46 - 9 - Boat Knowledge

<It's a Nimitz class. Biggest warships in the world. Built by Newport News Shipbuilding Company, out of Virginia.>

<Jake?> Rachel cocked the seagull's head. <Do you have a life?>

We had landed, six seagulls, near a radar mast protruding from the island of the USS George Washington.

Below us, on the flight deck, approximately thirty planes were parked and tied down.

Marco strutted closer to Rachel. She strutted away.

<Rachel, Rachel, Rachel. There's no such thing as a useless fact. Every tiny, seemingly arcane bit of information our boy Jake spews about aircraft carriers or fighter planes just might be the thing that saves our butts.>

<Marco is correct,> I added. <Prince Jake, what else can you recall regarding this craft?>

<I wasn't expecting to have to recite from memory but . . . okay, the first Nimitz class carrier was deployed in 1975.>

If Marco were in his human form, he would have raised his eyebrows at Rachel.

This is how well I have come to know the meanings and uses of human physical gestures.

<Length - about one thousand and ninety-two feet. Overall width, two hundred and fifty-two feet. Area of flight deck - um, four and a half acres. I think.>

<That's my boy,> Marco encouraged. <What else?>

<Speed, thirty-plus knots. That's a little over thirty-four and a half miles per hour.>

<More aircraft below,> Marco prompted. <On the hangar deck.>

<Yeah. Eighty-five or ninety, total. I can't remember.>

<Types?>

<Just look down there. A variety. Depends on what the GW's out here for, I guess. Probably some F/A-18C Hornets. E-2C Hawkeyes, maybe some EA-6B Prowlers. F-14D Tomcats. Four catapults for launching. Four aircraft elevators.>

<Crew?> Tobias asked.

<Between five and six thousand, total, full complement. Which is rare these days. Cutbacks.>

<What makes this thing go?> Rachel asked.

Clearly, her interest was piqued. Anything large and capable of aiding in destruction had to be of interest to Rachel.

<Two nuclear reactors. Four main engines. That's geared steam turbines, four shafts. Four propellers. Maybe more stuff, I don't know.>

<Uh-huh.>

<Armament?>

<Generally, the NATO Sea Sparrow missile system. That's two launchers, eight missiles each. I think the George Washington has four 20-mm Phalanx CIWS mounts.>

Cassie had been silent until now. <CIWS?>

<Close-In Weapon System. The whole point of the carriers is to provide what's called a "forward presence." They're pretty much the most important part of the picture. In peacetime and during war.>

<Right,> Tobias said.

I suspected this information did not impress Cassie as it impressed the rest of us.

<The humans on board are wearing a variety of uniforms,> I noted.

<That's right.> Tobias. <Navy - sailors and air wing. And marines.>

<What's up with the different-colored jackets?> Rachel said. <The red ones aren't so bad.>

Jake turned away from the wind. <Flight deck personnel. Different colors for different roles. Jackets are called float coats. You wear the same color jersey underneath. I'm pretty sure the guys in red are crash and salvage crews. Yeah, and explosive ordinance disposal.>

<No wonder Rachel likes the red,> Marco said.

<What about those in green?> I asked. <Or yellow?>

<It'll come to me. Hmmm. Or maybe it won't,> Jake admitted. <Look, we don't know how this is going to play, but one thing: Keep your ears and eyes open. A carrier is a highly organized society. Anyone looking lost or out of place is going to get nailed. No sailors in the aviators' squadron ready rooms and no enlisted personnel hanging around the flag quarters.>