In early January 1980 I received orders to report to the Commander in Chief US Atlantic Fleet (CINLANTFLT) Norfolk, VA.
I was working in a high profile flight deck job for the Commander of Carrier Air Wing 8. The wing commander and my squadron commander had told me I would stay with the USS Nimitz until it returned to NS Norfolk. No one, especially me, expected to get priority 2 orders to an Admirals’ staff. Another surprising factor was I was ordered there as a manpower analyst for the entire Naval aircraft shore forces of the Atlantic Fleet. My COs on the Nimitz hands were tied. They could not justify requesting a modification of PRI 2 orders to a fleet commander. My orders also included a one month stop at the Naval Training command for Manpower Analyst training.
The long journey home began. None of the air wing or other supporting aircraft had the range to fly me to Diego Garcia from the Nimitz operating waters. An oiler/supply ship, the USS Roanoke was going to Diego Garcia after it serviced the Nimitz. I got a ride on an H-46 to the Roanoke. It took them 7 days to get to Diego Garcia. I was unwound when I got there. Getting off Diego Garcia was pretty easy with my high priority orders. I got a hop on a C-141 to Clark AFB in the Philippians. I spent one night there and got a hop on a Tigre flight to San Francesco via stops at Guam, Tokyo, Anchorage and flight destination, San Francisco. I took a two day rest at San Francisco and then got another C-141 to Fort Worth and then a DC-9 to Andrews AFB. At that time CINCLANTFLT had an H-53 milk run between the Pentagon and the CINCLNTFLT compound in Norfolk. Five days later I reported to my analyst training classes.
Here are some pictures of how I got home from the Indian Ocean (Arabian Sea). They are from USN or Wikipedia files.
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DG-2.jpg DG-3.jpg
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