In This Issue: Senior Medical Officer | Bayside Clean-Up | General Quarters | Welcome Aboard
Vol 02 No 61 | September 7, 2011
Vinson, FULL SPEED AHEAD! Ending Fast Cruise and Beginning Local Operations STORY BY
MC2 (SW/AW) Lori D. Bent | USS Carl Vinson Staff Writer
V
inson Sailors commenced a fast cruise and a four day underway to conduct sea operations and training exercises on Monday in preparation
The Carl Vinson Voice is an internal document produced by and for the crew of the USS Carl Vinson and their families. Its contents do not necessarily ref lect the official views of the U.S. Government or the Departments of Defense or the Navy and do not imply any endorsement thereby.
for their upcoming deployment. Prior to removing the brow, Sailors successfully executed and completed more than 140 training events as part of the ship’s fast cruise and became fully prepared to tackle the Precision Approach and Landing System (PALS) carrier qualification and Navigation Certification out to sea. “Get this warship back and ready for our next deployment,” urged Vinson’s Commanding Officer Capt. Bruce Lindsey during a 1MC announcement to the crew. Navigating out of port is nothing new for this experienced crew, but moving a multi-billion dollar warship out to sea is no picnic, even for Sailors of Vinson’s Navigation Department. “Our main focus in port was chart studies. We spent a lot of time training so we could correctly exercise the skills we learned when it was time to pull in and out of port and fast cruise played a critical role in preparing us,” said Navigation Department’s Leading Chief Petty Officer Master Chief Quartermaster (SW/ AW) Jonathon Myers. “We trained extensively on executing standing orders and familiarized ourselves with navigation norms and the rules of the road. We were preparing a warship and its crew to go to sea.” Vinson’s Quartermasters are all enrolled in a 100-ton Captain License course to enhance their skills as navigators but they Continue ‘FULL SPEED’ on Pg. 5
Vinson Voice
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Air Force Colonel Returns to His Navy Roots
Photos By: MC3(SW/AW) Rosa Arzola | USS Carl Vinson Staff Photographer
weaker performers,” explained Boyd. “My hospital corpsmen are uniformly professional and take pride in their performance. They’re trained for here’s a new addition to the crew I joined the Navy to fly!” he said, anything from a simple fall or cut to a of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier laughing. mass casualty event. With a very limited USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70), and although It was around this time that he also staff of about 50, everyone has to be most days he wears a green flight suit began to pursue the goal of resuming ready to take charge of a patient, and with a different service’s emblems on it, his medical studies. With the dream here on Carl Vinson, they are.” at one time he wore Navy blue. of being a doctor still present in his While Vinson’s Medical Department U.S. Air Force Col. James Boyd checked mind, Boyd applied and was accepted have been busy making a good first on board Vinson in July as the ship’s to the Uniformed Services University impression on their new leader, Boyd new Senior Medical Officer (SMO). It’s of Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md. has been hard at work returning the an assignment that has favor. brought him full-circle, “He’s focused and “He’s very approachable, cordial and back to his Navy years, personable. It’s refreshing. He gives me grounded, and he’s the part of a military career a lot of guidance and helps develop me subject matter expert spanning more than on all medical issues,” professionally, and I’m very glad for three decades. said Lt. Shani Henry, the opportunity to become a better His career began in Vinson’s Medical officer.” February 1978 with an Administrative Officer enlistment into the Air (MAO). “He’s very | L t. S h a n i H e n r y | Force. After three years, approachable, cordial he transferred to the Air Force Reserves after finishing his time in the Navy. In and personable. It’s refreshing. He gives and began his college degree in pre- August 1991 Boyd was commissioned me a lot of guidance and helps develop medicine. He dreamed of being a doctor, into the Air Force and began pursuing me professionally, and I’m very glad but became tempted with the possibility his medical degree. for the opportunity to become a better of being a pilot after graduation. Two board certifications, four pay officer.” “One day, I was driving down the road grades and two decades later, Boyd has While he helps groom Sailors junior and came to an intersection when out of reunited with his past. to him, Boyd also hopes to bring some the blue, there it was: a billboard with an It was an easy reunion; having served improvements to the ship as a whole. [F-14 Tomcat] zooming across it, telling in the Navy proved beneficial to Boyd’s “Saying ‘this is the way we’ve always me to ‘Fly Navy’,” recalled Boyd. adjustment to ship life, and he has fit done it’ or ‘because the regulations say The thought had never occurred to right back in on the deckplates. so’ isn’t always the answer,” he said. “So if Boyd to pursue an officer commission, “While I was in the Navy, I spent a we find things that need updating, I will but after considering his options, he year living on board the USS America push to get them changed or updated.” decided to go for it. The Navy accepted (CV 66), so I know Navy terminology, Boyd described his emotions upon him and he soon received his Naval the mission, carrier operations, the learning he’d be sailing the seas with his Flight Officer (NFO) wings. chain of command and the career path Navy counterparts once again. Toward the end of his six-year stint, of enlisted Sailors and officers. I’m a “When I went to med school and while evaluating his career options, little rusty now, but I still know how to joined the Air Force, I felt like I had Boyd realized he’d already fulfilled half read a bulls-eye and how to get around jumped ship and abandoned the Navy the flying time he would complete over the ship,” said Boyd. and a job I loved,” he said. “I enjoyed the course of a typical 20-year Navy Boyd’s acclimation to ship life aboard flying for the Navy, but it wasn’t a good flying career. Carl Vinson was made even easier by the long-term career path for me at the “The prospect of being ship’s company Sailors he was charged with leading. time.” and not flying was looming over my “It’s not a case where a few hardNow that he’s back in the Navy—if only head,” said Boyd. “I mean, come on, charging Sailors carry the load for the
STORY BY
MC3 Jessica Tounzen | USS Carl Vinson Staff Writer
T
Continue ‘AIR FORCE’ on Pg. 4
September 7, 2011
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Bayside Clean-Up
Vinson Sailors & Family Take Charge and Clean Up Breaker’s Beach
PHOTOS BY
MC3 Zachary D. Bell | USS Carl Vinson Staff Photographer
U
SS Carl Vinson’s (CVN 70) Sailors and family collected trash during the ship’s Coronado Beach Clean-up Days July 30 and September 3, sponsored by the Family Readiness Group (FRG), in an effort to show their support to the local community and environment.
Vinson Voice
4 From ‘AIR FORCE’ on Pg. 2
in appearance—Boyd is busy getting to know the ship and the Sailors he will be with during his two-year tour onboard Vinson. “He’s always walking around, getting involved, and getting acclimated to the ship…he wants to be a part of the crew,” said Henry. And since his arrival, Boyd has also been busy exploring his new home. “I forgot how much you climb ladders on a ship! The first few weeks my legs were aching until I got adapted to it,”
he admitted. “And I forgot how big a carrier is. This is one massive ship. It has more than 3,000 compartments and I’m trying to get to as many as I can, not only for my curiosity, but also because I need to be able to respond to a medical emergency anywhere on the ship.” Henry said Boyd’s dedication to Vinson’s crew is easy to see. “He cares about each and every one of the Sailors on this ship and in Medical Department, and he cares about the quality of life we’re getting on this carrier,” she said.
Now that his past and present have come together, Boyd is looking ahead to the future. He’s continuing to learn and grow professionally, and use his time onboard Vinson to become a better physician and officer. But there’s another thing he’s looking forward to while he’s on board; something that’s been a desire on his long and winding journey back to the Navy. It’s flight operations on Vinson’s flight deck, and Boyd can’t wait to strap into the cockpit for that next catapult launch.
|GENERAL QUARTERS| GENERAL QUARTERS, GENERAL QUARTERS -- ALL HANDS MAN YOUR BATTLE STATIONS! MC3 (SW/AW) Rosa Arzola | MC3 (SW/AW) Timothy Hazel | USS Carl Vinson Staff Photographers
PHOTOS BY
September 7, 2011
5 From ‘FULL SPEED’ on Pg. 1
are not the only Sailors rearing to sprint out of the starting blocks. Training department began simulating exercises geared at preparing the crew for real life battle scenarios with At-Sea Fire Party and General Quarters drills. Air Department has also taken charge and immersed their Sailors into a realm of training. From preparing for fires on the flight deck to downed Sailors in the Hangar Bay, Sailors are being equipped with the right knowledge to successfully complete their jobs safely. “We will take these next couple of days to train and achieve 100 percent manning in aircraft firefighting qualifications and meet all the requirements for hangar bay and flight deck fire firefighting,” said Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (Handling) 1st Class (AW/SW)
“We are giving our Sailors the confidence to know that they have been properly trained to step up and do what needs to be done if necessary.” |ABH1
Photos By: MC3 (SW/AW) Rosa Arzola | MC3 (SW/AW) Timothy Hazel | MCSN (SW/AW) Nicolas Lopez USS Carl Vinson Staff Photographers
(AW/SW)
Robert
Hawkins|
Robert Hawkins, leading petty officer of Air Department’s V-3 Division. “We are giving our Sailors the confidence to know that they have been properly trained to step up and do what needs to be done if necessary.” But aircraft and hangar bay firefighting is not limited to Air Department. “We integrate with shipboard firefighters and the At Sea Fire party in the event there is an actual casualty. Security, Medical and Safety departments also play an essential role in our training as well,” said Hawkins. “It’s an all hands effort.” While the wheels were turning in the hangar bay, the flight deck was brimming with activities from counter-measure washdowns to launching and recovering aircraft from Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron (HS) 15, Fleet Logistics Support Squadron (VRC) 30 and Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23. “With more than 20 new Sailors we need this time to introduce them to what it is really like on the flight deck during flight operations,” said Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (Handling) 1st Class (AW) Dustin Miller, leading petty officer of Air Department’s V-1 Division. Preparing for anything is always on the forefront for Vinson’s Sailors and a successful counter-measure washdown test of the ship’s flight deck ensured that the deck is certified to combat aircraft fires in the event of an incident. “Rehearse the basics,” said Aviation Ordnanceman 1st Class (SW/AW) Carlos Young, leading petty officer of Vinson’s Safety Department. “Our goal is to get our Sailors up to speed and ready to step up.” A challenge the crew is ready to take on. “This period will prepare us for the next deployment and sharpen junior [Sailors] to step to the next level,” said Myers. “But for those who were on board for the last deployment this underway period will essentially knock the rust off,” added Chief (select) Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (AW/SW) Jorge Agostini also attached to Air Department’s V-1 Division. Vinson’s five operational excellence principles; Level of knowledge, Strict Procedural Compliance, Formal Communications, Forceful Backup and a Questioning Attitude is the anchor that keeps the crew steadfastly moving forward to the next deployment.
Vinson Voice
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We lcom e Ab oard Ne w Sailors!
EDITORIAL BY
MC3 Jessica Tounzen | USS Carl Vinson Staff Writer
When I first crossed the quarterdeck of this 95,000-ton warship, I felt tiny, nervous and a little overwhelmed
by the sheer size of what awaited me. I thought to myself, ‘There is no way I will ever learn my way around this ship.’ It’s been more than a year, and although I can move about the deckplates without feeling like a rat in a maze, every now and then I find myself searching for the cheese. So for those of you who are brand new to the Vinson, or to the Navy, or to life at sea: here’s what I’m going to do for you, I’m going to give you the Cliff ’s Notes version, the basics, so you can get around without looking as overwhelmed as I felt on my first day here. First off: find a good reference point. I like to use the hangar bay because you can pretty much get anywhere from
there. The hangar bay is the main deck. One deck below the hangar bay are the hotspots, like both mess decks, Medical, Disbursing, and Legal. One deck below that, you can find Dental, Personnel and two decks down , ADP (they get your email set up and fix your computer when it’s broken). Here’s a tip: try to stick around the mess decks; you can get to pretty much any of these hotspots from there, using the wide array of ladderwells that are available. Learn to read a bullseye and it will save you a lot of heartache later on. Bullseyes can be found in every compartment and passageway (or p-way) on the ship. When you’re transiting the ship’s p-ways, there are a few things you need to keep in mind. P-way etiquette, if you will. First, I try to imagine the p-ways are a road. You only drive on one side of the road; the other side is for oncoming traffic. It’s simple courtesy to move aside when you see a shipmate carrying a heavy load or pushing a dolly. Likewise, when you see a chief, an officer or anyone senior to you walking toward
September 7, 2011
you, let them pass before you try to make your way through. The same applies to ladderwells. Now, if you’re waiting to go up or down a ladderwell, and nobody is letting you through, the common thing to do is to say ‘Up ladder’ or ‘Down ladder’. It’s simple courtesies like these that will go a long way. Going back to chiefs and officers: if you have somewhere to be, don’t be afraid to move past them, they don’t bite, and they understand we all have jobs to do. Just be sure to say ‘Excuse me, Sir/Ma’am/Chief ’. ‘Please’ and ‘thank you’ helps, too. And if they say good morning or hello to you, don’t blow them off. And it goes both ways; don’t be afraid to show those pearly whites and greet them first. Ever heard the term, ‘sharing is caring’? Well, when you live on a ship with a few thousand people, sharing is a fact of life. Sharing germs, that is. So when you find yourself getting that tell-tale tickle in your throat, sick call is your best friend. Medical Department offers two different times for sick call: 0815 and 1900 while underway, and 0815 only while in port. It’s a good idea to get there as early as possible to beat the rush. The Hospital Corpsmen in sick call treat anywhere from 30 to 70 Sailors per day, so it can get pretty hairy. To reduce your chances of catching those nasty germs, wash your hands frequently, especially after touching door knobs, hatches, and ladderwell railings. If you can’t wash your hands, hand sanitizer is your best friend. There are hand sanitizer pumps attached to the bulkheads in Medical, the p-ways by the mess decks, and several other places, so you’ll never be far from a germfree respite. The mess decks can be quite a madhouse during chow time. More often than not, the line for chow stretches up to the hangar bay, sometimes even the O-3 level. Keep in mind that when we have a full house underway, our Culinary Specialists are hard at work preparing an estimated 15,000 meals per day so don’t be greedy. Only take what you can eat. Try to be as neat as possible when you’re serving yourself as Food Service Attendants (FSA) work extremely hard to keep our mess decks clean for us. Pretend that you’re at home; you wouldn’t spill soda on your dining room table and leave it for someone else to clean, would you? Any Sailor who’s been deployed can tell you what you should bring to the ship and what you should leave at home. While everyone is different, here are some things I found to be very valuable during our 2010-2011 deployment. First, plenty of blue t-shirts, socks, and undergarments. You want to have enough so that you don’t have to do laundry every week, but not so much that you can’t close your rack. Here’s a rule of thumb: only do one load of laundry (and never uniforms) at a time unless the place is an absolute
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ghost town Next, coveralls, while out to sea, many of us wear coveralls. If you wear it often, it doesn’t hurt to bring an extra set or two. A good rule of thumb: on a deployment, bring two to three months’ worth of supplies and have a family member or friend send the rest a couple months into the deployment, or have them send the rest in increments. Mail takes a month or two on average to arrive, so make sure you have enough to last that long While you’re in your berthing, if you’re not sleeping, do your shipmates a favor and keep the noise level at a minimum. We all work different hours, and when we’re out to sea, there will always be someone in their rack at any given time. When we’re underway, keep the white lights off and the red lights on unless it’s Cleaning Stations, and when you’re finished using a light or the television, turn it off. If you find yourself in need of a good book, head over to the library, located at 03-118-10-L (good thing you know how to read a bullseye!). They’ve got a pretty large selection of books you can check out, plus some free ones you can keep. If you’re less into books and more into video games, Morale Welfare and Recreation (MWR) office is your new best friend. They’ve got gaming systems and games you can borrow if you’ve got the itch. If music and movies are more your speed, the ship’s store has you covered. There’s a reason aircraft carriers are called ‘floating cities’. They’ve got everything you could possibly want or need while underway. While on board Carl Vinson, you can pretty much do anything you can do at home: eat, sleep, work out in any of the seven gyms on board, play, hang out with friends, send and receive packages, do your laundry, the list goes on. And while it’s not quite home, it falls on you to make it as close to home as possible, because ship life is what you make of it. Get comfortable, get to know people, make friends and get lost from time to time. Sure, you’ll feel like a rat in a maze, but eventually you’ll find the cheese. A combat deployment may take you away from your home and your family, but it can also foster lifelong friendships with some of the best people you’ll ever meet. Welcome to Carl Vinson!
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Vinson Voice
DIALOGUES D E C K P L A T E
| What was the highlight of your inport period? | “I was able to see my family & bond with my nephews.”
“I went home to Poland to see my son & I ran a halfmarathon.
H M 3 ( S W / A W ) L e k e shi a Atc hi s on
L N 3 ( S W / A W ) M arta Mot yl
“Spending quality time with my daughter & watching her grow.”
“Cooking out at home in Lexington, NC with friends & family.”
A O A N J e s s e Va s q u e z
L S 2 ( S W ) Maston Buchanan
Did You Know Did You Know... Carl Vinson was a congressman from Georgia.
|PUBLISHER|
STAFF
STAFF
CAPTAIN BRUCE H. LINDSEY COMMANDING OFFICER
|EXECUTIVE EDITORS| LT. CMDR ERIK REYNOLDS PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICER
The length of the flight deck is 1,092 feet. CVN 70 was commisioned March 13, 1982.
Vis Per Mare is our motto and mean “Strength from the Sea”. Our height, keel to mast, is 244 feet. We have 4 flight deck aircraft elevators. We have 2 anchors weighing 30 tons each. Our call sign is ‘Gold Eagle’. We have 2 nuclear reactors.
LT. ERIK SCHNEIDER
ASSISTANT PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICER
|EDITOR IN CHIEF|
MCCM (SW/AW) WILLIAM HOULIHAN MEDIA LCPO
|MANAGING EDITOR| MC2 (SW/AW) LORI D. BENT
|PHOTO EDITOR|
MC2 (SW) PATRICK GREEN
|GRAPHICS/LAYOUT|
MC3 (SW) MEGAN L. CATELLIER
|STAFF WRITERS/PHOTOGRAPHERS| MC3 (SW/AW) ROSA ARZOLA MC3 ZACHARY D. BELL MC3 (SW/AW) TIMOTHY HAZEL MC3 (SW) CHRISTOPHER HWANG MC3 (SW) AARON SHELLEY MC3 JESSICA TOUNZEN