Iwo Jima (LHD 7) - Naval Cruise Book

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Center of the Universe Thursday, 8 September- As the Center of the Universe for recovery efforts, IWO JIMA has been attracting her fair share of attention and then some - Vice President and Mrs. Cheney came onboard for a short visit and brief in the wardroom along with Governor Blanco (I think she l nows her way around the ship now), Senator Vitter, and Secretary of Homeland Security Chertoff, as well as other Congressmen and local officials. We had gotten the word the day before from the Secret Sen ice, so we had a chance to prepare - compared to the 20 minutes heads up we got in Portland when former President Bush visited the ship. The primary purpose of the visit was for the Vice President to get a brief from the senior Slate, Federal, and DoD officials on the status of the relief efforts in Louisiana and surrounding areas. But as always, I think it is an opportunity for the Vice President to meet with the Sailors and thank them for their contributions to the recovery efforts. Vice Admiral Allen, the Chief of Staff of the Coast Guard, and now the Principal Federal Official (PFO) - the senior official responsible for all Federal recovery efforts (including FEMA) - gave a half hour presentation to the Vice President, the Governor, Senator Vitter, and the assembled officials, admirals, generals, and staffers on the Recovery Plan. It was superb. The press seems to always condemn the government and Federal agencies for not having a plan. What VADM Allen outlined was detailed, extensively researched, extraordinarily organized, thorough, and forward-thinking. They had modeled out when all the flood waters would recede, identified the vast majority of infrastructure that had to be rebuilt or replaced, addressed and anticipated environmental concerns and hazards, established a timeline for recovery, and identified and put in place the resources needed to execute the plan as rapidly as possible, I was left with the belief that the government had assembled the right people for this massive undertaking and the great American engine of recovery was starting to turn over and gather steam. I had a chance to talk to the senior FEMA official on the pier this evening and he expressed the same optimism in spite of the fact that it will be a long road to recovery. The entire visit went extremely well. It is always a pleasure to work with the United States Secret Service. These folks are always ON TIME! (Note: I ' ve spent a huge chunk of my naval career waiting on the quarterdeck for someone to show up). The XO and the Command Master Chief did a masterful job in coordinating the entire event. They both seemed to be everywhere all at the same time. The Master-At-Arms folks and the security teams did a superb job of establishing security and working closely with the Secret Service. And the Culinary Specialists did a magnificent job of setting up the wardroom in short order. And it is always a pleasure and a great relief when a senior officer gets up to show a brief and all the audio visual equipment works perfectly (especially in front of the Vice President) - my thanks to the Intelligence Specialists. But the unsung heroes of the visit were PH2 Metzger and her back up photographer, PH2 Stratchko. As the Vice President was departing, he stopped to greet and thank about 50 IWO JIMA Sailors lined up in Upper Vehicle Stowage ( Upper V ). The National Press was onboard covering the visit and descended on the Vice President like vultures. But PH2 Metzger pushed in front of them all and held them at bay while she snapped pictures of every single Sailor shaking hands with the Vice President, Mrs. Cheney, Governor Blanco, and Senator Vitter while the press angrily backed out of her way. I had a chance to walk through the ship and the pier this evening with the schedule of events of the day having wound down to dull roar. Most of the city is dark but here and there one sees lights. Most of the big hotels, Sheraton, Hilton, and Embassy Suites have some of their lights on though it was amusing to note that some of the letters on their big red signs are missing - destroyed by the hurricane winds. From a distance SHERATON is SH T . On the flight deck, the aviation boatswainsmates were hard at work moving aircraft and respotting for the next day ' s air plan. Despite the incredibly long, hot hours they have put in over the last 4 days, they had smiles on their faces and were pumped for the next challenge. I caught all the purple shirts (aircraft refuelers) late at night cramped in the Fuels Shop conducting PQS training. . .of all things, taking advantage of a slightly eariier conclusion to flight operations. The boatswainsmates were sitting around in Upper Vehicle Stowage, probably solving worid peace as best as I could tell. Throughout the day there has been a steady stream of Army and National Guard personnel coming on and off the ship for hot showers and some hot chow. The pattern repeated itself over and over all day long: they stumble onboard with their heads down and walk off the ship with heads high and smiles on their faces and full of gratitude for a simple courtesy. And the engineering plant continues to run smoothly with an overflow of air conditioning, hot water, and power despite the high demand. I won the stupidest thing of the day contest for the second straight night. I must be getting tired or I am loosing my mind. After the Vice President arrived at the quarterdeck and we completed all the introductions with the welcoming party, I escorted the Vice President and Mrs. Cheney up the ramp to the Hangar. Taking advantage of this God-given opportunity to talk to the Second Most Powerful Man on the Planet in one- on-one conversation, I asked the Vice President if had been on this type of amphibious ship before. He stopped for a moment, turned to me, lowered his head so that he could look at me over the top of his glasses and said, You know. Rich, I WAS Secretary of Defense at one point. As Homer Simpson would say Dowh! Mrs. Cheney had christened our sister ship ESSEX. The crew remains engaged and inspired and eager to get out and do some hard work in the city and local neighborhoods. I hope to have some projects ready to go in another day and will get our Sailors out and on the job. Despite the intensity of our support operations, considerable work is getting completed around the ship. Some 200 plus Third Class Petty Officers took the Second Class Navy-wide Advancement Exam today under very challenging conditions and with not a whole lot of study time. We all wish them well

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I had seen the Governor on TV many times. She looked different in person: tired and worn out. She told me that she was averaging about 4 hours of sleep a night, but smiled, I guess that ' s about what you get in the military. You could see the severe strain of the past week ' s events. I quoted her the famous line from Churchill the night he became Phme Minister of wartime Bntain, that it was as if I were walking with Destiny, and that all of my past life had been but preparation for this moment and this trial. The recovery from the damage of Hurricane Katrina is an unpr ecedented trial for the Governor and many, many others. My observation is that Amehca, throughout her history, has always been slow to respond, but once that powerful engine gets into gear it is massive and unstoppable. I suspect this will also be the case for the Gulf Coast. It has become our tradition at the evening Department Head meeting to go around the room and have each person list the stupidest or silliest thing they heard or saw dunng the day As you can imagine, the log book is overflowing with accounts. Yesterday it was the helos and the elephants at the zoo. Today it was me. I have been inundated with doing interviews: CNN, Pentagon press, Regina Mobley and Channel 1 3 news, the Boston Globe, Caria McCabe and the Army Times, and finally Greta Van Sustren. We did a spot with Greta on the pier this morning with the massive bow of IWO JIMA in the background and helos flying on and off the ship with great noise - an impressive backdrop for this puffed up officer. As I was being interviewed by Greta, a pair of Blackhawks swooped onto the flight deck sending up a great wind which blew off my ball cap. I instinctively scrambled after it before it blew into the water. When I turned around the FOX News photographer looked at me and smiled, I got that on film. Look for me chasing my hat down the pier on the next Fox News spot sasrri...

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Simple Acts Friday, 9 September- Meal hours on IWO JIMA is an extraordinary thing, I wall ed through the mess decks several times today to watch this intricate and impressive operation. On the average the Chow Boss and his team of Culinary Specialists and Food Service Attendants (FSAs) are serving up between 6,000 and 7,000 meals a day, over twice the ship ' s normal capacity. This is extraordinary in that, unlike our ARC deployments where the 1,200 embarked Marines provide an equal number of cooks and FSAs to augment the galley Supply Department and the ship are taking it all out of hide. We have over a thousand Army and National Guard personnel off the concrete slabs and on soft(er) Navy racks. Relief is on the way from both PHIBGRU 2 and SECGNDFLT to help us out, thankfully Yet despite the strain, the Food Service Team is inspired to the ta sk, I watched a group of FSAs furiously working the scullery, cleaning thousands of dishes in rapid fashion amid the heat and steam to get them back on the mess line to meet the growing demand. The other extraordinary thing about meals on IWO JIMA ! the sea of uniforms. It is the epitome of Jointness; Army, Navy Marine Corps, Air Force, National Guard, and Coast Guard, tus FEMA and dozens of local and federal personnel. There are 35 to 40 distinct and different Army and National Guard units lone, IWO JIMAs Sailors are learning a considerable amount about what the Army Air Force, Marine Corps (well, this is the mphibious Navy and of course we all know about our fellow Marines), National Guard, and Coast Guard do, One team one ght is a truism on the mess decks just as it is out in the field. The interaction has sparked extraordinary cooperation. On the beach, the ship does not want for any support: ground transportation, boats, helos, etc. We are all in this together. The ship ' s engineers have been helping out the National Guard, They repaired the roller doors and restored the air conditioning plant in the large Riverwalk Terminal building adjacent to the ship which is used to house the Rhode Island National Guard, One Guardsmen stated that it was so cold she needed a jacket. They have also been heavily engaged in repairing the air conditioning system at the Convention Center where some 1 ,650 service men are billeted. Over the past few days, they have been pumping up several thousands of gallons of chill water (from the ship) to prime the system via a jury-rigged, hand-made pumping system, and will hopefully fire up the plant in the next day We discovered another unique capability of USS IWO JIMA today or I should say, our shipmates in the field did: the laundry. With the exception of our sister ships TORTUGA and SHREVEPORT IWO JIMA has the only operable laundry in all of New Orleans, Today, the Ship ' s Servicemen have washed about a ton of laundry from the troops in the field. But that is just a drop in the bucket. The S-3 Officer was approached today by an Army Captain noting that he had 24,000 soldiers and Guardsmen whose uniforms needed a good wash. This one is going to take some time. Another sorely missed service is the haircut. We set up a chair on the pier yesterday and have had no end to customers wanting a haircut, about 1 00 got their ears lowered in the last two days. A handful of IWO JIMA volunteers joined TORTUGA and the Coast Guard and National Guard in conducting combat rubber raiding craft (CRRC) patrols in flooded areas to evacuee people still there, TORTUGA was the first of the amphibious ships to arrive in New Orleans last Sunday and set to work immediately upon arrival using the CRRCs ( cricks ) for search and rescue. This has been a huge effort shouldered by our Sister ship. To date, our shipmates have cleared out the entire south side of the Mississippi south of Algiers, rescuing hundreds of people and transporting them to safe havens after a medical check-up and a hot meal on good ship TORTUGA. Our Sailors reported the grim conditions ut in the still flooded areas with contaminated water, refuse, and dead animals after today ' s patrol. Despite the disheartening residue left by receding waters, there are increasing signs that things are improving. I detected that there are more red letters illuminated n the Sheraton sign this evening. ..and more lights appear to be coming on along the river front, 37 pumping stations plus 17 portable pumping stations are now online, ontinuing to drain the flood waters, and more pumping stations are repaired and brought online each day. Roads are opening up. Sister ship TORTUGA received a truck )ad of MREs, the first ground-transported logistics, I think. More will follow. The Ship ' s Doctor visited the three main hospitals in the area. East Jefferson, West Jefferson, and )schner. All are up and operating, near fully staffed with state of the art equipment, and ready if not eager, for patients. It demonstrates a very positive trend by the federal and )cal authorities of getting the infrastructure in place ahead of demand vice the other way around. Our neighbors ) the Rl National Guard have been hard at work cleaning up in and around the Convention Center, clearing out le refuse and scrubbing walls and decks. Our first official act after we put over the brow last Monday was to clean le pier. It was covered with trash and refuse, and with our berth shift on Saturday morning, we ' ll send out another 00 person working party and clean another segment of the Riverwalk pier. Sometimes a simple act becomes ifectious and helps restore civic pride.