Daniel Buchholz's Scientist to Sea Shipride, September 12-15 2004 aboard the USS Anzio (CG 68).

I had the honor of being allowed to ride along with the USS Anzio, CG 68, a US Naval Cruiser with the Aegis Weapon system installed on it. I arrived at the Norfolk Naval Station around 1900, and was assigned a rack in their overflow berthing compartment (top rack, as you can see in the miscellaneous picture area). I didn't take many pictures at that point as I was unsure on what the rules where in regard to that point.
On the next day I awoke after a fitful sleep (navy ships are loud to the people who have never been on them before, noises are originating from various directions, people are moving around at all hours. This place makes staying a dorm positively restful, and you don’t have the fear of falling 6-7 feet from the bed) at the shocking hour of 0530. After wandering around a bit I linked up with the other "Scientist to Sea" person from my base (and from one of the branches in my division, N95) Nhan Nguyan, a very nice Vietnamese computer guy. We then had breakfast, attended the command briefing where we learned the plan for the ship cruise (Gun exercise, formation fleet maneuvering, helicopter operations, Link exercises, and underway replenishment). At that point I also learned I would be on the ship for about 15 hours longer than I had expected. After the meeting we were assigned berths up in officer country, I stayed with a Lt Commander who was in charge of the Weapon Systems and another Lt JG. After moving my stuff to the much nicer location I then went out on the deck and watched the operations required to get us out to sea.
Day 1 - Departing
After the ship had gotten underway, we had lunch, they proceeded to head out to link up with 2 destroyers to perform fleet operations from a codebook (message is sent over an open circuit, and information is pulled from a classified code book to determine the correct operation to perform). The 2 destroyers that we maneuvered with were the Arleigh Burke Class USS Porter (DDG 78) and the Arleigh Burke Class, Flight 2, USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG 81). Off in the distance the USS George Washington (CVN 73) could be seen on the horizon. After several hours of working with the destroyers we broke off and had an initial gun shoot to calibrate the guns of the ship for tomorrow, which because of some issues only was the aft gun (I was observing from the bridge).
Day 1 - Squadron Maneuvers
After everything I then had dinner in the Wardroom with the officers of the ship. Not too much after 2100-2200 I was asleep, completely tired from wandering all of the ship and from the sun that I had picked up when I was outside.
Day 1 - Misc
After waking up at 0530 (slept well, but one can only sleep so much) I had breakfast then went astern to watch them place buoy's in the water. They are using these buoy's to simulate a firing range, they have listening devices attached that can detect the time of a shell's impact (and a GPS unit to know where the system is located), so with 5 of these in the water deployed in a pentagon they can effectively figure out where the ships rounds are landing. They needed to develop a system like this because the people of Puerto Rico decided that they didn’t want the Navy using part of their island as a firing range (and now they are paying the price, as the Navy is closing the Naval base there, since there is no justifiable need for it any more. Which of course has the natives howling, as it will lead to the loss of a number of jobs. Serves them right.) So they deploy these buoys to replace it. Not seen is they also deployed several sonobouy's that serve as warning to the crew that larger sea mammals have entered the firing area.
Day 2 - Buoy Deployment
Following the deployment of the buoy's the ship sailed several miles away and began a series of shots from both of the deck guns to various simulated targets inside the area defined by the buoy's. Over the course of a couple of hours they must have shot somewhere around 50 rounds total. During this time I also spent a fair amount of time in CIC (Combat Information Center), which of course I have no pictures of, since the space is defined as sensitive and active operations were occurring at the time. I also was given a brief tour of the Missile cell, a very interesting experience, even if most of the cells were empty at the time.
Day 2 - Gun Shoot
After they were finished shooting, the ship sailed back into the area where the buoy's were and retrieved them (at ~50K apiece its not like they were going to leave them behind). For this they deployed the 2 small boats that the ship has, and I caught most of the action as they went out. The seas at this point had picked up (5-7 ft swells), and those small boats looked like they were really being shaken up out there, and the seas also made it harder for the boats to locate and retrieve the buoys.
Day 2 - Buoy Retrieval
Following the retrieval of the buoy's (and dinner), the ship then made a course to meet up with the USNS Leroy Grumman, an underway replenishment ship. They then proceeded to come up from behind and match speed and course with the Grumman. At that point lines were sent across (using a M14 to shoot the line), in the front to deploy lines that show the separation of the two ships, and in the rear to send a series of lines to then pull across the fueling line to the ship.
Day 2 - Underway Replenishment (Unrep)
After taking a load of fuel from the Grumman, the ship then met up with 3 destroyers, the USS Porter, USS Churchill, and the USS Arleigh Burke to perform further group maneuvers during the twilight and early evening hours. I watched it for a while from the bridge, until it was too dark to see anything more that the lights of the ships, then moved down to CIC to see how things looked from there.
Day 2 - Maneuvers
After another early start (0545 this time. Early to bed, early to rise) and an early breakfast (corned beef hash, grits, sausage gravy on toast, eggs), it was time to watch the ship return to Norfolk Naval Station. After stopping in CIC (as it was too dark for a little while to see anything in the bridge), I then headed to the bridge to watch the everything happen up there. It was definitely interesting to see how the ship was brought in, what they had to do to run the channel, and just take in the activity as it occurred. As the ship entered port they twice had to render honors to the ships that passed them (a DDG and a LPD) and had to make a brief pause while they waited for the ports pilot to get to the bridge. Then they used the tugs to get turned around so that they could slip stern first into the Berth on the pier (so that the would be pointing outward). Along the way in there were several notable warships, first of course being the Aircraft Carrier Harry S Truman (CVN-75), the USS Mount Whitney (Atlantic Fleet command and control ship), 2 LPH's (second in size only to the Carriers), several recently de-missiled FFGs (they removed the SM1 one armed bandits), and a wide array of DDG's and CG's (including on of the ones slated for decommissioning in the next year or so). The officer in khaki’s on the bridge is the ships captain.
Day 3 - Returning
In closing I would like to extend my thanks to the Captain and crew of the USS Anzio for the excellent reception that was extended during my stay aboard the ship. This has been a once in a lifetime experience for me.