I was watching Carrier last night and remembering back to August 2001: The Nimitz was the first ship my son, Petty Officer Second Class Frank Arndt, was assigned to. At that time, the Nimitz was in the Newport News shipyard going through her midlife overhaul.

Father and son on Friends and Family Day aboard the USS Nimitz.

By 2001, the Nimitz had been doing sea trials, and on August 11 she hosted a Friends and Family Day, which is when the sailors can invite a few people to come aboard the ship. Less than a week after we were on the Nimitz, my husband had an accident that put him in the hospital for five months, and within a year he was dead — so that day has special meaning for us. It was the last time the three of us really did something together.

We had to be at the dock so early in the morning it was still dark, and I remember standing there in awe at the size of this ship. There were thousands of family members filling the hanger deck. We went about 30 miles out into the Atlantic, and in the afternoon a couple of planes came out and did a little air show for us.

Those of us who wanted to see the planes went up to the flight deck and lined up along one side by the bridge while the planes landed and took off from the other side. Even with the little yellow ear plugs they gave us the noise was still unbelievable. To show us what would happen if the hook on the back of the plane didn’t catch the cable, one of the jets came in, just skimmed the deck then took back off again. It was one of the most awesome experiences of my life. My son took us on a tour of the ship. Many of the places I saw on the show last night looked familiar. My son tells me he’s going to buy the “Carrier” DVD set.

Petty Officer Frank Arndt is sworn in at Bethesda Naval Hospital, Md., for his third tour.

My son is now one of the crew of the USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), the last of the Nimitz class carriers being built. I’m now making plans to be one of his guests at the commissioning ceremony next January when the Newport News shipbuilders officially turn the ‘Bush’ over to the Navy. I can’t wait!

Florence Arndt
CSC Financial Analyst
Shaker Heights, Ohio

As a retired U.S. Navy Officer and long-time CSC employee, I am thrilled that CSC is sponsoring Carrier! We’ve enjoyed watching it every night and the series gives my family great insight into what my life was like in the Navy. The blog you are running is a great idea and I love reading about my fellow CSCers’ experience in the Navy.

I joined the Navy in 1972 following high school, received my commission in 1979, and retired as a Lieutenant Commander in 1995. During my 23 years of service, I was stationed overseas for a total of 13 years in Guam, Hawaii, and Iceland. I deployed to forward areas six times aboard U.S. Navy combatant ships in the north Pacific, western Pacific, South China Sea, Gulf of Cambodia, Indian Ocean, Arabian Gulf, Red Sea, the Mediterranean, the Ionian Sea, North Sea, North Atlantic, and Norwegian Sea. I participated in combat support operations in the waters off Vietnam, Cambodia, Iraq, and the former Yugoslavia, and ashore in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as well as Ramstein Airbase and Headquarters U.S. European Command in Germany. I have been around the world twice, and have also been above the Arctic Circle, and below the Equator. As an enlisted man, I was a sonar technician. My commissioned service involved aviation and intelligence. Sea duty assignments included USS Sample (DE-1048), USS Conquest (MSO-488), USS Myles C. Fox (DD-829), USS Fairfax County (LST-1193), USS Vulcan (AR-5), USS Saratoga (CV-60), and Carrier Air Wing 8 embarked in USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71). All in all, a great and rewarding career.

I am especially fond on my life on board carriers Super Sara and TR, and especially proud of obtaining my designation as a Naval Aviation Observer.

As President John F. Kennedy said on 1 August 1963, in Bancroft Hall at the U. S. Naval Academy: “I can imagine no more rewarding a career. And any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worthwhile, I think can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction: ‘I served in the United States Navy.’”

Mike Turok
LCDR US Navy (Ret)
Program Management Principal Leader
Computer Sciences Corporation

I am a retired Data Processor First Class (DP1), who served from 1975 -1995, and had the honor of serving aboard two of the best carriers in the Navy. My first was the USS Ranger and my last was the USS Nimitz.

Going into the Navy right out of high school from Chicago, where had become used to tall buildings, did not prepare me for the sight of my first ship in the Navy’s aircraft carrier inventory. The USS Ranger was like a UFO to me, and I guess I was scared to go aboard until one of the guys who was in boot camp with me said, “Close your mouth — you’re drooling.” This was my start to a wonderful career in the carrier fleet.

Dennis L. McCoy
CSC IT Support
China Lake, CA

The trip home continues. The “Land down under,” the “Land of Oz” with all its intrigue and attraction sinks away behind us.

Our first stop was Perth / Fremantle. I treated myself to three days at a beach resort in Scarborough just outside Perth. White sandy beaches and beautiful water. It was 70-80 degrees and windy most of the time. Great sailing weather. Everybody was wearing t-shirts and shorts while all of us off the ship were wearing sweatshirts and sweaters and still freezing. I guess coming from 120 degree weather to this, we’re not quite climatized yet. It’s still not quite summer here either. It’s still early spring. So here I am in a huge king size bed all to myself, and in the morning the bed’s still perfectly made with the exception of a two-foot by seven-foot rectangle where I was sleeping, the exact size of my rack on the ship. The bathroom alone was worth the $100 a night. Just to be able to enjoy a CLEAN shower or better yet a tub, with continuous, steady temperature water and not have to wear flip-flops in that shower was worth every penny.

Fremantle has always held a special place in my heart. It’s a beautiful, small maritime town at the mouth of the Swan River that leads into Perth but has yet to be spoiled by the city. Home of the ’87 America’s Cup races, Fremantle is based around numerous marinas with fishing boats and sailboats. A town hall with a steeple clock, lots of street musicians and a huge city park. Rottenest Island lies just off the coast for the quick uninhibited “Holiday,” and it’s all accented with Victorian architecture and a very active pub scene. Which, by the way, yields some of the worlds best local beer. There were a few nights I tried to drink all of it. Not Fosters though. “We don’t drink Fosters here mate. That’s xxxx beer we send to you yanks.” Arguing with the locals about which is better, cricket or baseball, later intellectually maturing into which one is tougher, Aussie rules or gridiron, all the while trying to out sing the guy in the corner playing the acoustic guitar and plugging away at all the songs everybody knows by heart. Learned some really cool Aussie folk songs this way, although “American Pie” still gets me every time. Now I know I’m on my way home.

I got a chance to stop by and reacquaint myself with an old friend — the sailing ship “Leeuwin II.” Early one morning when I was here last, I had the incredible opportunity to go aboard. I was invited aboard by the only other person up and around that time of the morning, the Captain, and over a cup of coffee, in the silence of the morning we sat and talked about sailing, places we’d been and the performance goods and others of sailing a 180-foot square-rigged schooner against an 82,000 ton, 8 boiler, 4 screwed warship. We both agreed that the Leeuwin was far more maneuverable therefore a better choice and hands down much more fun. This trip I had to admire her from afar. She was underway for a few days and seeing her off the coast, she looked quite majestic out on the water. On the last day, there she was, parked right behind us just like last time. I walked over and though my skipper buddy wasn’t there, the deck was full of people getting ready to set sail again. I wasn’t able to go aboard this time, but the contact and being able to admire this beautiful ship if even for a few minutes was like a breath of fresh air. Just to back up and passively enjoy the fine lines of an old classic getting underway under the power of the wind.

The trip south around the Australian bight and the Bass Straits was relaxing. We’re only 450 traps away from our cruise goal of 10,000, so the flight ops were few and far between, which allowed a more than usual amount of time off and time to enjoy the outside for a while. There was not a cloud in the sky and little wind for most of the trip. At night, Orion was low to the North, Polaris almost undistinguishable so the Southern Cross showed us the way. So many different constellations down here. It just makes me realize that even on the clearest of nights, you can only see half of what’s out there. The seas between the two continents were deep blue, smooth as glass but still had a roll to em that came at our starboard side from Antarctica. With our 30-knot transit and cooler weather, the ship rode the swells slowly from side to side making for great sleeping weather and a more than chipper attitude throughout the crew. We’re on our way home.

Sydney is a big city with a charm all it’s own. It’s very clean, cultured and civilized with museums, parks and gardens. The hundreds of fountains alone found in these gardens each are a work of art in their own right. Not to mention the famous opera house. A lot of construction as she gets ready for the 2000 Summer Olympics. Sydney is the city, the arts, the people, the clubs, a hilly coastline and very green with trees and vegetation. Fremantle is small-town, pubs, aborigines, didgiridoos on every corner and small town folk more in touch with the “less tame” western side of Australia.

While in “Oz,” as the locals call it, I got a chance to fulfill a fantasy. Just about every night for the past five and a half months, after all the jets shut down and the maintenance guys take over, I’ll go to the band room, strap on my bass and sing with the band I’ve managed to get together for the cruise. We played for the ship’s Steel Beach picnic a few months back, got a name for ourselves, kept practicing and eventually got picked up as the official ship’s band, “Inertia.” A few days out from Perth, I wrote to the Navy liaison on shore to see if they could set us up a place to play. A few days later, we were booked at “the number one musical venue in Fremantle.” We played Mojo’s Bar and “the world famous Bourbon and Beefsteak Bar” in Sydney. Ya know it’s something to play in front of the same people every night, even a few thousand at the picnic that day. But to have the culmination of everything we’d worked and practiced for come together in a place off the ship, outside the Navy, if only for a little while — people come in off the street listen to and looking in there faces seeing that they’re enjoying our music — I don’t have the words. It was probably the best two nights of this entire cruise. What can I say, I’m a ham. I love it.

Our days are numbered as we head east, back to familiar lands and people. “The Land Down Under” though once again, captures my heart.

Brooks Davis
CSC Systems Engineer/Analyst
Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center
San Diego, Calif.

I joined the Navy in 1969, not so much as a patriotic duty but as a response to a letter received from the Selective Service board. Back then my sole goal in life was to become the next Wolfman Jack on the radio. I had taught myself electronics and was well on the way to qualifying as a broadcast engineer at the local station. So I viewed four years of Naval service as a minor delay to fame and fortune.

An A6 Intruder returns from a strike mission in Vietnam.

The Navy made me an Aviation Fire Control Technician, fixing radar systems on Phantoms, Tomcats, Intruders and Hornets. My first cruise in 1972 was aboard USS America with VF-74. The only memory that stands out from that nearly year long Vietnam cruise was endlessly dragging 100 pounds of test equipment through blinding monsoon rains in order to get the birds ready for the next alpha strike.

The age of Top 40 radio was over by the time we got back in 1973, so I decided to hang out for awhile. Cruises on Enterprise, Ranger, Kitty Hawk and finally Nimitz followed. The years went by in a blur with many warm memories, and some not so warm. The fall of Saigon in ‘75, 121 straight days at sea, becoming the fastest sailor on deck while avoiding fast moving flaming debris, all conflict with tropical ports of call, camaraderie of friends, and doing what it takes to get the job done.

What began as a tour of four years has now grown to nearly forty years of devotion to the Navy. Since shedding my uniform in 1994, I’ve repaired Hornet hydraulics at Top Gun, rewired Tomcats at a depot, built test equipment for carriers, and sailed with the Sealift Command. Today’s job, to me, is the most important of all. Each day hundreds of young men and women gather in the classrooms I maintain. My goal is to prepare them to excel on the same decks I once traveled. The simple act of repairing a computer takes on new importance when viewed from a historical perspective.

Darrell Buxton
CSC Systems Administrator
TSC Hampton Roads, CNATTU Oceana