One of Erik's jobs on the ship (aside from flying the plane) is to be a LSO, which means a "landing officer" (i am not sure what the S stands for...) This basically means, when he is not flying, he is he guy standing at the end of the runway, talking on the radio to the other pilots as they are coming in for a landing, helping and guiding them safelyback on the boat's deck...before the squadron goes back out on the ship,while they are still here in Lemoore, they need to get ready and remember how to land back on the ship, so they have these exercises that they call "bouncing" where they just constantly land and take off again...Erik has to go stand out there in the "shack" and so usually it presents a good opportunity for any visitors to go see the planes land extremely up close and personally! My Dad loved it!