For most deployments the aircraft carriers hit up a port on their way home that is stateside and unload a lot of their crew and take on family members in what is called a Tiger Cruise. The Enterprise happened to call port in Jacksonville, FL. 1500 family members of service members on the boat got to board the ship and ride with them for two days to their final stop, Norfolk, VA. You have to be the same sex as your military sponsor, so most tigers are brothers, sisters, moms or dads. They board the ship and live like their sailors for two days. They sleep in the bunks, eat the same food, tour the ship, and at the end they get to pull into the pier at the homecoming and see what it's like from the other side.
Hall's Dad got to join Hall on the Tiger Cruise. He loaded up with him on Wednesday. They were treated to an airshow Thursday morning and then Hall flew off the ship on Thursday afternoon to come and greet me. We picked his Dad up with the ship at the pier the next day. Rip got a lot of great pics on the ship. He got to see Hall take off in his plane, which is something I don't think I'll ever get to witness. Hall, in addition to being a pilot, is also a paddles. A paddles is a pilot who talks to the other pilots flying onto the ship and tells them if they are flying too low, too high etc. They communicate via radio and with a light system. I won't get too much into it here, but Hall was a paddles during the airshow they performed on Thursday morning, so Rip got great pictures of Hall working and got to experience the planes landing.
He also had great pictures of the boat when it was pulling in and what it looked like from the ship perspective. I have pics of the boat pulling in from the huge crowd perspective. I wanted to share this side of homecoming as well since it's when all 5,000 of those service members get to unload and join their families on US soil.
One thing that makes me tear up a lot is hearing Hall describe flying off the boat. Ten jets from his squadron took off and flew together in formation from the boat back to base here in Virginia Beach. Hall was so excited to fly home over the United States for the first time in six months. On that flight they are in constant communication with ground opps. who clear the air space for them. The first guy they talked to on the ground came over all their radios and said "Hey Hawks, welcome back to the United States. Thanks for your service." Hall said he teared up hearing it and it makes me tear up describing it. Having never heard it I can only imagine what that must have felt like.
Enjoy the pics. Rip took the last one of us on the couch as a family and I love it. Hall looks so handsome, I look exhausted, and Frank cracks me up poking his head out from the other side of the couch. You better believe he wasn't missing out on that family cuddle time.
Hall performing his paddles duties.
In the ready room, the guys are geared up and ready to hop in their planes for the fly off. In about forty minutes they will land and see us for the first time ;)
Pics Rip got of Hall getting into position on the runway and about to get shot off the boat.
Homecoming on the Pier! All the sailors line up in their whites and stand around the perimeter of the deck. The first few pics are Rip's perspective from the ship, and the last two are mine from the pier.
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