Iwo Jima (LHD 7) - Naval Cruise Book

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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

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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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itaged for pick-up. The GWOT (Global War on Terror) temporarily became the GWOD: the Great War on Debris , as coined by ABF3 Robert Bauer. The ever enterpnsing ingineers managed to repair, light off, and fully restore the famous (but highly complex) fountain within 30 minutes of arrival. The fountain continues to churn and shoot foam ikyward. The combined energies and talents of Hull Technicians (HT), Electricians Mates (EH I), Machinist Mates (MM), Enginemen (EN), and ICmen (IC) is a powerful force or good. Along the waterfront adjacent to the Plaza (and all the shops and restaurants) is a gangway that can connect cruise liners directly to the Plaza and the three story nail. At the end of the gangway stand two impressive 3 story towers with flag poles on top of each. On one flagpole stood the Louisiana state flag, slightly frayed but defiant, ind on the other stood the shredded remains of our National Ensign. Quarter Master Second Class (QM2) Shannon Crank ran back to the ship and secured another flag - in he same tradition as Coast Guardsman Resnick who provided the second American Flag for the famous flag raising on Mount Sunbachi on February 23, 1 945 as immortalized 1 the famous Joe Rosenthal photograph. Young Airman(AN) DaSilva from HSC-26 The Chargers helicopter squadron bravely scaled the towers, gently removed the attered flag, and then launched the new flag aloft into the stiff nver breeze. The assembled volunteers saluted the restored flag as it rose and cheered the intrepid Airman )aSilva. With this phase of our recovery efforts complete, many IWO JIMA Sailors volunteered to help out with cooking for the police and firefighters at a nearby barbeque. nd by late afternoon, morale was improving. ...And then President Bush came and morale went through the roof. As soon as his helicopter landed, the Commander-in-Chief was on the flight deck thanking each of the flight deck Sailors for their service and hard work in the ecovery efforts. Everywhere he went as he moved around the ship he took a moment to shake hands with each and every Sailor he came across, have a photo taken, and hank them for their service. The President left the ship to tour some of the sthcken areas, but when he returned a few hours later, the flight deck and port elevator were xowded with Sailors who cheered the President and roared with applause as he walked back across the brow onboard his flagship. WO JIMA is back in Phase 1