23 September 2014 - A unique and different kind of hospitality awaited Philippine Consul General Gina Jamoralin, when she arrived at the US aircraft carrier ‘USS Carl Vinson” on September 2 upon the invitation of the Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Admiral Harry B. Harris, Jr, under the “Distinguished Visitor Program” of the United States Pacific Command (USPACOM).
The USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) is the third US Navy Nimitz class supercarrier and is named after the late US House of Representative Carl Vinson.
The invitation included a tour and overnight stay in the aircraft carrier while operating at sea during the carrier’s visit to Hawaii from San Diego, California. While on board the aircraft carrier, visitors were briefed about the operations and facilities of the carrier and were given a tour of all the facilities including flight deck control rooms, aircraft carrier runway, sailors’ berthing areas and recreation areas.
Captain Karl Thomas, USS Carl Vinson commander, welcomed the visitors and hosted a dinner aboard the ship. The Commander of the Carrier Strike Group 1, Rear Admiral Christopher Grady gave a briefing on the operations of the Carrier Strike Group 1 which allows the carrier flexibility, mission-tailored forces and preparedness to act on any contingency needing superior airpower. The aircraft carrier and its Strike Group enables the US navy to implement its maritime strategy including immediate response to humanitarian and natural disasters in the region.
In order to reach the carrier at sea, on the first day, the visitors boarded a C-2 Greyhound aircraft from the Hickam Air Force Base at Pearl Harbor which carried out an “arrested landing” on the USS Carl Vinson . On the second day, visitors boarded the same aircraft which performed a “catapult-assisted” take-off from USS Carl Vinson for a 45-minute trip aboard the aircraft back to land. In “arrested landing”, passengers experienced “deceleration of aircraft speed from 105 to 0 miles per hour in two seconds” while in “catapult-assisted take-off”, passengers experienced aircraft speed “acceleration from 0 to 128 miles per hour in three seconds”.
Accompanying the Philippine Consul General in the USS Carl Vinson visit were Captain Rey dela Cruz (PN), AFP Liaison Officer to PACOM, Lt. Colonel Rolando Orengo (PA), and Mr. Jeffrey de Mesa, Philippine Consulate General’s Protocol Officer. END