USS Abraham Lincoln Flight Ops 1991

This is some more video I shot of flight operations aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), where I was assigned while in the US Navy from 1989-1992. These flight ops were most likely conducted in the Indian Ocean enroute to the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Desert Storm in 1991. I was part of the Public Affairs Office (PAO) on the ship and filmed various ports of call, shipboard activities, and the best part...flight ops. Look for more to come. I will also be putting up some of the travel footage from our port visits. We visited Hong Kong, Singapore, and Dubai, as well as the Philippines after the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1990. That eruption led to one of the largest evacuations of military dependants in the navy's history. It was called Operation Fiery Vigil, in which the ship earned the Humanitarian Service Award.

A note about the footage - Our mode of acquisition was the betamax format. It was a good format back in the day, but can't hold a candle to the new formats of today. One thing you'll notice is the disruption in the video every couple of seconds. This was the powerful radars on the superstructure used while at sea. There wasn't much that could be done about it. We did use a light lead shield around the cameras, but they didn't really work to well. The lines were in the video right from the day it was shot. CNN, NBC, and ABC crews that came on the ship in the Persian Gulf didn't have any lines in their video. They must have been able to get them to turn it off, but I'm not sure.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• USS Abraham Lincoln
• CVN-72
• Persian Gulf
• flight ops
• aircraft
• F14
• tomcat
• F18
• hornet
• A6
• intruder
• yellow shirts

[PeoplesWar]

Sick doesn't even begin to describe this video.

[BlueStarCadet08]

@EdgemanLL2 Thanks for the information. Must be an awesome spectacle and would love to experience it in person, but don't think I'd have the moxie to do it for hours on end, day after day like you and your shipmates

[EdgemanLL2]

@BlueStarCadet08 Well, you have the ear protection from the headset. And I insulated my headset with an extra layer of the insulation (stolen from an old headseat, and cut to fit) and I used foam earplugs.

Believe it or not, after all that, its not much louder than what you hear on this vid with my speakers at about 60% (slide the YT vid volume to full).

[EdgemanLL2]

@JH41997 if you have to ask, youre doing it for the wrong reasons.

[BlueStarCadet08]

Question for any of you folks that have served - how do you live with the noise? Was down in San Diego, watched a pair of aircraft (hornets?) launch from Coronado. Absolutely deafening from a half mile away (or more.). Even set off car alarms. It must sound like the end of the world from a few feet away.

You are,as they say, the man

[monorailred1]

Oh the Tomcat! Used to love to park near the runway at NAS Oceana and watch them take off. So close, could wave to the pilots near the fuel depot. Miss that plane.

[cgrasser7075861624]

Thanks for that incredibly old footage. Can you upload landings?

[JH41997]

What is the average salary of these guys? I might want to be one one day

[Hoschi0913]

Hey my beloved Tomcat :)

[EdgemanLL2]

@DesOptions The director is an enlisted guy. But the Cat/Ag (catapult/arresting gear) officers supervise the launch and recovery.