Nimitz (CVN 68) - Naval Cruise Book

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BELOW: NIMITZ sails full astern as pan of the ship's propulsion tests. A

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I 7 - I I I I 'Let's see what It'll do... X Every piece of new, upgraded or y 0 . . e Crew takes a test drlv e 232253ifsiafaintisztsfsfgo properly. Following an S80 million trials. To test the rudders, the overhaul that was completed in Sea trials marked the first ship conducted high-speed rudder record time, NIMITZ got underway step in NIMITZ' workup cycle ' checks which caused the NIMITZ May ll, 1990 for a week of sea towards its ninth deployment. to roll up to l6 degrees. t Right: During Sea Trials, NIMITZ conducted high-speed rudder tests causing the ship to roll sharply 28 1

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4, ,,, ,4 HI 2 r IMITZINI E vs. Refresher Training... We win! NIMITZ accomplished during its 1990 Refresher Training CREFTRAJ what no other aircraft carrier has managed to do. No aircraft carrier has ever come out of the first week of REFTRA with a passing score before us, said LCDR Thomas Tanner, who was then NIMITZ' Damage Control Assistant. All phases of REFTRA went well, we passed every drill the first time. Enthusiasm played an important role in the good score. We took a number of calculated risks, said Tanner. We had an entirely new DCTT CDamage Control Training Teamj, some of Whom were not even general damage control qualified when they were selected, said Tanner. I consider enthusiasm and willingness to learn a more important factor in selecting DCTT members than actual experience. We can always teach them dam- age control, but we can't give them enthusiasm. Some of the DCTT got their training by going to 30 I REFTRA San Diego to train with FTG CFleet Training GroupD, said Tanner. The high grade that DCTT received was based on the crew's level of training when we entered REFTRA. NIMIT Z' crew was about two weeks ahead of any other ship at this point -- in other words we were at the level of train- ing that most ships are at when they leave REFTRA. The most significant milestone in any REFTRA is where FTG tums drills over to DCTT, said Tanner. Our goal was to have that happen by the first day of the second week. We just clobbered our goals when we got it by Wednesday of the first week. It is also significant that we passed our CBR CChemical, Biological, Radio- logical warfarej drill the first time, said Tanner. The final battle prob- lem, the conflagration drill, was conducted several days ahead of schedule. lt was intended to be a very hard problem, said Tanner. However, we had the drill finished in one hour 24 minutes instead of the more than two hours expected. CONFLAG drills are the most important CX e 1, C i S es ABovE: Flightdeck workers help the Medical Department practice Continued on Page 32 stretcher handlrng techniques during a mass-casualty drill.