Word: nimitz
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Strange doings aboard the U.S.S. Nimitz! The great carrier puts out to sea from Pearl Harbor on a routine exercise, only to encounter this really nasty bit of weather. The old salts have never seen such lightning before, or heard such a strange roar from the ocean. The disturbance does not even register on the radar screen...
...Nimitz was back at last after a nine-month cruise, including 144 consecutive days at sea, most of them spent on patrol in the Indian Ocean. The ill-fated Sea Stallion helicopters had taken off from her flight deck on their attempt to rescue the 53 American hostages from their captors in Iran. Not since World War II had any U.S. warship been at sea so long...
...excitement of the homecoming could not mask the fatigue of the 5,500 men on the Nimitz and the 934 on its two guided-missile cruiser escorts, the California and the Texas. The patrol had been an extraordinarily arduous and lonely duty. In his talk, Carter thanked the crew for projecting "the presence of the U.S. Government and its military forces at a time . . . crucial to the maintenance of peace." He then took the occasion for an announcement that implicitly acknowledged that the services of the carrier's crew and similar American forces deserved better recognition from the nation...
...feel they spend too few hours in the cockpit or fire too few artillery practice rounds or take their recruits too few miles on marches. In addition, the professional military man's morale has suffered because of prolonged separations from family. The 144-day Indian Ocean patrol by the Nimitz is but an extreme example of what is happening more and more...
Bitterness over low pay was stressed in a cable sent to his superiors in early May by Captain R.R. Owens, skipper of the Texas, which came home last week with the Nimitz. Said Owens: "While we have been able to cheerfully handle the arduous shipboard conditions, we rebel against our inability to provide our families back home with sufficient funds to provide for their wellbeing. It is very hard for a commanding officer to recommend to his men that they apply for food stamps or other welfare and at the same time ask them to be ready to fight...