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As I said in Day 1, Part2, sleep didn’t come easily for me….think more so the unfamiliar place and excitement than anything else. I’m also used to a very quiet environment- not at all like an active aircraft carrier. I really cannot imagine the noise level if they are conducting ops at night, though both Eric and Kat have told me that they are so used to the sound of the catapults and arresting gear that they have trouble sleeping in the quiet. The racks are pretty comfortable once you get used to the limited nature of the space and having a ceiling just a few inches above you. At 06:00 Eric poked his head in as we had agreed to make it an early day. I’m still not sure how I managed to wiggle out of the rack as you have to exit feet first without sitting up. Off to the head to clean up a little….so lets see…outta the rack, turn left…turn right…no wait it’s another left and turn through the doors to the head. The ship was still moving a lot so certain bodily functions have to be adapted to the ships movement…and there are grab bars everywhere in the shower stalls and toilet stalls.

Followed Eric back to the Tire/Wheel shop and then over the AIMD airframers shop where they had a coffee pot going….nice to have some hot coffee and naturally some good natured banter between the sailors and other Tigers,

Everyone was always asking how I liked the cruise so far and what I thought of the ship. Nice to see such interest and whenever I met someone I always welcomed them back to the United States- THAT always got a big grin as I think all were more than ready to touch US soil again after seven-plus months at sea. It was interesting walking around with Eric as he said on more than one occasion that the whole atmosphere of the ship had changed…..it was awfully low-key and relaxed compared to “normal”…I always blamed that on the Tigers being on board, but I know that the thought of “one more day and then I’m home” was the real reason and totally understandable….even the officers I met shared that thought….I guess I had never really thought about the feeling as they came back from 67,000 miles of cruise….I knew that pulling into Norfolk with all those families there was going to be something special and memorable.

I knew that today was going to be pretty special as the captain had told us the prior night that he felt confident that the air power demonstration would come off as planned in spite of the winds and seas….all were looking forward to that. I had to laugh to myself thinking about sitting in the lounge areas the night before….here we are on a war ship returning form seven months of overseas deployment….what were the most popular shows on the TV the night before? Dangerous Catch and anything about World War II naval battles. You could almost see the sailors recreating the battles in their mind as they watched the shows about the Battle of Midway and the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

Anyway, we skipped breakfast- neither of us felt like fighting lines and we really we not hungry…that would change later we figured. The airpower demo was scheduled for 09:30 so after killing some time and just hanging, the word came down to assemble on the flight deck from the starboard side forward of some frame number I don’t recall. We were way forward of that so I did my lost puppy routine again and followed Eric up to the flight deck after grabbing some “foamies” (foam ear plugs). They had given us each a pair in our Tiger Cruise grab bag, but I had grabbed a few from work that I know provided a 33 dB NRR…I wear those to the drag races, and while not really enough for 2 fuel dragsters at full throttle, I figured they would do in the non-confined flight deck for a fighter.

Now for you that haven’t had to chance to climb onto the deck of a moving carrier, let me try to describe some of the feelings. You exit the hatch onto a covered walkway with grating that you walk on. Depending on which route you’ve taken, you can often look down through the grating to the water below…about 60 or 70 feet below so it makes you pause for a second if you don’t expect it. Then up a short, but steep flight of stairs to the level of the flight deck….the stairs are narrow…about a single person width with really no hand rails to speak of. At the top of the stairs is a small platform typically with a step …one step onto the metal step , one more step over the rail and you’re on the flight deck. There isn’t much to hold on to, so you do a serious act of faith thing, look brave and like you know what you are doing, step onto the flight deck and there you are…..wind blowing a thousand miles an hour and cold……..quite cold. But the view is amazing…..there is nothing to block the view from the flight deck save for people, planes and the tower. Otherwise you have a $5 billion dollar view of the ocean and the sky and you start to understand the lure of the sea.

The color is quite blue…the further out you go, the bluer the water gets and it provides a stark contrast to the whitecaps. You continue to look around at the parked planes and all and realize that if you looked between two of the F-18’s parked on the deck you can see one of the escort destroyers.

I think that is when it really hit me that this is serious stuff we were all looking at and that I was guest on a working, active warship. Very recently planes were flying off that deck with live ordinance and that some bad folks on the ground probably had a very bad day as a result.

So anyway, then you realize you hear some jet engines at idle-- there is a E2C-Hawkeye staged at a waist cat, tons of other Tigers lining the flight deck, and green- and yellow-shirts hustling around the plane. Eric had told me the new prop design was a lot quieter than the traditional 4-blade prop and I really was surprised how muted the sound is…of course they weren’t at takeoff power and didn’t have any pitch to the blades. Soon enough they ramp up the power, blades increase in pitch, the cat fires and the plane is airborne in about 2 seconds.

You’ve seen this stuff on TV, and if you’re like me you’ve watched it over and over, but being about 50 feet from the wingtip as the cat fires is pretty hard to describe….kinda like trying to tell someone how a perfectly grilled ribeye tastes. The cat fires and you see the shuttle pulling the plane as steam starts to billow out of the cat. The acceleration is pretty darn fast though not like a fuel dragster….still they go from zero to about 160 knots in about 2 seconds. Off the flight deck and right away into a clearing turn to port. The JBD (jet blast deflector) drops and right away you hear a 18 increase power to maneuver into position.

Slowly the fighter pulls up to the shuttle which has returned from the Hawkeye shot….the hold back bar is installed, the pilot tests all his control surfaces, all the colored shirts check the movements of the surfaces and you see some crossed arms. Immediately the pilot holds the aircraft as they announce that was a demo of the safety checks…..someone didn’t like the movements of the rudder so they put a hold on the shot. It’s not a group decision- anyone of the colored shirts can hold the shot and you realize the responsibility that these young sailors have. Once again the pilot tests all the flight control surfaces, all approve and indicate with a thumbs-up, the shooter indicates to take up slack in the shuttle, take the engine power up and kick in the afterburners, a final safety check, the pilot salutes, the shooter touches the deck and raises his arm pointing down the cat and the cat fires! You watch the pilots head and you realize that you’ve just seen a “E” ticket ride…it looks pretty darn violent…and is pretty darn noisy!

I’ll continue with Part 2........

After the handshake and hugging it was time for introductions to all……it was a great way to see our sailors as you realize that they still seemed like kids when they left but now seem like grown adults. All naturally were in uniform and looking pretty darn sharp….but then after not seeing the boy for a year…..’nough said.

It was time to make our way to the check-in gates. Our sailors had come out to escort us through the gate and onto the ship. It was nice to be able to finally leave the line, baggage in tow and do some walking to the ship. Check-in was easy and before you knew it, we were the line to board the brow to the forward elevator. This was a short line though and moved pretty fast. The stairs to the brow was the first introduction for many to Navy stairs and walkways….the stairs are steep and tall and the brow, while covered in a non-skid material, also has “ribs” every 18” or so across the walkway. I had experienced these boarding the Lincoln, but they could be a real trip hazard if you had your head in the clouds and didn’t watch where you were going. A stop at the end of the walkway for Eric to salute the national ensign and with a big step we were on the elevator.

I keep talking about these elevators, and if you’ve not seen a carrier up close let me explain…..they raise and lower aircraft between the flight deck and the hanger bay….you can fit two fighters on one, can lift more than 300,000 pounds and make the vertical journey in about eight seconds…..not exactly like getting on the Otis at your office building. For those that had never seen a carrier up close they were the first introduction to the massive size of everything on the ship. You walk across the elevator and you note some things…..pad-eyes are embedded into the deck surface. These serve as tie-downs for aircraft and equipment. Also you get to first experience of non-skid. All horizontal surfaces where wheeled equipment or aircraft transit is covered in a metal non-skid surface to provide traction and grip. Keep in mind the surfaces may be wet with water, hydraulic oil, or fuel spills and having a slippery surface would be bad form. The non-skid also wears out boot soles pretty darn fast and would not at all be fun to fall on….so everyone watches foot placement pretty carefully.

Eric had warned me to be aware of pad-eyes and tie-downs to aircraft….the planes are chained to the pad-eyes and the chains are a wonderful way to reacquaint you with the effects of inertia and gravity if you trip over one. Lucky for me that I am used to walking around the plant at the mine and am always on the lookout for hoses and other trip hazards in walkways.

As you enter the hanger bay off the elevator you are struck by the shear size of the hanger deck. There are three main hanger bays, each perhaps 70 yards long, 40-50 yards wide. There are moveable blast doors that separate the bays from one another that are usually open position forming a large open area to store aircraft and perform maintenance. In case of an emergency though, the doors close very quickly isolating the area from the rest of the ship. You soon realize that damage control and being able to isolate various areas on the ship is one of the most import aspects of survivability on a carrier and that carries over to the walkways and passages…..there are a million hatches everywhere and you learn very quickly that if you come to a hatch that is dogged, you carefully un-dog the hatch, CAREFULLY open the hatch, pass through and then re-dog the hatch… This assures that you maintain compartment/passageway integrity in case of flooding or fire. There are also many hatches that serve as barriers between air-conditioned areas and those that are not air-conditioned. Keeping those hatches secure maintains climate control.

Anyway…back to the hanger deck. The height of the hanger deck is amazing…it has to be about 50 feet, so you are talking a massive area under the flight deck. It also serves as a “common” area for many events, movie nights, etc., but generally it is a working area that never closes. So anyway…. The forward elevator you entered on is on the starboard side….forward is berthing and most of the shops are aft. There was a safety movie that all had to watch…but in reality, there was so much talk between Tigers and their sailors that it made watching the movie almost impossible. I figured Eric would clue me into what was important and what wasn’t so I followed him around like a puppy dog to berthing. I’ll have a lot more to say later about berthing…it is an experience to say the least! After showing me the way to berthing (head forward from the hanger beck, through two sets of massive double swinging doors, starboard up the aft facing stairs, though the blackout curtain, turn to left and forward into compartment 1-35-0-L, through the berthing area, turn left and then right through the door into compartment 1-24-0-L after the first set of racks turn left and left to the bottom rack…….got it!?!?!). I spent a few minutes orienting myself while Eric showed me the rack and where to stow my stuff under the rack….each lifts up and there are compartments under the rack where you can stow your gear….not a lot of gear, but the essentials fit. He also showed me the smoke hood that each rack has….it provides about 15 minutes of breathable air in case of fire or smoke. Each rack has one and could save your life in case of an “event”. After grabbing the camera (essential gear for sure on this trip….), Eric showed me the head which is a pretty important location to know……they are not marked in big bold letters “HEAD” or anything like that, so it is important to remember where you can use the facilities otherwise you might wander around for awhile while discomfort levels increase!

A general tour of the ship ensued….and don’t ask how we got anywhere as there are passageways and walkways everywhere and after going though, up, down and around I was totally lost…I just faithfully followed my sailor and learned a little about how to move about the ship. Ladders between decks are a bottleneck and you learn very quickly to step aside if there is traffic on the ladder and let all pass. Likewise, if there are several folks going up or down, they will let you continue until there is a break in the flow…..kind of like hitting a one-lane bridge over a creek. It is amazing how many people manage to move about without a traffic jam. Eventually we made our way from foc’sle to the fantail which covers about the entire ship. We stopped in several shops, Tire/Wheel, NDI lab, and the airframer’s shop, met lots of other sailors and saw an awful lot of happy faces glad to be back in the United States. About that time we started to head up and made our way to the flight deck to walk around and get some fresh air. It had turned windy and nasty with a hint of rain in the air, but it held off while we walked the large expanse of deck. It was covered with planes and you had to look out for tie-downs, and wing and stab ends that would leave a serious hurt if you walked into them. A little different from a museum in that you are wandering through flight-ready aircraft and over the four catapults on the deck. Pad-eyes everywhere, tie-down chains forming a maze of trip hazards and above all lots of aircraft…it doesn’t get much better. Inching away form the pier the great adventure was beginning in earnest, with dark skies and wind. No one minded though.

After getting underway, it was time for some early chow…..now there are several galleys on board and line for each….so back down this passage way, though this hatch and into line- while not five-star chow, it was decent food and unless you were a picky eater, you would not go away hungry with typical choices of chicken, fish, hot dogs, deserts, veggies, salads and a variety of drinks. Finding a place to sit can be a chore as there are several smaller dining areas rather than one big common area. I felt sorry for the galley staff as they not only had to provide for the usual TR crew, but a bunch of us confused and somewhat overwhelmed Tigers as well. You learn when done to separate your trash…scrape your food into a waste barrel, paper into one, plastic into another, etc.. It’s a shame to see so many take food they didn’t eat…guess from my upbringing I was always taught to take whatever you want, but eat whatever you take…..enough of my editorial……….

Spent a lot of time in Eric's shop (Tire/Wheel) meeting his co-workers and whatever Tigers they had on board…..great bunch of people with lots of good natured ribbing and teasing…..they were a bunch that you learned dish it out as well as they take it….great fun and lots of laughing.

Soon it was time to wander around some more and make our way back to berthing….there are some lounge areas set up in berthing with chairs/couches, some tables and usually a TV….not a lot of space though so you enjoy whatever is on the tube or typically hit the rack. Hours are generally pretty early and by 20:00 many are headed to bed.

Now I promised some talk of Navy racks…..let’s see if I can do this justice……..

You berth in crew areas….Eric is part of AIMD so my rack was in one of the AIMD berthing areas with about 75 other racks. There is not much space…racks are stacked three high and the guy in the middle rack has the best deal to ease of ingress and egress. The top rack is kinda high and while there is step built into the middle rack, I’m not sure what contortions you’d go through to get into your rack. The advantage of the top rack is that there is extra space above, so if you are like Kat and somewhat claustrophobic you have more space. Naturally I had the bottom rack, and I discovered that I am not nearly as young or agile as I used to be. The rack is about 26”-28” deep and about 6’8” or so long, but only about 22” or 24” in height so you need to crawl in without sitting up. And to make things a little more comfortable, there are lockers at the head that project about 20”….this forms a nice area for your head, but once you are into the rack you think “hey wait a minute….I got into this by flopping down and then inching my way into this…..how do I get outta here in the AM because I’ll have to exit feet first and then somehow extricate my head….”. Each rack has some curtains that slide to darken the area so you can sleep….but once again you cannot sit up so you do a lot of wiggling and the like to close the curtains. Turning in this limited space is interesting as there is very little space to spare….but I guess you get pretty used to it after awhile. Lights out are pretty early and the overheads switch to red….not much light so you appreciate the small flashlight you were told to bring. Each rack has a small fluorescent light that I tended to constantly hit with my shoulders if I turned…..and because the ship never really sleeps there is always some noise as people move about…not to mention the constant ventilation noise….all in all it made for a pretty sleepless night for me, but I’m sure part of that was the excitement. And oh by the way, the captain had set severe weather condition 2 as we were in some nice wind and seas, but the pitch and roll of the ship was pretty slow so no seasickness with me….did make walking a straight line impossible though. The ship’s movement felt really good while in the rack though, not so much with the roll as the pitch, but I could see that in really rough water it would an interesting experience to say the least.

Day Two starts in the next bog post.

I think we were all anxious to get the adventure going…I know I was as I didn’t really sleep much at all. I even spent a little time on the computer at the internet café seeing what was new on NavyDads.com at 05:00. Fred, Tom and I met up, checked out and proceeded to catch the shuttle from the hotel to the USO at the airport. Tom was still not feeling well and came very close to going to the airport and flying home- he toughed it out though and was a real trooper even though he was feeling pretty poorly. We discovered that many had the same idea as us and walking around the corner saw that there was quite a line already. Richard and Chuck beat us there and were quite a-ways up the line…when offered to join them we naturally could not refuse and got to know some of the other folks around us. It is always kind of surprising that regardless of the geographical diversity of the folks there that all share such a common and deep pride in the job that their sons and daughters are doing on the carrier. Naturally there was talk of NavyDads.com with the NavyDads.com shirts that Richard and myself were wearing we once again become salesmen for the site and for what we stood for.

Around 08:00 the first bus showed up and we managed to shoehorn our way in. I say shoehorn as were riding contact school buses and while fine for the junior high crowd, we were pretty cramped. All were holding their bags on their laps and cameras and what not…..funny how no one really complained though but we did a lot of joking. We had to wait about 15 minutes for base security to show up….finally seeing sailors in whites boarding the bus made everyone happy as we knew that the journey was real and about to get underway. It is about a 35 minute ride from the Jacksonville airport to Mayport NAS….a good chance to see some scenery. In addition we got to cross the cable-stay bridge that has been featured on TV…..it is pretty impressive and it was my first time seeing a cable-stay suspension bridge. There was some confusion at the base when the bus showed up…but all was sorted out and soon we were on the pier and we all managed to bail out of the bus and into the morning sun. It was a glorious morning….bright sun and pretty warm considering the time of year. The Navy had some refreshment set-up…about 70 boxes of doughnuts and tons of bottled water available for the Tigers. Was nice to see the water…being outside tends to dehydrate everyone and we had quite a while to wait for the ship to show up.

There were quite a few chairs set up for the Tigers, but it was pleasant to stand and be able to walk around a little and explore a little. About a hour later talk turned to the Roosevelt being visible in the distance….walking over to the ocean side of the pier it was coming into view….slowly…in the distance. A number of us walked down the breakwater and climbed over the rocks to get a better view….the silhouette of a carrier is unmistakable and the excitement level was building….not only were there 1292 Tigers waiting there, but a large number of families were on hand to see their loved one come back to United States soil. I’m not sure how many crew were disembarking at Mayport, but there were an awful lot of wives and children with big smiles on their faces as the ship slowly made it’s way into the harbor.

The day was still great….sunny and warm, but there was a hint of wind building and some broken clouds started to show up. Still, sunscreen was the call of the day and despite being pretty well painted with the stuff, I know I got pretty sunburned on the face and forehead…..a small price to pay for what was about to unfold.

Cheers went up as the ship drew abreast and all were trying to find their sailor on the ship….no easy task with a vessel almost 1100 feet long carrying 5000 sailors. Cell phone use was huge with everyone trying to hook up with their sailor….you could hear things like…”yeah, we’re standing in the line by the red car parked in the lot just to the north of the semi-trucks”……got to be like a big game of hide-n-seek!

Mooring something the size of the Roosevelt takes quite a bit of time as the tugs very slowly inch the ship towards the pier. Soon you could hear the shots of the rifles sending out lines from the ship to the dock….soon the windlasses were pulling the ship towards the dock, but it sure seemed like it took forever. Around 11:00-11:30 (I’m guessing here as time kinds gets confused with all the excitement) the cranes started to place the brows between the pier and the elevators on the starboard side. All the elevators had all been lowered simultaneously and that was quite a sight to see—I am still awed by the size of the ship and the associated equipment like the elevators. It was chaos with all trying to get to the front of line to check in to board….we were in line and lots of people were frustrated when they tried to cut in and security personnel told them to get in line.

Soon enough though the sailors that were disembarking from the aft brow were headed to the dock and there was much kissing and hugging going on as families were reunited after all those long months apart. We’ve all seen much on TV and movies about homecomings, and seeing in real-time sure reinforces the time apart. In a later post I’ll talk about seeing this from the ship perspective as we were allowed on deck to experience the ship coming into Norfolk from the ship side view.

It wasn’t long before we saw sailors heading down the forward brow. They were meeting up with their Tigers and escorting them aboard their home for the next couple of days. David found Richard and Kira and Fred had a tearful reunion. Soon I felt a hand on my shoulder and a voice that said “give me all your money and wallet”….my first thought was that it didn’t sound like Rich, Fred, Tom or Chuck….I turned around and Eric was there with a big grin greeting me.

I’ll continue in the next part of the story………………

Tiger Cruise has come and gone and I guess I have returned to earth and will start some blogs about the entire experience. To sum it up…AWESOME. We’ve all seen much on TV and the movies about carrier ops and many of us have poured over the PBS DVD set “CARRIER”, but until you have experienced a cruise on one you have no real concept. I’ll try to start and the beginning and try to give an idea of what my 2 & ½ day cruise was like.

Packing is an experience…you are advised that there is limited space on a carrier so pack light. True! I had a rough idea of the space limitation from the tour Kat gave me the day before she deployed with the USS Abraham Lincoln. I did find a great duffel bag on the internet (from REI.com--- the “weekender”). I started early…you are not going on a Princess cruise so you need to think about things like a bath towel, washcloth, your own soap, shower sandals, etc.. What ever you’re going to need on the cruise you better bring with you! So after packing and re-packing finally got on the plane to Atlanta. There met up with Richard- he flew from Hawaii and was getting a little more tired of planes than I was for sure! We hit it right off….lots of Navy talk and lots of NavyDads.com talk as well. It was a great hour on the ground!

We were separated on the plane by several rows. After takeoff I could hear talk several rows in back of me…a gentleman (Chuck) was telling someone about the Tiger Cruise and what it was all about so I knew Richard and I were not the only ones feeling like a kid on Christmas eve. We were all pretty excited! The three of us met up at the Jacksonville airport waiting for rides to our respective hotels and agreed to meet for some beverage at my hotel (the Travelodge) a little later. I knew that Fred and his father-in-law Tom had flown in earlier and were also staying at the Travelodge.

Richard, Chuck and I met at the bar and had a nice cold beer to help us get acquainted. Called Fred and he came down and we’re proceeded to have a good time talking about our kids, the navy and naturally describing NavyDads to Chuck….he wasn’t aware of the site and promised to check it out when he got back home to Atlanta.

Fred’s father-in-law Tom was not feeling well, but he came a little later and we took the shuttle to the Longhorn grill…naturally more Navy talk and a lot of car talk as well. Richard and I had worn NavyDads tee-shirts that I had printed up and several people made note of the organization…great PR! We all agreed we wanted to be at the very front of the line, so all agree to meet up EARLY and get to the USO at Jacksonville Airport to get to the front of the line. All knew it was going to be a restless night in anticipation!

Waiting here for the breakfast buffet to open and get to the USO to sign in and get going! Met with Richard at the Atlanta airport yesterday and then met up with Fred and his father-in-law Tom at the hotel over some beverage. The shirts have attracted some attention and think we have some more potential members- haven't even been to the base yet! Great Weather-- in the 70's when we landed yesterday and there are bunch of dads as giddy as kids on Christmas eve......will try to spend some more time as I can with details, but have to get ready to go and get this gig started!

I would like to start by saying Thank you to everyone for all the support you have given my husband and this site. This is what I didn't get. When our son left for boot camp I thought I was the only one that was hurting, EG was very strong until I guess he just could not do it anymore. He stayed on the computer researching everything that he could find out about what was going to happen from point A to B. I went to dinner with my sister one night and came home to the happiest man ever, he said "I just did something", I said "what"? He told me that he was going to start a web site for the dads. I was blown away, I did not know he knew how, boy did he surprise me! Look at what has happened here in such a short period, I love reading the fathers point of views . I want someone to recognize what EG has done also. I think this site has helped so many and will continue to do so for many years to come. We were blessed to have Paul and Terry to volunteer to help and they have the same passion for it as EG. Keep spreading the word, DADS CARE JUST AS MUCH AS MOMS!!!!!

Thank all of you,
Cindy(EG's wife)