The Navy's newest. CVN 78, The USS Gerald Ford

They ride well even in high seas. My ole gal had 1501 compartments, we could do 33 knots while losing your fillings,,what seems like an endless armory, great food, two Baskin Robbin type stores ( gedunks ), regular store etc. literally a floating city. The flight deck is 90 feet above water line, about 118 foot beam, draws about 40 foot of water. It also carries a compliment of Marines. I thank the lord for putting me on a carrier. If any of you are within two hours of a port where this ties up ya got to make the effort to see it. Never could fathom how something that huge could float.
 
"Only the best for throwing officers at the enemy", is what my buddy sez.
 
My nephew is on the Ike but they are taking their sweet time to depart after a retrofit, the nuclear testing scandal and some budgetary problems (cost overruns past the built in cost overruns).

They don't have ships company Marines any more since 1994 (?) but it was a good gig if you could get it. There is a program to again put Marines on board ship but in a different capacity. FAST (Fleet Anti-terrorism Security Team) squads and platoons stationed on board for quicker response.
 
Ship's Company Marines were even pretty back then. I'm pretty sure they ended the practice in 1990. Too bad. They had the best gunnery scores in the fleet, but then we don't use guns much anymore.
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