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SgtJim
01-01-2012, 03:30 PM
from NAVYLive (http://navylive.dodlive.mil/index.php/2011/12/31/ringing-in-the-new-year-navy-style/)
December 31st, 2011 posted by shawneklund
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At the time this blog is posted, most people in Europe and the United States are busy readying themselves for a well-deserved evening of revelry ringing in the New Year. They are free do so, in large part, because at the same time more than 100 U.S. Navy ships and more than 47,000 U.S. Navy Sailors (http://www.navy.mil/navydata/navy_legacy_hr.asp?id=146) are forward deployed around the world. Your Navy wishes you a fun and safe evening! We’re proud to operate forward to deter aggression, protect the nation, reassure our partners, and maintain the freedom of the sea — the basis for global prosperity. The Navy has the watch! By “the Navy” we mean people like Lt. j.g. Jason E. Crile, USN, who at this moment is the officer of the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) (http://www.cvn72.navy.mil/), responsible to the ship’s commanding officer for its safe navigation and proper operation. Crile and the rest of the crew of Lincoln are currently on deployment in the Western Pacific Ocean where it is already 2012. Just moments ago, in keeping with Navy tradition ¹, Crile posted the ship’s New Year’s log entry.

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PACIFIC OCEAN (Jan. 1, 2012) Lt. j.g. Jason Crile writes a New Year''s Day poem in the ship's log book at the stroke of midnight on the bridge of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72). (U.S. Navy photo Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Apprentice Karolina A. Martinez/Released)

Lieutenant Junior Grade Crile and his midnight Bridge crew
patiently navigate CVN Seven Two,

Slicing through eight foot waves at 18 knots
course is 250 with N12.30 E13 on the plots

We travelled 460 nautical miles in the day
taking us further and ever so further away

A New Years Eve Party rages in Hangar Bay Two
toasting 2012 with non-alcohol brew

Reflecting back fondly the past year with this pen
the ship will never see Everett again

Propulsion four engines, not much OOC
the jets are all resting, and I’m sipping tea

With MOMSEN (http://www.momsen.navy.mil/), STERETT (http://www.sterett.navy.mil/), and CAPE ST GEORGE (http://www.cape-st-george.navy.mil/) at our side
a nuclear powered split steam plant is fueling our ride

SSTGs, CTGs, Steering 2 and 3 are online
with diesels and alternate steering stand-bied

Yoke is set with mod-zebra third deck and below
postures and conditions as per TAO.

Captain J.D. Alexander is not on the Bridge
he and the RDML Shoe toast root beer from the fridge

Defending our freedom, sovereign steel without borders
4400 Sailors await battle orders

For the love of our country our lives did we lease
but how sweetly we savor this moment of peace.

In the morning Straits beckon
but first pillows we will wreck on

When this long watch is through
the next will come on to sail mighty Seven Two.

From the captain and crew of USS Abraham Lincoln, and all the men and women of the United States Navy, Happy New Year!!!


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[¹]. No one knows for sure how the tradition of poetic New Year’s deck log entries began, but it is believed to have begun between the World Wars. In 2004 Stars & Stripes reporter Jason Chudy wrote a piece about New Year’s deck logs (http://www.stripes.com/news/whitman-has-nothing-on-jan-1-navy-deck-logs-1.15012). More information about the official nature of ships’ deck logs can be found on the web site of the Naval History and Heritage Command (http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq73-1.htm). For examples of other New Year’s deck log entries, check out a developing collection of them at the web site of The Deck Log Project (http://www.decklogproject.org/)