Thursday, January 29, 2009
A Week on the U.S.S Bonhomme Richard
When I was 9 or 10 I went on a tiger cruise. A tiger cruise is for the family of the sailor or marine who just spent a long period of time on the ship. My Dad was a Marine and he had been deployed on the U.S.S Bonhomme Richard since about October. He was originally going to leave after Christmas, but then 9/11 happened so his departure date got bumped up. My Dad travelled around the world and then after 6 months he was at the navy base in Hawaii, most of you know it as the place where Pearl Harbor occurred. My mom, brother and I went to meet him in Hawaii. My mom could not go on the tiger cruise because of she was his wife, and girlfriends boyfriends, and husbands were not allowed to come on the cruise because the ship didn't want that kind of relation ship on board.
Sleeping on a navy ship is not like sleeping on a cruise ship. On the ship there are 4 beds stacked on top of the other and there is less than 12 inches of head room when you are lying down. The men and women sleep separately from each other. I slept on the bottom bunk for the week. There was less chance of falling out of the bed from the movement of the ship since I slept on the bottom. Breakfast was served at 7 in the morning so I never actually had breakfast, not that I really wanted it. The food on the ship was absolutely terrible. I remember eating a lot of bread rolls, because that was the only thing that was appealing to eat.
On the ship there were a lot of demonstrations done for the tigers to see and if the tiger was old enough the tiger could actually shoot some of the guns. Tiger is what the crew on the ship called the kids that were on board. One place that I remember going to is down below the deck where the anchor is for the ship. I learned how to tie different knots, and the names of different pieces of equipment down there. There were a lot of helicopter demonstrations, including rescuing a dummy from the pacific ocean. The ship I was on was a helicopter carrier, so there were alot of helicopters. On one of the nights the tigers got to go up on deck and use the night vision goggles to see what it was like up there. It was dark, obviously, and the night vision goggles were kind of big, especially to a kid. One of the demonstrations was of specialy trained marines controlling a riot. That was pretty cool to watch, they came in with all their gear on, and they marched in unison, so there was a loud stomping noise every time they took a step it was very intimidating. Following that demonstration there were trained martial arts marines giving a demonstration. I remember one guy, he was very tall, he just stood straight and then fell down onto the ground, as straight as a stick. It was amazing! On one of the days I saw a sniper with all of his gear on, he looked like a monster from the swamp or something. Another one of the tours I got to go on was of the aircraft control room. The room was dark, and the lights from the computer were glowing red and green. Everyday there was a trivia question asked, but if you didnt get to the phone fast enough there was no way you could win. The last night I was on the ship I was up till about 2 in the morning.
On the day we were to go back ashore everyone had to wait for the ride to be ready in the hangar bay. Since I had been up till 2 in the morning I was really tired. There were helicopters and LDS's leaving constantly. But I was tired so I laid down on the sea bags and fell asleep. Some of my dads friends were really shocked that I could fall asleep with all of the noise. They were shocked because they had just spent 6 months on the ship and could never fall asleep with all of that noise around them. After having slept for a little while it was time to leave so we boarded the LDS. My mom was waiting to pick us up at thespot where we got dropped off. Overall the trip was possibly a once in a life time adventure for me. For my brother it was his second tiger cruise, and he will probably be going on more because he is on a path to become a United States Marine.
Sleeping on a navy ship is not like sleeping on a cruise ship. On the ship there are 4 beds stacked on top of the other and there is less than 12 inches of head room when you are lying down. The men and women sleep separately from each other. I slept on the bottom bunk for the week. There was less chance of falling out of the bed from the movement of the ship since I slept on the bottom. Breakfast was served at 7 in the morning so I never actually had breakfast, not that I really wanted it. The food on the ship was absolutely terrible. I remember eating a lot of bread rolls, because that was the only thing that was appealing to eat.
On the ship there were a lot of demonstrations done for the tigers to see and if the tiger was old enough the tiger could actually shoot some of the guns. Tiger is what the crew on the ship called the kids that were on board. One place that I remember going to is down below the deck where the anchor is for the ship. I learned how to tie different knots, and the names of different pieces of equipment down there. There were a lot of helicopter demonstrations, including rescuing a dummy from the pacific ocean. The ship I was on was a helicopter carrier, so there were alot of helicopters. On one of the nights the tigers got to go up on deck and use the night vision goggles to see what it was like up there. It was dark, obviously, and the night vision goggles were kind of big, especially to a kid. One of the demonstrations was of specialy trained marines controlling a riot. That was pretty cool to watch, they came in with all their gear on, and they marched in unison, so there was a loud stomping noise every time they took a step it was very intimidating. Following that demonstration there were trained martial arts marines giving a demonstration. I remember one guy, he was very tall, he just stood straight and then fell down onto the ground, as straight as a stick. It was amazing! On one of the days I saw a sniper with all of his gear on, he looked like a monster from the swamp or something. Another one of the tours I got to go on was of the aircraft control room. The room was dark, and the lights from the computer were glowing red and green. Everyday there was a trivia question asked, but if you didnt get to the phone fast enough there was no way you could win. The last night I was on the ship I was up till about 2 in the morning.
On the day we were to go back ashore everyone had to wait for the ride to be ready in the hangar bay. Since I had been up till 2 in the morning I was really tired. There were helicopters and LDS's leaving constantly. But I was tired so I laid down on the sea bags and fell asleep. Some of my dads friends were really shocked that I could fall asleep with all of the noise. They were shocked because they had just spent 6 months on the ship and could never fall asleep with all of that noise around them. After having slept for a little while it was time to leave so we boarded the LDS. My mom was waiting to pick us up at thespot where we got dropped off. Overall the trip was possibly a once in a life time adventure for me. For my brother it was his second tiger cruise, and he will probably be going on more because he is on a path to become a United States Marine.
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