As a second lieutenant pilot, Louis does not have to worry about his living environment on the Enterprise, whether it is an officer or a pilot, he can get certain preferential treatment.

For example, in the rest compartment, ordinary sailors need more than a dozen or even 20 people in a large cabin, while pilots have four to six people in one cabin and have separate toilets; there is a special pilot's restaurant on an aircraft carrier, which is the only restaurant on the entire ship that has food supply 24 hours a day, and the other restaurants will close when the time comes.

As a rookie, Louie was assigned to a six-man cabin, which was full of pilots who had just arrived in the Sixth Bombing Squadron, and there was even a person who joined later than Louie, who had just arrived at Pearl Harbor two days ago and was just in time for the voyage after completing his report.

"Louis Hunt. ”

"Kevin Evans!"

The rookie, who was even younger than Louis, was not a rookie at heart, having graduated from the Naval Academy and served on a destroyer for a while before going to Pensacola for flight training before coming aboard the Enterprise.

"You know what? I often heard your name when I was in Pensacola. Evans laughed and joked: "It's the name that all the students don't want to hear, but I didn't expect to become a colleague now." ”

"I'll just take it as if I'm praising me!" Louis didn't know how to respond, and it seemed like a good thing to become what the instructor called 'someone else's child'?

After sorting out their personal belongings, all the pilots have to go to a meeting to listen to the mission briefing and get the work schedule for the next period of time: such as the specific arrangements and personnel of the patrol flight mission.

While the pilots were in a meeting, the Enterprise made all the preparations before sailing and slowly left Pearl Harbor.

Arriving in the cabin where the pilots were meeting, Louie met Dick, but not Deakins.

"Deakins is in the 6th Scouting Squadron. ”

Only then did Louis realize that Deakins and they were not pilots on the same 'team', but that they were pilots of the 6th Bombardment Squadron.

The current squadron leader is William Hollingsworth, a good friend and old classmate of Dick Best, so he was accepted into the 6th Bombardment Squadron when he applied for transfer back to the front, and soon became a vice-captain.

So Dick can often get some news in advance, whispering to remind Louis not to be nervous, this time it is just some ordinary patrol and reconnaissance mission, but will not return to Pearl Harbor, but go to San Diego Military Port to pick up a batch of goods.

"Cargo?" Louis really didn't know that an aircraft carrier was still responsible for pulling cargo?

In fact, aircraft carriers often perform similar tasks, such as transporting some land-based aircraft from the mainland of North America to an island base.

But this time, instead of this kind of delivery mission, we will return to North America to receive new aircraft, that is, dreadnought dive bombers that have been equipped but have not yet been fully delivered.

There are now only a few Dreadnoughts on board the Enterprise, which are used for various tests and to familiarize pilots with the new aircraft in advance. The Enterprise will then head to San Diego Naval Harbor, where the pilots will be responsible for driving the old aircraft ashore, and the pilots will take off from the military port base in a brand new dreadnought aircraft and land on the aircraft carrier to complete the equipment replacement.

Louie, who understood the situation, also knew that there should be another purpose of this voyage, which was to use those dreadnought bombers to familiarize all pilots with the performance of the new aircraft.

Sure enough, Squadron Leader Hollingsworth quickly said that all the pilots on this voyage were to fly the Dreadnought to carry out at least three patrol missions, and the specific flight arrangements had been sent to everyone.

The days that followed were nothing special, and Louie quickly adapted to life on the carrier, as it was regular and simple, repeating similar things every day.

In his spare time, he would walk around and see with his own eyes the specific structure of the Great Killer Weapon of this era, but more often than not, he would find a corner to blow the sea breeze and look at the magnificent sea—by the way, he would practice the Force.

The days passed quickly, and the pilots were on duty at a fast pace, and it wasn't long before the day came when Louis was going to take off on patrol in the Dreadnought.

This patrol was a two-plane formation, and he served as Dick Best's wingman.

When Louis got dressed and went to the deck and was about to climb into the dreadnought, he found that there was no one in the back seat, but sandbags piled up.

"What's going on?"

The ground crew, knowing that Louie was a newcomer, smiled and explained to him why they put sandbags in the back seat: when the aircraft carrier pilot came to the new aircraft carrier and flew the new plane on his first mission, for safety reasons, there would not be people in the back seat, but sandbags of equal weight.

Louis is a newcomer, the first time to perform take-off and landing missions on an aircraft carrier, and he is flying a new plane, he has all the conditions, and even the most daring people are not willing to sit in the back seat of Louis at this time.

What's more, this time all the pilots will fly the new plane, which means that there will always be no living people in the back seat during this mission.

"Don't be nervous, Louie. With your skills, this is just a very simple reconnaissance mission!" After the two Dreadnoughts took off smoothly, Dick talked to Louie over the radio, "So we can do a few dive exercises by the way." ”

Even when it comes to adapting to the new aircraft, the pilots still have to complete the scheduled reconnaissance mission, and after patrolling the predetermined area, Dick takes Louie on a dive practice.

Because Louis was a wingman, he had to open the flaps a few seconds later than Dick during the dive, so that his plane could fly in front of Dick's plane.

When really carrying out dive bombing, the wingman has the task of covering the long plane, that is, using his own plane as a shield for the long plane, so as to win a better chance for the long plane to drop bombs.

This time, Louis leveled the plane at 1,500 feet, and as he flew the Dreadnought back into the air, Dick's plane returned to his flank.

"You know what, Louie!" Dick complimented Louis over the radio, "I'd love to be with you all the time, if I could, but I don't think you'll be able to be my wingman soon." ”

Dick felt that with Louie's flying skills, coupled with the current expansion of naval pilots, Louie would soon have to bring in a new rookie.

"I wish that day had come sooner, because being a wingman is not an easy job. ”

"Hahaha, you're right. ”

After a few more simulated aerial dogfights in the air, and then the two dreadnoughts flew back to the Enterprise, at which point Dick began to show off his maneuver again: "Louie, do you want to try landing under special circumstances?"

“......”

Before Louie could reply, Dick had already started his own sitcom: "My flaps are damaged and can't be opened." ”

Then Dick's airplane propeller stopped turning: "I've run out of fuel!"

“......”

Louis drove the dreadnought around in the air, watching Dick's series of operations, and once again felt what it meant not to take his life seriously.

He admired this guy's technology very much, and took the initiative to create all kinds of unfavorable conditions for himself, and he was still able to park the plane on the deck of the Enterprise steadily, which is not something that ordinary pilots can do.

Louis didn't follow Dick's example, he just landed honestly, and Dick came up after the plane was parked: "With your skills, those just now shouldn't be a problem." ”

"I'm just a rookie recruit, how dare you play like this when you're a recruit?"

"Of course I don't dare!" Dick patted Louis on the shoulder, one of the reasons why he dared to do such nonsense was that his current boss was a good friend of his, and his own seniority was deep enough, even if the chief was dissatisfied with him, at most he would say a few words, and there could be no substantive punishment.

Louis is different, he has just joined the 6th Bomber Squadron, and even joined the Navy for only a month, and if he dares to mess around like this as soon as he joins the army, he will definitely teach him a hard lesson to remember.

After completing the first takeoff, reconnaissance flight and landing on an aircraft carrier, Louis further integrated into the daily life of an aircraft carrier pilot, and time gradually passed in this regular and monotonous life.

Before you know it, the USS Enterprise has completed its patrol mission and is heading towards the San Diego Military Port, where the Enterprise will dock and then undergo maintenance for a while.

It was also an opportunity for the soldiers to go home on vacation to visit their families, after all, not all soldiers would be like Dick, who was assigned to serve on the Enterprise and moved their families directly to Pearl Harbor.

But this also awkwardly happened: Dick Best and Clarence Deakis of the 6th Reconnaissance Squadron had to find a way to pass the time after the Enterprise docked at San Diego Military Harbor.

Both of their families have already moved to Pearl Harbor, so they can't take a warship back to Pearl Harbor and go back to meet their wives and children and then come back on a warship, right?

"How about a trip to Los Angeles?"

Dick, who proposed to go to Los Angeles, dragged Louie with him, knowing that Louie had no family, and that this stop would have nowhere to go like him and Deakins, so they would just go out and have fun together.

Life on the aircraft carrier is very boring, each voyage can be as little as one or two months or as long as more than half a year, and the boring days are too long, resulting in every time after docking, the sailors on board will be like a mad dog that has escaped, trying to vent their excess energy.

Louie, on the other hand, has been studying and training hard for more than three years, and he feels that it is not a bad thing to relax properly.

"Going to Los Angeles to spend the holidays? sounds like a good suggestion!"