the
trip up to new york was fairly exciting. standing bridge watch made it relaxing. 5 hours on, 15 hours off is a lot better than 5 hours on and 10 hours off... we first went down to north carolina to pick up our marine friends. most of the actual marines had come aboard by bus in norfolk, but their equipment that we brought to show the new yorkers had to be onloaded still. a tank, an expeditionary fighting vehicle, an amphibious assault vehicle, a light armoured vehicle, and several other fun things like a cannon were all brought on board by our 2 LCACs. and more marines came aboard by helicopter. we took on a UH-1 Huey, an AH-1 Cobra, a CH-53, and an MV-22 Osprey. lots of fun helicopters. after loading up with marines an
d their equipment, we headed north to new york... the day we headed north was halloween... some of the JOs dressed up for the occassion as LDOs... salty salty guys with facial hair and chest hair as thick as carpet.
the next day we brought on board several helicopter loads of distinguished visitors off long island. we gave them tours of the ship. i wasnt looking forward to giving tours and not standing my watches, but, it was actually really fun. i got to show around former secretary of the navy gordon england and his wife dotty and their family
as well as a retired rear admiral and a retired captain... so, it was a pretty good group to have. everyone was really friendly. of course, secretary england had approved alot of the plans for the construction of the ship, so i kinda felt silly telling him about it sometimes, but it was good.
after the tours, and dinner, we had an ice cream social for the crew and the guests... the yankees game was on, and Mayor Bloomberg arrived by LCAC, i missed Bloomberg getting to the ship and being on the ship because i was serving ice cream to the crew with a bunch of marine office
rs... which was pretty fun. and then everybody went to sleep early because revile for going into new york harbour was 0400...
trip up to new york was fairly exciting. standing bridge watch made it relaxing. 5 hours on, 15 hours off is a lot better than 5 hours on and 10 hours off... we first went down to north carolina to pick up our marine friends. most of the actual marines had come aboard by bus in norfolk, but their equipment that we brought to show the new yorkers had to be onloaded still. a tank, an expeditionary fighting vehicle, an amphibious assault vehicle, a light armoured vehicle, and several other fun things like a cannon were all brought on board by our 2 LCACs. and more marines came aboard by helicopter. we took on a UH-1 Huey, an AH-1 Cobra, a CH-53, and an MV-22 Osprey. lots of fun helicopters. after loading up with marines an
d their equipment, we headed north to new york... the day we headed north was halloween... some of the JOs dressed up for the occassion as LDOs... salty salty guys with facial hair and chest hair as thick as carpet.
the next day we brought on board several helicopter loads of distinguished visitors off long island. we gave them tours of the ship. i wasnt looking forward to giving tours and not standing my watches, but, it was actually really fun. i got to show around former secretary of the navy gordon england and his wife dotty and their family
as well as a retired rear admiral and a retired captain... so, it was a pretty good group to have. everyone was really friendly. of course, secretary england had approved alot of the plans for the construction of the ship, so i kinda felt silly telling him about it sometimes, but it was good.
after the tours, and dinner, we had an ice cream social for the crew and the guests... the yankees game was on, and Mayor Bloomberg arrived by LCAC, i missed Bloomberg getting to the ship and being on the ship because i was serving ice cream to the crew with a bunch of marine office
rs... which was pretty fun. and then everybody went to sleep early because revile for going into new york harbour was 0400...
