The U.S. is the only military power in the world capable of taking off and landing on an aircraft carrier at night.  There are quite a few countries that have aircraft carriers, but only the U.S. is capable of operating 24/7.

The average age of the people who operate the flight deck is just 20 years old.  The middle management group (young officers and non-commissioned officers) average age was in the mid to late 20s.  Those young, very bright, high energy Americans operate the most complicated system in the world.  Amazing!  

Because of the nature of Navy recruitment and job transfers, 1/3 of the crew turns over every year. To compensate for this, the Navy spends an enormous amount of time and resources training their personnel.  When we were on the Truman, it was involved in its second six-month training period.  It is considered 100% deployable only after one year of training.  It will be in the deployable or "Serge" stage for the next 15 months.  After that cycle is complete they start the 27-month program over again.

If a pilot does not land or takeoff at night at least 2 times in a 7-day period, they are decertified and must go through an entire re-certification program.  The pilots are continually taking off and landing — day and night.

You would think that being out to sea for months at a time, in such tight living quarters, working 12-hour daily shifts, 7 days a week without any days off, people would feel used and abused.  On the contrary, I witnessed huge pride of ownership and love of being out to sea on that carrier.  I talked with sailors who were either retiring or being transferred off the carrier and they were truly disappointed that their Truman experience was coming to an end.

The U.S. operates 12 carrier task forces scattered throughout the world.  The Ronald Reagan, the newest carrier in the fleet, is involved in sea trials right now.  It is our 76^th carrier since the U.S. began flying off ships.

In conclusion, I would like to say that I was absolutely shocked that on that carrier of almost 6,000 people, I was the third oldest person on that vessel.  The oldest Navy person was just 51 years old, but three of my visiting group (of 12) were over 60 years old.  I felt proud to spend time with this very, very young crew.  I was energized to be able to stay with them up and through all the ladders and passageways (no elevators) on that huge ship.

Sincerely,