The first day of the new month, and Portsmouth is only just over a week away. You can actually feel the change of atmosphere on the ship, as people realize just how close we are to home. There is, literally, no place quite like home.
When we headed south for potential conflict, we embarked an additional member of the Air Department, Alan Fowler, who was borne as a kind of second Lieutenant Commander (Flying), which practically meant that he worked up in Flyco for most of the time. He will be leaving the ship once we return to Portsmouth, and so I will be taking over as Flyco controller, working with John Lamb, who is the real Lieutenant Commander (Flying). So, in order to get me into the swing of things, I spent the day up in Flyco, controlling the deck.
The job is actually very similar to local control, but with a few more little niggles to sort out, and I don’t foresee any real problem in coping with it, though I will, of course, need a good deal more than one day to get competent. It will certainly be a bit more interesting than simply festering down in the Air Office all the time.
In Daily Orders today was the following ‘open letter’, which was sent from Captain Slater to the Philadelphia press, which is probably worth quoting in full:
In my 26 years in the Royal Navy I have experienced many port visits and many warm welcomes. However, the reception which HMS ILLUSTRIOUS has received in Philadelphia has been unique. We have enjoyed hospitality from clubs, societies and organisations but, above all, from the people of Philadelphia.
Over 700 of the Ship’s Company were invited to join families for Thanksgiving. Indeed, we received more invitations than we had sailors to accept them. We are well aware that Thanksgiving is very much a ‘Family Day’ and we were honoured and privileged to be invited to share the occasion with you.
As we sail away, I would like to say on behalf of my Ship’s Company a big ‘Thank You’ to the citizens of Philadelphia for making an unforgettable visit.
Nice one, Jock.
The evening Wardroom film was ‘The Final Countdown’, which has a fairly silly plot, slinging the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz back in time to the final hours just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but which was surprisingly watchable, with some most excellent action shots of the ship, deck operations, and aircraft in flight which were very well done. It went down very well.