Capt. Douglas Graber, commander of the USS Nimitz, invited Major Mark Knight of the Ball High School JROTC battalion to a distinguished visitor (DV) Embark on the USS Nimitz. An Embark is an invitation from the Navy to chosen civilians to experience departure from a Naval Air Station to an aircraft carrier while it is conducting training operations. The purpose of the experience is for guests to tour the aircraft carrier, watching as the many crew members tend to their jobs.
While aboard the carrier, guests get a view of flight operations, visit the Bridge, Primary Flight Control, and other work centers aboard the ship, and then are given the opportunity to eat with crew members. The guests spend the night onboard, then the following day after more sightseeing and flight operations, the guests launch off the carrier and return to the Naval Air Station.
Major Knight was given the opportunity to board the USS Nimitz (CVN-68), named in honor of Admiral Chester W. Nimitz. The USS Nimitz is the lead ship of the U.S. Navy’s Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, set to retire soon. The Navy announced her retirement at the end of 2025, which was then pushed back to May of 2026.
Major Knight flew from Galveston to San Diego, CA to Naval Air Station North Island, at the north end of the Coronado peninsula on San Diego Bay. NAS North Island is part of the largest aerospace-industrial complex in the United States Navy – Naval Base Coronado, and the home port of several aircraft carriers of the United States Navy.
Landing in San Diego on the 29th of January, Major Knight took his time driving around San Diego to see some friends. He visited The World Famous I-Bar, the bar that gained illustrious fame as a known aviation officer hangout in 2019 and recently recreated for the 2022 film Top Gun: Maverick as “The Hard Deck.”
The I-Bar runs by three special rules: no hats, no touching the model airplanes that hang from the ceiling, and no cell phones on the bar. While visiting, Major experienced what happens when you break one of these rules, about half an hour into his visit a young man walks into the bar with his hat on. Suddenly he hears a loud bell ringing and everyone turns to the door, seeing this man. The bartender walks up to him letting him know that he now must pay for a round for everyone in the bar.
The next morning, after staying at NAS North Island, Major Knight along with many other guests launched out of the air base on a C2 Greyhound, flying about an hour west to the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz. Once on the carrier, guests were shown a welcome video then given an exciting tour of the ship, watching aircraft land in real time as they walked through.
After touring the 5,000-person aircraft carrier, the guests were given the opportunity to eat dinner with the crew of the ship. They spent the night on the ship and the next morning, they ate breakfast with the crew, saw more of the enormous ship (99,000 metric tons) , then launched off the carrier heading back to NAS North Island.
The process of landing on an aircraft carrier is different from landing a simple plane. The aircraft does not stop on its own or have much space to slowly come to a stop, the ship’s movement on the water can be calm or chaotic, and the precise alignment of the tailhook with the arresting wire is most important.
Hanging at the back of each plane is an attachment called a tailhook. When the aircraft is coming in to land, the arresting wire (steel wire ropes) stretches across the deck and attaches to hydraulic cylinders below deck. The aircraft tailhook catches the arresting wire, transferring kinetic energy to the hydraulic cylinders, bringing the aircraft to a stop.
Major Knight continues to reminisce about the experience, emphasizing the shot of adrenaline that ran through him when flying. When the aircraft landed he recalls the stop being so intense that he was slammed back against his seat, comparing the intensity to a six flags rocket roller coaster.
