SAN DIEGO - USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71)

"‘America’s Big Stick’ is S.D.’s new carrier" by JEANETTE STEELE, San Diego Union-Tribune 11/20/2015

NOTE:  This is from the online edition, so there's no link.  Also corrected obvious typos in the article.

The Navy currently has 10 aircraft carriers, and a handful of them have been familiar guests in San Diego: Vinson, Reagan, Nimitz, Stennis.

Now, there’s a new biggun in town.

The carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) is scheduled to reach San Diego for the first time Monday.  The nuclear flattop is transferring here after a 29-year career on the East Coast.  And the ship is finishing an eight-month deployment of epic dimension.

Six of those months, including a hellaciously hot summer, were spent conducting airstrikes against Islamic State fighters in Syria and northern Iraq.

Some weeks, the heat index on the flight deck climbed past 150 degrees.  The ship’s captain called the conditions “at the very edge of human performance.”

Then, on a rare around-the-world journey, the Roosevelt hosted Defense Secretary Ashton Carter off the coast of Asia, where Carter warned China against aggression at sea.   For the Roosevelt’s crew, then, the Monday arrival in San Diego will be a return to not only the American mainland but also to normal life.

For the city, the flattop brings a new hull number to the skyline — 71 — and new naval history to learn.  The ship is named for Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president.  Roosevelt is known for advocating an aggressive foreign policy and especially for using the Navy as a sign of U.S. ambition.  His most famous quote is, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”  His namesake carrier has adopted that motto, calling itself “America’s Big Stick.”

Its crew members said Thursday that they lived that mantra on this latest deployment.  Navy aircraft delivered more than 1,000 munitions against terrorist targets — more ordnance than any other carrier group so far in the airstrike campaign against the Islamic State.

“Everyone was working very hard, and there was no question that everybody was very tired.  But morale was high because I think the sailors and Marines knew why we were there,” said Capt. Craig Clapperton, the Roosevelt’s commanding officer.

“Our pilots were going up every day, flying anywhere from eight to 16 missions in country,” he said during a phone interview from the ship.  “And they were coming back very, very often with no bombs left on their jets.”

Days handling the aircraft were long and hot.

But maybe the worst conditions were in the kitchen, or “galleys.”  That’s because the carrier uses outside air to ventilate those spaces, Clapperton said.  Temperatures got up to 120 degrees.

After sailors started reporting heat-stress injuries in July, Navy brass had to shorten shifts to give people a break in the even hotter months of August and September.

One Roosevelt cook, Petty Officer 1st Class Anthony Scott, called morale “pretty decent” despite the “treacherous” weather.  “The fight against ISIS, the crew takes that seriously,” said Scott, 29.  “And we take our jobs pretty seriously and have been motivated to do our part.”  As a result, last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris resonated strongly with him.

“It makes me feel pretty proud to know we’ve been making a major commitment to that effort, especially with all those things that recently happened in France,” Scott said.  Since the Paris assaults, which killed 129 and injured hundreds, the United States has continued its bombing campaign in the Middle East.  It also began assisting French warplanes with targeting data.  One scholar of Roosevelt’s presidency said the Navy carrier’s involvement in the anti-terrorism effort is something from the “Rough Rider’s” playbook.  “He didn’t want to have wars, but he believed that a strong military discouraged potential aggressors,” said William Tilchin, a Boston University professor and editor of the Theodore Roosevelt Association journal.

The Roosevelt’s arrival in San Diego is part of a massive three-carrier swap that involves 9,000 sailors and two other flattops.  The carrier Ronald Reagan left town in August to take up residence in Japan.  But, first, the George Washington left Asia and came to San Diego, where the two carriers swapped crews.  The San Diego-based crew is now sailing the George Washington around South America toward Virginia, where the carrier will begin a four-year overhaul of its nuclear core.  Those San Diego sailors will fly home in December and January to take over jobs on the Roosevelt.  Because about 1,300 San Diego sailors will serve on three carriers in the space of a year, this group has been dubbed the “Three Presidents Crew.”  About half of the Roosevelt’s 3,000 crew members will transfer to San Diego.  The other half will fly home to Virginia to take up residence on the George Washington.

These naval musical chairs will save the Navy about $41 million, as thousands of sailors won’t have to relocate with their ships.

One of the newcomers to San Diego will be Shakayla McGee, 20, an aviation boatswain’s mate arriving on the Roosevelt.  A native of South Carolina, it’s her first time in this city.  “I know it’s always sunny,” McGee said.  “Now I want to try the food.” The Roosevelt’s captain, Clapperton, has lived in Coronado and joked that he might as well be on the chamber of commerce payroll.

“I’ve been talking to my sailors about the quality of life and all the things to do in San Diego,” he said.  After more than eight months at sea, he said, “Their faces just light up.”

PS:  When I was in the Navy I served with squadrons out of NAS Miramar (now MCAS Miramar) that deployed on the USS Hancock (CVA-19) which is much like the USS Midway (Museum SD).