The first Thematic Photographic of 2009 is the theme "new". For days I have looked for a unique and meaningful subject. I just finished watching it. I am still drying my eyes after watching the commissioning of our newest aircraft carrier USS George H W Bush CVN 77. I admit that the photo above is not from my camera, but I hope to get some of my own next month. Credit goes to AP and Fox News. And, of course, the Navy has streaming coverage at Navy.mil with this photo of the ceremony:
All this took place at the Norfolk Naval Station, just a couple of piers down from my son's ship the USS Dwight D Eisenhower CVN 69, except it is currently at sea. Scott would have loved this ceremony! The next chance he, or any of us, will have to see a commissioning of an aircraft carrier will be in 2015. This magnificent ship that came to life today is the last of the Nimitz class carriers. The next will be the Ford class with the first ship being the USS Gerald R Ford. We will see a radically different ship then.
The crew heard the command to "man our ship and bring her to life". They ran up the stairs, past their ship's namesake, the 41st president of the United States and past the 43rd president of the United States, making their way to the rails. As my heart is bursting with pride, tears of emotion stream into my morning coffee, and I grab my laptop to journal something "new".
May she have fair winds and following seas--- and God's guiding hand in all she will encounter.
