Adventures At Sea (Part 7)
December 3, 2013
Continued from November 25, 2013
It didn’t seem like I had been asleep any time when reveille
came over the loud speakers at 0600. It
wasn’t a trumpet wakeup call; it was a man’s voice saying “Reveille, reveille,
reveille. Roll out of your racks and
muster.” He said this like three times
in a row. I vaguely recall hearing
flight ops start about 5:00 a.m., but I went straight back to sleep. How sad is that, or how good depending on how
you look at it, that I can sleep through flight operations sleeping one level
below the flight deck of an aircraft carrier?
My dismount from the top bunk was nowhere near as graceful as I’d
climbed up there the night before. I’m
thankful that my roommate was already out of her bunk and out of the room when
I literally tumbled out of mine.
Thankfully though, I didn’t hurt anything, in the room, or on me! That was actually my only “accident” while on
this trip! Yes, to those who know me
well, I was being very careful! I got
ready quickly and got my things together.
We were told all we had to do was to pack our bags and leave them in the
room and guest services would take care of them for us (they did – we didn’t
have to carry a single bag, on or off the ship!). Out in
the hallway in DV Row there were many pictures hanging between the rooms of
President Bush at different points of his service to the United States. In fact, in places throughout the ship there
were numerous pictures of the President and the entire family.
At 6:45 sharp, our escort arrived to lead us to
breakfast. We were able to eat breakfast
in the Officer’s Mess. I had scrambled
eggs, biscuit and gravy, a waffle, and bacon.
It was all delicious! Oh, and a
large cup of coffee to shake the cobwebs off left over from sleep. We had a chance to really talk to our escorts
while we ate. The gentleman was part of
the media department and the young lady was the Division Officer (DIVO) of
supply. They were superb hosts and
individuals! When we left the Mess, we
went to Starbucks – yes – they have a Starbucks on board. They have all the drinks but minus the
pastries.
After the coffee fix, we went to the ship’s store where we
could buy shirts or souvenir mugs. It
was like being in your average convenient store. Then we
went to talk with the Food Services Officer.
He is responsible for feeding all persons on the ship at least three
times daily. They serve 18,000 meals
daily in all of the different messes.
The messes are open from 5-7:30 a.m. for breakfast, 10:30-1:30 for
lunch, 3:30-7:30 for supper, and 10-1 a.m. for those working later shifts. There is very little down time for the
kitchens. In one of the kitchens that we
got to tour, there were these huge pots that could hold 500 servings of
something like green beans or macaroni and cheese. He took us through to the bakery where they
were making cake and rolls. The dough
mixer they were using made dough for 500 rolls at a time. They had some Cowboy Cookies there for us
too. We left the bakery and went to one
of the storage rooms for all the canned foods and wow – it was like going into
a Sam’s Club. I even found cans of the
“Creamed Sliced Beef” a.k.a. SOS when we were down there. It was absolutely unbelievable to me that
they fixed so many meals a day and that things were so well organized. They know where everything is and exactly how
much it’s going to take to fix the next meal.
AMAZING! The FSO also told us
that they get shipments when they are underway from supply ships that run
alongside of them. They use cables to
slide pallets of supplies from the supply ship into the carrier and then they
move things to the storage rooms.
We left the Kitchen and storage areas and went next to the
forecastle (pronounced folksull). This
is what I refer to as the Anchor room.
Its where the anchors and chains run out of the ship when they need to
be lowered. The links are absolutely mammoth! One link weighs more than 400 pounds and the
chain pretty much runs all the way down to the bottom deck of the ship. The part of the chain that is visible while
we are in there is black. Black is the
colored links that hook to the anchor itself.
The links change color as they go up.
If I remember correctly, the links run in 90 foot sections and each
section is a different color. I think it
went black, white, yellow, and finally red that indicates the end of the
chain. Considering what all this room
held, it was very, very clean. It looked
like you could eat off of the floor.
Next on the to-do list was to meet with the Maintenance
Officer (MO). He let us talk to several
of his Division officers about the different jobs that they do. We toured areas in the hangar bay where they
did routine maintenance on the tractors and sweepers that they use on the
flight deck. They took us through one of
the electronics repair shops where they could repair certain electronics for
the aircraft. They also took us through
the workshop where they can repair the jet engines and test them there on
board. I learned that many of the
mechanics get their ASE certifications while they are in the Navy, which will
help them later on in civilian life. I
told them about the students at the Career and Tech Center where I teach that
also get some ASE certifications before they graduate high school.
(View from inside the hangar bay)
We went to lunch next.
We went back to the Officer’s Mess again. The MO and our escorts ate with us along with
several other ship and airwing personnel that we were privileged to talk
to. I was and I remain so impressed by these young folks. We had another good meal! I had salad, baked potato, and baked
salmon. All delicious!! I didn’t pig out this time around. I was afraid with the upcoming launch off the
carrier that I might accidentally launch my lunch, so I kept it light. By this time it is around noon or just after
on Friday. I cannot believe where 24
hours have gone! I have seen so much and
learned so much it’s a total sensory overload but still absolutely incredible!
Check back next week for the conclusion to this adventure.
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