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| | | (SPECIAL/www.northfulton.com
Mayor Joe Lockwood recently took part in the U.S. Navy’s Distinguished Visitor Embarkment to the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. Here, he meets a commanding officer on the flight deck. (click for larger version) | |
October 06, 2008
www.northfulton.com
MILTON - The world of small-town politics can be fast moving, but nothing like the speed Milton Mayor Joe Lockwood experienced when he got to board the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower as a special guest Sept. 21 and 22.
"You're strapped into a [C-2A Greyhound] transport plane backwards," said Lockwood. "It was about a 2˝-hour flight. A guy stands up and starts waving his arms, and we'd been briefed that meant we had 20 seconds to hold on before the plane went from 180 mph to zero in less than two seconds."
And that was just the start of Lockwood's Navy adventure. The mayor said an old friend of his, former U.S. Marine Walt Linscott, called in mid-September and said there was a spot left in the U.S. Navy's Distinguished Visitor Embarkment program.
Linscott, now a lawyer in Atlanta-based firm Thompson Hine, served in the Marines as a naval aviator for six years, and has always kept his ties to the branch. When they asked him to sponsor a participant in the very selective program, he knew Lockwood was the right choice.
"They wanted a good spokesman, someone who was able to relate the experience to his community," he said. "I thought he'd be good, and fortunately he was able to take that experience."
Lockwood, the only member from Georgia, jumped at the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to tour a working aircraft carrier with eight others.
"They were looking for community leaders to show how our tax dollars are spent," he said. "They give you the whole Navy/aircraft carrier experience."
That experience included flying from Naval Station Norfolk in Norfolk, Va., to the carrier, which was about 80 miles off the coast of Jacksonville, Fla.
"When you land, you know, you can't see anything," said Lockwood. "When the back of that plane opened, it was almost like something out of a movie. There were people scurrying, F-18 [fighter planes] spooling up on the catapult, all out in the middle of the ocean."
While on the Eisenhower, Lockwood and the rest of the bunch were kept on a tight itinerary that included meeting with the sailors, officers and touring almost the whole boat, including eating in the officers quarters and sleeping on ship.
They saw pretty much everything — save for the nuclear reactor, that is.
"I'll tell you, I walked away with an appreciation of what they have to do," he said. "There's 5,000 people on that boat. It's like a mini-city."
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