Editor’s Note: This is part two of an account of a small event that happened a while ago. At the time, it was part of something much larger than a politician’s visit to a simple aircraft carrier conducting routine operations in the Mediterranean Sea. There was something else much larger going on. The Soviet State was ending after 70 years. It was being done with a certain amount of grace, and no crowing of triumph was considered appropriate. The President was meeting with Mr. Gorbachev on a cruise ship anchored near the island of Malta in order to cover some details. It was not radically different than parts of our situation today, precisely thirty years later. The debate seems to be about whether America should be first, or join a crowd struggling for places behind that. It is a bit odd to find that I have more sympathy for Mr. Gorbachev than I used to.

– Vic

Seasick Summit, Part Two

01 Dec 1989: Presidential Follies. The plan for the day was filled with landmines. The President would be arriving at about 1132. He would be preceded by the Press Corps and ADM Howe. We would demonstrate a fictional version of our routine Carrier Qualification program, then President to the Mess Decks to have lunch with the Troops. Then up to Hangar Bay One for an address to the crew (rumored to be a Major Policy Speech).

Then, immediately following the Commander-in-Chief’s departure, ADM Howe would proceed to Mission Planning to receive two contingency briefs and give a few general remarks to the Squadron CO’s and FID Department Heads. Possibility of General Scowcroft walking through the spaces. I awoke with the realization that the current crud epidemic sweeping the ship had me fully in its sway. Sore throat, achy, congested. Just the way to start the day.
Got up to Mission Planning in time to get all the materials out of the various safes and lockers. The steel box looked great. The night shift had worked their asses off and the deck gleamed. All extraneous items had been carted off and concealed in the nearest Fan Room.

If I hadn’t felt so bad things would have been great. Outside he day was grey and rainy. The bustling transport helos were displayed on the Plat monitor. The hoard of press people dispersed on schedule, and the President was right on time. I watched the honor guard of flight deck people line up on either side of the red carpet laid on the wet and oily deck in front of Marine One. He gave a big glad hand to Captain Thomassy and strode toward FID’s Island superstructure.

The number of people who had some contact with the President was impressive. Petty Officer Bussey from the OZ division was seated next to him for lunch. CAG was with him for about fifteen minutes during the flight demonstration. Lutt-man and Mark got to shake his hand after the speech. Steve Sommers, the meteorologist, got a chance to give the President an impromptu weather brief. A very accessible man, given the context of the massive security detail.

The scene on the hangar bay was impressive. Two Tomcats flanked an A-7 at the forward end of the hangar and the A-7 nose was immediately behind the presidential dais. Signal flags hung diagonally across the overheads and lend a colorful note to the acres of grey paint. The White House Advance Team and our ops guys even got out the flag manual and determined the signalmen hadn’t buried any obscene messages in the arrangement of the flags. The Kitty’s Tomcat gleamed and is the best-looking Fleet airplane I have ever seen.

Sailors were sitting on the wings and pilots manned the static display aircraft. CDR Shakey Jacobson was prominently posed on top of his A-7, directly behind the President. Capt Thomassy led Mr. Bush to the rostrum and was seated immediately on the President’s right. The tale went around that the President had visited an amphib ship shortly after the inauguration. The Flag officer that was riding the ship personally escorted the President through his entire time on the ship. When the President discovered that the Captain had been shut out of the show, he wrote the skipper a personal letter and made a point of stopping by to talk to him the next time he was in Norfolk.

Nice touch. He kept Capt Thomassy front and center throughout the visit. The visiting Flags and Admiral Sweatpea were off the rostrum and down front where they couldn’t be seen. The remarks were pleasant and not the far-ranging address we half expected. He led off with some banter about Navy chow, liberty risks in Toulon “I think I can fix relations with the French,” then some very nice words about the Navy, sailors, tradition, and the meetings he would be having over the next two days with General Secretary Gorbachev. The atmosphere being sent was clear: we were the very center of something significant.

It made me feel proud to part of it all. The power and might of it all was something to behold; the planning, the people, the shear vastness of supporting the President were staggering. From C-5 Galaxy transport jets filled with helicopters to Press Corps to the eighty cruise boxes filled with special communications gear. When he finished his remarks, the President gathered up his papers, smiled and the circus left town.

In the midst of all this was John Kurowksi realizing he is standing in the crowd next to CBS’s Leslie Stahl and exchanging pleasantries; a coup attempt in the Philippines for which the President in a spare moment authorized U.S. Air Support to President Aquino; Skipper ‘Bitch’ Richardson trading his belt buckle for three official White House Press Corps keychains. Then a swirl of burned hydrocarbons and the President was gone.
The ship bonged him off with his nautical rank: “United States, Departing.” Impressive. When the helo was gone, we looked at each other and wondered aloud: “What’s next?”

Copyright 2020 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com