PHILIPPINE SEA - Capt. Michael Rovenolt, the commander of Carrier Air Wing Five (CVW 5), joined an elite group of naval aviators when he executed his 1,000th arrested carrier landing aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), Aug. 17.

The milestone is a testament to Rovenolt’s service and time spent operating in the forward-deployed carrier environment.

Naval aviation began with naval aviator 1 in 1911. Since then, more than 180,000 aviators have earned their wings. Among that long lineage, only a small percentage have reached the career milestone of 1,000 arrested landings, or traps, with less than 370 pilots and less than 130 naval flight officers having reached this mark.

Rovenolt credits his career success to the hard work of the Sailors who maintain the aircraft and work on the carrier.

“This milestone reinforces to me, again, how professional the entire carrier air wing team is,” said Rovenolt. “It means that for 1000 times; the LSOs got me aboard, the controller brought me down in bad weather and at night, the flight deck had a ready deck waiting for me, and the maintenance departments produced an up aircraft...every time.”

Over the last two decades Rovenolt has been deployed on nine different aircraft carriers, illustrating his commitment to the mission, in the face of inclement weather, pitching deck and many dark nights. Rovenolt landed on the aircraft carriers USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63), USS Enterprise (CVN 65) and USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67) 399 times, and landed on the Nimitz-class aircraft carriers, USS Nimitz (CVN 68), USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), USS George Washington (CVN 73), Ronald Reagan and USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) 601 times.

Rovenolt has accumulated over 5,750 military flight hours, including over 3,800 hours in the F/A-18. His career includes deployments in support of Operations Southern Watch, Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom and Inherent Resolve. He took command of CVW-5 on Aug. 2, 2019.