USS Teddy Roosevelt
November 18, 2001 4:58 PM
Hello all,
I know it has been a while since I updated you but it has been busy out here as the ship continues to pound away at the remnants of the Taliban and the Afghani section of the Al Qaida network. The headlines pretty much speak for themselves. The relentless pressure provided by airpower destroyed their air defenses, command and control networks, supply lines and eroded their will to resist. There are still a number of hard liners that are holding out but the majority of these are non-Afghanis. We will continue to
support the Northern Alliance ground forces and attack Al Qaida strongholds.
We are making some great progress in the latter. More coalition partners are arriving daily. The amount of naval power headed this way is staggering. Great Britain, Canada, Australia, France, Italy, and Japan have ships here or they are enroute. Many more countries are pledging ground or air forces. This is truly an international fight. It is sad in way that it took the 9/11 tragedy to bring the world together like this.
The men and women of my crew continue to amaze me. We have been at sea for 60 days. Of those 60 days, only two have been days off (days without conducting flight operations). Despite all the above, the crew gathers around me whenever I walk around and want to know how we are doing and if we
are making a difference. They cheer with every bomb on target and our success spurs them on to greater accomplishments. I do a weekly talk show on the ship's TV system. It is a chance for me to chat with the crew as
they phone in to ask questions. Move over Larry King. As part of the show I roll a weekly "greatest hits" video. The best of the bombing from the last week. Very popular. Even the studio crew looks away from their cameras to study each hit. I emphasize that every mission we execute is a
total team effort from the propulsion plant operators to the bomb assemblers to the administrative support personnel to the flight deck aircraft maintainers.
We have had some fun though. Two weeks ago we paused for a "steel beach" picnic. We set up barbeques on the flight deck and cooked up steak, chicken, hamburgers and hot dogs. The morale and welfare division set up volleyball and basketball matches. We have these oversize tricycles
that people race on the flight deck. There were golfers, fishers, bands and, for the first time on an aircraft carrier in quite a while, a swim call.
The Air Department lowered one of the aircraft elevators to the hangar deck level and crewmembers were given the opportunity to jump the 26 feet from the elevator to the water. Two thousand people literally jumped ship.
Not all at once, of course. Life boats in the water, safety swimmers, etc. We even had sharpshooters looking out for sharks (none were seen). There is another no fly tomorrow. We are using this as a maintenance day so
there are no big events with one exception. Navy regulations say that if you are at sea for 45 consecutive days the captain can authorize a special ration of two cans of beer per crewmember. I guess I have to remind you that US Navy ships are dry i.e. no alcohol allowed except as noted above. So tonight as we recover the last aircraft we are going to serve pizza and BEER to the crew. It may seem like no big deal to most of you but this is huge out here.
In the biggest surprise of the cruise to date, several members of the NY Yankees phoned me after Game 7 as they were flying home. I spoke to Willie Randolph and Paul O'Neill. I was told that Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams
and Joe Torre were standing by to talk but the connection was severed as Jeter was handed the phone. They sent along their best wishes and gratitude to the crew who were thrilled to hear that the Yankees took time out to think
of us.
We continue to fly 14 hours a day 7 days a week but the ship's activities don't end at the end of flight operations. We are constantly gathering intelligence, fixing aircraft and ship's equipment, preparing more of
our 20,000 meals a day, navigating the ship to our next launch point. The list goes on. TR is literally the city that never sleeps. We train constantly to keep the crew ready to respond to any contingency and go to battle
stations for drill often shoot our guns and train our missiles. We even impose simulated damage to provide training in firefighting and damage control.
As many of you know the human spirit is an formidable force. It is the only fighting reserve the evildoers in Afghanistan have left. All of us on TR and throughout this coalition have spirit and resolve that exceeds any quantity the enemy ashore has. But, unlike our adversary, we have some really cool weaponry left with which to carry out our orders. The reason I started on this spirit angle was to segue into a discussion on keeping morale high on the ship; my primary job. The support we have received from our families back in Norfolk has been spectacular. We on TR are blessed to have such strong, devoted spouses. The ship has also received messages and pledges of support from many parts of the country. I thank you all deeply. A small gift from home whether it be in the form of a video, a CD, a
snack pack, a card, a letter, an email or a photograph means more than you know.
It makes the difference between a Sailor who can give a little more for the nth consecutive day and a Sailor who can not. We could not do our job without the unflagging support of our family, friends and the American people. To all, you have my gratitude.
I have rambled on enough. There are some images of life on the ship at the bottom of this email. Hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving. We are pulling all the stops out here for a spectacular turkey dinner with all the trimmings. Please stay in touch as our deployment progresses.
Best wishes,
Rich
CAPT Rich O'Hanlon
Commanding Officer
USS Theodore Roosevelt