For Thanksgiving, the ship dressed up the wardroom, dimmed down the lights and put out a nice T-day spread and, for a brief moment, it was almost like being home. Sure it was. I don't know too many folks who live in a gray tin can with 5,500 other roommates but what can you do! We had flights later in the day scheduled, so scores of aircrew had to fight off the triptofan nods during their 6 hour flights over Afghanistan. Can you see the headlines now? "US Fighter Down Over Afghanistan. Turkey Overdose Suspected. Should Have Gone For The Dry Ham."

The flights over Afghanistan continue. The country's landscape reminds me of northern Nevada (without the casinos). As you cross over the southern border with Pakistan, you are met by hundreds of miles of desert.

After the "Desert of Death" (as the charts call it), you get into rolling hills and occasional 2000' mountain ranges. From about mid-Afghanistan and north, the country turns into dark brown mountains that max out around 13,000 feet. Snow tops a majority of these peaks which remind me off the area surrounding Fallon, NV (one of our training areas). As you near the northern border by the -stans (Uzbeki and Turkmeni), the mountains start phasing off and work down back into light brown, sandy plains. Off to the northeast are big snow-capped ranges that reach up to 25,000 feet. Overall, extremely rugged looking terrain in Afghan. To date, I have not seen one tree.

The rural areas are littered with villages that are filled with collections of roofless, four walled structures that appear to be abandoned.

The "cities" are completely unremarkable and colorless with no structure being any taller than 2 stories. The only color I've seen in these cities besides the ever present light brown hue is the occasional red streak coming from the Taliban gunners as they open up with their anti-aircraft artillery.

There is some farm land present, but it is infrequent and minimal. In a nutshell, Afghanistan is a giant pile of brown to light brown rocks that is bordered to the south and north by huge deserts and bordered to the east by an even bigger pile of rocks. The only signs of life that I have seen are vehicles (Toyota appears to be the SUV of choice) moving on one of the country's three main highways, some lights in the smaller towns at night and Taliban tough guys running from their convoy of military vehicles right before multiple weapons impacts.

The bombs keep falling on the Taliban. Sometimes you get in country and drop, sometimes you can't. As you can gather from all of the news coverage, the ground picture is changing radically and as a result, the air strike players are a bit more restrained. That's OK though because it serves to further cut the Air Force out of the picture. Designed to fight a war against an immobile enemy with fixed targets, the USAF is having a hard time with this fluid battlefield stuff, scenarios to which the USN/USMC routinely train. I'm sure they'll do fine when they get their 13,000 foot runways built in.....oh, that's right they don't have any runways nearby.

Guess those boys should have invested in some carrier decks a few years back. Realize that the previous statements are heavily biased and ridiculously true.

A few funny stories for you before I sign off. Talked previously about the air to air refueling that goes on over here. Over time, you get a feel for who the cool tanker drivers are and who the dolts are. The dolts? Air Force guys, of course. Love all the gas they carry, but they have no personality whatsoever (big shocker there). Cool tanker guys? The Royal Air Force! Love these guys. They will always go the extra mile (literally) to make sure you get your gas when and where you need it. The RAF tankers are ALWAYS on station and on time. Apparently, the F-14 is their favorite platform so as an added benefit post tanking, you can pull up along side the pilot's window and he'll shove some literature up against the window for your perusal (your guess on the type of literature displayed).

A few days ago, we were directed to hang on this RAF tanker's wing until we received mission tasking. After about 10 minutes, I decide to strike up a conversation with the crew (we monitor the same frequency while getting gas) to kill time. Thus began the comedy. After a 30 minute exchange of good hearted jabs, the pilot delivered a challenge to our flight of two.

But first, let me explain a little bit about in-flight refueling. As I have mentioned earlier, to get gas airborne, we have to put out a refueling probe which extends out from the right side of the jet about 2 feet outboard and forward of the pilot's head. The tanker is dragging a 20 foot hose which ends in a basket that looks similar to a badminton "birdie". The basket is about 2 feet in diameter. Now the hard part of tanking at 300 MPH is getting in the basket, because as you near the basket, the air disturbance created by the nose of your jet causes the basket to move up and away from you. Also thrown into the moving basket equation is general air turbulence, as well as the "ham fist" of the pilot who is flying the tanker.

Sometimes you get in the first time, sometimes it takes a couple of stabs.

Where was I? Oh yeah, so this RAF guy says, "If you F-14 chaps are truly America's Finest Fighter Aircraft (my quote from a previous discussion), then you should have no problem getting into the basket first time, right?" I respond with, "Yeah, I usually bat about .900 with these poorly designed Brit baskets. The problem is that when I get in close, find myself thinking about Margaret Thatcher naked, get sick to my stomach and miss the basket. Tell you what, we'll put a case of beer on both Tomcats getting in the first time." Did I mention that he's flying a DC-9 type tanker where a basket comes off of each wing tip which exacerbates (thank you thesaurus) the turbulence problem by virtue of the rough air flow over the wingtip? Screw it. Bet's on. The call finally comes for us to go hit some targets and it's time to get topped off. Pressure's on. I head over to the tanker's left wing, my wingman over to his right and as we are closing in I tell my wingman, "Now Moses, as you get in close, try not to think about all of the great English warriors of the past: the Spice Girls, Boy George, Wham UK, and Dame Edna. Just free your mind and be the basket."

A couple of corrections later and just as I plug (on the first attempt) I scream over the radio, "Revolutionary War, baby!" "Moses" was good on his first attempt so the final score was US-2, England-0. I doubt we'll see the beer but who would want a case of shitty warm Brit beer anyway.

Speaking of beer, somewhere in the Navy regulations it's written down that for every 45 consecutive days that you spend at sea without a port call, you rate two beers. Two weeks ago, they broke out 10,000 beers for the crew to tear into for this deployment's first of many "beer days".

With beer day fast approaching, multiple discussions erupted in the Ready Room over how to best maximize the beer day allotment. Do you starve yourself for two days to increase the "buzz" potential? How about giving blood 2 hours prior to assist in decreasing the amount of blood in your alcohol system? Do you nurse your two beers over a two hour span or just chug 'em and ride the wave? Which type of beer gives you the most bang for the buck? Fosters? Yengling? MGD? All very important and crucial questions.

After much mental anguish and repeated calls to the flight surgeon inquiring about blood donor opportunities, I decided on the "full fed, Fosters chug" game plan. Rumor has it that over 22,000 beers were killed. Hmmm....5,500 person crew, 2 beers per person....... hey...... someone went through the line more than once! No comment. Only 20 days until our next beer day, so I will take inputs on any improvements to my game plan!

One last thing before I complete my novella...... Please remember in your thought and prayers every single enlisted Sailor that is slugging it out here on the USS TR. The aviator types have it easy in that we get to leave this ship for 6 fun filled hours to fly into a foreign hostile land and blow stuff up. We have variety and excitement in our days. Think of that 19 year old kid up on the flight deck 17 hours a day, fixing the same jets day in and day out while maintaining the same daily routine.

Imagine doing that for over 70 days straight (only two days off in the last 6 weeks). He looks forward to 4 things: 1) getting off his feet for 5 minutes, 2) eating bland Navy chow, 3) sleeping in a cluttered space shared by 239 other Sailors and 4) port calls. His variety and excitement comes mainly during inport visits and, to date, we have had none and oh, by the way, there isn't one in the near or even distant future. They are the real heroes of Operation Enduring Freedom because it is through their efforts that we are able to launch and ultimately defend American shores.

Through it all, you rarely hear one complaint from these kids despite the fact that they are working harder than anyone on this planet in the most dangerous "office space" on Earth, the flight deck of an aircraft carrier.

Hope this email finds you all safe and having a great Holiday Season. Don't worry about us, we are doing great out here. I can honestly say that there is no other place in the world I'd rather be than right here, right now, sticking it to the Taliban.

Marine Deployment Irks Soldiers

Source: Government Executive Magazine
Published: November 29, 2001
Author: Katherine McIntire Peters

The Army is either unable or unwilling to do its job. That's the message some mid-grade officers are getting from the deployment of hundreds of Marines to landlocked Afghanistan this week. The seizure of an airfield near Kandahar is a textbook Army mission, yet it was Marines, who usually operate near shorelines, who performed it. The mission was "a tremendous showcase of new capabilities," said Marine Corps spokesman Capt. Joe Kloppel. "It shows you how far the Marines can extend when they need to."

The fact that the Marine Corps was needed to extend into what most Army officers consider their service's territory had some of them wondering where Army leaders were when the mission planning decisions were being made. "If this doesn't raise questions about Army relevance then I don't know what would," said one infantry captain who says he is beginning to think he might feel more at home in the Marine Corps than in the Army. "It's a big slap in the face," said Maj. Don Vandergriff, an armor officer who teaches military science at Georgetown University. The fact that the Marines have the first sizeable contingent of conventional ground troops on the battlefield in a theater of operations far from any shoreline sparked fury among many mid-grade officers. The fact that the theater commander in chief is an Army officer--Gen. Tommy Franks--only adds insult to the injury.

"The Marine Corps foresight seems to have eliminated the need for the Army," one Army captain complained in an online forum. "Here's the bitter pill I've been chewing on. My Army is operating equipment designed to fight Soviets in the Fulda Gap, and the stuff in the pipeline is just a more expensive version of the same. My Army has a personnel system that was build to defeat the Kaiser. My Army trains to fight fictional forces in make-believe lands instead of focusing on real-world missions. My Army has one-half the number of generals as we did at the height of World War II, even though the force is one-tenth the size. The resultant leadership inertia bogs decision-making down in a bureaucratic morass, as more chiefs fight to protect their hallowed turf. The end result of all this is we get to watch the Marines perform Army missions because they can do them better," he wrote.

"You've got to give the Marine Corps credit for trying to make themselves useful," said Thomas Donnelly, deputy executive director of the Project for a New American Century and a former staffer on the House Armed Services Committee. "At least they're making some attempt to respond to what the country needs to have done. The Army just seems to be spending most of its intellectual effort trying to find ways to stay out of it."

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki has been pushing a plan to transform the Army's conventional forces into more easily deployed forces capable of a greater range of missions. But change isn't coming fast enough for many younger officers, if Internet chat rooms and e-mails are any indication. In a November speech, Shinseki said, "The Army must change because the nation cannot afford to have an Army that is irrelevant." The Army may need to change more quickly than many senior leaders now realize.

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Subject: From Commanding Officer of the USS Theodore Roosevelt

Hello all,

I know it has been a while since I updated you but it has been busy out here as the ship continues to pound away at the remnants of the Taliban and the Afghani section of the Al Qaida network.  The headlines pretty much speak for themselves.  The relentless pressure provided by airpower destroyed their air defenses, command and control networks, supply lines and eroded their will to resist.  There are still a number of hard liners that are holding out but the majority of these are non-Afghanis.  We will continue to support the Northern Alliance ground forces and attack Al Qaida strongholds.

We are making some great progress in the latter.  More coalition partners are arriving daily.  The amount of naval power headed this way is staggering.  Great Britain, Canada, Australia, France, Italy, and Japan have ships here or they are enroute.  Many more countries are pledging ground or air forces.  This is truly an international fight.  It is sad in way that it took the 9/11 tragedy to bring the world together like this.

The men and women of my crew continue to amaze me.  We have been at sea for 60 days.  Of those 60 days, only two have been days off (days without conducting flight operations).  Despite all the above, the crew gathers around me whenever I walk around and want to know how we are doing and if we are making a difference.  They cheer with every bomb on target and our success spurs them on to greater accomplishments.

I do a weekly talk show on the ship's TV system.  It is a chance for me to chat with the crew as they phone in to ask questions.  Move over Larry King. As part of the show I roll a weekly "greatest hits" video.  The best of the bombing from the last week.  Very popular.  Even the studio crew looks away from their cameras to study each hit.  I emphasize that every mission we execute is a total team effort from the propulsion plant operators to the bomb assemblers to the administrative support personnel to the flight deck aircraft maintainers.

We have had some fun though.  Two weeks ago we paused for a "steel beach" picnic.  We set up barbecues on the flight deck and cooked up steak, chicken, hamburgers and hot dogs.  The morale and welfare division set up volleyball and basketball matches.  We have these oversize tricycles that people race on the flight deck.  There were golfers, fishers, bands and, for the first time on an aircraft carrier in quite a while, a swim call.

The Air Department lowered one of the aircraft elevators to the hangar deck level and crewmembers were given the opportunity to jump the 26 feet from the elevator to the water.  Two thousand people literally jumped ship. Not all at once, of course.  Life boats in the water, safety swimmers, etc. We even had sharpshooters looking out for sharks (none were seen).

There is another no fly tomorrow.  We are using this as a maintenance day so there are no big events with one exception.  Navy regulations say that if you are at sea for 45 consecutive days the captain can authorize a special ration of two cans of beer per crewmember.  I guess I have to remind you that US Navy ships are dry i.e. no alcohol allowed except as noted above. So tonight as we recover the last aircraft we are going to serve pizza and BEER to the crew.  It may seem like no big deal to most of you but this is huge out here.

In the biggest surprise of the cruise to date, several members of the NY Yankees phoned me after Game 7 as they were flying home.  I spoke to W. and P. I was told that Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams and Joe Torre were standing by to talk but the connection was severed as Jeter was handed the phone.  They sent along their best wishes and gratitude to the crew who were thrilled to hear that the Yankees took time out to think of us.

We continue to fly 14 hours a day 7 days a week but the ship's activities don't end at the end of flight operations.  We are constantly gathering intelligence, fixing aircraft and ship's equipment, preparing more of our 20,000 meals a day, navigating the ship to our next launch point.  The list goes on.  TR is literally the city that never sleeps.  We train constantly to keep the crew ready to respond to any contingency and go to battle stations for drill often shoot our guns and train our missiles.  We even impose simulated damage to provide training in firefighting and damage control.

As many of you know the human spirit is a formidable force.  It is the only fighting reserve the evildoers in Afghanistan have left.  All of us on TR and throughout this coalition have spirit and resolve that exceeds any quantity the enemy ashore has.  But, unlike our adversary, we have some really cool weaponry left with which to carry out our orders.

The reason I started on this spirit angle was to segue into a discussion on keeping morale high on the ship; my primary job.  The support we have received from our families back in Norfolk has been spectacular.  We on TR are blessed to have such strong, devoted spouses.  The ship has also received messages and pledges of support from many parts of the country.  I thank you all deeply. A small gift from home whether it be in the form of a video, a CD, a snack pack, a card, a letter, an email or a photograph means more than you know.

It makes the difference between a Sailor who can give a little more for the nth consecutive day and a Sailor who can not.  We could not do our job without the unflagging support of our family, friends and the American people.  To all, you have my gratitude.

I have rambled on enough.  There are some images of life on the ship at the bottom of this email.  Hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving.  We are pulling all the stops out here for a spectacular turkey dinner with all the trimmings.  Please stay in touch as our deployment progresses.

Best wishes,

Rich
CAPT R Commanding Officer USS Theodore Roosevelt