Canadian Navy's part in US Battle Groups

[Mike_NavRes]

Anyone in the Canadian Navy here have sailed as part of a US Battle Group, with a US supercarrier??  I was just wondering how it felt being next to those incredible aircraft carriers, and if being part of the Canadian Navy, we would ever get a chance to board one of those (training or recreation)? Or are the USN pretty strict on admittance?

Thanks

 

[Ex-Dragoon]

Hvae had the opportunity to sail with 2 CVBGs and its an awesome experience. Unfortunately both deployments were in the Gulf and whenever we went off station they were still on an vice versa. As for getting on them, I got on one and its quite an eye opener on the professionalism the the USN.

 

[Navalsnpr]

Sailed with a CV on a number of occasions in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. I was able to tour one while we were in Norfolk in the late 90's, but I'm unsure if you can get a tour these days.

On one deployment, they called over to us, told us to go 1/2 mile to her port side and wait..... well, within 1/2 hour, she launched everything that she had on her deck. It was really impressive!!! I guess they allowed us that view as we were her plane guard ship for almost 30 days straight. One of the Boson's even got a ride in one of her F-14's as he had to get home for family reasons, so the carrier offered her services. When he got back, he said that it was the best ride he had and probably will ever have in his life. Not many Canadians can say the were catapulted off a Carrier in an F-14!!

I took the picture below a couple of years ago. You can barely see the prop wash on the tanker from a CH-53D Sea Stallion who is transporting pallets from the tanker to the CV.

The ships in the picture are CV JFK, USS Seattle & HMCS Charlottetown.

 

[Missile Man]

Hey sniper,

Your picture of the SEATTLE, JFK, and "CHARLOTTETOWN" never showed up on the forum site.  I would like to see that pic, actually, it reminds me a lot of a pic we had taken over there of St JOHN'S, SEATTLE and JFK.  When did CHA get a photo op with them together?  Wasn't CHA Roto 0?  We were Roto 1 in STJ, and we RASed with SEATTLE and JFK in that pic (it is on the dnd.ca website under image gallery).  Just curious..

 

[Ex-Dragoon]

Yup Cha was Roto O and did a tour from Jan til Jul 2001 for Op Augmentation so we got to know Dubai real well

 

[Navalsnpr]

Your picture of the SEATTLE, JFK, and "CHARLOTTETOWN" never showed up on the forum site.  

The admins created some new albums in the Photo Gallery and the pic was moved.

The original post has been updated.

That pic was taken from the Stbd bridge wing on STJ.

Other Navy pics can be seen at http://army.ca/cgi-bin/album.pl?album=Vehicles/Ships

 

[Aerobicrunner]

My first time on a US Carrrier was when I was able to be hooked and launched onboard USS John F Kennedy while it was near Bermuda on it's way back to her home port after a tour in the Med.  This was the year where a couple of the JFK jets shot down two Libyan jets in the IIRC Gulf of Sidra.  The aircraft I was onboard for this experience is called a C4 or COD (Carrrier Onboard Delivery). 
I have been onboard a couple other carriers as well and they never fail to impress.

 

[NavyShooter]

Ex Dragoon,

I was on there on Op Augmentation....CSE Type that spent a lot of time on the helm....where did you fit in?

Did they reduce your FSP points to 3 for that trip as well?  I just had mine re-calculated.

NavyShooter

 

[Ex-Dragoon]

NavyShooter big time and had to pay back a whack of cash as well. I was one of those dreaded Boarding Party types.

 

[Sundborg]

Wow that picture really shows the size difference between the ships.  I was able to go on USS Mount Whitney ( I think that's it) in Halifax a few months back in the fall.  I was amazed of the size of it even though it was just a command ship.

 

[RyanNS]

In November of last year I was fortunate enough to get on the USS Saipan (The Deuce I Think??) while it was docked in Halifax. This thing also seemed massive, yet it was in reality only about half the size, if that of a Nimitz class carrier. Inside the ship were hovercrafts loaded up with HMMVS and Bradleys, a pretty awesome site. Suprisingly the security seemed pretty relaxed considering we were bringing alot of equipment on the ship and nothing was really searched.