The Navy Leaguer - 2008 Corporate Membership Directory

Richmond Council Members
Visit U.K. Royal Navy Carrier

By PETER ATKINSON, Deputy Editor

Agroup of about 50 Richmond, Va., Council members were treated to a unique visit aboard the U.K. Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal during its late-March port call to Norfolk Naval Station.

By special invitation of Capt. M. P. Mansergh, commanding officer of Ark Royal, the group was given a three-hour tour March 29 of the Invincible-class carrier, which recently was converted to a “ Commando Carrier” capable of carrying an Embarked Military Force of approximately 400 Royal Marines or British Army soldiers, as well as operating Chinook, Lynx, Apache and Sea King helicopters. Ark Royal also can operate in the more conventional strike carrier role.

Group members visited each department aboard the carrier, according to Past President Ed Gibbons, with crew members explaining the functions they served on the ship. The Sailors “could not have been more cordial or more accommodating,” he said.

On the bus ride from Richmond to Norfolk, Council Director Allen Palmer, a British ex-patriot, presented the group members with miniature Union Jack flags that they displayed throughout the day.

The trip was arranged by Robert S. Kerno Jr., commanding officer of the Aegis cruiser USS Normandy, one of the council’s adopted ships, and George Feitig, the council’s liaison with Normandy. Ark Royal was in Norfolk to participate in joint exercises with Normandy and other U.S. and U.K. naval assets in the Atlantic.

Following the ship visit, group members spent the afternoon

along the Norfolk Waterfront, according to Gibbons, with some touring the Hampton Roads Naval Museum and boarding the battleship USS Wisconsin.

St. Maarten/St. Martin Hosts USCG Aircraft Crew The St. Maarten/St. Martin Council welcomed its first U.S. Coast Guard search-and-rescue aircraft in late