Fleet Week returns to San Francisco–bringing the Navy’s newest helos, their newest (and greenest) big-deck amphib, and, well, somewhere in the range of 3500 sailors and Marines. It’s gonna be a great week…And to start it off, I was lucky enough to spend the day aboard the centerpiece of the show, the USS Makin Island (LHD-8), to learn what this hybrid ship can bring to a fight…or a disaster.
(Can I just say that I’ve never seen a crew more fired-up about meeting (and beating) the INSURV folks for the final Contract Trials? I’m beginning to think that an engaged, high-morale crew is a far more important piece of getting a shipbuilding success than many of us shipbuilding-watchers suspect…)
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I’ll have a post on that later in the week; but, not to give too much away from the post, she had her turbines working and was in pretty good shape.
I had the opportunity to be at her commissioning – am a honorary plankowner. It’s good to see her be part of this occassion, wondering if her engine problems are fixed, or if she transited just on her diesels.