I’ve had bad days at work before, but never “shoot down multi-million dollar plane with two co-workers needing to eject” bad.

Had no clue a second missile was fired on a second f18.  Absolutely bonkers, thanks for the details - I've been waiting for this video for a few days.

Former NAVY maintainer, the reason the Tomcat would lose IFF was the vacuum tubes came loose. A little 1970s humor.

My daughter  is the ship surgeon  assigned to the Truman.  She was on duty, assigned to triage, when the incident occurred.   The pilots received excellent care.

Can't imagine the insanity of you JUST punching out, your jet isn't that far away and the F/A-18 vaporizes in front of you, plus the crap flying everywhere from the SM-2 warhead and all missile pieces blasting through everything at mach 2-3 where you are in that split second. It's still amazing that the first crew survived.

Hey Ward I served on Gettysburg from 2006-2009 as a stgc, who sat ASWC, SWC, AWC, and CSC watchstations.  I have questions here.  Wasn't there an E2 up? We would have never shot sm-2 at that close range.  Link 16 NTDS should have had the F-18 already in the system.  If the CVN or anyone had those aircraft in the system we would see it as the aw.  As the AW it would have been our priority to understand the whole air picture.  In order to fire the fic ( fire inhibit key) must have been inserted to enable the launcher - this key is usually held by the CO and the weapons officer, or can be granted to the CSC watch stander by the CO.  There is no way the CO would not have been in the decision loop here, especially if active air strikes were just completed.  The aircraft should have been talking to the aic's on the Gettysburg as they made there way back to the carrier.  The iff issue is confusing, but you make a plausible point on the cycling of crypto due to Zulu time
 No way 2 aircraft had bad iff,and the Gettysburg would have actively interrogated mode4 on anything approaching the ship or the carrier. I am so grateful no pilots were lost and everyone got back safely.  We recovered the pilots from 2 Marine helps that collided in the red sea and I see the image of pulling helo pieces, bodies, and flight bags from the gulf of Oman to this day and I retired as a senior chief   in 2010.  I just think from my experience this is an impossibility to happen - i am looking forward to any updates you might have going forward.  Gettysburg was one of the best and most capable ships i ever served on and it hurts my heart this could have happened.  Thank you for providing the most informative info I can find on this tragic incident.

Thanks Mooch and Hozer for this reasoned first response.

I was on the Gettysburg it was my first ship. She has a history of making admirals. I think this captain maybe one of the few exceptions.

This is the channel I turn to when I want to find out what actually occurred when these kinds of incidents happen. Rather than just parroted chat channel gossip you provide sober, informed fact and opinion. And importantly when opinions are given it is usually stated as such. Well done. Keep up the good work.

Really, really difficult to believe.  As a USN Destroyer plane guard bridge vet, I can't see any possible reason to fire at "something" almost right over you, while in darkness and during almost completed recovery action. If not identified waaayyy out farther than that, and the "bogey" approaching slow and on the recovery path....WTF ????  This is going to ruin some careers of officers, and give PTSD to the person who pushed the button.  So glad the two in the plane ( actually the four in two planes) lived through such a mess.

Fast thinking by the airmen saved their lives and they'll be with their families again in future holidays.  Mistakes happen.  When they're made at this level the cost is extremely high.

Again, no credit to HSC-11 for their swift rescue 😩

Currently serving as the CIC Officer onboard a DDG. 13 years of experience in CIC as an OSC and now an LDO. I personally know the Air Defense Officer onboard the Gettysburg. The Surface OPS/OPS Tech community is a small one. The ADO i can say by both record and personal knowledge is an outstanding Officer. We are all anxiously waiting the after action report to figure out how this happened.

As a RIO a decade before Mooch, I, too, got shivers throughout the discussion

I would say the Truman carrier group had its Christmas Miracle. Lot of breath exhaling right now.

I understand how Ripper 2 had to take evasive action to avoid the missile. Very similar to what happened to me over N Vietnam on the night of Dec 18, 1972. 5 SAM’s were launched at us, with only one of them guided. We were at 25,000 ft, so we had time to observe them coming up through the undercast. All but one were tracking away from us, so we watched the guided one. The EW gear had identified it as guided by the uplink. When the missile had got to where I thought it was “close enough”, I put the nose over and pulled the power back. The missile exploded just in front and above us. We got back on altitude, proceeded to the target and dropped our bombs. It was our only direct encounter with SAM’s during the one year tour.

My father was a naval Aviation torpedo man in World War II in the Pacific. He flew as a turret Gunner in a TBF and TBM off of the USS Belleau Wood. The last half of the war he was stationed on the Fletcher class destroyer USS Haraden dd585. His general quarter station was electronic gun operator of a twin 40 mm anti-aircraft gun. He told about a friendly fire incident... They had been pulled off the front line and were at anchor I believe in truk lagoon. Unexpectedly they were called to general quarters. No one was expecting that. There were bogeys on the radar coming in broadside like you would for torpedo attack or a low-level bomb run. The skipper kept the PA on in the ship so the sailors could know what's going on. There were two bogeys flying low over the water with no indicator light or signal on. The radio shack desperately tried to contact the two planes with no response. They tried several different channels with no response. They got within sight and we're spotted as two army Air core b24 bombers. They did not identify themselves as friendlies in any manner. This was after the Okinawa campaign when kamikazes were at high threat. Eventually they came within a dangerous range of the destroyer and the skipper ordered his gun crew to "splash" them. Dad opened fire on command and hit one of the bombers in a wing. It went down in the water. As soon as they started firing the radio cracked on with army pilots screaming knock it off you Navy dogs. One bomber went into the water. The other bomber was not hit. None of the crew were injured and all were rescued by Navy crew.
I've heard that story many times when I was growing up. . My dad was a lot of fun to take to an air show. He always enjoyed going up to the Confederate Air Force guys who were flying a b-24. He enjoyed telling them how he shot one down one day. Most of the time they looked at him like he was a crazy old hoot. True story

As an old navy Airdale who served in VF-154 during Vietnam, I can’t imagine friendly fire of aircraft in the stack preparing to be recovered.

F18s are still being made. Eject often. Right call from pilot or wso. Takes a month to make another f18, takes 24 years to make other aviators.

Just a few months ago we had a Zulu Time incident in the training environment.  The majority of the FA-18s had turned up before Zulu Time and were seen by the controllers, the last two FA-18s turned up just after Zulu Time and the controllers never saw them.