Family Day aboard USS Ross DDG-71
November 17, 2007
Mike on duty as Officer of the Watch in CIC.
He's pretty relaxed, but there's really not much going on at the moment!
Charlie got a chance to try his hand on some of the equipment in CIC. This is the tracking camera for the 5" gun fire control system. The console to his left is the actual fire control console for the gun - the one he is using is the optical sight system that can be guided using the joystick or by "hooking" a target using the radar on the other console. USS Iwo Jima was about 12 miles away, and Charlie spent some time tracking her and the helicopters and Osprey's that were doing touch and go's.
Charlie, Tristan and AnneMarie under the 5" gun.
When we reached the op area, we fired ten rounds through the 5" gun, and 100 rounds through the forward Phalanx CIWS (the R2D2 looking thing up above the 5" gun).
When the 5" fired, the whole ship shook!!
While we were in the op area, they also set up an M240 Medium Machine Gun on the missile deck, and let anyone that wanted to shoot about 10 rounds each. The kids really loved it!
Two Ospreys from the USS Iwo Jima did a flyby for us - those propellers are HUGE!!
Headed back into Norfolk after a fun day at sea.