Home for Christmas: 9 Flattops at Norfolk
With the returns from deployment of the carrier DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER and her escorting cruiser HUE CITY on Dec. 19, and the amphibious ships IWO JIMA and NEW YORK on Dec. 20, the piers at Norfolk’s naval base are about as full up as they’ll ever be.
Five aircraft carriers, four big-deck amphibious assault ships, a full cast of “small boy” surface warships, along with nuclear submarines and support ships, are crowding the base, giving a comfortably snug feeling to the waterfront. Similar scenes — although not with the gathering of flattops seen here — are taking place at other fleet concentration areas like San Diego and Pearl Harbor.......
From bottom to top, front to back:
Aircraft carrier DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (CVN 69)
Aircraft carrier GEORGE H. W. BUSH (CVN 77)
Aircraft carrier ENTERPRISE (CVN 65)
Amphibious assault ship BATAAN (LHD 5)
Aircraft carrier ABRAHAM LINCOLN (CVN 72)
Aircraft carrier HARRY S TRUMAN (CVN 75)
Amphibious assault ship WASP (LHD 1)
Amphibious assault ship KEARSARGE (LHD 3)
Amphibious landing platform dock NEW YORK (LPD 21)
A T-AKE dry cargo ammunition ship
Amphibious assault ship IWO JIMA (LHD 7)
and various cruisers, destroyers, frigates and submarines of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet.
Also across Hampton Roads but not in these photos are two other carriers at Newport News Shipbuilding: THEODORE ROOSEVELT (CVN 71), now finishing up a three-and-a-half-year refueling overhaul, and the new GERALD R. FORD (CVN 78), first ship of a new class of carriers, that will launch in mid-2013.....