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Kitty Hawk team celebrates flight deck milestone

Journalist 1st Class (SW) Ryan Bell, USS Kitty Hawk public affairs

Posted 02/16/2003

ABOARD USS KITTY HAWK AT SEA -- The crews of USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63), the Navy's longest-serving active warship and America's only permanently forward-deployed aircraft carrier, along with Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5, reached a milestone recentlywhen the ship's bow catapult team launched an aircraft from Kitty Hawk's No. 1 catapult for the 150,000th time in the ship's nearly 42 years of service.

As of noon (EST) Feb. 8, 398,505 aircraft have launched from the four catapults on Kitty Hawk's flight deck.

That's nearly 800 launches per month, more than 25 launches per day, with cat. 1 carrying nearly 40 percent of that load.

Aviation Boatswain's Mate 1st Class (AW) Richard Ornelas, of Heltonville, Ind., is Kitty Hawk's bow catapults leading petty officer. He heads a crew of more than 30 Sailors who maintain and operate the equipment that provides the steam and hydraulic pressure to cat.'s 1 and 2. They help an aircraft go from standstill to 150 mph in the blink of an eye, over only 210 feet of track.

"One hundred fifty thousand is a very exciting milestone," Ornelas said. "I'm just coming to this division, so this is my first cruise working with the bow cats. We've shot 612 birds (aircraft) from cat. 1 in the short time we've been at sea, and we'll keep shooting birds from her as long as the ship is in commission," he continued. "Because of the level and quality of the maintenance we do when the ship is in port, there is no maximum number of catapult shots for any of our gear. Kitty Hawk's been doin' it for 40 years. And she'll keep doin' it," he explained.

Aviation Boatswain's Mate Airman Francine Ingallina, of Finksburg, Md., has been on board Kitty Hawk for more than two years, and said she is already thinking about her place in history as member of the Hawk/5 team. "It'll be something to look back and know I was a part of this milestone," she said. "This is a special achievement for the team."

Aviation Boatswain's Mate Airman Alexander Shamis, a Bronx, N.Y. native, is new to Kitty Hawk. He has been aboard Kitty Hawk since August, which means he missed Cat 1's first 148,000 or so launches. "I can imagine how much work has gone into those launches, because we do a lot of hard work here," he said. "There are a lot of sleepless nights. That's flight ops, but it's fun. It's a privilege, especially to be part of a carrier that's been doing this for 40-plus years."

According to Ornelas, the difficult job he and his crew do helps to motivate them and instill a sense of pride.

"I read somewhere in All Hands magazine that this was described as the toughest job in the Navy, but we can handle it," he said. "These guys have a lot of pride. Launching aircraft is not an easy job, but I think we all agree that we'll look back and appreciate the fact that we were given a chance to make history, we did, and we did it with good people."