“Iron Shellbacks” of USS IKE Strike Group Return after record-breaking consecutive sea days

[Capt MJ]

I should keep this link handy when I need to describe differences between going Navy and going other services. Not better or worse, just different. You have to know you can cope and thrive in that environment.

Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group Returns from Deployment

USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) carrier strike group returned home to Norfolk Naval Station Aug. 9 after seven months operating in 5th and 6th Fleet.

www.dvidshub.net

 

[Devil Doc]

Incredible. My personal consecutive days at sea is 110 days on an Adams class DDG. They beat me by a lot.

Welcome Home Ike

 

[Capt MJ]

I hope they got to see a green flash, whales, surfing dolphins in the bow wave, miles-long trails of phosphorescence behind them at night and fabulous canopies of stars. That’s the stuff that provides welcome relief. That and swim calls and steel beach picnics and fresh hot chocolate chip cookies. In amongst the exhausting days, nerve-racking watches, and an endless work cycle, of course.

 

[Capt MJ]

It does exist. From the Scripps Institute archives:

 

[Devil Doc]

This isn’t recent but shows the shooters of Ike launching aircraft.

 

[Capt MJ]

Lieutenant - best darn rank ever. Everyone knows you’re not a witless Ensign or LTJG anymore and have a respectable sprinkling of salt, but you don’t have the worries and burdens of being a LCDR just yet.

DH did stints as both a shooter (catapult officer) and LSO (landing signal officer), and those were his favorite jobs until he got to be a Tomcat squadron skipper. Some of his favorite scenes in “Top Gun” were those steam-rising, well-orchestrated launch and recovery bits.

 

[Capt MJ]

For people wondering what a “steel beach picnic” is, just google any Navy ship name, the larger the better and “steel beach picnic.” IKE has good pix on her public FB. Relaxed clothes, the grills are out, massive numbers of brats, burgers, dogs, sides, sweet treats, someone on the ship always seems to magically have DJ skills and gear, games are set up, and occasionally, in special places far from home and after long periods at sea, a beer ration might actually occur. The officers and senior enlisted take their turns cooking and sweating and breathing smoke at the grills, so the junior folks can relax.

 

[Capt MJ]

And since I mentioned swim call - that’s exactly what it sounds like.
This pre-COVID video covers a lot of the secretly-fun-stuff-Navy-people-do-at-sea. And any Marines embarked!
Your take-home assignment is googling “U.S. Navy submarine swim call.” Very cool videos out there.

Reason I am posting all this - not so much for people who have been there and done that, but those who are starting the journey and looking for their fit. Real-life glimpses of the more human aspects, the stuff that makes 7 month, over 200 days at sea, bearable, is the camaraderie of the these kinds of times.

 

[OldRetSWO]

For people wondering what a “steel beach picnic” is, just google any Navy ship name, the larger the better and “steel beach picnic.” IKE has good pix on her public FB. Relaxed clothes, the grills are out, massive numbers of brats, burgers, dogs, sides, sweet treats, someone on the ship always seems to magically have DJ skills and gear, games are set up, and occasionally, in special places far from home and after long periods at sea, a beer ration might actually occur. The officers and senior enlisted take their turns cooking and sweating and breathing smoke at the grills, so the junior folks can relax.

During my Beirut deployment on an Amphib, we worked very hard every day with lots of support moving to the beach and back to the ships. Sundays (once church/ Holy Helos were done) were no fly/minimal boating days so the crews could rest. On our ship we had a weekly steel beach picnic with cooking duty alternating between the Officers, Chiefs and First Class Petty Officers. The Supply Officer and cooks worked with the folks cooking to ensure we had plenty of Steaks, Chicken and Ribs on different weeks along with the burger and dogs plus beans, slaw,etc. No swim calls as the water there was very very dangerous/toxic but we had games, the sun, relaxed uniforms and a chance to relax.

 

[WT Door]

During my Beirut deployment on an Amphib, we worked very hard every day with lots of support moving to the beach and back to the ships. Sundays (once church/ Holy Helos were done) were no fly/minimal boating days so the crews could rest. On our ship we had a weekly steel beach picnic with cooking duty alternating between the Officers, Chiefs and First Class Petty Officers. The Supply Officer and cooks worked with the folks cooking to ensure we had plenty of Steaks, Chicken and Ribs on different weeks along with the burger and dogs plus beans, slaw,etc. No swim calls as the water there was very very dangerous/toxic but we had games, the sun, relaxed uniforms and a chance to relax.

Looks like the Amphib I was on cruised just before you. We did not break any at sea records like CVN-69 just did although we may have set an Amphib record for the number of ports visited after onloading the Marines at Onslow Beach in January way back when. No steel beach picnics for the Gator Navy. All beer calls ashore. We hit Charlotte Amalie, Rota, Palma, Sardinia (for an exercise), did the Ditch, then Mombasa (shellback!), Easter Sunday in the Red Sea, then Israel, Athens, Barcelona, and Toulon with out-chop washdown in Rota. Lots of spouses came over during the two-week maintenance period in France.

The lingo started to change, as you know, when amphibs comprised a MARG (Marine Amphibious Readiness Group) then was recast as a MEU-SOC (Marine Expeditionary Unit-Special Operations Capable). The Marines started calling the MEU-SOC the Marine Entertainment Unit-Socially and Outgoingly Capable because of all the dog and pony shows they had to put on while in port.

We had a great cruise because the Marines and Navy got along well. The best part of the cruise was that all Sailors, Marines and helicopters that started out in January came home safely six and a half months later.

I hope IKE got a least one port call and that our ships will be able to make more port calls in the future.

 

[OldRetSWO]

Looks like the Amphib I was on cruised just before you. We did not break any at sea records like CVN-69 just did although we may have set an Amphib record for the number of ports visited after onloading the Marines at Onslow Beach in January way back when. No steel beach picnics for the Gator Navy. All beer calls ashore. We hit Charlotte Amalie, Rota, Palma, Sardinia (for an exercise), did the Ditch, then Mombasa (shellback!), Easter Sunday in the Red Sea, then Israel, Athens, Barcelona, and Toulon with out-chop washdown in Rota. Lots of spouses came over during the two-week maintenance period in France.

The lingo started to change, as you know, when amphibs comprised a MARG (Marine Amphibious Readiness Group) then was recast as a MEU-SOC (Marine Expeditionary Unit-Special Operations Capable). The Marines started calling the MEU-SOC the Marine Entertainment Unit-Socially and Outgoingly Capable because of all the dog and pony shows they had to put on while in port.

We had a great cruise because the Marines and Navy got along well. The best part of the cruise was that all Sailors, Marines and helicopters that started out in January came home safely six and a half months later.

I hope IKE got a least one port call and that our ships will be able to make more port calls in the future.

We got ONE port - a little after we'd had three months at sea. Four or Five days and then back to Beirut until we outchopped.
The float that we'd done the fall before (3 months before leaving for this one) included three good port calls in Sweden, Norway and England plus a bonus Storm Evasion/Operational Stop in Denmark.

 

[USMAROTCFamily]

I should keep this link handy when I need to describe differences between going Navy and going other services. Not better or worse, just different. You have to know you can cope and thrive in that environment.

Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group Returns from Deployment

USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) carrier strike group returned home to Norfolk Naval Station Aug. 9 after seven months operating in 5th and 6th Fleet.

www.dvidshub.net

What was the record they set? Consecutive days at sea without stopping in a port? Or was it something else? I'm still trying to get all the Navy Lingo down. My DD had made some comment to me after she got back from her deployment last fall that they had been told if they had a certain number of consecutive days at sea that they would get beer, but after they had surpassed that number of days, were disappointed that they never got it! LOL. The thing that surprised me about the deployment was how infrequently they got mail. I had envisioned that they would get it more often than they did.

 

[Capt MJ]

What was the record they set? Consecutive days at sea without stopping in a port? Or was it something else? I'm still trying to get all the Navy Lingo down. My DD had made some comment to me after she got back from her deployment last fall that they had been told if they had a certain number of consecutive days at sea that they would get beer, but after they had surpassed that number of days, were disappointed that they never got it! LOL. The thing that surprised me about the deployment was how infrequently they got mail. I had envisioned that they would get it more often than they did.

This article makes the record part a bit clearer - consecutive days at sea without a port call.

After record-breaking 7 months at sea, Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group returns to Norfolk

The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower returned home to Norfolk Sunday following a seven-month deployment that included breaking the Navy’s record for most days at sea. The coronavirus made stops in fo…

www.pilotonline.com

Most deployments, pre-COVID, there would be a few days here and there inport for re-supply, repairs, personnel changes, diplomatic stuff, and crew liberty, providing a break from long operational days at sea. What the IKE battle group did was phenomenal.

The mail gets there when it gets there. It gives via the USPS system into major military post office collection points on East and West Coasts, where it enters the military mail system. The mail chases the ship around, being delivered to port call cities. If a ship’s schedule changes, say they have to leave port early due to an incoming storm, or they have to switch ports due to an operational mission change, the mail bags go on the chase again. Always number your snail mail, as a bunch can arrive in the same bag!

 

[USMAROTCFamily]

This article makes the record part a bit clearer - consecutive days at sea without a port call.

After record-breaking 7 months at sea, Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group returns to Norfolk

The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower returned home to Norfolk Sunday following a seven-month deployment that included breaking the Navy’s record for most days at sea. The coronavirus made stops in fo…

www.pilotonline.com

Most deployments, pre-COVID, there would be a few days here and there inport for re-supply, repairs, personnel changes, diplomatic stuff, and crew liberty, providing a break from long operational days at sea. What the IKE battle group did was phenomenal.

The mail gets there when it gets there. It gives via the USPS system into major military post office collection points on East and West Coasts, where it enters the military mail system. The mail chases the ship around, being delivered to port call cities. If a ship’s schedule changes, say they have to leave port early due to an incoming storm, or they have to switch ports due to an operational mission change, the mail bags go on the chase again. Always number your snail mail, as a bunch can arrive in the same bag!

Wow, that is a long time at sea! I can only imagine how weary they must have been. I would imagine morale can get very low and I'm sure there must have been some issues with some sailors having some mental health issues. It must have been especially hard if they were out finishing their trials with the thought that they would come back home, take care of final business and say their good-byes before heading out for deployment, but then the deployment just started straight from the trials. Whew!

 

[Capt MJ]

Pre-COVID, spouses, significant others would often fly out and meet up at a port. There was always some risk involved, but it was a great mental break if it all worked. I met DH in Hong Kong and Singapore several times, once in St. Thomas, once in Acapulco, various places in the Med. We missed each other once, but I had a great time with the other spouses.

 

[OldRetSWO]

Wow, that is a long time at sea! I can only imagine how weary they must have been. I would imagine morale can get very low and I'm sure there must have been some issues with some sailors having some mental health issues. It must have been especially hard if they were out finishing their trials with the thought that they would come back home, take care of final business and say their good-byes before heading out for deployment, but then the deployment just started straight from the trials. Whew!

You might be surprised at generally how well morale can survive even during a long time without port visits. When we go to sea, a lot of routine and often painful admin and inspections stays behind and most are able to concentrate on the job that they are there to do. It did and does seem a little odd but our equipment that is now being used constantly starts to work better and our people are similar. Its the constant starting and stopping that impacts our equipment and perhaps its the same with many of our people. The kid working on the flight deck of the carrier for 12 to 14 hours per day is busting their butt but at the same time, it is a giant team and they see that it is a giant ballet that they are a part of. Same with the cooks, Engineers and so on. One of my ships was deployed for 14 of the 19 months that I was aboard and the morale was pretty good.