Green Shirts, those who deal with carrier deck ops, such as tending to the catapults and arresting gear, have one of the. Their working environment consists of 25 ton pterodactyls waltzing around trying to suck them in, shop or cook them, a greasy deck that moves, and steel arresting wires and steam catapults that can fail at any moment.

Let's just say it is not a gig for the faint of heart.

The videos below show just how close Green Shirts have to work with the hardware they support, both aircraft and pieces attached to carrier itself, including all of the intricate mechanics of getting an aircraft into its slot on the catapult, getting it into tension and firing it off:

The second video, showing the Catapult Centerdeck Operator in action, is particularly eye opening as Hornets and Super Hornets loaded with live weapons pass right over their heads during the cat-shot.

So next time you are pissed because you have to cut papers using the 'dangerous' guillotine at work, just think of all the guys and gals out in the middle of God knows where wearing green shirts and making shit happen for the U.S of A.

Bonus! A very low-level super sonic flyby of the carrier by a F/A-18, posted by our same Green Shirt: