INTRODUCTION


​Aircraft Carriers are special  killing machines, these pages are about how the "idea" to fly planes off a boat came into existence, what the thinking was, and how Carrier designs evolved,  the carrier always (to me) embodied every aspect of military life all combined into “one” community . . . a complete military base, except . . . it floats. Just being BIG, is not all there is to know, in the end it must function as a complete stand-alone city, and have many-many non-flight deck related jobs and assignments that work together to make the entire show operate. 

THERE WILL BE 150+ PHOTOS AND MANY MORE STORIES ENTERED IN HERE (This is a critical time to know about Aircraft Carriers) Taiwan is upon us.

(TODAY IS 1 APRIL, 2023)

I had these almost 100 pages groomed and up on the web for many years (1999-on...), and needed to recode everything to load onto my new Linux 2010 websites, now, it is being revised again for 2023 ...​ it is important to know that 12% of the American population are some type of Military Veteran (men, women, reserve and duty), roughly 1/4 of that number, or 12% are Navy veterans, and, 0.6 of one percent are Aircraft Carrier veterans, but, only 0.0003 % (3/10,000) are Carrier flight deck related/exposed veterans.


​That 3/10,000th number is actually inaccurate (to the high side), because of involving short-term reserve personnel, the average carrier has 3,000-5,000 personnel aboard, but only around 2-3% (30-50 sailors) of the crew actually are working "on" the flight deck as "essential' flight deck crew.  Many are on/off the deck as plane handlers, and armament, flight crews, refuelers, etc; but the actual full time/al day "Operational start-launch-Landing" flight deck work crew, is really quite small (only 15 or so).


I estimated back in 2023, that there may be as few as 7,000 actual flight deck veterans still alive today, spanning WW2, Korea, Viet Nam, Arabian Gulf, and Peace-time (including all of those still on active duty), from all 80 of the aircraft carriers in the USN fleet.

Whazammo is proud to have served, and been a part of the full-time flight deck crew aboard TICONDEROGA CVA14, and HMS VICTORIOUS RM38 for a four year operational span.


The inspiration to create these "FLATTOP SAILOR" pages was “not” some ego-braggadocio thing, after leaving the flight deck, it took almost 30 years of my meeting other Carrier veterans (from many different carriers) who knew as little about the ship they served on, as the housewife next door... because they were not flight deck assigned. The “color” in Carrier duty was on the flight deck, by creating these pages I simply wished to “share” with those ship mates, and my readers, our proud Naval Air achievements, and allow those down in the bowels of these ships to experience some small part of being a “Flat top sailor”.... 


​​​If you are a Naval History buff, or better yet, an Aircraft Carrier enthusiast ... and really "SERIOUS" about Carriers, this is some heaven-level reading for you, I built this page series knowing it would take hours to read and digest. The 14 links below used to amount to over 42 web-pages of in-print space on this Carrier page ! So, now I am cheating . . . I now use Links to Dan Linton's articles, rather than load them all up here…and I STRONGLY encourage you to take the time and follow them ... in sequence, as a prologue, and for some really great information and history.


 An April, 2010 Whazammo.com article rewrite and repost; Back in late 2009, when the Whazammo website began writing about "how" and "when" Aircraft Carriers evolved ... he ran into Dan Linton (who gave him permission to share his research), Dan's articles were all printed first over at a modelers group called http://www.carrierbuilders.net ... he starts at the very beginning of aviation, (around 1915) and then covers Aircraft Carrier history up until 1938, where the Whazammo articles pick it up from 1938 to 2023.


Truly, Dan is a historian on a monumental scale .... I hope you enjoy and appreciate his work as much as I do. Down below Dans' work, is my research and stories that Whazammo built, all relative to the 80 carriers in US Aircraft Carrier history, (1937 to date), from where Dan ends his work… but, mainly looking at more interesting facts, especially about the 34 Essex class carriers, and the TICONDEROGA vs. ESSEX differences that most people do not know about... and why everything is wrongly called an Essex class Carrier . . . ALSO, I have moved and re-posted my personal duty tours and related Carrier photos from during my time spent aboard USS TICONDEROGA and the British HMS VICTORIOUS here on these now combined, "Flatop Sailor" pages, so, there is a lot of "limey" stuff mixed in here as well.


To save over 50 pages of space… rather the omit them, for your review I have "linked" all 15 of Dan's article URL's from his now defunct www.carrierbuilders.net where they appeared in 2009 (down below), "mouse" over and Left click on any of his photographs to enlarge.


Part 1: The Evolution of the Aircraft Carrier: 

Part 2 HMS Furious and HMS Vindictive

Part 3: HMS ARGUS

Part 4: HMS Hermes and Eagle 

Part 5: USS Langley Evolution of the Aircraft Carrier: 

Part 6: The Evolution of the Aircraft Carrier: 

Part 7: The French Béarn Evolution of the Aircraft Carrier: 

Part 8: Glorious and Courageous Evolution of the Aircraft Carrier: 

Part 9: Lex and Sara Evolution of the Carrier: 

Part 10: Akagi and Kaga Evolution of the Aircraft Carrier: 

Part 11: Giant Airships Evolution of the Aircraft Carrier: 

Part 12: USS Ranger Evolution of the Aircraft Carrier: 

Part 13: IJN Ryujo Evolution of the Aircraft Carrier: 

Part 14: The Last Five Years Written by Alan Bellows on 09 April 2007​​​


All photos and text © 2009 by Dan Linton, reprinted with permission, as they first appeared at: www.carrierbuilders.net in September, 2009 Whazammo thanks both of these sources for a very fine presentation, and their permissions. Submarine launched aircraft and baloons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu-Go_balloon_bomb

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