Never Stopped Trying ... Kept Going! by U.S. Navy Seaman Caitlin Flynn
January 3, 2020
“I was on the USS John F Kennedy (CV 67) and we were pulling out
for COMPTUEX (composite unit training exercise), September 11,
2001,” said Lt. Amy Blades-Langjahr. “We were in the harbor being
turned around by the tugs. The second plane hit when we were in the
jetties. We had port calls in Saint Thomas lined up. We had a
Mediterranean deployment; not even going to 5th fleet.”
After spending close to two months at sea, Blades-Langjahr
returned to port and found that the world had changed in the wake of
the attacks on the World Trade Center.
 August 2, 2020
- Aircraft shooter Lt. Amy Blades-Langjahr from Casper, Wyo., test fires a catapult in the bow bubble on the flight deck aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68). Nimitz, the flagship of Nimitz Carrier Strike Group, is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations to ensure maritime stability and security in the Central Region, connecting the Mediterranean and Pacific through the Western Indian Ocean and three critical chokepoints to the free flow of global commerce. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Elliot Schaudt)
|
This was also a difficult time for the crew of Kennedy, who had
recently failed an inspection.
Blades-Langjahr said the crew
did not pass their Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV). INSURV
is a congressionally mandated inspection of U.S. Navy ships to
thoroughly check damage control ability and the ship’s material
conditions to ensure ultimate mission readiness.
Kennedy
divided the crew into two sections, port and starboard, to
accomplish the repairs and maintenance needed to get out to sea
again.
“We were working twelve hours a day, seven days a
week, twelve on, twelve off, port and starboard crew,” said Blades-Langjahr.
“We had a full night check and a full day-check, the whole ship was
working 24 hours a day. All the way through Thanksgiving. We didn't
get Thanksgiving. All the way through Christmas.”
It was
difficult, because a lot of the crew was not able to travel home for
Christmas because of certain geographical restrictions.
“January rolls around, and I'm up to reenlist,” said Blades-Langjahr.
“I wasn't going to do it. I was hard set against it.”
Her
deadline to re-enlist was Feb. 2, or she would be out of the Navy.
“January 31, my chief sits me down,” said Blades-Langjahr. “And
he said to me, 'Why are you getting out? How big do you think the
Navy is?'”
Her chief prompted her to think about different
ships, potential duty stations and different opportunities the Navy
could provide.
“My chief said, 'The Navy is bigger than one
ship. The Navy is bigger than one INSURV failure. There are
countless places that you could go and never be at the same place
twice in a naval career. Why are you stopping now?’”
“So, I
walked down to the career counselors' office and I put my
reenlistment papers in, three days before my EAOS,” said Blades-Langjahr.
Her drive to see the next thing and push forward has led her to
a career littered with firsts.
Blades-Langjahr started
breaking ground early in her career. As an Aviation Boatswain’s Mate
3rd Class, she secured herself a backseat ride in an EA-6B Prowler,
despite not being a rate that had any business in that aircraft.
When asked why she pressed for the ride, Blades-Langjahr said,
“Because people told me I couldn't!”
This motivated her to
take leave in order to complete the required survival swimming and
aviation physiology courses on her own time. The request had to go
to the Chief of Naval Operations for approval, and she sent it two
before she was scheduled to leave for a deployment. One month before
that six-month deployment ended that her request was returned:
approved.
Blades-Langjahr shattered the normal again when she
was accepted into the Flying Chief Warrant Officer program. This
Navy program, which ran from 2006 to 2014, sought highly qualified,
motivated Sailors between the paygrades of E-5 and E-7 to commission
as Chief Warrant Officers and become Naval Aviators and Naval Flight
Officers (NFO). To be eligible, personnel must have held a secret
security clearance, hold an Associate's Degree, and be able to
commission by the time they were 27 for pilots or 29 for NFOs.
She submitted her application in 2006, but was not selected. She
applied again the following year, and would go on to commission in
April of 2008.
“It felt like a wonderful accomplishment to be
selected overall,” said Blades-Langjahr. “I looked at every result,
tried to see if there was going to be another female selected, but
it just never happened.”
Out of 49 candidates, she was the
only female selected for a program that lasted about 7 years.
“Yeah, I’m the only female, but I’m still a flying warrant,”
said Blades-Langjahr. “I still have to perform with my fellow flying
warrants. I still have to work in the same capacity, and not be
viewed as different.”
She attended a month of Chief Warrant
Officer Indoctrination, followed by Initial Flight Screening, and
then Aviation Preflight Indoctrination before going to Training
Squadron 4 (VT-4) in Pensacola, Florida, and then Patrol Squadron 30
(VP-30), based in Jacksonville, Florida. Upon completion of her
training at VP-30, Blades-Langjahr had earned her wings as an NFO.
Her first fleet squadron was Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron
VQ-2 at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Wash., where she stayed
until VQ-2 was decommissioned and absorbed by VQ-1 in 2012. Six
months later, now a Chief Warrant Officer 3, Blades-Langjahr moved
on to the Aviation Survival Training Center at Whidbey Island, where
she would spend three years as an instructor and department head.
When the Flying Chief Warrant Officer program was terminated in
2014, Blades-Langjahr was given a choice: remain in the Chief
Warrant Officer track as a Chief Warrant Officer 4, and be shifted
into a different rate where she didn't feel she'd be competitive for
further promotion, or transition into the officer career track as a
Lieutenant.
“Instead of laying down and dying, I decided to
fight and try to go past 20, which I did,” said Blades-Langjahr.
She was also the first winged naval flight officer to serve as a
department head at the Aviation Survival Training Center.
Upon attaining the rank of Lieutenant, Blades-Langjahr explained
that she was told she needed a Bachelor's Degree to continue her
career. She began working on her Fire, Arson, and Explosion degree.
At this time, she was assigned to USS Gerald R Ford (CVN 78).
After eight months aboard the Ford, she became pregnant with her
first daughter. She then transferred to Fleet Forces in Norfolk, and
stayed for just over three years. During this time, she had her
second daughter, and completed her degree.
From there, she
came to USS Nimitz (CVN 68), where she'll retire with 22 years of
service.
“It never ceases to amaze me how much life changes,”
said Blades-Langjahr, reflecting upon the story of her career.
When asked about her favorite roles held over the course of her
career, Blades-Langjahr gave two answers. The first was the role of
“yellow shirt” aircraft director. The yellow shirt, she explained,
is the only authority aboard an aircraft carrier who can move an
aircraft, which, for junior enlisted, is an unheard-of amount of
responsibility.
The second has been as a “Shooter,” or
catapult officer, who “shoot” aircraft off the flight deck. “Who
gets to do that?” said Blades-Langjahr.
With 22 years of
service, rising through the ranks from an Airman Recruit all the way
to Lieutenant, fighting through all the twists and turns along the
way, always hungry for the next challenge, Blades-Langjahr offered
this advice for the next generation: “Never find yourself without a
PQS (personnel qualification standard) in hand. Even if you're fully
qualified for your particular job, keep going.”
“I was an
E-4,” she explained, “Crash chief qualified, because I never
stopped.”
Blades-Langjahr took anything she could get her
fingers on to become qualified in.
“And that's how it works,”
she said. “You just keep grabbing on to things to make your
evaluation better than the guy sitting next to you. And that's how
you succeed, and that's how you keep that motivation and drive to
push past normal.”
Blades-Langjahr's second piece of advice
is to never accept “no” as the first answer, unless it can be backed
up in writing. Opportunities are there, even if the person you're
asking doesn't know about them. “So, don't stop asking questions.”
Nimitz, the flagship of Nimitz Carrier Strike Group, is deployed
to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations to ensure maritime
stability and security in the Central Region. The 5th Fleet area of
operations encompasses about 2.5 million square miles of water area
and includes the Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Red Sea and parts of
the Indian Ocean. The expanse is comprised of 20 countries and
includes three chokepoints, critical to the free flow of global
commerce.
U.S. Navy
|
U.S. Navy Gifts |
U.S.
Department of Defense
Our Valiant Troops |
Veterans |
Citizens Like Us
|
|