• Navigation Department (NAV)-The traditional nautical skill of navigation has been revolutionized by GPS, digital charts, and real-time satellite weather updates. But it still takes an experienced navigator to advise the bridge watch about how exactly to steer the ship in a narrow channel or a tricky tactical situation. GW's Navigation Department is equipped with every kind of navigational instrument, from sextants to GPS receivers. The Navigational Officer (known as "GATOR" for short) is Commander Ron Raymer. He is expecting to leave the ship in early 1998, and will be relieved by Commander Brian Cosgrove.
• Operations Department (OPS)-Everything from eating schedules and flight operations to making a rendezvous with a replenishment ship requires a high degree of skill and coordination. This is the job of the GW Operations Department, the group that recommends to the CO and XO how they will actually operate and "fight" the GW, should the need arise. The GW Operations Officer (OPSO) is Commander Don Hepfer, who is a sly and skillful officer.
• Reactor Department (REACTOR)-Of all the departments aboard the GW, none is shrouded in tighter security than the "Nukes." On non-nuclear Navy vessels the Engineering Department controls the ship's propulsion. But on the GW, a dedicated Reactor Department controls the two mighty AW4 units and other associated machinery. They don't like publicity. They won't talk to you. Don't even ask. The department is controlled by a career nuclear surface officer, Captain Joe Krenzel, who will become the commander of the USS South Carolina (CGN-37) when he finishes his tour as Reactor Officer (RO) aboard GW.
• Safety Department (SAFETY)-GW is basically a large steel box filled with jet fuel, explosives and rocket fuel, toxic chemicals and waste, fissile material-and, of course, people! Working hard to keep them under control is the GW's Safety Department. This group is charged with monitoring hazardous materials, inspecting firefighting equipment and sanitation gear, and coordinating damage control with the other ship's departments. The GW's Safety Officer (SAFETYO) is Commander Jack Hassinger, who will be relieved in the fall of 1997 by Commander Dave Hegland.
• Supply Department (SUPPLY)-The GW utilizes thousands of different items during day-to-day operations at sea. Jet fuel and floppy disks, ground beef and paper towels are all used in quantities that stagger the imagination. Keeping up with the ordering, stowing, and record-keeping required to keep GW running is the Supply Department. The GW's Supply Officer or SUPPO is Commander Jim Ellison, who can be either the most or least popular officer aboard!
• Training Department (TRAINING)-One of the biggest challenges for the GW's crew is to continue their professional growth and training while embarked on cruise. Doing this requires regular refresher training and qualification for various skills and equipment, which is the responsibility of the Training Department, commanded by Lieutenant Matt Hempel. He is due to be relieved in late 1997 by Lieutenant Ann Hollenbeck. This department supports correspondence courses to help personnel qualify for their next promotion, distance-learning classes, and video classes, for new tactics and onboard equipment.
• Weapons Department (WEPS)-Though GW is not as heavily armed as her battle group escorts, she still packs a considerable self-defense "punch"-including Mk. 29 Sea Sparrow SAM launchers and 20mm Mk. 15 Phalanx CIWS systems. GW additionally has a number of M-2.50-caliber machine guns for defense against swimmers and small boats. These are maintained by the Weapons Department, which is headed by the "Gunner," Commander Lee Price. Actual weapons firing is controlled by the Tactical Officer (TACO) in the ship's Combat Direction Center (CDC).
Carrier Air Wing One (CVW-1): THE SHARP END
That the GW's embarked air wing, CVW-1, is a powerful offensive tool is a surprisingly recent development. During the Cold War, the focus of American carriers and their air wings was not the projection of offensive power but the defense of the carrier groups and other naval forces (convoys, amphibious groups, etc.). In those days, air wing training and weapons were mainly oriented toward war-at-sea missions against the Navy of the former Soviet Union, not toward land targets requiring precision deliveries. This is one of the reasons why the performance of Navy aircraft and units during the 1991 Persian Gulf War was so disappointing. Though Navy aircraft flew almost a third of the attack sorties into Iraq, they lacked the PGMs and sensors necessary to kill precision targets. On the positive side, Navy reconnaissance and electronic-warfare aircraft did really useful work, as did the A-6E Intruder all-weather attack bombers (recall that the weather over Iraq was terrible during much of the air campaign). Incredibly, in the name of cost-saving, the entire fleet of A-6E bombers and KA-6D tankers was retired after the Gulf War!
So, after building their plans and policies around a now-dead threat, and buying and retaining the "wrong" aircraft and weapons for the turn-of-the-millennium world, naval aviation entered the post-Cold War era in disarray. Happily, naval aviators are resourceful people, and during the mid-1990's Navy aviators gradually developed technical "quick fixes" and organizational reforms that will equip the Cold War CVW to tackle the challenges of the next decade. Understanding that it would take years and billions of dollars to develop and build new aircraft and weapons, they concentrated on upgrading existing airframes with new systems and weapons.
These focused on supporting the initiatives presented in high-level policy statements like "From the Sea" and "Forward from the Sea," while grimly defending the huge funding allocation necessary for the next-generation "Super Hornet" (F/A-18E/F). Some of the fixes-like acquiring the improved Nighthawk targeting pod for the F/A-18 Hornet and buying more laser-guided bomb kits-were just a matter of money. Others-like turning the F-14 Tomcat (traditionally an air defense interceptor) into a strike and interdiction aircraft-were a bit more difficult. Still, in just a few years things began to turn around. Operation Deliberate Force (the bombing of Bosnian Serb military facilities in 1995) proved that the Navy and Marines could deliver PGMs and suppress enemy air defenses just as well as their Air Force counterparts. Today, the embarked carrier air wings are just as deadly and efficient as any of their land-based counterparts.
CVW-1 is one of the ten air wings in active-duty service today, a survivor of numerous post-Cold War cuts and drawdowns. The wing spent much of its Cold War career aboard USS America (CV-66, which was recently retired), and moved over to the GW in 1996. A Navy captain (traditionally called the "CAG" for "commander, air group") commands the air wing; and he is a partner, not a subordinate, to the carrier's skipper. They both report to the admiral who commands the battle group (generally a two-star rear admiral), and work together as a team. It's an article of faith that flight operations are always controlled and authorized by trained naval aviators, not some distant senior commander who never sat in a cockpit.