Navy News, opinions, editorials, news from Iraq, photos, reports - Navy Times

After historic African visit, TR sails on

The carrier Theodore Roosevelt and its strike group sailed from the South African city of Cape Town on Tuesday, having paused there for three days on its way to the Persian Gulf. The ship’s visit was part of an unusual trip for a Norfolk, Va.-based carrier, most of which usually steam across the Mediterranean and down through the Red Sea.

The TR was the first nuclear-powered carrier to visit Cape Town, and the first U.S. carrier to visit since the conventionally powered flattop Franklin D. Roosevelt arrived in 1967. According to reports in the South African press, there were concerns until just days before the TR arrived about whether the country’s regulators would issue the ship a special nuclear permit so it could drop anchor in Table Bay.

Once it did, the strike group was evidently a hit. Thousands of people turned out to see the carrier and its escorts.

“It was a manic, fantastic and unbelievable turnout,” waterfront marketing manager Penny Randall told The Independent newspaper. “The waterfront was absolutely packed and traffic kept streaming in.”

The South African news media covered the ship’s visit extensively, referring to the TR as the “USS Theodore” and by a nickname used by its crew, “Big Stick.”

“The Big Stick, whose range is limited only by food, has 3,200 naval personnel, which is nearly half the size of the South African Navy, and 2,480 air wing personnel onboard, along with 90 aircraft and helicopters, which is almost the size of the South African Air Force,” wrote Graeme Hosken on the news site IOL.

One columnist, Brian Ingpen, wrote in the Cape Times that he hopes South African authorities agree to dredge the channel coming into Cape Town so that more American warships can visit as they pass between the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. He cited “the US Navy’s fine record with its nuclear-powered ships, as well as the positive economic and military spinoffs for South Africa of these visits.”

While the TR was near port, its crew members took wine tours, hiked the nearby Table Mountain and went on safaris, according to a Navy announcement. They ate warthog, crocodile and gazelle steaks. Sailors also took part in a “bushman experience,” in which they visited an ostrich farm and a South African village, where bushmen showed them some traditional skills.

“It was crazy to see how other parts of the world live," said Storekeeper Seaman Lacy Frye. “My favorite part was definitely sitting on an ostrich. That is something you do not get to do back home.”