greeneagle5
10-Year Member
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2007
- Messages
- 347
A historic visit
Greetings all! On May 26, our namesake former President George H. W. Bush was helo-ed aboard for a one day visit. It had been his greatest wish to watch flight operations from the flight deck of our navy’s newest nuclear powered aircraft carrier and to meet the Sailors. As a decorated former naval aviator in World War II, this has a special significance for him. He was accompanied by his daughter (and our ship’s sponsor) “Doro” Bush Koch. They observed flight ops from the flight deck and the bridge, dined with several senior officers in the Flag Mess (I was lucky enough to be there!) and watched night flight ops from the Flag Bridge . The next morning he dined in the Chief’s Mess and was escorted around, meeting and greeting Sailors. Finally, we had the crew assembled in hangar bay 2. Our CO pointed out that June 12th is his birthday (he’ll be 85 years old) and nearly 2500 Sailors sang happy birthday to him. He then swore in our reenlistees and read the promotion orders to all of our recently advanced Sailors (and there were a bunch of them). Lastly, he spoke to the crew. It was quite a moment- at the end of his short remarks, he looked up, paused for a second, and said “This ship means the world to me..” and he then broke down for a few seconds. There wasn’t a dry eye in the hangar bay. He then continued on and thanked every one of us for our service to the country and for making him proud as one of ‘his’ Sailors’. I first came into the Navy nearly 30 years ago, and I can’t recall a more special moment that I’ve ever experienced. Shortly thereafter, President Bush was helo-ed off, back to Norfolk .
I believe this was the first time in US Navy history that a ship’s namesake (certainly an aircraft carrier) not only was alive at the time of commissioning, but was healthy enough to come on board when the ship was at sea. I just wanted to share this with you all. R, LEE.
Lee R. Mandel, MD, MPH, FACP
Captain, Medical Corps , United States Navy
Senior Medical Officer
USS GEORGE H.W. BUSH (CVN 77)
Greetings all! On May 26, our namesake former President George H. W. Bush was helo-ed aboard for a one day visit. It had been his greatest wish to watch flight operations from the flight deck of our navy’s newest nuclear powered aircraft carrier and to meet the Sailors. As a decorated former naval aviator in World War II, this has a special significance for him. He was accompanied by his daughter (and our ship’s sponsor) “Doro” Bush Koch. They observed flight ops from the flight deck and the bridge, dined with several senior officers in the Flag Mess (I was lucky enough to be there!) and watched night flight ops from the Flag Bridge . The next morning he dined in the Chief’s Mess and was escorted around, meeting and greeting Sailors. Finally, we had the crew assembled in hangar bay 2. Our CO pointed out that June 12th is his birthday (he’ll be 85 years old) and nearly 2500 Sailors sang happy birthday to him. He then swore in our reenlistees and read the promotion orders to all of our recently advanced Sailors (and there were a bunch of them). Lastly, he spoke to the crew. It was quite a moment- at the end of his short remarks, he looked up, paused for a second, and said “This ship means the world to me..” and he then broke down for a few seconds. There wasn’t a dry eye in the hangar bay. He then continued on and thanked every one of us for our service to the country and for making him proud as one of ‘his’ Sailors’. I first came into the Navy nearly 30 years ago, and I can’t recall a more special moment that I’ve ever experienced. Shortly thereafter, President Bush was helo-ed off, back to Norfolk .
I believe this was the first time in US Navy history that a ship’s namesake (certainly an aircraft carrier) not only was alive at the time of commissioning, but was healthy enough to come on board when the ship was at sea. I just wanted to share this with you all. R, LEE.
Lee R. Mandel, MD, MPH, FACP
Captain, Medical Corps , United States Navy
Senior Medical Officer
USS GEORGE H.W. BUSH (CVN 77)
