USS George Washington and her escort, the guided missile cruiser USS Cowpens, will spend the 4th of July holiday – and $6-8 million, if history is any judge – in Perth, West Australia.
The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and guided-missile cruiser arrived this morning after leaving the Japanese port of Yokosuka on June 10.
This is the first visit to WA for the USS George Washington, the US Navy’s only permanently forward-deployed aircraft carrier.
The USS Cowpens, also known as the “Thundering Herd”, is primarily tasked to protect the USS George Washington.
Mr Woods said because the sailors were on a recreational break, they would spend a lot of money visiting Perth’s tourism attractions – including visiting the malls where they would spend money buying gifts for family and friends back home.
Mr Woods urged the State to do more to attract warships, such as offering a shipside docking at the Fremantle Port.
USS George Washington Capt. David Lausman said this would be the first visit to WA for many of the crew aboard the ship.
“I know our sailors are looking forward to experiencing the rich culture and interacting with the friendly citizens of Australia during our brief stay,” Capt. Lausman said.
Yep.
I miss it. All of it.
Yep, my “little” brother, Chief Jimmy, is also visiting the Aussies right now, but he’s in eastern Oz before the upcoming exercises. Friendly natives….cultural attractions. Yep. Hard to beat the place says my bro. And he’s a sometimes visitor to this site, too.
‘Connie’ ‘chucks a ‘wheelie” (does a ‘doughnut’) Fremantle/Perth 1999:
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l261/SpazSinbad/ConnieBigWheelPerth1999forum.jpg
Connie’s just across the Sound at Bremerton, alongside Ranger and Indy. Makes my heart ache to see them just sitting there in mothballs. I read a nasty rumor that Connie was going to suffer the same fate as America in the not too distant future.
Perth, Enterprise, 1984.
Friendliest. Portcall. Ever.
I’ve never felt so welcome and appreciated–not even in homeport (except by my wife, of course!). When was the last time you just could not spend a dime in a restaurant–any restaurant–because there was always some civilian you’ve never met before in your life who insisted on picking up the bill?
Perth, INDEPENDENCE, 1993
Fond memories of Perth. Not so fond memories of the months of work that went in to setting up a formal dance for all of the battlegroup officers. About 300 or so, IIRC. We got to wear our spiffies and partake of the the local cuisine and beverages. Since not all of our spouses were available, our Australian liaison was able to scrounge up a suitable number of the fairer gender to make for a pleasant evening. A good time was had by all, with no visits to or from the local constabularies. Even got an open-ended invite from said liaison to bring my family Down Under and stay with hers for a bit.
Regrettably, my quest to work my way through all 28 or so local beers and ales was cut short due to ship’s movement. All was not lost, however, as I was able to complete my main inport mission, the acquisition of a nice black pearl necklace for Yakette.
Quote:
“I know our sailors are looking forward to experiencing the rich culture and interacting with the friendly citizens of Australia during our brief stay,” Capt. Lausman said.
—————————–
I do not think that means what HE thinks it means.
My experiences with “interacting” had nothing to do with museums and shopping malls……… heh.
IIRC one boat coming down for Talisman Sabre forgot to book a spot to tie up, they ended up having to go from Townsville to Cairns to find a place to dock.
USS King 1968 Brisbane
Taken ashore by three nursing students. Shown the town.
The next day the QM gang went ashore and could not buy a beer. Not to say we didn’t drink any.
A cool one at the Outback always brings back fond memories.
Submitted without comment: http://i40.tinypic.com/2rx8hs0.jpg
Best libo ports in the world, IMHO, are Perth & Sydney.
Visited there in ’97 with the ESSEX ARG. Scuba diving off Rottnest Island near Perth, rappelling in the Blue Mountains near Sydney – absolutely incredible! Probably the only foreign port in the world where U.S. servicemembers can wear their uniforms in public and receive *a lot* of favorable attention!
When we visited Sydney, one of the Aussie ships invited the Navy/Marine officers over for hors d’oeuvres & cocktails. I convinced a few buddies that this was a good thing, and we ended up having a blast. The Navy guys mostly hung around for the minimal amount of time to be polite, but us jarheads stayed until the beer was gone. Go figure.
I ended up getting to know (not in the biblical sense, mind you) one of the ensigns on the ship who became my unofficial “tour guide” for our week there. She and her “mates” took me and a buddy all over the city, showing us the sights that usually get overlooked.
Oh, and if you haven’t visited Harry’s Cafe de Wheels in Sydney, you don’t know what you’re missing. Take a look at the menu on there and tell me that one of those curry pies wouldn’t hit the spot at 0200 while heading back to the ship after a long night of merriment.
Good times.
MajH, good to know you discovered the Blue Mountains (HIGH are not they at 1,100m?) I’m in the LOWER portion at all of 300m & Harry’s De Wheels (now Harry’s NO Wheels).
Welcome to town, GW, try not to wreck the place XD
@ Sim
Ha! No comment.
http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=77&ContentID=152769
And try not to do anything that’s going to appear in your hometown newspaper either!
“When a similar number of sailors appeared in Perth in 2002, Langtrees was overwhelmed with the demand and was forced to shut its doors.
Then brothel madam Mary-Anne Kenworthy said her staff and workers at other brothels had become exhausted and that she would rather stop business than offer customers an inferior service.
The story sparked outrage in the US town of Bremerton, home to hundreds of navy families, after a local newspaper ran the story.
The paper was forced to apologise to its readers after receiving several angry letters from the wives and girlfriends of sailors who had been on board the navy ships embroiled in the story.”
Never had the pleasure of visiting our good friends down South. Would like to some day; should have went there when I was stationed in Guam.
Do I see RUST !
AW1
You are correct. The Capt’s quote “I know our sailors are looking forward to experiencing the rich culture and interacting with the friendly citizens of Australia during our brief stay,” is the West Coast equivalent of the East Coast’s new saying “I’m going hiking on the Appalachian Trail”. Meaning I’m going to get my clock cleaned by some beautiful female, preferably one from a foreign country like Australia or Argentina. Just hard to find them kind of gals over here nowadays.
G-Man, you just got confused by the Gov’s southern accent. He didn’t say he was hiking the Appy Trail. He said he was getting some Argentinian tai*.
Here is one of Australia’s real treasures:
http://www.beccycole.com/news.html
That woman can sing, and her patriotism is wonderful.
Another Australian treasure; this one is my co-driver:
http://gps.about.com/b/2009/02/20/the-woman-behind-garmins-popular-australian-karen-voice.htm
Tim … You are so right about Beccy Cole. Loved the song she wrote and sang a couple of years ago — ‘Poster Girl on the Wrong Side of the World’ I think it is. That and ‘You Raise Me Up’ sung by Josh Groban and illustrated by Sgt. Hook on his blog with pictures of the Iraq War will long be remembered when other details of our Long War in the Middle East have dimmed. Both songs have that eternal simplicity of true folk songs. Real hope and eternal truths…
Marianne
I visited Sydney with Coral Sea in May of 63. What a wonderful place for a young sailor! Four of us hired a cabbie for the day and he took us all over the city. We asked him the best place to meet girls and he took us to the main telephone exchange in Parramatta at precisely 5PM. Back then they didn’t use servers to run the phones, they used women; hundreds of them. He put us on the curb just as they came out of the building, and we were gladly washed away by a tidal wave of lovely ladies. I can’t remember a better port of call visit.
25Z, great story! Probably I visited USS ‘Coral Sea’ alongside? as a 14 year old. Recall seeing Phantoms in ‘coccoons’ on deck; which had me mightily puzzled at that time. Two year later I was in the Navy – took some years to get to the carrier though.
25Z: And it would have been the ‘Coral Sea Week’ celebration visit: http://www.gunplot.net/coralsea/coralsea.html
Perth,Tarawa, 1981. We had one or two chalk boards on the hanger deck, along with a table of telephones. The local papers had published a “Dial-a-Marine” and “Dial-a-Sailor” article, along with the phone numbers that the ship would have. People would call, someone would take the message and post it on the chalk board – dinner for two Marines, barby for a dozen Sailors, etc – and a phone number to make the hook up. Me being the loner I was, I didn’t take part in any of that, but I understand that many did. But I can say that if you miss the last bus from Perth to Fremantle and you don’t have cab fare, it’s about a five or six hour walk back to the ship from downtown when you don’t exactly know your way! Perth reminded me so much of Sandy Eggo, it wasn’t funny.