GW Cruise

The USS GEORGE WASHINGTON hosted a friends and guest cruise today and were kind enough to invite a couple dozen of us from work. We were stoked! It's rare enough to ride along on an aircraft carrier and watch flight ops when you work for the Navy. It wasn't even thinkable that you might be able to share it with friends and family, but this was one of those rare opportunities. It wasn't without some pain, though. They held a very firm rule that the minimum age was 8 years old, so William had to stay behind at the Day Care Center. He had a great time, but would have preferred to join us instead. Maybe next time. It also was a very long day. We got aboard the ship at 5:30AM and we didn't get off the ship until 4:30PM. They had to get out to sea a ways before they could do the air show.

There were lots of people on board both American and Japanese. Parents got to show their kids what they do. We loved the yellow shirted guys that let their sons wear the outfit too.

Caroline met this gentlemen who was a World War II Japanese Zero pilot. It really highlights how the US-Japan relation has changed.

They had tons of chairs in the hanger-bay and did serve a continental breakfast. After the air show, they served lunch, but the line was so long that it almost seemed like dinner time before you got your food. Oh, well, not much else to do while you sail the 3 hours back into port...

Everyone cheerfully hosted all of us and did their best to keep us safe. Prior to the air show, they were handing out earplugs. We had to stand behind the line allowing them to use the angle deck to launch planes and perform touch and go's, but we got to stand right next to the flight area and they did the launches and touch and go's so close that you absolutely felt the power hitting you! Awesome.

Once they'd finished the launches and touch and go's, they let us go to the edge of the deck and watch as they did fly by's showing what the planes and helicopters could do.
They could do a few things they can't at normal air shows. Obviously the carrier launches and landings were the big ones, but they could also do a Mach-1 fly by. It came so fast that I couldn't track it with the camera, but the silent, lightening fast approach followed by it's sonic boom and streaking past was awe inspiring.

We think it is great international relations for the USS GEORGE WASHINGTON to host an incredible event like this. If you ever get a chance to go on one, I'd highly recommend it.