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
Was it the Mazda MX-3?
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).
This is because the Strike Group isn’t “based” on the ship. Interestingly the Ronald Regan is Strike Group 5 based in Japan, I believe this is the only one based overseas. Navel Airbase Leemore, in Leemore California (yes 120 miles from the ocean) is where the groups for the Nimitz, Lincoln, Vinson, and Roosevelt are based, even though the carriers might be at Bremerton or San Diego. Crew (like my son, YN2 with VFA-22 Redcocks, on the Nimitz right now) are flown to the port, the jets meet them on the ocean. The good people of San Diego and Bremerton don’t want to hear endless hours of fighter jets landing… So you basically have two different populations that come together on a Carrier deployment; The ship’s crew that work and stay with the carrier, and the air crew, who like my son work and stay inland at the air base.
What they don’t say about doing this, is if the ship gets into a severe jam / dangerous situation like perhaps an out of control fire or a out of control flooding situation, the cars go over the side. That would suck to see you car go over the side, but the safety of the ship and crew come first.
The jet on board is the CO’s.
All carrier CO’s are flyboys of some assortment.
True that carrier captions are all aviators, but the plane on the flight deck is most likely a dud the flight deck crew was dragging around the deck for training. The ship was leaving the shipyard and was in the early stages of workup training for a deployment 18 months in the future. The flight deck probably wasn’t certified yet.
In photo #4, the one looking down on the deck from what might be near some radar equipment, is that the rusted rough of an older square body I see? Looks like rust over white.
That caught my eye too, and Burb was my first thought as well. Then I looked at the scale of it compared to the surrounding cars, and I’m wondering if it’s a 60’s station wagon. Burb is probably more likely though.
Something about how the picture was taken – the angle, or maybe the lens – is throwing off my perception a bit, but that tailgate just screams ‘Burb’ to me.
Looks like a square body Suburban to me.