Iwo Jima (LHD 7) - Naval Cruise Book

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I am seeing the strain on the crew of Hotel IWO JIMA, The demand of serving thousands of meals, washing tons of laundry, moving large numbers of people on and off the ship, and seeing that they get to where they need to go through the rat ' s maze that is the interior of the LHD is getting tough. There is a steady stream of new faces coming onboard each day seeking food, a shower, and a place to stay As the shore infrastructure improves - the air conditioning systems for the Rl National Guard and 82nd Airborne facilities are working fine as well as the system at the Convention Center - some of our tenants are gravitating back ashore, but they are replaced by new tenants every day. We sent a delegation to the Parish Hall for Orleans Parish today to talk with officials and identify projects where we can help. Dunng a break in the discussions, the Ship ' s Chaplain engaged one of the workers in conversation. She asked him what service he was in and where he was from and he told her, IWO JIMA Oh, she replied, that ' s the place I can get a shower and hot food. The Supply Officer reported that the number of meals served was between 6,500 and 7,000, today and we are now up to 2.5 tons of laundry washed since we arrived. But, the Sailors are hungry for something much more than just the routine of the past few days. Symbols can be very important. Most everyone feels the arrival of IWO JIMA and her sister ships TORTUGA and SHREVEPORT was a symbol of hope for the City of New Orleans. But Sailors don ' t care about symbols and numbers and statistics. Sailors care about doing. They want to do more for this great undertaking than just wash dishes and chock and chain helicopters. However, given the enormous challenges facing every single relief agency, it is difficult, if not frustrating, at times to get specific tasking for relief projects, so the ships have to be proactive and just strike out where we think we can best provide help. SHREVEPORT and TORTUGA have already done just that and we are doing the same. The area around the Riverwalk Terminal is one of the most trashed sections so we will expand out our cleaning and cleanng efforts and go as far as we can. The Command Master Chief has the perfect project in mind and the crew is hungry for the mission. Our CIC gets hundreds of queries for information every day But one query from a higher headquarters (who shall remain nameless) asked us. What is your course and speed, and current position ' ? As if we are going anywhere? We still have an awful lot of work to do before this is over. ' Xjt ,. % 3 1 • ?

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Hotel IWO JIMA Saturday, 10 September- Our attempt to get into some kind of battle rhythm hasn ' t been working out very well with the demand of events. Today was an extremely busy day with a berth shift, flight operations, logistics runs, a working lunch with the Parish presidents and the new Principle Federal Officer, VADM Allen, plus a CJTF Katrina meeting with all the subordinate commands, and the visit by CNO Admiral Mullen. We set the special sea and anchor detail this morning to get underway... but only to move approximately 600 feet to free up space astern of us for the arrival of a cruise liner. We elected not to sound the ship ' s whistle as is required by the International Rules of the Road to indicate that the ship was underway making way because we did not want to give any hint that IWO JIMA was leaving. Instead and with the help of 3 tugs, we sailed ever so slowly down the river a couple hundred feet to our new berth almost as though our movement was imperceptible to a landward observer. Nonetheless, it felt good to get undenway even tor such a short time. As we did with our old berth, several dozen Sailors set to work cleaning off the pier and surrounding areas. It was nasty work. There was garbage rotting in the sun for several days piled up under the Terminal. We even set up fire hoses to blast weeks of filth to clean off the pier. Rudy Guiliani changed the spirit of New York City by attacking the simple problems like broken windows, trash, etc. It helped restore civic pride. We are following the Mayor ' s example. We figure we ' d start with the pier and Riverwalk Terminal and continue to expand out each day, cleanng out trash and garbage, cleaning up streets, and sweeping up parks and public areas. A new addition to the growing list of ship capabilities is the Dental Doc. As the only dentist for a crew of 1 ,200 Sailors, he has a full time job already - the LHDs traditionally have the highest doctor to patient ratio out in the fleet - but now his workload has doubled. With the exception of the dentists on our sister ships TORTUGA and SHREVEPORT the Dental Doc is the only deal in town. He is amazed at the number of guardsmen with bad teeth, or so he says. We suspect that he is working on a tooth necklace and is using this opportunity to increase its length. He claims that if you sit in his chair, he is going to pull something. Despite his reputation, he has not had a shortage of off-ship customers.

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Sunday, 11 September- Today was the 4th anniversary of 9 11. While the tragic events down here may have eclipsed the anniversary, it was not lost to us. Those that work IWO JIMA ' s Flight Deck and fly on and off the ship every day are renninded of it. Under the Tower (Primary Flight Control or PriFly) is painted the famous quote by Admiral Nimitz of the Iwo Jima campaign, UNCOMMON VALOR WAS A COMMON VIRTUE and the words WHY WE ARE HERE. Underneath that, starting with the Battle for Iwo Jima (19 February to 26 March 1945). is a listing painted in large black letters and numbers with the dates of attacks and number of lives lost in the Global War on Terror, starting with the Beirut Barracks in 1983 down to September 11th 2001. Despite the busy schedule of events, we carved out a few moments this Sunday morning to assemble All Hands in the Hangar Bay for a short memorial. The Ship ' s Executive Officer. Captain Mike Walley. who was there in the Navy wing of the Pentagon on that fateful September morning in 2001 , spoke eloquently and emotionally of the events, of the shipmates lost and of those who inspire us today with their selfless acts of courage. There was not a dry eye in the house. We held a moment of silence, then solemnly rang the ship ' s massive brass bell to honor and commemorate the dead, and then concluded with a final prayer by the Ship ' s Chaplain. And then we went to work. As I had mentioned before, there are three emotional phases in contingency operations of this nature: Phase 1, where everyone is pumped and inspired to the task. Phase 2, the longest phase unfortunately, where the motivation starts to wear off and the ship slips into frustration and tedium. And then Phase 3, where the mission ends and the memories of tedium and frustration give way to a strong sense of pride and accomplishment. I feared that good ship IWO JIMA had irreversibly slipped into Phase 2 this weekend, and so we resolved to get the crew beyond Hotel IWO JIMA and back to work directly contributing to the reclamation of the city. From the September 11th memorial ceremony we called for volunteers to undertake a huge project of cleaning out the once popular New Orieans Boardwalk fountain and Plaza area along the waterfront. Neariy 200 Sailors from the ship and embarked detachments enthusiastically poured out for the effort. Within a few hours, the plaza was fully restored. With push brooms and saws, power washers and forklift trucks, the Sailors set to work in transforming the Plaza. The art of commandeering and hotwiring forklift trucks and other work vehicles should be taught in A Schools for the Supply, Engineering, and Deck ratings. It came in handy today I was amazed at the number of young men who were exceptionally good at it. A massive amount of trash, leaves, branches, broken plaster and construction material was removed and