Big Daddy
The giant Nuclear-powered US Navy Aircraft Carrier - USS Harry S. Truman, CVAN-75 moored up in Stokes Bay on the Solent on the 9th of May 2003.
Aboard were her Air Wing component CVW-3 - all with tail code 'AC' comprising a mixture of attack squadrons each with twelve aircraft - US Navy 'VFA-37 Bulls' and 'VFA-105 Gunslingers' plus USMC 'VMFA-115 Silver Eagles' all with Boeing (McDonnell-Douglas) FA-18A, FA-18A+ & FA-18C Hornet jet fighters.
Also on board were ten Grumman F-14B Tomcats from VF-32 'Swordsmen' - possibly their last Atlantic 'cruise' before retirement, four Grumman EA-6B Prowlers from 'VAQ-130 Zappers' and eight Lockheed S-3B Viking sub-hunters from 'VS-22 Checkmates' and four E-2C 'Airborne Early Warning' Hawkeyes from 'VAW-126 Seahawks'.
Seven Sikorsky SH-60F and HH-60H Seahawk helicopters from 'HS-7 Dusty Dogs' littered the deck as did a brace of COD 'Carrier-Onboard-Delivery' E-2 derivatives, the Grumman C-2A Greyhound with Det-1 from 'VRC-40 Rawhides'.
Here she is being replenished by a couple of supply vessels with some tlc by the painters on the left to stave-off the ever present salt-water corrosion.
Way too large to enter the nearby Portsmouth Naval Dockyard, these leviathans appear occasionally here for some RnR for the crew and to re-stock their larders for the remainder of the cruise duration.
Scanned 35mm Transparency
Big Daddy
The giant Nuclear-powered US Navy Aircraft Carrier - USS Harry S. Truman, CVAN-75 moored up in Stokes Bay on the Solent on the 9th of May 2003.
Aboard were her Air Wing component CVW-3 - all with tail code 'AC' comprising a mixture of attack squadrons each with twelve aircraft - US Navy 'VFA-37 Bulls' and 'VFA-105 Gunslingers' plus USMC 'VMFA-115 Silver Eagles' all with Boeing (McDonnell-Douglas) FA-18A, FA-18A+ & FA-18C Hornet jet fighters.
Also on board were ten Grumman F-14B Tomcats from VF-32 'Swordsmen' - possibly their last Atlantic 'cruise' before retirement, four Grumman EA-6B Prowlers from 'VAQ-130 Zappers' and eight Lockheed S-3B Viking sub-hunters from 'VS-22 Checkmates' and four E-2C 'Airborne Early Warning' Hawkeyes from 'VAW-126 Seahawks'.
Seven Sikorsky SH-60F and HH-60H Seahawk helicopters from 'HS-7 Dusty Dogs' littered the deck as did a brace of COD 'Carrier-Onboard-Delivery' E-2 derivatives, the Grumman C-2A Greyhound with Det-1 from 'VRC-40 Rawhides'.
Here she is being replenished by a couple of supply vessels with some tlc by the painters on the left to stave-off the ever present salt-water corrosion.
Way too large to enter the nearby Portsmouth Naval Dockyard, these leviathans appear occasionally here for some RnR for the crew and to re-stock their larders for the remainder of the cruise duration.
Scanned 35mm Transparency