CVN-77 USS George H. W. Bush

U.S.S. GEORGE

H. W. BUSH

(CVN-77)

Report & Pictures/Report & Foto by

Simone Ba e Paolo Zerlotto

NORTH ARABIAN SEA/PERSIAN GULF - 23-24 OCTOBER 2011

Aviation-Shots had the great opportunity to spend 24 hours onboard the newest aircraft carrier of the U.S. Navy: the USS George H.W. BUSH (CVN-77) on its maiden cruise in the North Arabian Sea/Persian Gulf.

USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) is the tenth and final Nimitz-class supercarrier of the United States Navy. She is named for the 41st President of the United States George H. W. Bush, who was a naval aviator during World War II. Bush's callsign is Avenger, after the TBM Avenger aircraft flown by then-Lieutenant George Bush in WWII. Construction began in 2001 at the Northrop Grumman Newport News shipyard and was completed in 2009 at a cost of $6.2 billion. She is homeported at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia. The carrier (embarking CVW-8) and four other ships of its carrier strike group, under the command of Rear Admiral Nora Tyson, departed on its first deployment on 11 May 2011 and sailed across the Atlantic to Britain to participate in Operation Saxon Warrior, held in the Western Approaches and culminating in a so called 'Thursday War'. It then moved towards Portsmouth, England (docking at Stokes Bay because it was too large to enter the harbour - and the naval base does not have sufficient nuclear berths for the carrier to moor alongside) on 27 May and left on the 31st. The carrier arrived at Naples, Italy on 10 June 2011 and then moved to the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf area in support of the Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation New Dawn.

We were escorted everywhere ...on the deck, on the vulture rows, at the briefing rooms and we had the chance to capture the action of flight operations during daytime, at sunset and at nighttime as well!. We also had the unique chance to fly with HSC-9 Tridents MH-60F for a fantastic photo-mission around the carrier and during flight ops!!!!

Every day the efforts and professional skills af each person make life onboard work perfectly: as the CVN-77 insignia says, far from home, nearly 5.000 people every day , embarked on a small town in the sea, are "Freedom at Work"!

Aviation-Shots would like to thank the US NAVY for giving us once again this big professional opportunity, all the US NAVY PAOs involved in our embark, the 5th Fleet, the PAOs onboard USS George H.W. Bush and all the squadrons embarked that we had the chance to meet. Enjoy the pictures!!!!!!!

CVW-8:

    VFA-213 Blacklions F/A-18F Super Hornet
    VFA-31 Tomcatterss F/A-18E Super Hornet
    VFA-15 Valions F/A-18C Hornet
    VFA-87 Golden Warriors F/A-18C Hornet
    VAQ-141 Shadowhawks EA-18G Growler
    VAW-124 Bear Aces E-2C Hawkeye
    HSC-9 Tridents MH-60F and HSM -70 Spartans MH-60R

Pictures/Foto by Simone Ba e Paolo Zerlotto

PHOTO MISSION WITH HSC-9 TRIDENTS