

@rickvandermaas1498 10 days ago

This video totally misses each squadrons final checkers. They wear white with checkerboards on their float coats. They are the last people to check the aircraft before flight. Not the brown shirt line personnel. Final checkers take the aircraft to the cats for launch.