Friday - December 10, 2004
We received an invitation to sail on the USS Iwo Jima from Fort Lauderdale to Norfolk Virginia. The ship would leave Fort Lauderdale on Friday, December 10, 2004 and arrive in Norfolk, Monday, December 13, 2004. Not knowing our schedule, I did not RSVP until December 6th but Joe Millsaps was able to get us on board.
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Our arrival at Port Everglades - 10:00 AM. |
Kim boarding in the quarterdeck level. |
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| A briefing in the Wardroom mess hall. There were 14 guests, referred to as "riders." Kim & Steven Naimoli, Bob Joslin, Raul Mas, Anita Carmell, Karen, Patricia, Jim Ray, Duane Timm, John Nichols, David K., David Turner, Dennis Fresch, & Daniel Ben-Joseph |
The hangar area. |
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| Another briefing with Tom McDonough, called the Air Boss. When they are conducting flight operations, the Air Boss has control over the flight deck after the captain turns it over. |
Another picture from the hangar area. |
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Preparing to leave the dock at Port Everglades. The sailors are assembled in the man-the-rails formation. |
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Lowering the colors. |
Port Everglades. |
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| This is Paul Allen's private yacht, Octopus, 413' parked in Port Everglades. It is too large to park anywhere else! | |
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Boats waiting in the harbor for us to transit the port. |
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Port Everglades inlet. |
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The tugs finally released us. |
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Out to sea! |
The pilot boat coming out to pick up the harbor pilot. All vessels of a certain size are required to have a harbor pilot when transiting the port, including military vessels. The pilot is basically an advisor. The captain will always operate the vessel. |
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The pilot leaving. |
While in port, there were numerous Coast Guard patrol boats keeping their eye on everything. This boat was part of the Iwo Jima and is coming along side to be loaded aboard. |
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| We are in the Fly Ops section getting a briefing by the Air Boss. |
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This is the ship's morgue. |
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| My stateroom. All riders got their own private stateroom. Kim and I were the only married people and were assigned separate rooms. I had 4 bunk beds. Kim had a single bed with an adjoining head with shower that she shared with Patricia. The men did not have a head and used the head/shower down the hall a bit. |
I had a sink in my room though. |
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| Tom, the Air Boss and Chris. Chris is Tom's assistant and is called Mini Boss. | There was one helicopter on board when we left the dock. This helicopter was at the Fort Lauderdale Airport and is not joining the ship for training exercises. |
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They took off and landed about ten times for practice. |
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| There were two helicopters both taking off and landing simultaneously. | These pictures were taken from the Air Boss' Fly Ops station. |
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David, Kim and Bob in the infirmary. |
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Karen, Patricia & Daniel in the infirmary. |
Captain Richard Callas at dinner. |