photo by Robert Stewart A sailor on the USS Wasp stand in the lighting of the ship's well deck - an area used to deploy hovercraft from the ship's bow.

by Robert Stewart

    It is officially called Civilian Employer Orientation (CEO), but members of Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR), who organize the event call it "Bosslift."
     It is an annual event in which business owners and entrepreneurs from across the state are invited to travel to a military base anywhere from Jacksonville, Fla., to San Diego, Calif., and are given tours to show the training and living conditions encountered by members of the National Guard and Reserves when they are called up to serve.
     The intent of the tours is to give employers who have Guard members and reservists on their staff a greater appreciation for what their employees go through.
     The CEO hosted by the Nebraska chapter of ESGR this year was to Norfolk, Va. I was invited to go on the trip as a media representative.
     Six ESGR representatives, including state chairman Arlo Bower of Seward, two other media representatives and 28 civilian employers also made the trip.
     We flew out of the Air National Guard base in Lincoln on July 19. We flew on a KC-135R Stratotanker and were given the chance to observe a mid-flight aerial refueling during the flight. We linked up with an RS-135, a plane roughly the same size as the one we were on, and dumped 15,000 pounds of fuel from one aircraft to the other.
     It was interesting flying on what was essentially a cargo plane, sitting in seats made of webbing that stretched down the sides of the fuselage and wearing ear-plugs the entire flight. The noise of the engines made it difficult to carry on conversations, but everyone on board was free to get up, walk around and view the different components of the plane.
     After a two hour-flight (three hours with the time change) we touched down in Norfolk, Va.
     We were given a tour of Naval Station Norfolk, the largest naval base in the world. The base covers 4,300 acres and has 65,000 employees, 54,000 active duty service members and 11,000 civilian employees.
     Leading the tour was CS II Johnson, a cook for the Navy. She started the tour by inviting us to ask questions.
     "I'm going to try to answer all your questions, but if I don't know the answer I'm going to say, 'That's classified,'" she joked.
     But there was not too much "classified" information on the tour. Johnson was well informed about the base, both its current operation and its history. We were shown the harbor in Hampton Roads, Va., where Civil War ironclads the Monitor and the Merrimack did battle, the second largest K-9 training facility on the east coast and were taken by the USS Theodore Roosevelt, the only aircraft carrier currently docked at the base.
     The Navy's F-14 fighter jets were recently decomissioned, but Johnson said the Roosevelt hosted the last F-14 flight.
     The tour also passed the on-base McDonalds, which Johnson said was the "second busiest in the world, after (the one in) Times Square."
     Following the tour, we were taken aboard the USS Laboon, a U.S. Navy destroyer which was docked at the base, and shown around the ship.
     Our guide on the ship, Ensign Chad Stewart, showed us its working from top to bottom and bow to stern. We learned about the procedure for dropping anchor, were taken aboard the ship's bridge and given a tour of combat information center, in which the ship's defense is handled when it is underway.
     The Laboon is the only ship in the Navy to be named after a Catholic priest, Capt. John Laboon, a Navy chaplain who earned the Silver Star for bravery after diving from a moving submarine to rescue a downed pilot.
     After the ship tour, we were taken to on-base housing, the bachelor's officers quarters (BOQ), where we spent the next two nights.
     July 20, the second day of the tour, opened with a tour of another, larger ship, the USS Wasp, a large deck ship which has two missions.
     The primary mission is the running of its flight deck which can accommodate the vertical take off and landing of Harrier jets and helicopters of any size. The Wasp is equipped with a well deck in its bow. The well deck is a large area which can be flooded with water. The bow of the ship then opens to allow hovercraft stored in the well deck access to the ship's exterior.
     The Wasp's secondary mission is the deployment of Marines on the hovercraft to the shore to carry out their missions.
     The ship was capable of carrying three hovercraft, although none were currently onboard, and could accomodate up to 40 aircraft, depending on the type of craft.
     We had to make sure to stay out of everyone's way on board the ship, as they were preparing to ship out the following day, but our guides made sure we were kept informed and did not prove too much of a hinderance to the crew.
     The afternoon of the second day we were taken to Fort Eustis, Va., a U.S. Army Transportation Center where many Guard members and reservists are sent for training before being deployed. Bower said areas where members of the Guard and reserve are trained and housed gave the employers on CEO the opportunity to see a location where their employees may have spent time when called up for service.
     "Even though we (ESGR) represent all military branches, the highest military presence here in Nebraska is the National Guard," he said.
     While on the base, we were given a presentation on what is involved in housing and caring for the soldiers on the base and briefly met soldiers from Nebraska including Pvt. Zak of Lincoln and Pvt. Swift of Arlington. Swift had not been away from home long. He had graduated from high school on May 20 and arrived on base May 25. He was studying to be Blackhawk helicopter mechanic and was set to graduate from training in September.
     Next, we were shown several simulators the Army uses in training its soldiers.
     Simulators for weapons, shipboard cranes, large and small vessel bridges and a new piece of machinery, the RTCH, or Rough Terrain Container Hauler, were included on the tour.
     The simulators are designed to decrease training time for soldiers as they recreate the experience of operating the actual machine while allowing for the possibility of mistakes.
     A tour of Third Port, the Army's only deep water port, followed the simulators. While in the Third Port, we were shown small boats, known as LCMs, similar to the type currently being used for evacuations in Lebanon. The group was also informed by the harbormaster that, "The Army has more boats than the Navy. The Navy has more planes than the Air Force."
     Felker Air Base, located at Fort Eustis, was the last stop of the day. While there, we visited a facility in which soldiers are trained in the repair and maintenance of Apache helicopters.
     A video presentation before the tour of the actual facility showed the incredible manauverability of the Apache. It is capable of barrel rolls, hovering vertitically, nose pointed at the sky and flying backwards. It was very impressive.
     After being given the opportunity to look over and sit in actual Apaches we were taken back to our housing on base.
     The trip to the BOQ was somewhat uncomfortable as we got stuck in traffic and the air conditioning on the bus broke down, but that evening we were given free time to explore downtown Norfolk. Having an evening's enjoyment to look forward to helped alleviate some of the discomfort.
     July 21, the last day of the tour began with a visit to the Navy's amphibious base in Little Creek, Va. While there, we were given trips in Norfolk harbor on SeaARK boats used for patrolling. We cruised out past several ships docked for repairs and maintenance. Cranes, used both to work on ships and in construction in rapidly developing Norfolk, towered all around us.
     Once back on shore, we were shown a "static display," a sort of mock sentry camp, or "entry control point," set up on the base featuring sailors in full combat gear manning the weapons, which included a 50-caliber machine gun, and technology actually used in the field.
     The "camp" was the last stop on the tour. From there we returned to the airfield at which we had arrived and were flown back to Lincoln.
     Bill Nelson, program support specialist for ESGR, said planning the CEO is a year-round process as it requires coordinating events with the bases visited and making sure the group will have events to attend throughout the trip.
     "Advance planning is good," he said.
     In addition to coordinating with the sites to be visited he must keep those attending the CEO informed as to what they will need to bring, where they need to be and what time everything will be happening. This requires a large amount of email correspondence.
     "I figure more information is better in kind of giving everybody a head's up," he said.
     Now that this year's trip is over he has already started planning for next year's outing.