It's possible your friend jumped off of the Carl Vinson. It's a little odd that they'd let him but sometimes stuff like that depends on the officers on the boat.Hyperion wrote:Tsyroc, one of my friends who was in the Navy jumped off the flight deck of the Carl Vinson, I forget now why he did it (training?) but he actually said it was fun, but scary. I also have no idea if it's true or not, but I am leaning towards it probably happened. Some of his stories were rather cool though. Btw, I'll have to tell you about the guided tour I got of the Carl Vinson, not just from my friend, but from the Air Boss and Captain... But that's a pretty long story.
What I know about jumping into water is that the way you hit is what determines the level of damage you take, something I know firsthand.... Belly flop off the 14 foot diving board at Subbase Bangor's MWR pool (was there with some friends), thank God for my pain control, it was like hitting a brick wall, just *SPLAP!* and I just stayed that way until I got the pain under control (and I saw the lifeguard jump in... obviously since I knew I could move on my own, I didn't want the humiliation of being "rescued") my friends were making cracks about my having a "water line" (every part of me which had hit the water was beet red for about 2 hours, and literally stopped dead about halfway up my body, looked just like the waterline on a ship... Never again will I do that one willingly...
I know of one guy who went off the flight deck of my first ship (the Saratoga CV-60) but he was goofing around popping wheelies with the "tractor" they move planes around with. He popped wrong and drove it into a catwalk. He went flying from the car and catwalk out into the water. He survived that but a few weeks later died in a drunk driving accident.
Anyway, the Saratoga was also the ship I nearly went off of but it was the other side. On the side (starboard) I had my incident there were a lot of sponsons and a crane that I'd have hit before hitting water. If I hit the water then I would hopefully avoid being sucked under the ship and/or into the screws. If I made it that far then I have to hope that someone notices that I went over so they can start looking right away because the ocean is really big and it's seems even bigger at night.
By the way, my second ship the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) was ported across the pier from the "Chuck Boat" when they were both stationed in Alameda, California. I set foot onboard once for a couple of minutes and that was about it.
One thing they definately tell you when jumping off of the flight deck into the water...cross your legs.
