U.S. carrier now pounding ISIS from Mediterranean's

  The planes never seem to stop coming and going. After six months in the Persian Gulf, the USS Harry Truman aircraft carrier has moved to the Mediterranean Sea, from where its bombers are jetting off faster and more frequently to strike ISIS targets in war-ravaged Syria and Iraq.

Multiplepage was given access to the Truman, where a newdramatic tempo has been set. Planes take off or land every few minutes, with only intermittent breaks, pushing others responsible for bomb supplies to work night and day to keep up with the new pace.

  The Truman has been instrumental to the United States' military campaign against ISIS, known as Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq and Syria. Aside from a land base in Turkey, it is the main launching point for bombing runs against ISIS.

  It has now dropped more bombs on ISIS than any other vessel in America's fleet.

  It is ratcheting up its attacks as U.S.-allied forces gain ground, with the support of the United States, in the conflict that has raged for five years, causing devastating civilian deaths and destruction.

  Iraqi Security Forces seem close to winning back the Iraqi stronghold of Falluja. In northern Syria, a pro-U.S. coalition of Kurdish and Arab troops is pushing ISIS out of the Syrian-Turkish border area and closing in on the extremists' self-declared capital of Raqqa.

  From their initial position in the Persian Gulf and now from the Mediterranean, the carrier's crew has flown more than 1,800 sorties and dropped around 1,500 pieces of ordnance weighing some 1.5 million pounds on ISIS targets."It's a graphic illustration of the flexibility that's inherent with the naval forces," the carrier strike group's commander, Rear Adm. Bret Batchelder, said in an interview with CNN."We can operate anywhere we want to in the world. As it happens on this deployment our priority has been the support of Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq and Syria," he said.

  A cycle usually starts with several tanker aircraft taking off, followed by the F/A-18 Hornet strike aircraft, which are loaded with guided bombs to hit ISIS targets as precisely as possible.

The missions are long, often around seven hours, and intensive. Each can require three refueling rendezvous with the tankers.

  CNN spoke to one of the first F/A-18 crews to return from a bombing mission in Syria after taking off from the new location in the Mediterranean.

  The crew would only let us use their call signs -- pilot Lt. "Fanus" and weapons systems officer Lt."Slips" of the "Fighting 103" out of Virginia."It was a close-air support mission, so that means we don't know the targets prior to taking off. But this time there did happen to be a few targets so we struck those targets," Lt. "Fanus" told us, unable to say exactly what the targets were.'Bomb farms'The sailors responsible for making sure bombs are always available are working extra hours to keep up with the new pace.

  We met aviation ordnance man Ronald Canady, who is on his third carrier deployment. He and the other ordnance men and women not only have to get bombs on the carrier from supply ships and then get them to the planes, they also have to assemble them."We get the call that we have to build the bombs. It is just the bomb body at the beginning. Then we have to assemble the tail piece. After that we configure the nose piece of the bomb," he told us.

  The most common ordnance used is a 500-pound guided bomb called the GBU-38."We drop these very regularly," Canady said, standing on front of a rack of them in the carrier's so-called "bomb farm.

The missions are long, often around seven hours, and intensive. Each can require three refueling rendezvous with the tankers.

  CNN spoke to one of the first F/A-18 crews to return from a bombing mission in Syria after taking off from the new location in the Mediterranean.

  The crew would only let us use their call signs -- pilot Lt. "Fanus" and weapons systems officer Lt."Slips" of the "Fighting 103" out of Virginia."It was a close-air support mission, so that means we don't know the targets prior to taking off. But this time there did happen to be a few targets so we struck those targets," Lt. "Fanus" told us, unable to say exactly what the targets were.'Bomb farms'The sailors responsible for making sure bombs are always available are working extra hours to keep up with the new pace.We met aviation ordnance man Ronald Canady, who is on his third carrier deployment. He and the other ordnance men and women not only have to get bombs on the carrier from supply ships and then get them to the planes, they also have to assemble them."We get the call that we have to build the bombs. It is just the bomb body at the beginning. Then we have to assemble the tail piece. After that we configure the nose piece of the bomb," he told us.

  The most common ordnance used is a 500-pound guided bomb called the GBU-38."We drop these very regularly," Canady said, standing on front of a rack of them in the carrier's so-called "bomb farm."