It’s Time

At “Hotel Pier,” Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
She is massive!
Seventeen stories
Ten above the water line, seven below
4.5 acres of flight deck- catapults and runways
Five story numerals on her tower “72”
(Her U.S. Navy designation is “CVN-72”)

Home the past seven months to 6,500 sailors in every
function – aviation, electronics, nuclear reactors,
engineering, maintenance of every description,
force protection, ordinance, navigation, food services,
air traffic control, logistics and supply, communications,
intelligence, investigations, mail disbursement and
many more

She is a vast floating city compacted into 1,092 feet
from bow to stern
With her own post office and zip code

Capable of accommodating 85 aircraft

On this deployment
Flyers completing 10,000 sorties in 22,000 flying hours

She is the largest piece of gray you will ever see
in one place
And the fastest ship in the fleet

The USS Abraham Lincoln Aircraft Carrier (CVN-72)
Majestic in her own right

…And I am about to be with her across the Pacific and
up the West Coast for almost two weeks

Wow!