With Matt's deployment just around the corner, his boss, Admiral Faller, hosted a Bring Your Family to Work Day to give family members a chance to tour the John C. Stennis and learn a little more about what their sailor does when he or she is gone for all those months. It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot, including the fact that the C. in John C. Stennis stands for Cornelius. I also learned that there are a lot of stairs on an aircraft carrier.
We started the tour in the hangar with a welcome from the Admiral and his wife, Martha.
Then we divided into groups. Our group went up to see the flight deck first. We got used to the ladder stairs pretty quickly.
Although there weren't any planes on the deck, here is the cable, or arresting gear, that the planes hook on to as they land to stop the forward motion. May look like just a wire but that is a pretty strong piece of steel.
Next we went to the flag bridge (up more stairs) where the Admiral gets to monitor things. Space being kind of tight on a carrier, also on the flag bridge are a treadmill and stationary bike. This is where Matt gets to work out. He likes it because he has a view.
Next we went to the navigation bridge from where the ship is driven. This is the helm. The little steering wheel turns the ship.
This is the helm on Sun Break. Seems like they should swap helms.
Then we got to go down a few flights
Next up was the flight deck control room. This is where the ship's Ouija board is. The Ouija board is a scale model replica of the flight deck. During flight operations, miniature airplanes are placed in positions that correspond to each real aircraft's location. Given the number of aircraft moving around, that is quite a job for some young, but capable sailor.
Thumb tacks are used to indicate the various sequences of each aircraft.
Then it was down again
to the Admiral's mess and the Admiral's office.
In his office, Admiral Faller gave a brief to a very high-level family official on how the deployment planning is going.
Next we visited the conference room where the staff holds meetings.
Then, just for good measure, back down
to the hangar where members of the Weapons Department showed us some of the arsenal of weapons onboard the Stennis.
We also got to take a look at fire-fighting gear that is always available for ship's safety.
And just because I like to compare the Stennis to Sun Break, here are the stairs in Sun Break.
