Chapter 2 Shakedown & Dependent’s Cruise

Time was now the adversary. If they were to meet the 10 July deadline for being in Guantanamo Bay in time for the exercise they had to activate as many of the ship’s company reserves as possible. They had to do a three-day shake-down cruise, to ensure the Card was ship-shape and could survive the long trip to Guantanamo Bay for the combat exercises. ComResDesRon required the Card to report to Little Creek firing range for a one-day test of the ships gun batteries and assess the gun crews. The Captain planned a one-day cruise for the dependents of the ship’s company.