Tag: Outer Banks
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Aircraft Carrier, Part 6 (Feeding Time)
Jets roared from the deck of the USS John C. Stennis around the clock, the most visible sign of its power. However, the ship needed thousands of people to keep this one vital function going and they all needed to be fed around the clock. The massive effort to procure, load, store, cook and clean…
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Aircraft Carrier, Part 5 (Living Aboard)
The USS John C. Stennis felt like an otherworldly city, with some things strange and others more familiar. For example, the Internet did not exist there, at least not for us, and neither did mobile phones. Scarce satellite bandwidth had to be doled out. Sailors could check email every once in awhile; short-term visitors such…
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Aircraft Carrier, Part 4 (The Island)
From the surface of the flight deck, one feature stood literally above all the rest. A superstructure rose several stories into the sky, with a commanding view of everything happening on and around the ship. The Navy called this feature the “Island.” Funny, I kind-of thought of the whole aircraft carrier as an island, completely…
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Aircraft Carrier, Part 3 (Air Power)
The USS John C. Stennis and the thousands of sailors that comprise its crew exist to keep military jets in the air far from home. They do this extraordinarily well. We got to watch aircraft from a variety of vantage points, feeling their immense power as much as hearing and seeing them. I’ve never served…
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Aircraft Carrier, Part 2 (All Aboard)
The message I’d been waiting for finally arrived so I scrambled over to the Naval Station Norfolk Tour and Information Center on the public side of Gate 5 (map). I met the rest of the people invited to this excursion and we climbed into a 15-passenger van. Guards waved us through and we drove onto…
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Outer Banks Weekend
Speaking of the Outer Banks of North Carolina — we were just talking about that, right? — that’s where I happened to be visiting for an extended weekend. I don’t get to do that very often so this was my chance for our own little episode of Weekend Roady. I love going to the beach…