26 NAVY NEWS, MAY 2008
● A Merlin of 814 NAS – The Flying
Tigers – lifts off from HMS Illustrious
Continued from page 25 non bacterial variety...).marina
with her guardian angel HMS Edinburgh
For those slightly less adventurous, there was a
Behind each door is a selection of poems. Not
in the background
swimming pool on the quarterdeck (actually more
doggerels. Real poems. Coleridge, Betjeman,
of a bubble-less jacuzzi fi lled with sea water).
even Jose de Espronceda’s La Canción del
There was a birthday party, 800 NAS’ 75th to
Pirata (‘The Pirate’s Song’). Fortunately for non
be precise, which provided the perfect excuse
hispanophones, there’s an English translation
for a cake and champagne (there needs to be an
provided (possibly by Lusty’s Spanish exchange
excuse for cake and champers? – Ed) with a fl y-
officer, ‘Pedro the PWO’).
past of Illustrious by two jets trailing vapour from
Pedro isn’t the only non-Brit aboard Illustrious
their wing tips.
for Orion.
And there’s Jack’s ever-present sense of
Last year we commented on the international
humour.
fl avour of the aircraft aboard Lusty. Well, now
Amid the usual admonishments about FOD,
the aircraft are British but the crew’s rather
fatigue and cleanliness, a more esoteric poster
cosmopolitan.
on one cabin door. “Is there higher intelligence?”
There’s an American airman carrying out
it asks, prompting some choice graffi ti: “Not
studies into the role of the future carriers.
in this cabin.”
There’s a French air traffic controller.
A few doors down:
There’s a New Zealander.
Submarine watchkeeper
There’s also a handful of RAF personnel, some
resting. Wake only in the
with the Naval Strike Wing, some with the ship’s
event of
company, some attached to the commodore’s
submarine located
staff.
abandon ship
All of which helps towards the bigger picture,
splice the mainbrace
for Orion is, of course, more than just about
Lusty. It’s more than just about the RN – but it
A few more doors down would be impossible without us.
and you come to the heads, “This is what the Royal Navy does,” Cdre
featuring a top tip to make Cunningham stressed.
Viz proud. “You have to take the men and women away,
There’s the handy two-step show them a basic group in operation, show
guide to getting rid of old loo them RASing, routines, run a logistics chain half
rolls. First, take the old roll off way across the world. You have to test the whole
its holder. Second, toss it in infrastructure – you can’t do that off the Isle of
the bin. (Now I know where Wight.
I’ve been going wrong all “Sending a force like this all the way out here is
these years – Ed.) most defi nitely not a token gesture. There are not
You’ll find culture in many navies who can do this, although there are
the heads, too (of the many who aspire to it.”
● HMS Illustrious leads the Orion task force in the Gulf of Oman. (L-R) SPS Mendez Nuñez, RFA Wave Knight, HMS Edinburgh and USS
Cole and (above) top bombing... A Naval Strike Wing Harrier attacks a splash target trailed behind Illustrious
023-026_NN_May.indd 4 21/4/08 10:15:14
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56