Posted on 10/14/2023 6:15:35 PM PDT by NautiNurse
NORFOLK — “I see him!” exclaimed 8-year-old Penelope Holbert, vigorously waving. Her father, Petty Officer 1st Class Drew Holbert waved back from a platform at the stern of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Holbert, an aviation structural mechanic, was one of 5,000 sailors who deployed Saturday aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower — the flagship of the Ike carrier strike group. It has long been scheduled to deploy this week to the Mediterranean.
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The Eisenhower is expected to be deployed for about six months.
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The Virginia Beach strike fighter squadrons known as Gunslingers, Fighting Swordsmen, Rampagers and Wildcats will embark with the group. Norfolk groups include the Screwtops of Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 123, the Dusty Dogs of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 7 and the Rawhides of Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 40.
The warship will also be supported by Norfolk-based cruiser USS Philippine Sea and destroyer USS Gravely — both departed Friday. The USS Mason, a destroyer, departed Friday from Naval Station Mayport in Florida.
“What we do on a daily basis matters. And we are going to make history in some form, fashion, function, wherever we go,” Miguez said.
The carrier was scheduled to push off Friday, but experienced a 24-hour delay.
“It gave us extra time … but he was anxious to get going,” Carol Maher said of her grandson Mason Dollar, 21.
Dollar is an aircrew survival equipment man for an embarked helicopter squadron. His grandma and three cousins made the drive from Texas to see him off for his first deployment.
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(Excerpt) Read more at pilotonline.com ...
Midshipman? I spent a month on the Ike in the summer of '83. Cruised off Libya, then rushed over to Lebanon. The Ike was not known as a happy ship back then.
When was the last time we had 3 carriers in one area?
you don’t tug on Superman cape
you don’t spit into the wind
you don’t pull the mask on the ol’ Lone Ranger
and you don’t mess around with the United States of America
Amen.
Thanks for your info and thank you for your service. Chilling story.
My son is in a short C school now and heads to a destroyer in January.
Good question.
With a demented POTUS and no Speaker of the House, we can only wonder what the days and weeks ahead will bring.
Best wishes to you and your son. I just wish they weren’t serving under the present people in charge.
Thanks to your son for his service. Godspeed to him and to all of our warriors during these times of unrest.
Thanks for your support. My Dad was Navy as well as one nephew. I never worried about them as we were not in conflict at the time. Now is truly different. 🙏
It’ll be real when they do something other than park and provide intel.
Godspeed indeed.
It is way more complicated than that but your point is part of the puzzle.
Jeffrey Epstein’s list is a bigger part.
They want to get some people as sexual predators and not others that’s very obvious to many of us.
We were attached air wing-I think we may have been on her doing shake-down (post commission) exercises...kind of getting her in shape before she went on her first real deployment.
One of my co-worker’s son is on that ship.
Prayers for him and every single person fighting against this evil in the ME.
Or Iran takes out carrier group?
Praying for our brave fighters as they head toward a war zone.
Thanks. I agree although from what he tells me the “woke” garbage isn’t all that pervasive in the Fleet.
Thanks for your support!!
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