Ok, so maybe not the four legged, orange and white striped models you find in the jungle. I’m talking about the US Navy’s “Operation Tiger Cruise”, a time honored tradition whereby friends and families of sailors returning from deployment can meet the ship on it’s way back home, and sail in with them over the last few days of the deployment. If you happen to be super lucky, and know someone deployed on an aircraft carrier, this shapes up to be a once in a lifetime chance (for most of us) to spend a few days on 4.5 acres of floating US territory, experiencing what it’s like to live on a “bird farm”. In October of 2008, I got just that chance, and attended a Tiger Cruise on CVN-72, the USS Abraham Lincoln.
My brother, Brian, has been in the Navy for something like 15 years, and will probably retire at the ripe old age of 40 years old. Yeah, life is tough! He’s worked his way up from an E-1, was commissioned in 2006, and is now an O-2. He’d been a submariner for his whole career, but one of the stipulations of his commissioning was a surface tour. As it ends up, it was to be on the Abe. They deployed in early 2008, which had them coming home in early October, and right in that timeframe, the traditional Tiger Cruise! Brian invited me to meet them at Pearl Harbor, and the rest is history.
Talk about an opportunity for a photographer! Essentially unfettered access to a lot of operating military hardware that most folks never get to see up close. Target rich environment, anyone? Man, I overpacked. What would be worse than being in the middle of the Pacific ocean, and not having a piece of gear I needed? The only thing I wished for on the trip was a longer lens for the airshow the crew put on for us – a 70-200 with a 1.4x tele-extender was just not quite enough. A 400mm prime on a second body would’ve really made it right! I found myself wishing for a point and shoot of some sort, too – carrying a Canon 1D MkIII with a 17-40 all over the ship on tours and such really got to be cumbersome. A smaller SLR, or something like a G11 would’ve been the ticket for the majority of the shots I took, with the larger rig available for taking shots on deck, and that sort of thing.
One thing that came as a surprise is that the majority of the aircraft on the carrier were actually kept on the deck, not down in the hangar bays. This is the norm. Apparently, only equipment under repair, or stuff that won’t fit up top is kept below, with the flight deck being the staging area of choice. This obviously makes deck operations more difficult, but those guys have it down to a science, managing placement and movement of planes on the deck in a carefully orchestrated, complex ballet.
The views from the ship were amazing, especially late in the day. It doesn’t seem like water as far as the eye can see would be all that interesting, but there’s a sort of serene, peaceful nature to it that’s calming. If I were to have another chance to spend time on a carrier, I’d definitely make an effort to take as much advantage of early and late light on the deck as I would be allowed (they get all Tigers off the deck at sundown, to avoid having someone go overboard). In fact, right after I took the sunset shot to the left we were called in for the night.
So, it was a once in a lifetime chance, one I took advantage of gladly, and one I’d do all over again if I had the chance. I got to meet a lot of sailors that weekend, but I didn’t meet anywhere near the whole of the ship’s crew or aircrews. If any of them are reading this, let me thank you for your hospitality, your willingness to educate us on your jobs, and most of all, for your service to your country and countrymen.
If you’d like to see more work from my cruise, check out this slide show from my photo archive:
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