My job is to film the aircraft launches and recoveries, the green-shirted maintainers crawling over jets in the hangar deck, and the busy passageways of the world’s largest warship.įor the Ford, the journey feels like an initiation into the NATO family. As a video producer for NATO, I’m here to document the voyage. I’ve been with him for two weeks aboard the ship as it makes its way from Halifax, Canada to the shores of Portugal, escorted by ships from six other NATO Allies – Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain – as part of the multinational exercise Silent Wolverine. This is Lieutenant Commander Phillip Kunzig – naval officer, aviator and my brother. The pilot looks at me, his mouth a tight, tolerant line: you done yet? I raise my camera and squeeze off a burst. To his right, the flight control tower and radar masts of the USS Gerald R. When he’s satisfied, he salutes the crew and climbs a ladder into the cockpit. The smells of metal and fresh paint give way to crisp gusts of sea air – and the acrid tang of jet fumes.įinding his F/A-18E Super Hornet strike fighter parked on the deck, the pilot fist-bumps the enlisted aircraft maintainers and circles the jet, peering into open panels, giving the fuel tanks slung under the wings a good nudge to make sure they’re secure.
Beyond, the Atlantic Ocean is a flat sheet of gunmetal grey, dappled with rushing whitecaps. When he reaches the deck, he lifts the heavy latch on a door and pushes it open. The fighter pilot makes his way through the depths of the ship, shouldering past sailors in the dim, narrow corridors.
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