Nimitz News

Hello everyone and happy Sunday. Many of your Sailors are getting a chance to start a little slower than normal today, attend worship services if they desire to, and enjoy brunch. It is a strikingly beautiful day out here in the Pacific and our fixed-wing flying schedule will begin later this afternoon. I hope your Sunday is going well, too. My thoughts typically turn to home on Sunday mornings and I think about the comfortable routines that families enjoy.

Even with the slower start, there is still plenty of work going on in our floating city. This morning aircraft and ship’s equipment are being maintained, our helicopters are participating in low-slow flier exercises with NIMITZ and our escorts, and the reactor guys and engineers are setting up for a full power run in preparation for our Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV) inspection that will occur early next year. Of course Team food Service is hard at work preparing and serving Sunday Brunch---always a highlight of the week and very popular with the entire crew, and lots of folks are on watch keeping their shipmates safe on the transit across the Pacific.

Our port visit in Hawaii was short but very enjoyable and worthwhile. Many of our young Sailors saw world famous Waikiki Beach for the first time and got an opportunity to do a little shopping, sightseeing, and enjoy the outdoors. “Join the Navy and see the world” is not just an advertisement to these Sailors—they are actually doing it. We also got an opportunity to try out our overseas liberty and force protection procedures while in Pearl Harbor. In today’s world, it is very important that we are able to take extra measures to protect the ship and crew while in ports outside of the U.S. We practiced all those procedures during our short stopover in Pearl Harbor. Once underway, we took on a long drink of jet fuel from our replenishment ship and got back to flying. We’ll continue flying on most days as we make our way across the Pacific. We’ll also continue training on all our mission areas so that we are fully ready for any contingency.

I’d like to send out a thank-you to Team NIMITZ, our family support group, for sending the decorated pillowcases out to your Sailors. The pillowcases look terrific and are a real boost to morale. We’ll continue to display them on the bulkheads around the aft mess decks for a couple more days and then the Sailors will take them back to their berthing compartment. Team NIMITZ and the Command Ombudsmen are doing great work supporting our families at home. Please don’t hesitate to contact either of these groups of very talented volunteers. We realize how important it is for the crew to know that our families are doing ok. We are committed to doing everything we can to ensure you guys on the homefront have access to all the assistance you may need.

Well everyone, that’s a wrap for this week. Once again, thank you for all that you do supporting your Sailor. You guys are great.

Warm regards and very respectfully,

CAPT Ted Branch

Commanding Officer

USS NIMITZ