Summer Cruise_Day 9

DDG 66 (GONZALEZ) versus CG 66 (HUE CITY) - If I thought yesterday was good SWO stuff, today was even better. Overnight, we chased the BLUE force carrier and kept her escorts extremely busy. Then, knowing that a pre-dawn surprise attack by us and the other OPFOR ships was imminent, GONZALEZ went to General Quarters at 0430 and ran a series of challenging damage control drills. At 0530 with our drills in progress we attacked BLUE forces. After unloading all of our sim missiles, there was only one BLUE force ship Fighting Freddy had in her sights, the other 66 – USS HUE CITY! It was a glorious gun battle in which the GONZALEZ bridge team expertly took advantage of our strengths and the cruiser’s weaknesses, but in the end, one gun lost to two. At 0630, our drills secured, our guns ceased firing, the drill team coordinator played taps over the 1MC, and we saluted HUE CITY with a BRAVO ZULU flying from our starboard halyard as she passed close down our starboard side to ensure we were out of action.

We then took a little time for some morning holiday routine following our early GQ, held an awards ceremony and Captain’s Call on the flight deck, promoted a new LCDR, qualified a new Command Duty Officer, fresh water washed the ship, and pulled into Mayport for a port call in the late afternoon. Thursday (tomorrow) is an all hands topside preservation day followed by a 4-day holiday weekend! On the horizon GONZALEZ and HUE City have a wardroom softball challenge coming up, and I have two guest bloggers from the crew working on some blog entries of their own. - CO