Virtute.org

Last week was the main week of Seafair here in Seattle. That means parades, hydroplane races, an air show, and visits from the Navy. Isaac and I took advantage, and went on some fun adventures.

On Thursday, Isaac came to work with me. After I got through my morning meetings, we hopped on a bus and headed down to the pier to get a tour of the USS Bonhomme Richard, LHD-6. This is named after John Paul Jones’ famous ship, which itself was named to honor Benjamin Franklin.

First I should probably explain what an LHD is, for those who don’t know. An LHD looks a lot like an aircraft carrier, and it is in a sense. In fact, it displaces nearly twice as much water as HMS Invincible, the lead British aircraft carrier, and nearly as much as the largest carrier outside the US, the French Charles de Gaulle. The big distinction is the role.

LHD is “Landing Helicopter Dock”, which is descriptive. The mission is to land and support as many as 1800 Marines and their equipment. To get them to shore, an LHD can utilize aircraft from the flight deck and hovercraft from the well deck, and it can pack a pretty serious punch with its strike aircraft as well.

Our tour started with a walk up the gangway, where we entered the ship through one of the large openings on the hangar deck.

This image may give you some idea of the scale; we’re standing about in the middle here.

They had an MH-60 Black Hawk here, but most of the aircraft were back in San Diego. Here’s Isaac with the MH-60:

From the hangar deck, we descended a long, wide ramp to the well deck. Here the Marines had brought a couple of HMMWVs, an LAV, and a big military truck. They were letting the kids climb all over and inside them. Here’s Isaac in a Humvee:

They also had a couple of LCACs, which are large military hovercraft. These can take LAVs, HMMWVs, or even an Abrams tank ashore on all sorts of beaches and at nearly 50 miles per hour. The well deck can accommodate three of these, though they only had two when we visited:

After a tour of the well deck and some conversations with the Marines and sailors there, we went back up the ramp to the hangar deck, and then up another large ramp to the flight deck. Our first stop was a brand new (about a week old) AH-1Z Viper. This looks like the AH-1W SuperCobra, but features some significant upgrades, including a 4-blade composite rotor, a new targeting system, and just better performance overall. Here’s a picture of Isaac and some other kids getting some questions answered by the Marine Lieutenant who flies it.

After this, we moved on to a nearly-new MV-22 Osprey:

This is a really neat aircraft; it’s got excellent speed and range when the rotors tilt forward, but it takes off like a helicopter so it meets many of the needs of the Marines. Here’s Isaac trying it out:

I had lots of questions for the flight engineer, about auto-rotation, range, noise, gun placement, and so forth. I am a nerd for this stuff. It really did still smell new.

From here, we went on to one of my favorites, the CH-53 Sea Stallion:

This thing is a beast. It’s the largest chopper in military service these days. I had a nice chat with the pilot while Isaac was trying out the controls.

The pilot told me about another little kid; he’d showed the kid a button, and said DO NOT PUSH THIS, it will make the chopper fly away! Then he pretended not to be looking, and saw the kid pushing the button. Isaac thought the Sea Knight was pretty great, so we bought a nice picture of it from the crew (proceeds go to fund their unit’s annual ball) to hang on his wall.

I didn’t know if I’d mention this or not, but I’ve decided I will. As we were touring, I kept thinking of all the WWII footage I’ve watched of ships like this in harm’s way. I thought about these young sailors and Marines going to war for us, and I worried about how precarious things seem in the world today. I’m very thankful we have these volunteers, who understand the risks and responsibilities they’ve chosen, but who are willing in spite of it to fight and die for us. I tried to explain some of that to Isaac on the bus ride home.

Anyway, a great tour, and a fun day downtown with Isaac. He wore his Crocs, so he had a couple of blisters by the time we were back at the office. I left him there to rest his feet and ran out to get him a sandwich. The kid eats like a Marine, I’ll give him that; he ate a big old sandwich and nearly all my chips.