After almost a week of getting the ship ready (every day, a different port
ion of the ship had to get painted, at night, the floors were stripped and waxed and hours of cleaning stations a day later) General Petraeus arrived onboard via the COD. Here is a picture of the COD that he arrived on. This isn’t that exciting, except it does a good job showing the plane that I arrived on, too!
Then he did a reenlistment for about 20 Sailors and awarded a few warfare pins for Sailors who had passed their boards. General Petraeus got to ride in an F/A-18, which he later talked about how exciting it was. Someone had written on the side window of his plane the follow message:
“General Petraeus, Things to do Before Lunch:
* Run 12 miles
* Do 500 push-ups
* Win a war or two”
He is an avid runner and a huge fitness guy too. This morning he wanted to do a run on the flight deck with some Sailors and a few days ago they solicited names for people that wanted to run with the General this morning. The one prerequisite? You had to be able to keep up with the General’s preferred 6 minute mile!! He later donned a chef’s hat with his 4-stars on it and served up our Thanksgiving meal.
I didn’t really have any interaction (I didn’t go to his Thanksgiving meal or obviously fly in the plane or get reenlisted or anything) with his events during the day but did go to his nighttime All Hand’s Call in the hangar bay.
It was SUCH an incredible speech! It was supposed to be a speech and a chance for us to ask questions, but apparently, at the last minute, he changed it. Most of you remember, our friend Jay-Z was supposed to make a Thanksgiving appearance. Well, apparently due to some rules for MTV sponsorship (I guess we would have had to endorse something which was against our policies), Jay-Z didn’t show up. I guess word of the canceled Jay-Z concert got to the General and he decided that he would err on the side of humor for his speech. He told us that Jay-Z had gotten in touch with him and that he needed to step it up for us in his absence. Then, the guy working the microphone/speaker system cued up Jay-Z’s “P-I-M-P” song as the General cocked his new Nimitz ballcap to the side like a rapper. He turned the first half of his speech into this variety show, calling on people in the audience he had met throughout the day. He even brought some guys up on stage to beat box and rap. Then he had a group of “people over 40 who remembered when the electric slide came out” to come up on stage and they did the electric slide. Yes, I have video footage on my camera of General Petraeus doing the
electric slide- hilarious!Then his speech got serious but it was such a good speech, he truly seemed humbled to be there and it was unbelievable how personable and genuine he seemed. Given that he is one of a few people in between our CO and the President, it was great to see how much he could relate to us and what an incredible leader he is. We should feel very grateful to have someone like him leading the charge. He later gave CENTCOMM coins to anyone who had been on sea duty for 2 ½ years after 9/11- well, I just hit 31 months of sea duty this month, so I got in line (albeit a very LONG line) and got to get a coin and shake his hand. SUPER cool.
Overall, a very cool Thanksgiving. Well, that is all for now. Look forward to hearing how everyone’s Thanksgiving was and to everyone traveling these next few days- safe travels to you! I am very much excited about our port visit soon and will be sure to write all about it after we leave.
Love,
M
Other articles on General P's visits can be found here:
- http://www.nimitz.navy.mil/
- http://www.sandiego6.com/news/local/story/General-Petraeus-Surprises-Crew-of-the-USS-Nimitz/yRmA09vRMkG8zQudgn-Nqg.cspx
- http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=49891
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