What's a Nimitz?

Many people have asked me, "what is a Nimitz" and are confused as to what it is, much less why I'm going there and when. So, I figured it was a good chance to explain what's going on around here.

As you know, I am part of the Little Beavers of Destroyer Squadron 23. That means that instead of being ON a ship, I am part of the group that owns 4 ships. So the Commanding Officers for these ships all work for my boss. While I will work in an office in port (woo hoo!), this is still a sea tour, because we deploy. How does an office deploy? Well, DESRON 23 is a part of Carrier Strike Group Eleven. This means that MY boss works for the Commanding Officer of an ENTIRE Strike Group. Strike Group 11 is comprised of: the USS NIMITZ, Air Wing 11, and DESRON23.  So there are three Captains (one of the NIMITZ, one of the Air Wing, and one of the DESRON), who all work for the Admiral (Remember, RADM Miller from yesterday's post) who commands the ENTIRE strike group. Well, all of the "staffs" (the admirals staff and the air wing/DESRON staff) all are what we call "embarked" on the Carrier. In this case, the carrier is the USS NIMITZ. Still with me? Ok, keep going.

So, off we go headed towards the Middle East, the big important Admiral's Staff who is in charge of all of the strike group, the Air Wing who brings out all of the airplanes, the NIMITZ which is the big mobile airport and the DESRON, who provides, manages, and is responsible for all of the other surface ships that are part of the strike group. The DESRON (and her ships) are responsible for almost all warfare areas in the strike group (remember, despite having all those airplanes, the NIMITZ doesn't do much but float, she doesn't really have much self-protection capabilities or anything else). That's where the 4-5 surface ships that we provde come in. They are responsible for the defense of the entire strike group. Anti-Air, Anti-Surface, and Anti-Submarine Warfare are just some of the warfare areas that DESRON or her ships are responsible for.

Now, DESRON 23 is special as she is one of the oldest DESRON in history with some very very rich history. DESRON 23 was first commanded by ADM Arleigh Burke, for whom today's modern destory/warship is named after. CDS23 fought many battles right from the beginning in 1943 against the Japanese in WWII. Why the Little Beavers? 

"Admiral Burke chose the Little Beaver as a symbol of the squadron because of his tenacity in battle, loyalty, honesty and spirit. He had a keen appreciation for the importance of the balance between material readiness and operational excellence"

 So anyways, we're kind of a big deal when it comes to DESRON's.

So when deployed, we work from the USS NIMTIZ, commmissioned in 1975 and the first in the Nimitz class of aircraft carriers, the carrier used today in the fleet. She was named for the Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, who commanded the ENTIRE Pacific Fleet in WWII. ADM Nimitz was the Navy's last five star Admirals. He was also buddy buddy with the very oldest McCain. What is interesting about the USS NIMITZ is that after awhile, all of the carriers started to be named after Presidents. Also, every other carrier uses the full name of the person it was named after (USS GEORGE H.W. BUSH, USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN, etc). The NIMITZ is the only ship to go by the surname only.

The 103,000 tons of diplomacy is home to over 5,600 Sailors and pilots when underway and is 1,092 feet long. She can go 30+ knots for over 20 years without refuelings, thanks to her 2 A4W Nuclear Reactors, her source of main propulsion. She carriers 8 squadrons of aircraft, most of whom are currently participating in air sorties in support of Operation Enduring Freedom over Afghanistan.

If you click here, you can see some of the pictures of what the Nimitz Strike Group is up to right now.

On November 17th, I will leave this rusty metallic structure rotting in the North Arabian Gulf and all of my new Iraqi friends to make up 1/5,600th of the USS NIMITZ. The rest of the Little Beavers will also begin trickling off of ABOT a few weeks at a time as we are replaced by our UK allies to be reunited with the rest of our staff by about Christmas time and go back to doing those DESRON things that we're supposed to. After hopefully a few days of R&R in Bahrain, I should make it back to the Nimitz for Thanksgiving with my new 5,600 best friends and if I'm lucky, just in time for the Jay-Z concert. You're jealous, I know, don't lie :)