I gave a tour this morning to a Major in the Army, and her son. She is a Vet of the war in Iraq - and totally awesome

Here's a sight you don't see often . . . they were operating the # 3 elevator up to the flight deck.

Here she is . . . on the way up:

We had the families and friends of the USS Ronald Reagan on board tonight. The USS RR is suppose to arrive tomorrow, so we had a reception for the families ahead of time. It turned out really nice.

They got tours of the ship, of course, and a make-shift theater showing videos of the USS RR. It was very cool.


And Cake !

Meet Bob McGrath, Capt USMC, Retired


He joined the Marines in 1949. In 1951 (it was a very good year) we was stationed in Korea, where he flew a jet fighter - the Banshee. He left the USMC in 1955.

He volunteers on the USS Midway in the Safety / Security Dept.

I got a good view of the USCG Boutwell at sunset - take a look




George Boutwell had been the Secretary of the Treasury for President Grant. His ship is 348 feet and 3,250 tons Coast Guard pride and service. I didn't get to go on board while she was here from Alameda, but I admired her as she backed up and steamed out of the harbor.

The SE tonight was attended by over 1300 guests. I was stationed in the Hanger Bay and gave tours on the Mess Deck. Here is the line to get down there


They fed us pretty good too - after the tours were over.

Today was Vet's Day - Thank you to all the VETS !

There wre a lot of events and celebrations on the ship - check out the band in the park and the dancing sailors / nurses

We had guest speaker on the flight deck too - this is Col. Tom Richards, USMC Retired. He wears the Navy Cross - the highest award the Navy can award.

Here are the leaders of Operation Homefront - they were awesome too
That is the Roger Hedgecock Radio Show going on in the background. He had a special broadcast from the Hanger Bay. He was in the process of honoring an Assoc of WWII POW Surviors. I spoke to a couple of those guys - glad they were on our side ! They deserve all the respect you can muster for what they went through.

A conference of Teacher's Leadership had their party on the ship - they planned for 300, and 675 showed up ! They had a hopping good time

I toured a couple from Green Bay, Wisconsin this morning. Meet Ed and Marless Ertman. They were a lot of fun and had a great time.

Here we are taking a break in the E-2 Hawkeye Ready Room

Ed - take off your sunglasses !

We had an SE tonight. One of the honored guests was Carlos Montoya. An Army Vet that was stationed in the Philippines at Clark Field in 1942. He was one of 70,000 men who surrendered to the Japanese on Apr 9, 1942. He is a survivor of the Bataan Death March. He wrote a book about it and after I read it . . . I'll have more comments. In the mean time, I told Mr. Montoya that it was a great honor to meet him this evening.