On NIMITZ in the Spring of 1988 off the coast of Oregon we took a 24 degree roll (Air Wing was not on board). The wave that hit us knocked the ship 15 deg off course and over half the yellow gear in the hangar bay broke lose and played bumper cars.
holy CRAP. what was the height of that wave?
Interesting in ‘94 on Indy we got caught between two typhoons that turned on us instead of heading their forecasted directions. We saw 100+ knot winds and took white water over the bow (flight deck I should say). CAG commented that we could launch with that wind while heading astern (we only needed 20 knots min as I recall). Pulled in all watches despite being lashed in. A japanese destroyer lost her mast, a US destroyer or FFG lost her sonar dome, our emergency helo had a tied down blade folded back ‘vertically’ (winds were too high to fold normally per procedure). We took rolls of 25-30 throughout making the mess decks a “happy place” where they only served on paper for 2 days. As a true SWO LT I was loving life, but the CO thought I was maybe enjoying it too much...good memories...