We’ll let the picture tell the story: The carrier Theodore Roosevelt got underway Saturday for the first time in nearly two years when it left its dry dock at Newport News Shipbuilding and entered James River in southeast Virginia.
USS Theodore Roosevelt, assisted by tug boats, transits via the James River as the ship relocates from dry dock 11 to pier 3 at Newport News Shipbuilding May 21. //U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Sean Hurt
The move comes in the midst of the carrier’s ongoing 39-month refueling complex overhaul, which began in August 2009 at Newport News, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries. The work aims to add another 25 years of life to the nuclear-powered carrier, which was commissioned in 1986.
The carrier was pushed by five tugs during the very short, yet very slow, evolution. “It’s like watching a cloud move,” said Lt. Cmdr. Karen Eifert, the carrier’s public affairs officer. The short trip, however, required a lot of planning; the carrier’s quartermaster team had been training for the movement since March, according to a Navy news release.
“Without teamwork there is no way this evolution could have been completed successfully,” said Boatswain’s Mate 2nd Class (SW/AW) Jesus Lopez, Deck Department’s 2nd division assistant leading petty officer, quoted in the news release. “This is my second time taking a ship out of dry dock and I know first-hand what it takes. It takes every sailor onboard TR working together and having each other’s back and completing their jobs together.”
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Just an unrelated “oh by the way” comment since I can’t post at the bottom of articles linked from the front page, you guys show a picture of a Nimitz Class carrier for the Kennedy name announcement. There’s plenty of renderings of the Ford Class available for use, and with the differences between classes you might as well be showing a picture of the Forrestal……