Hello NIMITZ Family and Friends,
Your Sailors continue to work hard and well as we progress through the end of the second week of Composite Training Unit Exercise or COMPTUEX. We have completed three of the four major aspects of the exercise and the NIMITZ / AIR WING ELEVEN Team, along with the rest of NIMITZ Carrier Strike Group, is setting new standards of excellence and operational performance. On our Blue-Water Flight Operations Certification, the flight deck crews and the air traffic controllers, in particular, performed superbly. We have some challenging tasks left to accomplish, but we have a clear path to successful completion.
We learned yesterday that USS NIMITZ won the U. S. Pacific Fleet Retention Award—the Golden Anchor. We were the only west coast CVN to win that award this year. Our career counselors, NCC Phillips and NC1 Scott, have done a marvelous job this year communicating with the Bureau of Personnel on behalf of the crew and providing good options for re-enlistment and retention. NCCS Heinz, who has just joined the career counseling team, will keep the momentum high and the trends positive. Your contribution to this effort cannot be overstated as your support at home makes it possible for us to stay Navy.
We are wrapping up a visit from the Naval Air Forces Pacific, Nuclear Propulsion Mobile Training Team (MTT). The Reactor Department, as always, has been working very hard to hone their skills and keep the propulsion plant in tip top condition. The MTT visit went well with very good reports and we are ahead of the curve in propulsion plant readiness.
If you check out our web site at http://www.nol.navy.mil/homepages/cvn68/, you’ll see a new feature called Captain’s Coin Recipients. These are Sailors or Marines from the ship or wing that have been selected by their department or squadron as the Sailor/Marine of the Day. They come up to the pilot house in the afternoon with their supervisor to get a Commanding Officer’s Coin, have some pictures made by our Photographer’s Mates, and shoot the breeze with me. I have to tell you, it’s one of my favorite times of the day to be able to meet such wonderful people, give them a pat on the back for great performance, and get their thoughts about how things are going aboard NIMITZ. We put the pictures on the web and give them others that they can email home. We often fall short in recognizing good performance, good attitude, and teamwork. This is a small gesture, but it seems to strike a chord with the crew.
The Christmas season is upon us and we will be coming in soon to start our holiday leave period. I hope your Sailor has taken advantage of the opportunity and you are making leave plans. The leave period runs from 20 December until 11 January and we are rearranging the duty sections to allow for a liberal liberty policy. As I wrote to the crew in a Christmas message, it is the time of year when we look back on all our achievements, count our blessings, and enjoy a short break to spend time with our families and loved ones. Thank you for your continued support. We know how important you are to this team’s success.
Wishing you and your families a safe and joyous holiday and prosperous New Year.
Warm regards and very respectfully,
CAPT Ted Branch
Commanding Officer
USS NIMITZ (CVN 68)
Date Posted/Last Updated:12/15/2004 12:40:29 AM