It’s 7:30AM on our second day on the USS Nimitz and the 15 bloggers and I joined lots of the enlists for breakfast. After eating eggs, bacon and juice, I captured Petty Officer John Hardy for a short conversation. Petty Officer Hardy has been in the navy 10 years, and is a maintenance worker repairing guns and the aircraft. From Grand Rapids Michigan, Hardy joined the Navy to get a college education and grow up with more opportunities. He talks to me about the challenges of his work as well as his travel to Dubai. Photo credit of mess hall: Guy Kawasaki
At midnight while on board of the USS Nimitz, I caught up with Lia Reynolds, the Corporate Staff Judge Advocate. She’s been in the Navy for 12 years, and her “primary client” is the US Navy. She’s in love with her work, and is happy to not work in the world of corporate law. She sees herself with the Navy for at least another 8 years.
With amazing candor, Luis Delgado, talked to me about his most intense thoughts as a F-18 pilot. Flying off the USS Nimitz at night into a pitch blackness that can scare him so much he screams into his mask, Delgado admitted to me that he feels like he “dies a little death every day”. Delgado loves his work, but has such tension that he suffers from insomnia. He admits that these feelings are not unusual for fighter pilots, and that the Navy cannot really train the pilots to deal with the fear, but can only hope that they can learn the skills to get the job done. Talking to him made me happy to have pilots like Delgado protecting our country.
U.S. based bloggers including Guy Kawasaki, Robert Scoble, and Charlene Li among many others joined an expedition sponsored by the Navy to view the USS Nimitz and its operations. On May 29-30th, these bloggers met many of the 5000 person Nimitz crew and were treated to tours of the ship and conversations with the officers and pilots. The goal of the Navy was to expose these bloggers to the real-life situations faced by many of the crew and to learn more about social media.
What an incredible 24 hours I had on the USS Nimitz. I have many podcasts that I am editing that I will post over the next week, but here is one short video clip taken by Guy Kawasaki of what it was like standing on the flight deck of the Nimitz. Guy invited me on this trip which was just the most exciting adventure I had. It also began on my birthday, May 28 so what a present!
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