Earlier today, Jason wrote about how a Ford Woody Wagon was found to be rather confusingly on the sunken USS Yorktown. That is a mystery that remains to be solved, but there’s no mystery why the USS Ronald Reagan was transporting a flight deck full of Chargers, Mustangs, and at least one sweet VW Golf.
These photos come courtesy of the US Navy, which grabbed some shots while moving cars for sailors, and from our Discord, where I first saw the pics of a modern aircraft carrier stuffed to the gills with vehicles. This actual journey happened way back in at the latest October of 2020, which explains why none of the cars are newer than that.
The reason behind these curious photos is quite straightforward, as reported by We Are The Mighty:
[W]hen the Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) was switching homeports from Bremerton to San Diego (before being deployed to Japan as the forward-based carrier), she did a solid for all of the sailors who man her — she gave their rides a ride.
Many sailors have vehicles. But when you’re sailing a ship, your options for vehicle transportation are limited. Sure, you can have your vehicle shipped — but you’ll have to pay a fee. Yeah, you can ask a buddy to make the road trip out to your new home port, but what if something happens along the way? Or, you could always sell your car and buy a new one, but that’s a hassle and a half — plus, you don’t want to shed that sweet Mustang, right?
Obviously, the air wing was not going on this particular trip, so the boat was mostly empty (although there’s at least one fighter jet on the deck).
Not only is it nice that the Navy provides this service, it’s also great that Mass Communication Specialists 3rd Class Charles D. Gaddis IV and Shawn J. Stewart were on hand to take all these photos. Let’s check out some of the cars, eh?
Right off the bat, we’ve got some excellent taste in trucks. This is a GMC Canyon in a bright school bus yellow paint job, and this well-cared-for five-cylinder truck even has the matching Leer cap. I award 9,000 points to this sailor.
The CR-Z has sort of a mixed reputation around these parts. While I’m pro-hybrid and, especially, pro-manual hybrid, these never quite managed to offer the nuclear efficiency of the original Insight and lacked the 48-hour-leave fun of the original CRX. That Lincoln LS in the background is almost as interesting and could also be had with a row-your-own gearbox.
While this was a relatively quick trip down the West Coast, there’s always a risk of rough seas, and it would be a bad look for any ship to dump a bunch of cars into the Puget Sound. Here we see two sailors carefully placing chocks behind the wheels. If they can hold a C-2 Greyhound, I’m sure they can hold an Acura TSX.
Here’s a higher-up view. Amidst the Jeeps, Mustangs, and Maximas there’s something that has specifically caught my eye. Can you guess what it is?
The Audi TT is an excellent choice for a sailor, as is the Firebird. I like to think the person with the VW Type 2 van is a wily mess officer who has been sailing around the world for decades.
Even more good cars here in the belly of this beast. A Civic hatch with a bike rack, a Volkswagen Golf GTI (or VR6? Someone can probably figure it out). A 350Z and a clean Infiniti G35 coupe. Also, trucks. Many, many trucks. [Ed Note: I grew up as an Army brat, so I can tell you: Lots of soldiers and sailors have trucks and Jeeps. It’s a thing (though when I was a kid conversion vans were also huge). -DT]. If there’s one vehicle I’m seeing a lot of in all of these photos, it’s the Honda Accord Coupe. Sensible-yet-fun.
There’s a lot more here. Take a look and tell me what you notice.
Top photo: U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communications Specialist 3rd Class Shawn J. Stewart/RELEASED
A Suburban and an SC2. Not things you would expect to be dailies on the west coast. The Suburban because rich people, and the SC2 because the plastic of Saturns has been defeated by the Mediterranean climate of the area.
I’m also surprised at how many Chrysler Concordes there are. I spotted two on deck, and another in the hold.
Can anyone ID the blue coupe next to the Range Rover (7 down and 8 over) in the top-down shot? My best guess is hardtop S2000, but I have doubts.
I believe that’s a Mazda RX-8. The B-pillar’s wrong and it has too flowing a roofline to be an S2000 with a strap on hardtop.
Purple convertible with orange stripes – Mustang?
I spy a little Mazda MX-3 (near the old Suburban).
Is that a yellow over blue Subaru outback with sweet white steelies at the bottom of the first overhead shot (by a red dodge truck?) or do I just want it to be? Some interesting paint jobs here, as well as a few cars that I think I recognize but don’t look quite “right” maybe because of some distortion in the photo. I keep on yelling “enhance, enhance” at my computer, Bladerunner style but it’s not working.
The GTI appears to be a 20th Anniversary edition in Imola Yellow. So 2003 (mk4) 6 speed manual 1.8T.
Cool car. Interior smells like crayons.
All pretty standard base parking lot stuff except for the VW van or Russian van it’s hard to tell. A few 15 pax GM vans probably either owned by the navy or were at some point. Navy guys used to drive interesting stuff it’s been the air force for a while but I know some space force people with some strange tastes. It’s seems like e-7 and below pictured but I guess most guys have trucks so could be they shipped the truck and their wife took the family car down.
What is the grey SUV in the right side of the inside image behind the white sedan? I thought Niva at first.
1983–1990 Chevy S-10 Blazer/GMC Jimmy 2-door?
Who are the unlucky ones that got the unprotected top deck spots? Give me the covered lower decks any time.
I recall hearing stories of brand new 1970s Fiats coming off the boat pre-rusted because of that very thing.
Ironically, it’s probably the Privates.
“On the flight deck, drivers are now manning for the Event 1 drive. Temperature is 84 degrees with scattered clouds, altimeter is 30.05. It’s time for all unnecessary mechanics and A-drivers to clear the flight deck. Hoods down, trunks closed, wipers set to ‘Off,’ e-brakes set to ‘On.’ Check your pockets for loose tire gauges and 10mm sockets. Check all bumper clearances, stand clear of all hitches, start all the Go pick-up trucks for a 0830 launch. Start ’em up.”
It looks like a neat tan over white old ’91 or older Suburban in the high overhead shot.
That thing is gorgeous! What’s the black sedan in front of it?
I think that’s a ’90s Cadillac Eldorado.
My understanding it that relatively speaking, they do this on the carriers all the time.
In the Air Force, one of the perks of flying the big cargo birds is that anything (not completely illegal, no drugs obviously) that can be carried through the crew door can fly for free. My C-5 pilot uncle who also had a thing for VW Beetles brought a LOT of Beetle parts home from Germany that way over the years, and a few Volvo tidbits for me.
He’s an interesting dude – into Beetles, Corvettes, and sport bikes. Still riding a crotch rocket at 70. Has a new C8 and a couple old Beetles. My other ex-AF pilot uncle really could not care less about cars, I think he drives an old pickup these days at 74. Though he is who got me into Land Rovers, as that was all he drove when I was a kid. I assume lots of old Rover bits came through the crew doors of his C-141s and C-17s.
Retired Navy here. Yes, this is a relatively common occurrence during a change of homeport. It also happens when ships come out of a long stay in a shipyard, though not as often and not usually with a big load of cars. It was both in this case since Reagan was making her port change coming out of the shipyard in Bremerton.
It’s not just carriers–the amphibious assault ships carry cars like this as well. It’s easier to load cars on the amphibs since they’re designed to carry their Marines’ vehicles and have drive-on/off capability.
“Put it over there next to the A6”
“Didn’t we retire the A6?”
“No, the Audi, not the Intruder. But watch out for the A7, it might suck you in.”
“Because of the low intake?”
“No, because of its sleek 4-door coupe roofline and fastback!”
“I hate you. I’ll be over there checking out that Hellcat.”
“Watch out for propwash!”
In other car related aircraft carrier content, there’s a video out there where they were calibrating the catapults (or maybe just for fun), and shot old cars off the catapults into the bay.
“Can you guess what it is?” The Maxima with the mohawk!
That’s an EG Civic hatchback with a bike rack, not a CRX.
A family friend of ours got their car transported from WA to San Diego this way in the early ’90s.
Also is it that black and gold wagon that caught your eye? I think thats a Caprice/Roadmaster
I think it’s a Grand Cherokee that’s distorted by the way it’s photographed.
Their press release says Mustang, but we all know they meant Challenger
Kind of want to see an Admiral doing a “crazy used car lot” ad with images of all these cars on the ship.
“MY PRICES CAN’T BE BEAT AND WE’RE COMIN TO A PORT NEAR YOU”
An admiral might be a stretch, but it’s definitely something I could see the Secretary of Defense doing.
And he probably *would* trade them for tattoo work.
He’ll be out before they finish putting his blow-to-go in his taxpayer funded Cybertruck.
Those are some neat pictures. I appreciate when the military is able to offer “a little extra” to the servicemembers like this.
If the CRX you are referring to is the white car close to the dead center of the photo, pretty sure that is an EG Civic hatch. I didn’t see another small Honda with a bike rack, but we could be discussing different cars.
I love how the coin slot sunroof instantly identifies the Maxima.