Yea , we used them

but not nearly as often that people would thing

when we did use them , it was usually for drop tanks , and the occasional torpedo or mine

probably 80% of everything we loaded , we loaded by hand , or the cable system , but mostly by hand

500 lbs bombs we loaded by hand , mostly all the time

the missiles we used back then were the Sidewinder , Sparrow and Phoenix , the Sidewinders and Sparrows we loaded by hand , the Phoenix had a cable system that you would lower down from the F-14 , and attach it to the missle , then crank it back up

75% of the time I drove the lift truck , was just to move it out of our way , the lift trucks were nice , but most of the time , you could just load by hand alot quicker , , 10X usually

I'll let you in on a little secret , 90% of your job on a Air Craft Carrier , is just moving @#$%& out of your way

there is always exceptions , if the bombs were already preloaded on mer's and ter's , then we'd use the cable system an upload all 3 or 6 bombs at once

but mostly , we'd just load one at a time , a good crew could load 12 bombs pretty quicky

Ready in the front !!!!! , Ready in the rear !!!! , LIFT !!!!!!!

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