Posted on 03/13/2018 5:41:28 AM PDT by dead
The United States Navy’s aircraft carriers are huge ships. This isn’t just for show; they need to be large to operate four squadrons of multi-role fighters plus other assorted planes, like EA-18G Growlers, E-2 Hawkeyes, and helicopters. But all of that space is useful for transporting other things, too. After all, we’re talking over four acres of sovereign United States territory.
For instance, when the Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) was switching homeports from Bremerton to San Diego (before being deployed to Japan as the forward-based carrier), she did a solid for all of the sailors who man her — she gave their rides a ride...
(Excerpt) Read more at wearethemighty.com ...
My parents told me that, when my dad's carrier, TICONDEROGA, switched home ports from Rhode Island to Norfolk, VA, in 1954, the Navy offered to transport families (with a limited amount of baggage) of the crew with them for the transfer.
At least, that's the explanation that they gave me for the picture of me, at about five months old, having my diapers changed on the flight deck ...
That picture sure changes my perception of size of a carrier deck.
We’re so used to seeing planes but to actually count cars was a bit more impressive to me.
I watched a documentary on a carrier once, and they had a custom where it would stop in Hawaii...and I believe family members could come on board and stay on the carrier on its trip to San Diego...details are hazy, but they didn’t seem too concerned about the liability of having civilians on-board. So cars probably aren’t a problem either.
In the Army, we would occasionally put our cars in the motor pool, if we were doing a long training exercise, just to keep them from being broken into.
I don’t know if the still do “Tiger Cruises” but it was a thing as recently as 20 years ago. Before 911. It occurs to me that for a carrier to “relocate” from Atlantic to Pacific they would have to “go around the Horn” as they don’t fit in the Panama Canal. I don’t know I would want my car on the deck in the “howling 70s”.
Elevators, the same way they do the planes.
Those three starboard elevators are used for flight operations and can also lower down to wharf level for resupply. I'd guess that they can each move twenty cars at one time.
We did this in the late 70s just for a temporary relocation. We used cranes to get them on board. We also brought back a ton of motorcycles from a deployment that included Japan, along with stereos, tvs, etc. Nothing at all unusual about this.
Try reading the story and you'll know why they are doing this.
I have a picture somewhere of the USS Enterprise docked in San Diego in the 80’s full of motorcycles. Not quite like cars, but impressive none-the-less.
Before the PC culture many SAC bombers came home to the US with motorcycles and small cars in the bomb bays. The old B-36s could carry some full-sized vehicles.
Great big cranes, which stow almost out of sight when not in use.
The elevators don’t down that far. They bring a ramp to the pier . The cars drive up the ramp to the elevator, they are then moved across the Hangar Bay to another elevator and up to the flight deck. i’ve seen them do this in Norfolk.
Aha...Tiger Cruise sounds familiar. The documentary I saw featured bombing runs in the Persian Gulf, post 911...probably around 2004.
Was on CVN-68 when we shifted from Norfolk to Bremerton after a Med deployment in 1987. Seas were 30-40 ft and relative winds 110 kts.
I know Tiger Cruises were still happening three years ago.
Would you want YOUR car on the deck secured by a parking brake during that? I wouldn’t.
It wasn’t an option anyway.
I was on the Nimitz in the early 80’s coming back from a Med cruise. We got into a bad storm in the Atlantic. They had to replace a bunch of catwalks and antennas at flight deck level towards the bow. Slept like a baby while I was off duty during the storm. The sailors on the cruiser accompanying us had a tough go of it. I suspect they have better forecasting tools these days so as to avoid unnecessary damage.
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