FACT FILE: Deck Crew Jumpsuit
Deck crewmen working in a hangar bay or other launch facility
aboard a vessel wear color coded vests or jackets (often called jerseys)
to indicate their function or duties. This color-coding enhances communication
on deck. In a typical shuttlebay, only one shuttlecraft is usually being
operated at any given time, and noise and deck confusion are rarely a problem.
However, on a carrier or starbase, dozens of aerospace craft may be in
simultaneous operation, making it nearly impossible for pilots and ground
crewmen to communicate easily with engines turning over, aircraft launching
or landing and all the other things going on in such an environment.
The color coded jersey gives an instant indicator as to what the crewman is concerned with, and makes it easy for everyone to understand what is going on. Each color jersey is associated with a specific crewman and their duties, and is shown in the table below. Note that there is normally only one Launch Controller or Hangar Officer (Yellow jersey) in a given launch area, and one Crew Chief (Brown jersey) for each deck crew assigned to an aircraft.
CREW CHIEF |
Crew Chiefs are in charge of a specific deck crew, typically a crew assigned to a specific aerospacecraft. These in particular are sometimes referred to colloquially as "plane captains". |
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Deck crew/aircraft handler. These crew members are generally charged with arranging and securing parked aircraft on the flight and hangar decks. They also direct taxiing craft with batons or hand signals. |
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"Green-shirts" are responsible for performing periodic preventative maintenance on aerospace craft as well as repairing failures and malfunctions. They may also perform between-flight servicing to ready the craft for the next flight. |
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These crew members are tasked with arming, disarming, and rearming aerospace craft. This may include assembling warheads or wepon components, loading ammunition drums or charging energy weapons. |
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White shirts are worn by safety crews and deck medical personnel. Often, these shirts are marked with additional indicators (such as a red cross for a corpsman). |
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There is typically only one Hangar Officer per launch and/or recovery area. If directing a launch operation, the officer is referred to as the Launch Controller. When directing recovery operations, he is sometimes referred to as the LSO (landing signals officer). |
Deck crews usually have 3 lines of reflective lettering across the back of their jersey. This shows the crewman's name, the vessel he is assigned to and the specific deck crew that he is assigned to. As an example, the jersey might read "Burke, USS Corsair, A-4" indicating he is assigned to the 4th deck crew of Alpha Squadron, aboard the USS Corsair. When deck crews wear protective helmets, they have the communications channel they use displayed across the front and backs of the helmet, such as "FREQ-6". This enables a pilot to quickly contact a specific deck crew for instructions or assistance, without confusion.
Material on this page ruthlessly plagerized from the SFMC's Aerospace Branch Manual by Matt Kelley and available from SFMC Academy.
WebPage designed & maintained by Kevin "MAC" Nulty
