Warheads on foreheads today

[iron man]

While sitting in the Airframes shop of my department on the ship, the Ordnance Handling Officer (OHO) and 2 Chiefs from Weapons brought in a 500lb JDAM guidance tail section with a stripped bolt that holds about 500,000$ worth of taxpayer money onto a 500lb bomb. While we sat there trying to (eventually succeeding) remove said stripped bolt, we turned our 50" flat screen TV to the flight deck channel just in time to see the first aircraft of the day coming back to the carrier, with all bombs still attached... shoot. As we sat there still trying to remove this bolt, we looked back at the TV again, 2nd and 3rd F-18C Hornets came back with all 4 Mk82 and Mk88 bombs still attached; 5 more birds to go. 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th bird, all launched with 2 Mk88 and 2 Mk82 bombs attached to the weapons hardpoints located under the wing, came back EMPTY. Definitely an awesome feeling seeing those guys come back bombless knowing that some of the hydraulic and pneumatic pumps, lines, shocks and struts I work on on almost a daily basis get those guys over the bad guys we need to eliminate. Not too much longer and I'll be headed home.