Of course, I served on two aircraft carriers -- USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) from 1984-87. We had two Western Pacific "cruises" (called WestPacs, in Navy lingo). One took me into the Bering Straits, then into the Sea of Japan with a brief stop in Osaka, Japan. Next was Hong Kong. From there we went to the Philippines for several days, and then onward to Singapore for another few days. Afterwards we entered the Indian Ocean. We had a couple of days in Mombasa, Kenya, and then spent a week or so off the coast of Somalia in December 1986 (that was the time when Somalia was getting international military assistance and supply drops, etc.). We entered the Persian Gulf two days after Christmas that year and stayed there 97 days without setting foot on land. Our first "landing" after that was Singapore (yes, again) and then on to Perth, Australia. Then it was on to Honolulu and, finally, back into port in Alameda CA. That was typical for that time of unrest in the Persian Gulf. That was my second cruise.
On USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) , Oct. 1992-Dec. 1993, our WestPac was a variation of that sans the Bering Straits/Sea of Japan diversion. We were also not going to the Philippines any longer. We did hit Singapore and Hong Kong. During our Persian Gulf time (roughly 65 days), we made a port visit to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates which lasted about 7 days. Of note during this time was that Saddam Hussein had violated the no-fly zone several times and the U.S. was, along with allied military forces, launching air strikes against military targets in Iraq. My ship was the "launching pad", as it turned out, and we hosted a horde of international media on a daily basis for about two weeks. My life, as assistant Public Affairs Officer and the ship's Chief Journalist/Broadcaster, was dedicated to meeting the logistical needs of those media reps while maintaining daily operations of ship's TV and newspaper. Somehow it all worked out...it was euphoric and exhausting and one of the more interesting times of my life. I lived on roughly 4 hours of sleep per day during those two weeks.
