Iwo Jima (LHD 7) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 33 text:

. = ' S £ and pulled him aside. He thought that renaming IWO JIMA to the CITY OF NEW ORLEANS would be a good thing. We have been hearing that issue circulating since this weekend. While we are gratified and honored by the suggestion, I would have to respectfully disagree. What ' s in a name? Everything. The heart and soul of this ship is our heritage. It is a source of inspiration for some 1,200 Sailors and our 5 Marines as it is for thousands and thousands of Mannes past and present. And while we are proud of our accomplishments here in New Orleans these past few weeks, they are not of the same caliber as the heroic efforts of some 70,000 Marines, Sailors, and other service members who stormed that island 60 years ago and where over 6,000 made the ultimate sacrifice. It would take several lifetimes of sacrifice to even register on the same scale of the 19 February to 26 March 1945 campaign. To rename IWO JIMA would be to gut the ship ' s soul and leave her hollow. The officers and crew are honored by the suggestion, but we wish to retain our proud name and our inspiring heritage. I hope the Senate does too. Despite the challenges of the day, IWO JIMA took a few minutes this morning to pin eleven new Chief Petty Officers. Even with the significant pace of operations, the Command Master Chief and the mess managed to devote considerable time for the mentoring of the selectees. One selectee from COMCARSTRIKEGRU TEN joined IWO JIMAs ten for the process. With the crew assembled, the new Chiefs came marching in, singing Anchors Aweigh. I have had the honor of witnessing the Chiefs pinning each year for the past 25 years And nothing has changed: they still can ' t carry a tune. And that is a good thing. These eleven men and women looked like they had been wearing khaki their entire careers - a testimony to our Chiefs who have molded and mentored this new generation. I could not think of a more fitting place, maybe with the exception of being out on the tip of the spear in Iraq or Afghanistan, to conduct the ceremony As the Command Master Chief said in his remarks. The Republic is safe

Page 32 text:

What ' s in a name? Friday, 16 September- The ' high from President Bush ' s visit last night still has not worn off noticed a few Sailors, who had the opportunity and honor of shaking hands with the President, whose feet didn ' t seem to be touching the deck as they walked down the passageway. The cell phones were busy last night with hundreds of calls to parents, wives, friends and family members. Adozen Sailors had the privilege of having their pictures taken with the President by the White House photographer. It was another busy day on IWO JIMA. This morning, the ship hosted a delegation of 1 5 Senators, led by the Senate Majority Leader, along with several dozen staffers who came onboard for a briefing by JADM Allen and the CJTF Commander. The delegation flew onboard in four Army Blackhawk helicopters. As always, the tower and flight deck executed the event with precision: our flight deck operations have become well choreographed events. Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin were also onboard for the briefing. There was standing room only in IWO JIMA ' s cavernous wardroom. VADM Allen provided a detailed explanation on how the damage and destruction were caused by the storm, the impact it had on first responders and inifial recovery efforts as well as the impact on the ability of local, State, and Federal agencies to respond. He also outlined a detailed plan for recovery and relief efforts. A master of virtually every detail of this operation, VADM Allen handled the barrage of questions from the Senators with aplomb. With flood waters receding and services slowly being restored, the Mayor announced that he expected 1 80,000 residents to return to the City in a week or two. In the afternoon, the JTF Commander gathered his generals and admirals for another Commander ' s Conference. A delegation from the NYPD returned aboard to present the ship with the flag of NYPD. We promised to fly the flag the day the ship gets underway from New Orleans, once our mission is complete here. Already a contingent of policemen has already returned to the Big Apple; the rest are expected to depart after this weekend. In the meantime, IWO JIMA continued with the steady stream of support requirements. Despite the free hamburgers at McDonalds and the free pizza at a recently opened franchise - further indicators of restorafion - the mess decks were packed with hungry soldiers, airmen, guardsmen. Sailors, and Marines. The Engineers, specifically the DC men and the HTs. have neariy completed the dewatering of Charity Hospitals gigantic basement. This has been a huge joint undertaking It turned out that there was an underground tunnel connecting the basement of Chanty Hospital with the basement of another hospital across the street which was also flooded. In the end. the team ended up dewatering two basements for the price of one. Ever cautious engineers, they came back today with Self Contained Breathing Aparatus (SCBAs) and oxygen analyzers as they inspected the basement to flnd the source of the flooding. They discovered a number of body parts (the hospital ' s morgue was located in the basement) and worked with hospital officials to properly take care of the remains. With DC plugs and patching kits, they hope to stop the flooding and allow water to be restored to the hospital soon so that it can be up and running. The IWO JIMA Intelligence team has been the sole source provider of critical intelligence to the City of New Orieans Emergency Operations Center. The Intel Officer has been conducfing daily briefs and providing Intel training in order to get city officials connected self-sufficient. Of the many projects undenway one of the most important has been our volunteers to Eddie ' s Soup Kitchen in front of Harrah ' s. The Senate delegation ate there this afternoon. Long after the Senators left. I had the opportunity to spend a few hours at the grills with two of the ship ' s Informafion Technicians. IT2 Montgomery and IT3 O ' Keef. After getting off watch, they spent the whole day from 0900 in the morning unfil the kitchen was shut down and cleaned up after 2000 this evening, manning the grills non-stop, feeding soldiers, guardsmen, and First Responders, and cooking several thousand shrimp. They said they were ready to do it again tomorrow. Whether on the ship or off the ship, we always seem to be feeding General Honore ' s troops one way or another. As all of the Senators and their staff members were departing the ship this morning, one of them grabbed the

Page 34 text:

Behind the Scenes Saturday, 17 September- For the first time in three weeks, the ship was able to catch her breath today. We restricted flight operations in the morning to let the Flight Deck team sleep in and pushed reveille and breakfast back an hour to give some small amount of relief to the Culinary Specialist and Food Service Attendants. I ' m almost embarrassed to admit it, but I got six hours of uninterrupted sleep last night. . and I think others did too. Teams of Sailors went out on their vahous repair projects and the good work of the ship continued. They are signs that our participation in recovery efforts is winding down. Sister ship BATAAN was detached this evening to head back to Norfolk. She had been the very first ship on station, having dodged Hurricane Katrina herself, and carried the burden of rescue and relief operations until IWO JIMA and TORTUGA arrived on 3 September, and she supported the lion ' s share of the recovery efforts in Gulfport and Biioxi, First Army has evacuated IWO JIMAs Landing Force Operations Center (LFOC), having set up their Operations Command Post (OOP) ashore. The Rescue Coordination Center (RCC) on IWO JIMA is slowly migrating ashore as well. Our neighbors in the 119th Military Police unit of the Rhode Island National Guard depart tomorrow en route home to the Ocean State. A delegation of firefighters from the Fire Department of New York City (FDNY) paid a call on the ship this morning: they are heading back as well in a few days. On my way back from manning the grills at Eddie ' s Soup Kitchen, I talked to a platoon from the 86nd Airborne Division, They expect to be headed back to Fort Bragg soon. They also passed along their thanks for the hot showers and hot meals they routinely received onboard IWO JIMA. And the opening of the Golden Arches down the street seems to have drawn off a significant number of servicemen anwomen dining on the mess decks. Dunng flight operations this afternoon, we offered up opportunities for crewmembers to conduct ' fam flights ' over New Orieans. About 150 IWO JIMA Sailors had the chance to take a short 15 minute flight around the city on an SH-60 (a most elegant and superb aircraft according to the XO) to survey the destruction caused by and the ongoing recovery from Hurricane Katrina. They witnessed the still flooded neighborhoods, the miles of smashed houses and downed trees, the recently repaired levees and dewatering operations, and an area slowly but surely clawing its way back. The traffic across from Eddie ' s Soup Kitchen has picked up over the past few days. There are a lot of contractor trucks, trailers, and construction vehicles moving into the city. For every overt success we have there are numerous behind the scenes actions that support that successful event. We have been able to fulfill 100 percent of our flight requirements because of the superb maintenance and performance of the aircraft and their crews. The maintainors have done a terrific job in keeping the birds full mission capable (FMC) Thanks to their efforts IWO JIMA has been in the green (all birds FMC) for the past few days. IWO JIMA is blessed with an Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Department (AIMD) responsible for maintaining and repairing aircraft. For the past year, AIMD has been fixing mostly shipboard things because we have had few aircraft onboard. The full flight deck of aircraft, has given the various aviation maintenance and repair ratings (AD, AE, AM, AO, AS, AT AZ, and PR) a chance to ply their trade. One group of maintainors helped repair on the President ' s CH-53 helicopters the other day But ever flexible and creative, another group AIMD folks helped manufacture a base for the President ' s podium for his Jackson Square speech to the Nation, In the Hangar is an AV-8B carcass that we use for training for the Aviafion Boatswains Mates in moving, spotting, and arming aircraft. Given another week, I expect the folks from AIMD will have it up and flying .we just need to find a spare engine someplace...