"When you're moving aircraft down to the hangar bay, you have to think about the fact you're moving a $50 million jet and trying to park it next to another aircraft that costs just as much, if not more," Aviation Boatswain's Mate (Handling) 1st Class Christopher Waiters said. "That's one of the most stressful things we worry about, especially when we are operating at the pace we did during deployment."

Waiters is talking about one of the main responsibilities air department's V-3 division, hangar deck control, has aboard aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) (Ike). To put it in the right perspective, if an action involving aircraft is taking place in the hangar bay, it is handled by V-3.

"We (hangar deck control) are a work center from which V-3 division operates," Waiters explained. "V-3 is responsible for vehicle movement, aircraft movement, and any equipment or station related to those. Hangar deck control is the nerve center for all of these in the hangar bay. Anything that happens or is going to happen in the hangar bay has to go through us. That includes elevator operations and divisional door operations, as well as aircraft firefighting in the hangar bay."

While Ike was on deployment, Waiters' work center moved all of the aircraft into the hangar bay, as well as operating the elevators so that it would be possible. Day or night, V-3 Sailors were called upon to get aircraft off the flight deck and into the hangar bay where they could undergo the necessary maintenance to get them back in the air as soon as possible. The fast tempo of deployment operations was new to some Sailors, and it challenged Waiters and the other experienced members of V-3 to get them trained and keep them focused.

"With our division, there were a lot of young personnel," Waiters said. "In fact, E-3 and below Sailors make up the majority of our work center. For a lot of them, it was their first time so far away from home and they had never experienced something like a deployment from a high-tempo and operational standpoint. They might get discouraged or frustrated, and it was our job as senior leadership to keep them motivated, to keep them focused on our mission, and show them how their role contributed to the whole as a piece. The mundane tasks may not seem important all the time, but we all played a part in the carrier's success during deployment; and it was up to us, the leadership, to pass on that understanding to them."

One of the younger personnel in the division, Aviation Boatswain's Mate (Handling) Airman Kelii Denny, said the deployment wasn't hard for him, but it was different.

"Since it was my first deployment, it was definitely a little bit different," he said. "It wasn't too bad, though, because I adjusted pretty quickly. As long as my family back home was doing well, it wasn't that much of a problem being on deployment."

Now that Ike is back from deployment and conducting aircraft carrier qualifications underway again, Waiters said it is a little less stressful and they have time to focus on other areas in their hangar bay domain.

"For me, it is absolutely easier working in the division now that deployment is over," Waiters said. "It's a lot easier in the hangar bay since we aren't constantly trying to move aircraft. We have more time to focus on training, painting, and beautifying the hangar bay."

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