https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Hi1VkNPJHA The aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman is cruising the Persian Gulf as we speak, launching strikes against ISIS in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, and a video posted to 360 Fly shows just what that looks like from the inside. The clip sent into the digital video gadget company shows an F/A-18F Super Hornet launch with one of the pilots from the Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia-based Strike Fighter Squadron 103 “Jolly Rogers.” VFA-103 is deployed on the Truman. The pilot recorded the take-off in 360 degrees, which means viewers can get a full view of what’s happening in the cockpit at…
Browsing: Life at Sea
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EypzUduBqiQ It’s an event years in the making: No, not the new Star Wars movie. The aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower is out of the yards! The ship officially emerged in late August, and as it prepares for its first deployment next summer after two years in a Norfolk dry-dock, the public affairs department released an anticipation-building video parody entitled, “Sea Wars: The Ike Awakens.” The video mirrors the “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” trailer, with a very startled petty officer third class on the flight deck, a rolling mop bucket beeping like R2-D2 and an F/A-18 Hornet battling an…
The sailors of dock landing ship Comstock’s deck department think their cruise video is better than the cruiser Normandy’s. On Tuesday, we posted a video made by the sailors on Normandy that included go-pro video of small boat ops, a sweet F-18 flyby and 5-inch gun blasts. Two sailors from Comstock wrote in with links to their own deployment video, pieced together by the seamen and boatswain’s mates of OD Division, claiming superiority. The Comstock returned to San Diego in late February from a 7-month cruise. We checked it out and it definitely gives the Normandy a run for its money. V-22s,…
Five-inch guns, crew-served weapons, Go-Pro small boat ops, MH-60 and fighter flybys: all set to dramatic music. The cruiser Normandy wants the folks back home to know they’ve got things covered in the Gulf. The video, posted on the command’s Facebook page, offers a glimpse into Navy life while deployed to the Middle East, minus the seemingly endless freshwater wash-downs. The ship is deployed with the Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group and is slated to return this fall. The Normandy will left Norfolk this Spring escorting the carrier Theodore Roosevelt to San Diego by way of the Middle East. Then the cruiser will continue on through…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h71avEN8KYA You’re probably familiar with the Rifleman’s Creed, recited by Marine Corps recruits at boot camp. This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine. But have you heard about the Deck Seaman’s Creed? Any sailor (and maybe officer) worth his or her salt knows the deep relationships formed during sweepers. My broom, without me, is useless. Without my broom, I am useless. The video hit the web March 21, posted by (presumably) Seaman Spencer Myers aboard the amphibious assault ship America. Sweep on, Seaman.
First came the picture. In 1999, when retired Capt. Bob Rasmussen’s son, then-Lt. Cmdr. Eric Rasmussen, came home from a deployment, someone snapped a picture of the family reunion: Two young daughters rushing to meet Dad, with Mom holding an even younger son. “That would be something to preserve forever,” Bob Rasmussen remembers thinking. And if you need something preserved forever, there are few better people to ask than Rasmussen: Noted sculptor and director of the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Fla. He filed the idea away for years. About 18 months ago, he started sculpting “Homecoming,” a life-sized…
That old saying about a picture being worth 1,000 words? There’s a reason everybody says it: A few words, anyway: As the striking photo above — part landscape, part history lesson — shows, the crew of the aircraft carrier Nimitz made its way to Pearl Harbor on Tuesday, en route to a pre-Christmas homecoming in Everett, Wash. As the ship passed by the USS Arizona Memorial, sailors and Marines paid tribute to fellow service members lost during the Dec. 7, 1941, attack. “Every time I stand up there, I feel goosebumps when we pass the Arizona,” Interior Communications 2nd Class…
One of America’s closest naval allies — and the source of many U.S. naval customs — underwent a significant script change over the weekend. The traditional Saturday toast aboard a British Royal Navy vessel, up until last Saturday, had been a simple one: “To our wives and sweethearts.” The traditional response, either from the youngest officer present or the resident smart aleck, had also been simple: “May they never meet.” Both are gone. The Associated Press reports the new toast will be to “our families.” Also, the Tuesday toast to “our men” will become “our sailors.” A British military statement…
If “Top Chef” was set on the high seas, Coast Guard Food Service Specialist 2nd Class David Blonn might have a shot. The cook on the coastal patrol boat Albacore has had to do some of his cooking in 12-foot waves. His galley is only 12 feet by 8 feet, including all the equipment. The 6-foot-2 Blonn looks like a giant when cooking inside the small galley, and when the seas get rough and the boat is rocking back and forth, cooking a meal can seem like a monumental task in the tight space. While some crew members might be…
The hospital ship Mercy got a unique recognition last month when the National Conflict Resolution Center gave the ship its National Peacemaker Award for bringing medical and humanitarian aid overseas, including annual “Pacific Partnership” missions in 2008, 2010 and 2012. It was the first time the San Diego-based center gave the award to a “thing” and not a person. “The amount of humanitarian aid that everybody on the ship provides – really as a team – they really reach out around the world,” Lisa Cole-Jones, the center’s fund development program manager, told us. The ship’s crew was elated. “The more…
