Heroes at Sea: Life Aboard the Ike

The following is a special presentation of Fox 31 and our ongoing commitment to the military the Fox 31 problem solvers serving those who serve tonight a Fox 31 temper exclusive we're taking you aboard a city at sea hell of a scary but get used to it this is an airport in the middle of a rough ocean before joining I had never even seen the ocean very impressive especially when you're out there and the only thing surrounding you is thousands of miles of water the floating front line in the international attack on terrorists I do this because it keeps my family safe it keeps people that don't even know me back home in Colorado safe have a good day see what life is like aboard one of the most massive aircraft carriers on the planet and get to know though well-trained Colorado sailors who called the USS dwight d eisenhower home Everhard traveling the world as they help protect it I always wonder or something that was bigger than myself pretty cool job they are our heroes at sea spending their life aboard be Ike good evening and thank you for joining us on this weekend when we honor our military heroes I'm Jeremy Hubbard this is the Fox 31 serving those who served specially tonight we're doing something a little different we're coming to you from the flight deck of the USS the white the Eisenhower the Ike a city afloat right now it's docked off the coast of Norfolk Virginia but usually it is traveling all over the world and some of the people on board are guys from Colorado heroes who've given up everything their lives their jobs their families to come out here and serve their country it is hard to overstate the awesome power of their office space they work whatever this behemoth boat takes them and it has taken them all over the world good morning to everyone on the flight deck start to go aircraft sort of maybe is one of the largest warships on the globe 24 stories high four and a half acres long again this is the giant garage that we have for the ship so big you can easily get lost that way is forward for the front that way is asked which is the back all to transport man and machine over ocean and sea we just completed our 15th combat deployment the places where the fight is we were gone from June 1st to December 30th and the places where the fight will soon be the real big job is going to be up on the flight deck and a 24 year old man from our state name is Brett Dunaway I'm a navy F airman III from Castle Rock Colorado he's right in the middle of all the action Magellan ship it's a few aircraft banning a high-tech gas station for Hornets Hawkeye's and helicopters atop a flight deck that has been dubbed one of the most dangerous workplaces in the world was scary but it used to it rid Dunaway never saw himself here just a few years ago he was a student at Douglas County High School and Castle View uncertain about the future bread comes from a military family and he liked the idea of seeing new places be on a shift around the world you know it sounds like a blast we've been to Marseilles France when Italy Dubai and Bahrain all the while he's tending to those 70 or so aircraft that take off like a slingshot and land like a fast breaking car at a rate of one jet every minute on the tarmac of this moving monstrosity often in less than ideal condition I'm pretty adaptive first thing the only thing I was really horrible with the heat over the middle in daylight and in darkness it's his responsibility and everyone else is to make sure nothing goes wrong easier said than done when they're operating high-speed planes on short length runway but things don't always go right in March 2016 a rare accident on the Eisenhower caught on camera this etc' Hawkeye was coming in for a landing but that arresting gear didn't work the wire snapped as the plane tried to land with nowhere to go the plane just dropped right off the side of the ship heart-pounding until unbelievably the plane reemerged a quick-thinking crew regaining flight avoiding a collision with the ocean 8 service members were injured when those wires failed but amazingly no one died this is the Ouija board this is just the outlay of the flight choreographing every takeoff every landing every function of this massive ship is definitely a puzzle the Ouija board is to scale so everything you see on it it's the same size as it would be outside and in the ship's cabin you'll find a pieces miniature planes laid out on a replica flight deck so everyone knows where every plane is at every moment a big part of what we do is keeping the fight away from our shores keeping it somewhere else and I'm all about that because I want my wife and kids to be safe and secure sleeping soundly at night Lieutenant Commander Daryl Heidi of Aurora has one of the most critical jobs on the ship he works in this top-secret room our cameras aren't even allowed inside and he's vague about his job description I generate power generate electricity lights propulsion helped launch airplanes make sure stuff gets fixed other than that I can't really talk about it too much inside is where he helps maintain the ice two nuclear reactors those reactors create the scheme that powers the ship's propellers enabling it to move 35 miles an hour across the ocean another bonus of that nuclear power the Eisenhower can sail for more than 20 years before it ever needs to refuel and that nuclear energy provides the electricity needed to power everything that makes this miniature city function and it really is just like a floating city they've got stores a chapel a newspaper a TV station and yes they've even got their own Starbucks so it just kind of gives you an idea of the size and a scope of the ship but even with all those creature comforts spend seven straight months onboard this ship and there's so much about Colorado you long for I do miss it no humidity and get all the seasons it's really nice I definitely missed the mountains and most places that you go are significantly more flat for Colorado and they all miss their families but for Daryl Heidi that's part of the reason he's here in the first place never far from my mind I have pictures of my wife and kids up in my on my desk so they're a constant reminder of what I'm what I'm doing this for and why this is so important to me I do this because it keeps my family safe it keeps my my friends safe it keeps people that don't even know me back home in Colorado keeps them safe I do it because it's a really important a lot of work to keep the USS dwight d eisenhower afloat and moving through the sea now we ask them what he misses most about colorado of course he said his family but not too distant second the Denver Broncos when we come back tonight our state's long and unlikely history with the Navy maybe you've heard of the USS Denver or the USS Colorado but what about the USS Pueblo tie their hands up Brian they're back and buying cold editions took a shot on the deck meet the Colorado sailor held prisoner of war for nearly a year when the Pueblo was attacked and captured decades ago it was one of the biggest stories in the world and will have his first-hand account when heroes at sea a Fox 31 Denver news special return after this welcome back thanks for staying with us on this weekend we honor American heroes I'm Jeremy Hubbard we're here in Norfolk Virginia at Chesapeake Bay behind me and off in the distance and aircraft carrier the USS dwight d eisenhower we've been telling you the stories with some colorado service members who helped make that ship run it is a five billion dollar behemoth a mobile city at sea it's also an airport at sea it's flight deck home to 70 airplanes and as you can imagine taking off and landing is no easy task that's at Naval Station Norfolk the biggest naval installation in the world is an armada of warships some of the biggest most powerful maritime machines on the planet made of steel and rust and human resolve but it's that giant aircraft carrier right there with the number 69 emblazoned on its towering island that means so much to a young man from Colorado petty officer 2nd class Alexander V Hill from golden is one of the guys on the Eisenhower wearing a red shirt with a very difficult task uh what's not stressful about this job those red shirts are in charge of weapons and ammunition on the f-18s that catapult off the ship's deck headed for war jet leaves off the pointy end of the carrier and when that jet comes back flicked no weapons on I made a good feeling that you helped the guys on the ground they needed our support we caught up with V Hill on solid ground inside this hangar at Naval Air Station Oceana so this is a f-18 where he showed us those super hornets he spend so much time working on and around I rarely take leave I'm I'm a workaholic really that work ethic and patriotism is something the 26 year-old was quite literally born with I was born September 11th 1989 I was raised by my mother most of all the uncles on my mom's side of the family or prior Navy so when I decided I wanted to join the military Navy was the first branch came to mind I didn't want to have a career before joining I had never even seen the ocean I love to travel though and get outside obviously love the outdoors from Colorado free and president especially when you're out there and the only thing surrounding you is just thousands of miles of water his higher education has come in for deployments around the world on the flight deck of the Ike six to seven months at a time out at sea Navy is I think is worth that we got you know sea air and land we got the seals you got aviation you have all these different fleets and battle strike groups deploying at a moment's notice and maintaining maritime security up a moment's notice indeed in emergencies the ship its air weighing its crew of thousands all have to be loaded and ready to depart within 72 hours no easy task but it's why they're constantly getting ready at Naval Air Station Oceana Air Operations handles more than a hundred thousand flights every year that's one about every six minutes we come out here about an hour beforehand and we pretty much to set up the aircraft start up the other thing and take off and making sure those planes are air worthy is a 21 year old man from Colorado from Denver Colorado once I saw Sara Carol Nathaniel Wilson is an outdoorsman and an athlete and hopes to one day be a Navy SEAL but for now at least he's a Navy aviation machinist mate you just kind of do a general inspection I mean you looked at the certain things on the judge you look for corrosion he works on the engines and fuel systems on the f-18s aboard the Ike he's the eyes and ears for the pilot airmen like Nathaniel start up the engines make sure everything runs smoothly and then send the pilots off to fly and when those 60 million dollar aircraft come back Nathaniel performs inspections to make sure nothing was damaged and the planes are still safe so like for example here you're looking for lumps you know looking to see if there's any any uh any damage to those maybe it's that adventurous Colorado upbringing and that desire to be an elite Navy SEAL that drives him to do a dangerous often thankless but truly critical job that can save a pilot's life and protect the people Nathaniel love the best about being the Navy's the other purpose more the purpose you're defending America you know everything we do here matters it's pretty amazing I'm 21 and I have responsibilities that most people don't get to have sometimes just got to think about side and remember it when you're having like a bad day or they're struggling but overall it's a really it's amazing experience and I wouldn't change it landing a plane on a moving car Mac no easy task for sure chill ahead tonight the future of the aircraft carrier having a little fun testing out the technology on the Navy's newest addition to the fleet a thirteen billion dollar carrier but first at Colorado man with a unique place in naval history taken captive aboard a US Navy ship that is currently being used as a tourist attraction in North Korea when he rose at sea the Fox 31 Denver News special returns after this welcome back as we continue tonight from Norfolk Virginia just outside the USS dwight d eisenhower that aircraft carrier like so many other navy ships named for former US presidents but there are plenty of craft named for places near and dear to our hearts for instance the USS Colorado it's a brand-new Navy submarine christened just last December in fact they used a bottle of Colorado wine to break across the bow when she was introduced and of course the USS Pueblo named for the city in the southern part of our state now that ship has a unique role in US history this one was taken just as soon as we come across the bridge and no return Alvin plucker still bears the wounds fifty years later I have all kinds emotional problems all most of us do here in his basement in LaSalle Colorado a museum to that moment in history that changed his life forever pictures medals even the old POWs you know form this was the one that we came home and ordered wear for special occasions from the time he was part of the biggest story in the world this is Kevlar I'm the spy ship of the u.s. imperialist aggression forces captured by our seamen on January 23rd 1968 Alvin was a quartermaster onboard the USS Pueblo an old research vessel named for the town in southern Colorado it had been converted into a spy ship he had a crew of more than 80 other sailors were conducting surveillance off the coast of North Korea and the North Koreans were not happy about it we were already below so that we didn't get shot after Alvin and his shipmates attempted to get away the North Korean military unleashed bullets and bombs on the Pueblo and when it did it killed the one sailor and it injured about 13 others commander Booker says well I'm not going to sacrifice the whole crew the next thing you know is they got torpedoes they'll sink us to the bottom he decided that well maybe we should surrender the ship reluctantly they did surrender the ship was boarded by the North Koreans and suddenly they're in the frigid waters of the Sea of Japan those eighty three crewmembers became prisoners of war tie their hands up behind their back and blindfolded us and took us out on the deck and we just we really froze I remember that really that was your hands would stick to the deck and everything else the ship was docked in North Korea the crew held hostage for nearly a year they were beaten tortured and starved I'm pretty sure that in the first month and a half that I dropped from 135 down to 98 I was really bad shape what followed was months of negotiations between the u.s. and North Korea periodically the POWs were paraded in front of reporters so one of the Alvin's fellow sailors came up with a comical idea to thumb their nose at their captors he decided that this way they're in a group and you're taking pictures you know just to make sure that that you put this somewhere in your picture just anywhere is all right you know and and the North Koreans got to looking at that and they they didn't suspect anything I was just kind of curious when the North Koreans asked what the guys were doing with those middle fingers the sailor said it was the Hawaiian good luck sign oh they bought it hey bought it you could see guards and officers going up and down the aisle you know everybody and each other and everybody you know they were having a we just died laughing that is until a Western reporter told the captors the true meaning of that hand signal they weren't happy what followed is what Alvin and the others called hell week they beat us from sunrise to sunset they took one of the machine guns which had a bayonet on it they put it right at my throat at 11:30 in the morning that day the DPRK government announced that it would expel over 80 spies out of the Republic then finally on December 23rd 1968 negotiators at long last resolved the crisis Alvin and the other POWs were driven to the border with South Korea finally we ended up at the bridge and no return and they told us finally told us right and they said you're going to go home hard to believe next year it will be 50 years since the event that changed Alvin pluckers life he and his shipmates who are still alive are planning a big celebration where else but Pueblo Colorado the town that shares their ship's name as for the Pueblo itself it never came home to this day it's docked in Pyongyang North Korea a tourist attraction and propaganda tool they use against America to the throngs of tourists who visit every day some of the guys say why not stand of a bomb over there just brought up my Calvin battleship maintains a unique place in naval history it is the only active duty u.s. vessel in enemy a bit of a history lesson who knew Colorado had such deep roots in US naval history finally tonight most folks in landlocked Colorado often don't think about the role of the US Navy in protecting the country but the folks in this branch of service would tell you that 70% of the globe is covered in water 80% of the world population lives within a hundred miles of a coastline their role is crucial and so is the role that so many Colorado servicemembers play and soon they'll be fulfilling that role on a futuristic ship this is the USS Gerald our Ford lead ship in a brand new class of Navy super carriers she underwent sea trials just last month the first newly designed aircraft carrier in 40 years they're currently getting its shipshape it's three times as powerful as the Ike with a high-tech new radar system to track aircraft and new electromagnetic catapults that should make launching aircraft off the deck even smoother they tried it out with some dead loads a few months ago and let's just say it was fun to watch it made quite a splash though they have had some problems working out all the kinks at thirteen billion dollars the Ford is the most expensive warship ever built and the latest tool to help the US Navy carry out its mission and so many service members from Colorado working to help carry out that mission I'm Jeremy Hubbard from Norfolk Virginia this has been a Fox 31 serving those who serve special thank you so much for joining tonight

Channel: FOX31 Denver

Views: 296,203

Rating: 4.734951 out of 5

Keywords: fox31, kdvr, denver, colorado, serving those who serve, jeremy hubbard, USS Eisenhower, Ike, aircraft carrier, military, navy

Id: _lhsFqvZXG8

Length: 20min 14sec (1214 seconds)

Published: Tue May 30 2017