Every day, the steam-powered catapult aboard this massive aircraft carrier flings American fighter jets into the sky, on missions to target ISIL positions in Iraq and Syria.
The USS Theodore Roosevelt is a key element of the US-led coalition targeting the militants. This carrier in the Arabian Gulf is some 330-metres long and home to about 5,000 US navy airmen, sailors and marine pilots, carrying 70 aircraft involved in the fight against the extremists.
Coming in for landing on its 18,000 square-metre flight deck feels like nothing else; the jet’s tail hooks catch trap wires and screech the aircraft to a halt in about two seconds — rushing so much blood to the heads of passengers and pilots that everyone briefly sees red.
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Big Stick!” crew members shout on arrival, referring to the 20-story tall aircraft carrier’s namesake, the US’s 26th president known for the saying: “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”
Below deck is a complex set of passageways and tunnels, hangars and sailors’ quarters, gyms and mess halls, engine rooms and offices. Painted murals bear fighter squadron insignia, US flags, the cartoon figure Popeye and other patriotic imagery.
Pilots on-board have flown missions into both Iraq and Syria, part of the over 6,800 air strikes carried out by the coalition since August 2014. Some 20 per cent of all coalition strikes come from aircraft launched from the nuclear-powered Roosevelt.
Though naval officers declined to discuss their operations in detail with an Associated Press team invited on-board, many missions now target the Islamic State-held city of Ramadi in Iraq to support local forces trying to retake it. Each mission requires hours of preparation, those involved say.
“We don’t just shoot from the hip, if you will,” says Capt Brandon “Wobbly” Wilkins, a Marine pilot. “And again we’re not here to carpet-bomb the place and obliterate a nation. We’re trying to do very specific things with our aircrafts to support the Iraqi mission.”
* Associated Press