Gary’s Q&A

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

Let’s get things started with the first question. It comes from Stephen Klettke, who asks, In an earlier episode, you made mention of a time when you were launched off an aircraft carrier. Are you able to elaborate with the full story? Or is it one of those if I tell you, I have to kill you kind of things?

Nope, I don’t have to kill anyone. It is a very straightforward story.

The US Navy has a program where they invite journalists and notable people to visit their aircraft carriers when they are in port or when they are doing training exercises just off the coast.

My friend Jen Leo, who used to be a co-host with me on This Week in Travel and who also lives in San Diego, was invited to visit. After the visit, they asked her if she had any recommendations for people they should invite, and she gave them my name.

In 2015, they contacted me and asked if I would like to visit the USS Harry S Truman when it was conducting exercises off the coast of Norfolk, VA.

I drove down to Norfolk, stopping in Shenandoah National Park along the way.

It was a reasonably small group of us. In addition to myself was the head coach of the Navy Football Team, a former admiral, and a writer for Soldier of Fortune Magazine.

We flew to the carrier on a Grumman C-2 Greyhound, which is a smaller propeller plane designed for delivering supplies to aircraft carriers.

We did a tailhook landing and got the tour of the ship, and even got to stay overnight and had our meals in the galley.

The next day, we left and were launched off the ship on the same plane.

It was an incredible experience. Few people, including the crew of aircraft carriers, ever get to do a carrier landing and catapult launch. I have photos from the visit on my website.