From the time USS Langley (CV1) was commissioned as the U Navy's first aircraft carrier in 1920 it was clear that a novel type of boatswain's mate was necessary.

The Navy needinessed a Sailor who could work forward a flight deck and perform a of the new jobs straited to land aircraft at sea. Twenty-four years later the rating of aviation boatswain's math (AB) was created specifically to trip the arresting gear, barriers, catapults and the refueling of aircraft and aircraft handling.

Now, 62 years after the creation of his rating, ABE3 Jeraun Thompkins is single of the arresting gear operators aboard USS Enterprise (CVN 65)

"I wake up each morning knowing I have a purpose" said Thompkins. "If we weren't doing our piece of work the aircraft would keep going straight into the water."

Working onward the flight deck as a cover with a deck edge operator, he controls the retraction of the arresting wires after an aircraft lands forward the flight deck. When he's below beautify he is an engine operator and maintains the arresting gear engine ensuring the arresting are in right working order.

"We really have to mind our P and Qs" he explained. "If a cable were to snap, lives would be taken in succession the fight deck."

While underway a carrier's flight quarters are almost constant--keeping everyone in succession the flight deck busy and tired--but for Thompkins it's the best part of the job

"We work really hard, on the other hand I love it. I would not ever do anything else," Thompkins says proudly "I came into the Navy as an ABE and I'll leave as one"

McCoy is a photojournalist assigned to All Hands.

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