…But Carry A Big Stick
A decade ago, TheEye was invited aboard the USS Enterprise (the aircraft carrier, not the starship) and had a most excellent although dry dinner in the wardroom. Luckily was pre-armed with a hipflask. It dropped anchor in The Solent…the stretch of water between the Isle of Wight and Portsmouth….because it was too large to go through the narrow entrance to Portsmouth harbour and berth in the RN Dockyard inside.
So it was with interest that TheEye noticed that Pete Moore over at ATW has taken a photo yesterday of the USS Theodore Roosevelt which is currently moored in exactly the same position right now.
Even the battleship USS Iowa made it inside the harbour (just) so TheEye only had to make it up a gangplank to take a look around that one.
You would be stunned by the staggering magnitude of the creation of what is effectively a floating town. Thousands of sailors and airmen in a metal box with its own shops, cinemas and decks of black ghettos where white officers never tread. It’s like New York but without the imitation Oirish bars and the Noraid tin-rattlers.
You don’t want to get on the wrong end of those bits of real-estate. Pity the Royal Navy only has three canoes and a shared life-jacket these days.
A carrier captain once quoted that if he ceded from the USA that he’s have the 6th largest airforce in the world!
St C once went on board one of these beasts in the Central Arabian Gulf with a liaison officer from the New Zealand Navy who, on arrival poked me in the ribs & said “There are more people on this ship than in the whole NZ military!”
“decks of black ghettos where white officers never tread”
I find this comment very interesting indeed.
Could you please expand on it as I honestly find it hard to accept that in todays US navy there sre segregated decks where white personel are out of bounds so to speak.
Yes, a very interesting comment indeed !
Magnificent beasts indeed. Our increasing dependence for defence on the USA is all well and good until the time that America comes under sustained attack herself and opts for the Stillicho Endgame, Rome 402AD, leaving the provinces to fend for themselves in the face of barbarian onslaught.
2050 scenario. China and Russia engage USA, leaving Islam free to pick over the rotten defenceless carcase of the EU.
Big Dollop,
The segregation is not imposed by the Navy, but is in fact voluntary / cultural.
Put simply, blacks prefer to live with blacks, and whites with whites, and they naturally seperate, just as they tend to in the areas they live on land. The Navy does not force the point as the conflicts & tensions at sea would be too much to manage.
St C has served on two large ships, USS Belleau Wood, and USS Essex, so has first hand knowledge.
Thank you St C for taking the time to fill me in with regards to my question regarding segregation on board US Naval Ships.
I once had the pleasure of seeing the USS Belleau Wood when it was docked in Hong Kong in March/ April of 1981 – It too was a huge ship.
Indeed I had a few beers with some of the crew in the old China Fleet club – good guys till the Jocks ( The Queens own Highlanders) came back from border patrol then all hel let loose.. happy days indeed
Hi The Big Dollop was just browsing the net came across your entry about drinking in the China Fleet Club in 1981 when the Queens Own Highlanders came on the scene I am a ex Queens Own Highlander and drank in the Fleet Club and Wanchai many times as you say happy times miss them very much did you get to know any of the Jocks ? are you American Navy ?
You can check out The Big Dollop’s blog here and get in contact. I’m sure he’d be interested to hear from you!