Ambassador Cain Hosts Danish Politicians and Media on a Visit to the USS Enterprise at Sea
November 6, 2006
Ambassador Cain offered a group of Danish politicians, businessmen, and journalists a birds-eye view of daily life on the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, a forward outpost in America's counter-terrorism operations. This was no routine port call. The group traveled to the U.S. Naval Air Station in Rota, Spain. From there they boarded a C-2 Greyhound for a carrier landing that took them from 350 kilometers an hour to a dead stop in less than three seconds.
The captain of the nuclear-powered carrier hosted the group on a tour that included a trip to the ship's flight deck to observe take-offs (launches) and landings (recoveries) of and F-18 Hornets, S-3 Vikings, EA-6B Prowlers, and E-2 Hawkeye aircraft. The flight deck gave the visitors a sense of the perils faced by the airmen, sailors and marines of the USS Enterprise on a daily basis. The visit concluded with a catapult launch of the C-2 Greyhound, offering a Tivoli-like sensation of stress over three times the forces of gravity.