USS Carl Vinson

Headed out to the USS Carl Vinson January 22-23 for overnight visit as part of the US Navy’s Distinguished Visitor Program. Departing North Island Naval Air Station on Coronado via a C-2A Greyhound cargo plane, trap landing on deck and observing day/night ship and flight operations, returning the next day via the C-2A with a carrier deck takeoff. Shipmates for the trip will include a group of top social media/bloggers, including Jeremy Epstein, vice president of marketing for Sprinklr (@jer979); Phil Giordano, Senior Software Systems Engineer, The MITRE Corporation (@GiordanoPhilip); Rocky Barbanica, Managing Producer, Rackspace Hosting (@rocmanUSA); Peg Fitzpatrick, Social Media Architect with Guy Kawasaki (@PegFitzpatrick); Don Levy, Founder, Smith Brook Farm Consultancy (@dblevy); Steve Broback, founder of The Parnassus Group (@sbroback); Christian Rahl of Cisco, (@rahlxcb); Analisa Farias, Community Manager at USAA (@analisafarias); Bill Wohl, PR expert (@billwohl61); Nick Turner, Founding Partner, TV4 Entertainment (@nickturner101); Brett Murray, Global Marketing Campaigns, Mobile, NVIDIA Corporation (@oyingo); Ian Sobieski, Ph.D, managing director of Band of Angeles; Diana Weynand, blogger, author and producer; and Stephen G. Bustin of Bustin Media @stevenbustin).

This will be my second Embark, including a Feb. 2011 one-day visit to the USS Makin Island, one of the US Navy’s brand new amphibious assault ships (my experience is HERE. Many thanks for this twice-in-a-lifetime opportunity to the US Navy and good friend Dennis Hall, founder of the Avere Group LLC. (Dennis is responsible for my nomination to the Deputy Public Affairs Officer for the Commander, Naval Air Forces – Pacific, US Pacific Fleet for the Distinguished Visitors Program) and Guy Kawasaki (who I met in 2009 when I arranged an up-close and personal “Embark” for Guy and some 10 bloggers with my client, San Diego’s Strategic Operations, to experience Hyper-Realistic military and law enforcement training with all the magic of Hollywood special effects!). And also to Steve Fiebing, Deputy Public Affairs Officer for the Commander, Naval Air Forces – Pacific, US Pacific Fleet and his staff for coordinating the embark, and Captain Chuck Henry, USN (retired) who worked hard in 1998 to bring the Distinguished Visitor Program embarks to the US aircraft carriers. The nomination process can take from a few days to three years starting from the time of nomination to vetting by the Navy and finally selection and embarkation to a ship at sea. This experience will also provide me with valuable background for my work with the SEAL-Naval Special Warfare Family Foundation. Anchors Away!

In preparation I am doing a crash course in US Navy acronyms — Check Them Out HERE!

Follow the posts at via Twitter — #vinsonembark & follow the various support organizations — @CVN70 @USNavy @coronadonavy @FlyNavy @usmc