THE OPS DESK
IS CANCER ON THE RISE IN MILITARY AVIATORS?
BRINGING YOU THE LATEST TALK FROM AROUND THE SQUADRONS
DOING THIS JOB has put me in some of the coolest places. While photographing the cocked hammer of combat air power, I’ve trod miles of asphalt and concrete with some of the most picturesque backdrops a country has to offer. I’ve experienced intense heat radiating into my boots from the armored steel of a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier’s flight deck on a 100-degree day. I’ve felt just how hot the cockpit gets when you’re encased in Nomex, and the canopy closes over you on a warm day and the environmental control system is struggling to keep up.
“Since the year 2000, according to the report, incidences of prostate cancer have risen nearly 20 per cent
It’s truly amazing, and sometimes fraught with different types of peril: step too close and you might get sucked into an intake; fail to duck and you might split your head open on the fin of a missile; ignore your body’s warnings and you might succumb to hypoxia; a split second of inattention, or the slightest twitch on the control stick, could turn you into a short-lived fireball; and if the arresting cable snaps, or your catapult doesn’t fire corre…
