‍

In this episode of Trint’s “A Photo A Story”, Jeff recalls his time aboard the USS Carl Vinson, an aircraft carrier in the U.S. Navy fleet, during the early stages of the war in Afghanistan following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. 

‍

This was a very rare opportunity to join the 6,000 people living within this floating, windowless city. All with specialist roles to keep the airport on the roof fully functional at all times. As a journalist, Jeff had limited access and was closely monitored as a guest of the Navy. But was still able to witness the carrier's operations and report on the early stages of the military campaign known as Operation Enduring Freedom.

‍

‍

Watch the video above or see Trint in action by viewing a read-only link of this transcript, with playback features to read-along with the video. Or if you’d just like the text, you’ll find Jeff’s story below.

‍

--------------------

‍

Jeff: [00:00:00] Because of our work, we were actually allowed to see daylight. Many people don't. Your existence on these aircraft carriers really is from your bunk down these winding corridors and up step ladders to the cafeteria and then to wherever your job happens to be. 

‍

Jeff: [00:00:23] This is aboard the USS Carl Vinson, one of 11 aircraft carriers in the U.S. Navy fleet. It's October 2001, just weeks after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. I got word that ABC News had been invited aboard the USS Carl Vinson in the Arabian Sea. The aircraft carrier had actually been on patrol in the Indian Ocean when the attacks happened, but was diverted to the Arabian Sea. 

‍

Jeff: [00:00:47] Now, normally we would have traveled as a team of four or even five a producer, a reporter, a cameraman, sound engineer, sometimes a video editor. The Navy only had space for two of us. So I flew on my own to Bahrain and met one of our cameramen from Germany. And the two of us were taken out to the Carl Vinson, where we watched the aircraft taking off on these sorties over Afghanistan. 

‍

Jeff: [00:01:12] We spent a week or so on board the Carl Vinson. It's a very rare opportunity. There are 6000 people living on these aircraft carriers that really are floating cities, windowless cities. But it's really all about that airport on the roof. It's all about this mobile airfield that allows the Navy to launch attacks from anywhere in the world where the aircraft carrier can go. 

‍

Jeff: [00:01:37] One of the things that was really interesting when we were on board was that these ships don't land. It's not like they can dock and reprovision. So what happens is a smaller ship would come within a couple of hundred feet of the aircraft carrier and launch a kind of cable car system where they would send pallets of food across to the aircraft carrier to reprovision. The physics don't allow two ships to actually dock while they're moving forward. They would crush each other. So they have to actually be in exactly the same direction, exactly the same speed. 

‍

Jeff: [00:02:11] In the following weeks, they would drop more than 4000 bombs on Afghanistan to try to wipe out the Taliban. Of course, that wasn't so easy to achieve and had huge collateral damage. It's a very high security mission. So you have such limited access and you're very much a guest, shall we say, of the Navy. You can't kind of roam around and sniff around to find out things. You really have to stay within certain confines you're in. That's part of the deal. 

‍Jeff: [00:02:43] So a week on there is more than enough to actually tell the story of this campaign that had been launched, Operation Enduring Freedom.