European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 24, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Magazine if Petty Olicer 3.c. Matt Deweese Hooks up the catapult to ready the aircraft Lor its blast irom the Carrier flight deck. With the catapult in place Deweese pictured below left Geta out irom under last working in the most dangerous place on Earth Story and photos by j. King Cruger Mediterranean bureaus Welve inches above the head of Polly officer 3 c. Mall Deweese an f-18 s Jel engines scream on Lull military Power ramming out 35,000 pounds of thrust. Deweese scurries about under the lighter s belly making sure the aircraft is correctly hooked up to the catapult shuttle and is ready to be blasted into the sky. Deweese moves carefully one false move and he s dead meat. No matter How careful Deweese is no matter How Well he does his Job there Are certain dangers Over which he has absolutely no control. The fighter is loaded with fuel. It bristles with armed rockets. Flames can engulf the plane. A missile can Light off. A premature catapult shot can fling the tighter Down the flight deck while Deweese works under its belly. All these things can happen in a heartbeat. Thai s Why Deweese s Job is the most dangerous one on a Carrier s flight deck a heaving pitching windswept thrust blasted propeller scythe railing less perilous Patch that during flight operations is g neurally reckoned to be the most dangerous place on e. The. Deweese is a catapult Hookup Man aboard the Carrier Coral sea. He s one of those Guys in the Green shirts and Black Mickey mouse helmets you May have seen in the movies or training films. He s the Guy who crawls and Duck walks underneath a roaring vibrating ire belching Mother of a War machine to make sure it is ready to be Hung when it is. He runs from beneath and gives the thumbs up sic i blast off time comes three to five seconds later Deweese s Job is also called topside safely Petty officer. The topside safety Pelty Olicer is the Boss of a flight deck catapult Crew and the 65,000 Ion Coral sea has Lour catapults aboard during Light operations there May be 500 or 600 men working on the flight deck at any one time but Only 11 sailors will be at work at each catapult readying the howling Metal beast Guys like Deweese Are the top dogs of the cat Crews. There is no doubt about it. The  Hookup Man has the most dangerous Job on this  said it. John Romac an a-6 Bombardier navigator and the Carrier s assistant strike operations officer Asho Walch cd Deweese scramble under one aircraft after another Deweese helps launch a variety of aircraft now it is an f-18 Hornet. A couple of minutes ago it was an a be intruder before that it was an ea-6b prowler. He handles them in stride yet never forgets that different aircraft have different ways to kill him. Deweese often works no More than a foot to 18 inches from Jet engine intakes. Sometime i can feel the intake trying to suck my cranial helmet oif he said. On some aircraft the engine intakes Are in front of him on others they Are behind. If he gets too close to those suckers literally speaking he s a goner. On different aircraft i have to know which Way to run in and which Way to run out so that i Don t gel sucked into the intake or run into a propeller. If i make a mistake. I get turned into hamburger Deweese said. At 21. Deweese is getting a bit Long of tooth compared with the other Guys on the flight deck. Most of them Are 18 and 19. Anyone up Here who is Over 27 years old is considered to be an old Man people Burn out irom the Long hours we work he said Deweese. A Short wiry married Guy irom i Arinsburg Ohio came into the Navy when he was 18. Shortly after finishing High school his father had put in 10 years in the Navy and had served on a Carrier As a Yeoman when i was kid i wanted to work at something a Little adventurous policeman firefighter something like that but i never dreamed i would end up on an aircraft Carrier doing the things i m doing right now Deweese said he started of working the Bow safety Job on the flight deck making sure the end of the catapult was Clear of personnel and the deck was free of foreign objects. He did that Tor is months tuesday. November 24, 1987 that was interesting at first then it got Boring " he progressed to operating the Jel blast deflectors then to hooking up the air plane so that it is held Back when it is in tension on the catapult along the Way he picked up More and More qualifications eventually he got to the top of the Pilo catapult Hookup in everyone thinks i m crazy to be under there bul it s a fun Job with a tremendous amount of responsibility when i first started out under there it the noise the heat and the danger came to my attention bul it really is a goal Worth achieving the danger is always in the Backol my mind bul if i think about the Clanger Loo much that s going to keep m mind off doing my Job right and that might cause accidents i be been on the flight deck Lor two years and i be had no injuries done to me or the Crew or the aircraft during thousands and thousands of cat  do Wees said. Besides working during launch and subsequent recovery operations Deweese and his men also do the maintenance work on the catapult. That May Well mean working around the clock or longer to get that Stearn powered Slingshot ready to shoot. Deweese. Who plans on making the Navy a career said the danger the incredible heal noise and vibration Are not the worst part of his Job the Tang hours on duly Are. A typical duty Day is 18 hours with a Little sleep m  he said my Crew May catch 30 or 40 minutes sleep at a time in our lounge. That Pace sometimes goes on Lor a week or so sometimes we Don t gel Down to the mess deck to get a Good hoi meal instead they ii Send us cold sandwiches and  Why do Matt Deweese and Guys like him stick to Carrier jobs with their dangers deprivations and Long hours it can t be the extra Money for Deweese and everyone else who works out there on the most dangerous place on Earth gets a measly $110 a month extra for sicking their necks out Deweese said he knows Why he does it. When that plane goes up. I think to myself. I got it in the air safely that s the Reward of the Job " the stars and stripes Page 13