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(Continued from page 26) Following the air show, my friend walked a few of us around the flight deck and answered any questions we had regarding anything from, the “meatball”, and the proper glideslope for landing on deck (30 degrees), to the catapult, and to the arresting wires. It was very informative, and really helped me understand the workings of the flight deck.
As we headed back to Norfolk I spent hours just hanging out on the flight deck taking photos, and wandering the ship, learning my way around. As we neared Virginia Beach again people started gathering back up on the flight deck again to watch as we returned to port. On each side of us was a Navy gunboat again, and at one point I saw that on our right side there was a fishing boat that was headed out to sea. The boat was parallel to us, but as we got closer to it, the gunboat snapped around and stayed next to the fishing boat, ensuring it would not veer towards us. Once we were past each other the gunboat turned back to the carrier and continued its escort. (Continued on page 34)