Posted on 04/20/2015 12:39:58 PM PDT by elhombrelibre
NAPLES, Italy — The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt entered Navy 6th Fleet waters in Europe on Monday for operations on its way to the Middle East.
The Roosevelt heads a carrier strike group that comprises five ships and more than 6,000 sailors and Marines. The group departed the East Coast last week for an anticipated eight-month deployment. It is expected to relieve the USS Carl Vinson strike group, currently conducting airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.
The Roosevelt will end its tour in its new home station of San Diego, part of a three-carrier shift to bring the USS George Washington back from the Pacific for nuclear refueling.
The Roosevelt will take the place of the USS Ronald Reagan, which is currently based in San Diego but will steam to Yokosuka, Japan, this summer to replace the George Washington. The original Reagan crew will bring the Washington stateside for its overhaul and then rotate onto the Roosevelt in San Diego.
The rare crew shift has already inspired a “Three Presidents” logo, designed by a Reagan crewmember.
In Europe, the Roosevelt will work with partner nations, conducting maritime security operations and making port visits.
Carrier Air Wing 1 out of Virginia Beach is embarked on the Roosevelt. The other ships of the strike group are the guided-missile cruiser USS Normandy and guided-missile destroyers USS Farragut, USS Forrest Sherman and USS Winston S. Churchill.
The Navy’s latest airborne early warning aircraft is making its maiden deployment as part of the cruise. Five E-2D Advanced Hawkeyes, which use radar and electronic surveillance to provide a picture of a carrier’s operating area, are assigned to VAW 125, an early warning squadron attached to Carrier Air Wing 1. The new aircraft has a more powerful radar than its predecessor, the E-2C.
I could see that. When I was in the Navy, they tried to keep you at one duty station for your entire career to save money on relocation costs.
I’m just suspicious enough to wonder why three of our ships need to have crew swaps all of a sudden?
What’s around the corner that we don’t know about?
Is there a reason someone doesn’t want our crews to be at the top of their game?
I don’t think that’s an illogical concern, but why now?
Why never before? If this was such a great concern, it would have been at other times too.
Why relocate the families? The crews are at sea for months at a time. When they come back to port, they can travel home.
How have they done it in the past? What has changed?
This does happen with the bigger ships. The LHD swapout with Essex a couple years back.
In this case Washington needs new rocks. Something done only once (mid life) and only at Newport News (Virginia). There’s no way around that.
Thank you for the mention.
Well we know after the election he was going to be more flexible.
He’s bringing them up to speed in the war department. Like giving a loaded gun to a chimpanzee.
I think he’s using them to destroy Israel.
I think it’s more broad than that, but I wouldn’t put it past him. We know he has our nation in his cross-hairs.
This is Stars and Stripes. Every word in this article has been approved by the Navy for public release.
This is Stars and Stripes. Every word in this article has been approved by the Navy for public release.
I really don't care who approved it. I still don't think it's anyone's business where ships, troops, or aircraft are deployed.
Aircraft carriers aren't stealthy. They're certainly not invisible. A carrier transiting Gibraltar is witnessed by thousands. A carrier transiting Suez or Hormuz, again, witnessed by thousands from the shore and countless passing ships. The location of our carriers is a secret to no one.
I think they’ll be fine.
Now they’re saying the report was false, and they aren’t actually going to engage.
My point is, who is announcing the deployments of these ships (not just the carriers), and why? You can read in the papers before they deploy, where they are going, when they're leaving, how long they'll be there, and their expected date of return !! Next, they'll be doing it with submarines !!
Or maybe it doesn't matter any more when your CIC is one of "them".
The general protocol for a carrier crew used to be those with a year or less left on their enlistment took the ship to the yards for what was then a year long overhaul and those with more than a year got transferred off either right before or soon after entering the yards.
The guys with under a year to go then trained {qualifying} the new oncoming crew starting about three months before leaving the yards. But that was on conventional powered steamers. Each ship has it's own quirks, differences, and issues to learn, even those in the same class.
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