With leaden heart I pulled into Souda Bay, Crete (Greece), this morning.
'Tis been a tough two-and-a-half week underway period on both the professional and personal fronts.
IKE and the embarked air wing, CVW-7, completed Exercise Juniper Stallion with the Israelis. A more intensive exercise than is usually held for carriers freshly inchopped to the Sixth Fleet, we practiced air superiority and strike flights into and over bombing ranges in Israel. These flights fill in the blanks in our training left empty due to the bombing moritorium on Viequis Island, P.R. This will probably prove to be our most grueling at sea period, with the exception of Gulf of Arabia (Persian Gulf) Ops.
We’ll be inport Crete for the weekend. I’ve got a trip to Paleohora scheduled for Friday and a scuba trip for Saturday. I’d be satisfied with just a good meal and may pass on these excursions.
I hope everyone got their postcards from Italy, even the miscreants in Canada (How’d ya like that Oscar number?).
Catch ya on the flip side of liberty.
Voted Best Sport
And narrowly averted the despised moniker Smiley Master
Forward deployed until 18AUG00