The Oak Harbor Area Council of the Navy League can celebrate another strong showing at the national Navy League convention in Chattanooga, Tenn., last week.
Results were presented to members Tuesday at the monthly meeting of the Navy League, held at the Officers’ Club on Naval Air Station Whidbey Island.
Oak Harbor Navy League co-presidents, Dick Devlin and Beth Munns, accepted awards for Meritorious Council – medium size, a retention award and the Donald M. Mackie Newsletter Excellence Award for medium council.
“This is the fourth year in a row we have won the Meritorious Council award and it’s due to your hard work and dedication,” Devlin told members Tuesday. “And only 15 councils in the United States receive this certificate of retention, for maintaining membership of 80 percent and above.”
In addition to being presented with the awards, Devlin and Munns were both elected to a one year term as national directors.
In summarizing for group members, Devlin said there were three big issues at the national convention.
“First is the US Marine Corps and Navy moving in a direction that has the Marines leaving land and going back to becoming the maritime force they were designed to be,” he said.
Two other topics of interest at the convention included the issue of cyberspace and the Committee of 12.
“This committee of 12 is working on hammering out budget cuts before January, or there could be across-the-board cuts that could deeply impact the military,” said Devlin. “There are no parameters on where those cuts would be.”
Intelligence Briefing
This month’s Navy League intelligence briefing was presented by Cryptologic Technician (Electronic Warfare) Second Class James Henry, with Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 142, who took the opportunity to give a briefing on the Navy’s aircraft carriers.
The first take off by Eugene Ely in 1910 from a makeshift platform over the bow of the cruiser USS Birmingham to his first landing approximately two months later in Jan., 1911 on a platform on the USS Pennsylvania, led the way for the Naval Appropriations Act for fiscal year 1920. The act provided funds to convert the USS Jupiter into a ship designed for launching and recovering airplanes at sea. Renamed the USS Langley (CV-1), the Navy’s first carrier was commissioned in 1922 and after two years as an experimental ship, reported for duty with the battle fleet in 1924.
The first ship actually designed and constructed as an aircraft carrier was the USS Ranger (CV-4), commissioned in 1943. Four more carriers were commissioned before the start of World War II — the USS Yorktown (CV-5) , USS Enterprise (CV-6), USS Wasp (CV-7) and the USS Hornet (CV-8). They all led the way to today’s “super carriers.”
“We call them “super carriers” because of their tremendous size,” Henry said. “Currently there are 11 “super carriers” in the US inventory — one Enterprise class and 10 Nimitz class carriers. There is a new class, the Gerald R. Ford class, of which there are three currently under construction.”
The new class of carriers features a flight deck that is four feet wider but is the same length as the Nimitz class carriers. However, the new carriers will be able to carry a full load of 100,000 tons and can operate with approximately 1,000 fewer crew members, including ship, air wing and staff.
“Another difference between the Nimitz class and the Gerald R. Ford class is the aircraft launching system,” Henry said. “Nimitz class use a CATOBAR (Catapult Assisted Take Off Barrier Arrested Recovery) system, which basically means it uses steam to launch aircraft and a cable to catch them on landing.
“The Gerald R. Ford class will use EMALS (ElectroMagnetic Aircraft Launch System), where electric current is used to power magnets to propel the aircraft,” said Henry.
The USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) is expected to join the fleet in 2015.
