THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 20, 1996 TAG: 9607200202
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
LENGTH: 52 lines
Two Virginia Beach Navy aviators returning from a sortie over Bosnia-Herzegovina made the 300,000th tailhook landing on the carrier Enterprise Friday, earning a cake and congratulations from the Norfolk-based ship's crew.
Lt. Kris Dorfman, piloting an F-14 Tomcat, and Lt. Nick Dienna, his radar-intercept officer, grabbed the Enterprise's No. 3 wire late Friday morning, Norfolk time.
With that, the carrier joined an exclusive club in naval aviation: Despite lengthy shipyard stays during its 35-year career, the Enterprise has averaged more than 8,500 arrested landings a year - or more than 23 per day, every day - since joining the fleet.
The ship's commanding officer, Capt. Michael D. Malone, alerted the crew to tune into an on-board television broadcast to witness the event, moments after another air crew made the carrier's 299,999th landing.
``As I landed, I saw all these photos being taken of the jet and of me climbing out and I had no idea why they were doing that,'' said Dorfman, a member of squadron VF-103, the Jolly Rogers of Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach.
``I definitely feel lucky it was me, because it could have been any one of 14 pilots who were up at the time.''
The Enterprise, steaming in the Adriatic Sea, left Norfolk June 28 on a six-month deployment to the Mediterranean.
Dorfman's F-14, equipped with the Navy's new LANTIRN laser-guided weapons system, was carrying a load of laser-guided ``smart'' bombs. As it returned from a flight over the former Yugoslavia, it lifted its nose over the carrier's fantail and grabbed the wire.
``I had had a couple hundred landings on this ship back when I was a junior officer back in the early 1970s,'' Malone said in a telephone interview later in the day, ``so this had a lot of meaning for me, both as the commanding officer and as an aviator.
``I got on the (public address system) and told the crew that everyone on Enterprise, whether they were cooking meals or working on the flight deck, should be proud of this achievement.''
The captain promised a party to mark the occasion once the carrier's busy flight schedule eased. ``We were in the middle of a recovery, so you can't just stop and celebrate,'' he said. ``But we will. We'll bake a cake and put a big 300 on it, take it down to that pilot's ready room, and we'll all have some cake.'' ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS photo
When the F-14 Tomcat flown by Lt. Kris Dorfman, and radar-intercept
officer Lt. Nick Dienna, touched down on the Enterprise flight deck
Friday morning, the carrier joined an elite group. by CNB