A Touch of the Madness by Lawrence Kasanoff

Author:Lawrence Kasanoff
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781637744246
Publisher: BenBella Books, Inc.
Published: 2023-05-22T00:00:00+00:00

IF YOU THOUGHT LANDING WAS BAD, TAKEOFF IS WORSE

After 9/11, I was on a committee of Hollywood types gathered to brainstorm disaster scenarios and scare tactics we would have terrorists use in a movie. The Pentagon sponsored this as a way of thinking outside the box and perhaps anticipating next moves based on our imagined scenarios.

We gathered under such unfortunate circumstances, of course, but it was fascinating. I met a lot of people from the military, some still friends, and had the idea to develop a movie based on some of what I’d learned.

Sitting in my office soon after, with my creative team working on the script, we realized if we had some real exposure to these guys in the field, it would help us (OK, and be fun).

But what training mission could we observe that would be most productive?

“Weapons training,” someone said.

“Watching Navy SEAL training down in San Diego,” another yelled out.

Then I said, “You know what would be so cool—to land on a US aircraft carrier at sea! Let’s do that.”

I didn’t think much more about it, but one of my staff really latched on to the idea and arranged for it.

Cut to a few weeks later, and a small group of us were standing on the tarmac at a Navy air base in Southern California. We wore crash helmets, fire-retardant crash gear, life preservers, and helmets with walkie-talkies in them.

The commanding officer explained we would be flying via a small troop transport Navy jet. There would be no windows for security reasons; we could not know the location of the carrier we were going to, only that it was in the Pacific Ocean. Communication was via headset only. There would be life rafts inflated in the small cabin. Should we ditch—crash into the water—we should get in one.

It all kind of scared me. I hadn’t really thought about it that deeply, more suggested it on a whim. I wondered, Have I gone too far into the madness this time?

I pretended to go to the bathroom but really called my then girlfriend to ask if I should bail. Given my girlfriend at the time was an Olympic gold medalist in Tae Kwon Do, a top Hollywood stuntwoman, and a master equestrian, in hindsight I now realize her answer would be obvious: “Oh, go for it!”

So I did. Stomach doing butterflies and all.

What the CO didn’t tell us is when a jet lands on an aircraft carrier, it doesn’t land like your lovely British Air flight gently descending and then gliding down into London as if on a feather while they offer you a final drink.

In case it is followed or tracked on enemy radar, the jet does not slowly descend at all.

It finds the aircraft carrier when the jet is at full altitude, gets close, then heads almost straight down. (You will note this is not a technical description.)

This is called a “carrier break.” I kept hearing over the headphones in my crash helmet: “Prepare for carrier break (static)”; “Thirty seconds to carrier break”; “Carrier break commenced.

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