AN aircraft carrier is something many people only see in movies, so to experience life on board the massive vessel is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Lt Jadon Robinson and Lt Cdr Amit Ramlal, two members of Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard (TTCG), have became the first ever serving members of the TTCG to be embedded on a US aircraft carrier.
The duo recently returned from an eight-week long exercise aboard the USS George Washington as part of US Naval Forces Southern Command/US Fourth Fleet’s Southern Seas 2024 deployment.
Ramlal and Robinson were among two dozen officers from 11 partner nations, and the only Caribbean military personnel, deployed as part of an international staff sailing to the US Southern Command area of operations.
Speaking with Newsday at the US consular offices on Sweet Briar Road, St Clair, Robinson described the experience as “wowing.”
[caption id="attachment_1100285" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard officer Lt Jadon Robinson onboard the USS Washington. - Photos courtesy US Embassy[/caption]
The USS George Washington is one of the centrepieces of the US Navy’s fleet of warships.
The 34-year-old nuclear-powered vessel is 1,092 feet (333 metres) long, 257 feet (78 metres) wide and 244 feet (74 metres) tall.
Known as a "super carrier," it has a top speed of more than 30 knots (56 km/h) and with its 4.5 acre flight deck, can accommodate approximately 90 aircraft.
A media release from the US embassy issued before the duo’s departure said Southern Seas 2024 was aimed at featuring subject matter expert exchanges and providing the opportunity for sailors from US partner nations to see aircraft carrier operations up close.
The duo also received training from US Naval War College professors and worked alongside US naval personnel to conduct detailed operational planning in support of operations at sea.
Robinson said they were left in awe on their first day.
“My first thoughts were, ‘This is huge.’ Just the grand scheme of this piece of machinery that you're seeing. And when we're driving into the port, we saw persons leaving the ship because we were told that they were given the opportunity to go ashore. And the vast amount of persons that we saw walking off of the ship was mind-blowing. With roughly 5,000 persons on board, it's a small city. The aircraft carrier is basically a floating airport.”
Once aboard, Ramlal and Robinson spent some time getting familiar with the vessel.
Robinson said contrary to belief, getting about the boat is easy as it is “quite spacious,” but the size of the boat made it easy to get lost.
“We spent the first week getting lost over and over and over and trying to find our way around. Because there are so many different compartments and so many different alleyways, we just kept getting lost. You had an open many decks, a lot of decks.”
They were given full tours of the ship to learn its operations.
“We had to do vessel familiarisation. We went through various compartments and departments on the ship to lear
