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ID: Ybars1bO/qst/6253377#6257359
6/13/2025, 12:33:12 AM
>>6257358
“More or less.” She glances at her watch, then back at the collected analysts, then to her papers. “I suppose we ought to get this show on the road. The moment your datalinks go live the Admiral wants your full attention on mission coordination. I don’t usually give the introduction-to-being-alive briefing to girls already in the thick of it, so I’ll try to focus on what you’ll need to know in the next few hours. First things first, how long have you been flying?”
“Since about oh-eight-hundred.”
“Twelve hours. How are you feeling?”
“I’m- okay? Uh…” Having only felt things at all for less than a day, you don’t have much context to say, but the more you think about it the less completely okay you feel. Twelve hours of flight ops is already a full day, and you also just fought the largest carrier duel since the Philippine Sea. For all your crew’s exceptional performance, most of your aircrews have now flown at least once, many twice, and your deck crew hasn’t had more than a few minutes off since the day began. You’re far from spent, but you can see plainly what Raleigh’s getting at. This can’t go on indefinitely, and the sooner you can rest, the better.
The realisation hits as suddenly as an airstrike. Stupid. Stupid! How could you not have seen this coming? Had you planned on flying 24/7 all the way to Hawaii? No, it was worse than that: the possibility of needing to sleep had just never occurred to you. Your fleet looks to you for leadership! You never asked, never expected it of them, but they trust you as a flagship. To be so careless is simply unforgivable, no matter what distractions the day has held.
“I’m, uh, not maybe so good,” you begin, feeling deeply ashamed. “What happens now?”
“We plan around your non-flying hours. That’s just how it is.”
“But- I mean- if I have to sleep, what’ll happen? Will I have to be towed, or-”
“Towed!?” Raleigh actually bursts out laughing. “No no, you can navigate fine on night watch. We don’t sleep, not the way humans do, at least on the water.”
“But, I can’t provide air cover.”
“No. Past experience with carrier girls tells us that you can get sixteen to maybe eighteen hours of flying a day if you push it, but you can’t sustain more than that. We can’t maintain full twenty-four-hour combat ops even as long as normal ships.”
Sixteen hours of flight ops. Which gives you until around midnight, or 0200 in an emergency… and it's a 2,000-mile 4-hour flight to or from Hawaii, much too far for tactical aircraft. The simple fact is you'll be sailing for significant periods without an active CAP. And that that fact could have blindsided you so is beyond the pale.
“More or less.” She glances at her watch, then back at the collected analysts, then to her papers. “I suppose we ought to get this show on the road. The moment your datalinks go live the Admiral wants your full attention on mission coordination. I don’t usually give the introduction-to-being-alive briefing to girls already in the thick of it, so I’ll try to focus on what you’ll need to know in the next few hours. First things first, how long have you been flying?”
“Since about oh-eight-hundred.”
“Twelve hours. How are you feeling?”
“I’m- okay? Uh…” Having only felt things at all for less than a day, you don’t have much context to say, but the more you think about it the less completely okay you feel. Twelve hours of flight ops is already a full day, and you also just fought the largest carrier duel since the Philippine Sea. For all your crew’s exceptional performance, most of your aircrews have now flown at least once, many twice, and your deck crew hasn’t had more than a few minutes off since the day began. You’re far from spent, but you can see plainly what Raleigh’s getting at. This can’t go on indefinitely, and the sooner you can rest, the better.
The realisation hits as suddenly as an airstrike. Stupid. Stupid! How could you not have seen this coming? Had you planned on flying 24/7 all the way to Hawaii? No, it was worse than that: the possibility of needing to sleep had just never occurred to you. Your fleet looks to you for leadership! You never asked, never expected it of them, but they trust you as a flagship. To be so careless is simply unforgivable, no matter what distractions the day has held.
“I’m, uh, not maybe so good,” you begin, feeling deeply ashamed. “What happens now?”
“We plan around your non-flying hours. That’s just how it is.”
“But- I mean- if I have to sleep, what’ll happen? Will I have to be towed, or-”
“Towed!?” Raleigh actually bursts out laughing. “No no, you can navigate fine on night watch. We don’t sleep, not the way humans do, at least on the water.”
“But, I can’t provide air cover.”
“No. Past experience with carrier girls tells us that you can get sixteen to maybe eighteen hours of flying a day if you push it, but you can’t sustain more than that. We can’t maintain full twenty-four-hour combat ops even as long as normal ships.”
Sixteen hours of flight ops. Which gives you until around midnight, or 0200 in an emergency… and it's a 2,000-mile 4-hour flight to or from Hawaii, much too far for tactical aircraft. The simple fact is you'll be sailing for significant periods without an active CAP. And that that fact could have blindsided you so is beyond the pale.
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