CMDR Leo Albea: You know sometimes it may look like to a casual observer that
we're just kind of out there on the water doing our own thing.
But every move, every course change, every speed change,
everything is, is carefully orchestrated.
LT. Moreen Kitchens: Honestly, they could call us today and we could go on
deployment in two days, and we would be ready.
LT. Justin Halligan: I mean it is, as they always said, a city at sea.
CAPT., CO James Housinger: You can move a lot around very quickly with a carrier strike group.
LT. Moreen Kitchens: A carrier is huge, it has approximately five thousand people,
and, ah, you know I think the flight deck is about three football fields long.
CAPT., CO James Housinger: It is massive, if you think of a aircraft carrier with people
and weapons that can reach out and touch hundreds and hundreds of miles away...
Lt. Justin Halligan: Uh, the strike capability that we bring when you're looking at
sixty fighter airplane onboard. That's some country's air forces that we bring on this
aircraft carrier.
CMDR. Nick Serra: A carrier alone, and out by itself is not good.
We just don't, that's not good practice, we always have somebody riding shotgun with them.
CAPT., CO James Housinger: A carrier strike group, uh, as you might guess, is composed of
an aircraft carrier, plus several other ships.
CMDR Leo Albea: Some ships are uh, are strictly sort of an air defense role,
and working the air warfare picture.
CMDR Joey Frantzen: Uh you'll have at least one or two cruisers.
CAPT., CO James Housinger: The mission of the cruiser is multi-faceted.
Our main purpose that most people think about, when they think about the cruiser is air warfare.
We have a tremendous amount of command and control capability, display capability,
and then the firepower. The missiles, uh, the guns that we have to uh,
to be able to defend against aircraft and incoming missiles to the strike group.
CMDR Leo Albea: Defending the carrier you'll have destroyers such as the Wayne E. Meyer.
CAPT., CO James Housinger: We can shoot anti-aircraft missiles, uh, many, many miles away
to protect both us, and the aircraft carrier, and all of the other assets we have with us,
and even people ashore. Our guns are used with, in conjunction with Marines ashore as well.
LT. Justin Halligan: We've got supply ships that are carrying extra food, carrying jet fuel
for us 'cause obviously we've gotta keep the airplanes fuelin'. You've got frigates...
LT. Matt Degree and Jackson: ...and either one or two fast attack submarines.
CAPT., CO James Housinger: ...and, uh, all that together goes out and is able to project
power anywhere in the world, at any time, whenever our nation needs us.
LT. Justin Halligan: Ya know there's posters, we have them hanging around our ready rooms
that say four and a half acres of sovereign US territory.
CMDR Joey Frantzen: If you don't have great people who can, you know, run the equipment,
operate it, you can't project power very well. To me that means it's not just more,
it's not just, ya know, putting bullets on land, or missiles on land, those type of things.
It's also the people behind all of the great machines, all of the great equipment we have.
CMDR Leo Albea: Hey, if it flies in the sky, we can take it.
If it's coming underwater, we can take it. If it's sailing on the surface, we can take it.
We've got the missiles, the guns, the weapons, but more importantly the sailors, uh,
with those special skill sets.
CAPT., CO James Housinger: It's an amazing thing, that we can take this much firepower,
to influence things around the world.
LT. Justin Halligan: If I were the enemy, and I saw this coming, uh,
I would think twice about doing something.