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A few minutes before departing, a big storm opened up over us, and people gathered at the massive elevator doors as the rain came down. Luckily, the storm was short lived, and everyone headed up to the flight deck to watch as our massive vessel departed.
As we navigated through the channel leaving Norfolk, I noticed that we were escorted by Navy gunboats on both sides of the ship protecting us, along with the people manning the machine guns on the sides of the flight deck. I realized just how dangerous just taking a carrier out to sea can be. We continued out past the bridge tunnels, turned south at the Cape Henry Lighthouse, then when we got near Virginia Beach we turned eastward and heading out to international waters, and one of the Military Operation Areas (MOAs) that line our coast.
It was at this point that I decided to head back down to the hangar deck and get something to eat, before starting exploring the massive ship. My friend took us up into the island, and after exploring “Vulture’s Row”, we headed over to Primary Flight Control (“Pri-Fly”). From this vantage point the Air Boss has a fantastic view of the entire flight deck and airspace surrounding the carrier. Next we headed back down the island to the O-3 deck and to one of the squadron ready rooms. This room looked like it was straight out of Top Gun, with the seating arrangement, large map of the US and its airspace sectors, and the TV hanging in the front corner. (Continued on page 22)
Looking aft from the USS George Washington's forward catapult.