Yes It Exploded

Testing done with my husband on board. USNavy Shock Trials. Yes that is the real photo.

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This is called a Shock Trial preformed by the USNavy.

Most people think of danger at sea as something that happens in combat. They picture enemy ships on the horizon or fighter jets screaming overhead. What they seldom think about is the testing that takes place long before a ship is ever called into service.

My husband spent the last years of his career working with a special defense contractor on one of the U.S. Navy’s newest aircraft carriers. His team had helped design part of the landing and safety system used by the carrier’s fighter jets. It was an enormous responsibility. Every pilot who landed on that deck would eventually trust those instruments with his or her life.

Before the carrier could be declared ready, the Navy had one final question to answer.

What would happen if the ship were attacked?

There was only one way to find out.

My husband couldn’t tell me where he was going. He simply said he would be gone for several days. I had grown accustomed to those moments over the years. His work often involved projects he couldn’t discuss, so I learned not to ask questions that couldn’t be answered.

Still, I worried.

It wasn’t until he returned home that I learned where he had been.
He laid several photographs on the table.

The first showed an almost perfect day at sea. The water looked like blue glass beneath a clear sky. It could have been a vacation brochure.

The next photograph was something entirely different.

A tremendous column of water towered beside the carrier. It looked as though the ocean itself had erupted. The peaceful scene had vanished in an instant, replaced by an explosion so violent that it seemed impossible any ship could withstand it.

The Navy had conducted what is known as a shock trial, using a massive live explosive detonated in the water near the carrier. The goal wasn’t to damage the ship but to discover whether its systems—including the newly developed landing equipment—could survive the kind of punishment a real attack might deliver.
When the charge exploded, the ship didn’t merely rock.

It bounced.

The tremendous force lifted and jolted the entire vessel with far more violence than anyone onboard had anticipated. Even though everyone knew exactly when the explosion would occur, several sailors and engineers lost their footing and were injured when they were thrown against equipment or the deck. Thankfully, none of the injuries were serious.

One detail stayed with me more than anything else.

Before the explosives could be detonated, the Navy delayed the test until marine life had moved safely away from the area. They wanted the trial to be as realistic as possible without unnecessarily harming the creatures that shared those waters. I appreciated that small act of respect in the middle of such overwhelming power.
When the spray finally settled and the inspections were complete, the news was exactly what everyone had hoped for.

The instruments had survived.

The systems continued to function as they had been designed to do. The engineers could breathe easier, and so could the sailors who would one day depend upon those systems while landing high-performance aircraft on the moving deck of a carrier in rough seas or dangerous conditions.

Most people will never know the names of the engineers who designed those systems or the technicians who tested them. They don’t receive medals for charging into battle, yet their work quietly protects the men and women who do.
Whenever I look at those photographs, I no longer see only an explosion.

I see thousands of hours of engineering, months of preparation, the courage of the crews willing to stand aboard during the testing, and the dedication of countless veterans and civilians whose unseen work helps ensure that America’s sailors come home safely.

Sometimes serving your country means standing on the deck of a ship while the ocean explodes beside you—so that one day, someone else has a better chance of surviving a real attack.

God Bless those men and women who are putting their lives on the line every day so we can live in a protected and safe place.