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WannaCruize wrote:

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I'll jump in here with some info, although not about the Nimitz, but the Constellation. My hubby was an air-traffic controller on there for two cruises back in the early 80s. We watched the first 2 shows on the DVR this weekend, and he had some observations:

First of all is the standard old-geezer comment - "these kids now-a-days..." - they seemed much younger, immature and unfocused that when he was onboard. However, he commented that even with that said, the military still manages to turn them into well-trained, cohesive units. (with a few obvious exceptions, like racist-guy - what a tool!)

He was in before all this new-fangled technology to allow more interaction with home - we only had sporadic letters/packages from home, and an occasional radio-relayed phone call (the middle of the night unplanned ones, where you have to say 'Over' after every sentence: "I love you and I miss you, over" The increased communications with the family at home has to help both with the deployment time, and in integrating back when they return. Six months is a long time to be gone.

The new mess hall was a revelation to him also, nothing like when he was in there - no salad bar, etc. He thought the food looked great compared to what they had. He commented about the sailors complaining about the better food that the officers get - he said that the officers had to pay a fee to eat in the officer's mess - if they didn't want to pay the fee, then they could eat for free in the regular mess with the rest of the crew.

Someone asked about dealing with the loneliness if you don't have family around, we had a pretty active Enlisted Wives club that got together for activities, both with kids and without, and made sure everyone knew where to go for help, so it is around, but you have to ask for help if you need it.

usuallylurk wrote:

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flangl18,

Thank you for answering questions.

Someone on the ship said that there were about 3000 sailors: only half of the total number of people on the ship? I thought there were about ten to fifteen officers, and maybe about thirty pilots. How many officers and pilots are actually on the ship?

Do the pilots take off and land all day and night, or do they stop their evening flights by maybe midnight? Do the pilots take off and land every day of the six month deployment?

There are about 35 officers per squadron (For the fighter squadrons) plus the officers actually assigned to the ship, maybe 200 or so. I know my husbands squadron is about 245 personnel. I think the total number they gave was for the entire strike group which has about 6000 people between all the ships.
Some days, yes, the planes will fly all day and all night. No stop to it, you just learn to sleep through. Other days they may not have any flying, depending on what the schedule is. Yesterday for example, they had "Liberty at Sea" day where they had a Steel Beach picnic and got to just kind of hang out and do what they wanted to.