USS Stennis

by | Apr 1, 2022 | Broadcast Video Production

san diego sound operator patty mooney on plane bound for uss stennis publicity

All Aboard the USS Stennis

A Sound Operator’s Adventure Aboard an Aircraft Carrier

The USS Stennis is one of the premiere aircraft carriers home-ported in San Diego.

Several years ago a British television company called us up. They wanted to know if we could provide a sound operator for a video shoot on a boat. I’ve worked on various boats before. For instance, the Hornblower, a local tour boat that cruises around San Diego Bay and under Coronado Bridge.  And then it returns to port. I’ve also worked aboard assorted sailboats and motor boats.  A crew from the UK would travel to San Diego to shoot a segment for a tv show called “Top Trumps.” So I said yes, I’d do it.

uss stennis aircraft carrier san diego sound operator patty mooney

A Really Gigantic Boat

And then came the news that this “boat” was actually the USS  Stennis, an aircraft carrier. Furthermore, I’d be flown on a Grumman C-2 Greyhound to where the Stennis was circling a hundred miles out to sea. A very thick cable attached to the Stennis’s flight deck would “trap” the Greyhound. And then we would screech to a stop from 160 mph to 0 in five seconds.

Naturally, I was super-excited about it.  I love rollercoasters and mountain biking.  Of course I would love getting trapped on the USS Stennis, 100 miles out to sea.  It would turn out to be one of the most challenging audio gigs I have ever been on in my 15 years as a sound technician.  Try mixing sound on the deck of an aircraft carrier as dozens of aircraft land and take off, screaming into the sky.  But what an experience!

Top Trumps

Patty assisted the crew of an English television series called “Top Trumps” 

uss stennis aircraft

One of the aircraft on the USS Stennis flight deck

The series was based on a card game called Top Trumps.  Two players try to one-up each other.  In the TV show, two likeable guys, Robert Llewellyn and Ashley Hames tried to one-up each other in ten different episodes:

  1. Super Yachts
  2. High Performance Planes
  3. Super Ships
  4. Fire Engines
  5. Warships
  6. All Terrain Vehicles
  7. Rescue Rigs
  8. Supercars
  9. Helicopters
  10. Mammoth Earth Movers

 

Warships

Patty joined Ashley Hames’s team on the “Warships” show.  Consequently, the crew ran up and down ladder after ladder on the USS Stennis.  They moved from the flight deck to the bowels of the ship.  They raced into the Radio Room, the Officers Lounge, the Mess Hall, Church, Post Office and Grocery Store, and all the way up to the Radar tower.

Trap One Club

Patty became a member of the “Trap One Club” as she flew aboard in a Greyhound C2A aircraft. “Trap” is the slang word for the Tailhook procedure whereby the tailhook of an aircraft is caught by a wire across the flight deck as the jet goes from 150 to 0 mph under 2.5 seconds.  And take-off from 0 to 170 mph is also accomplished in 2.5 seconds.  Suffice it to say, it’s an amazing experience!

Musical Video Tribute to the Navy

Above is a short video I produced from footage I shot on a camera the size of a deck of cards.  So you can see what I could see.  The music, “Tomorrow,” is by a band called Bulletproof Messenger.

Voley Martin, lead guitarist, incidentally, is Lieutenant Voley John Martin of Hicksville. He completed flight training in the Blackhawk Helicopter at Fort Rucker, Alabama. And he’s a member of the 42nd Aviation Battalion based out of Macarthur Airport.

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Patty Mooney is a VP, Video Producer, Sound Technician, Teleprompter Operator, Video Editor and Sand Bag Aficionado at award-winning San Diego video production company, Crystal Pyramid Productions.