Aircraft Carrier

MEXICO CITY -- In what may be a major naval breakthrough for the drug cartels, a commuter pilot in Panama claims three South American hijackers forced him to land on a makeshift aircraft carrier March 12.Armando Mallorga says the hijackers ordered him to fly them 200 miles out over the Caribbean, where he landed on the carrier -- a strange Jules Verne concoction with a flight deck of twin steel ramps.After shaking his hand and refueling the plane, Mr. Mallorga says, the crew permitted him to fly back to Panama and dubious fame.

There has been a lot of discussion about President Obama's highlighting or even bragging about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden and its results ("Bin Laden volatile campaign subject," May 1). Much of this discussion has been criticism by Republicans, proving once again that the one area where Republicans are remarkably consistent is in their hypocrisy. They don't seem to remember cheering for a certain former president strutting about in a flight suit on the deck of an aircraft carrier celebrating "Mission Accomplished!"

THIS CHRISTMAS, a group of North Carroll Middle School students is sending a touch of home to all 6,000 crew members of the USS Enterprise, an aircraft carrier that left Nov. 6 for six months in the Persian Gulf.For 130 of the service men and women, that homestyle touch included gift packages and goody bags of candy and snacks.It's part of a year-long project of corresponding with 130 of the Navy personnel to share ideas and learn about geography, current events and commitment.Of Team 7, or about one-third of the eighth grade at North Carroll and their teachers, 124 are voluntarily participating in the project, donating their study period to compose letters and design fund-raisers.

The first days of the new year are more than a time to look forward, to resolve to do better. They also provide an opportunity to look back and remember what has been lost. Each week, readers of the Times have an opportunity to do that by checking out "Pages from the Past," a compilation of articles and news of 50, 75 and 100 years ago taken from the pages of the newspaper that eventually became the Catonsville Times. On Page 7 of this week's issue is a short mention of a young man from Catonsville who, like many young men and women today, as well as in years past, was home from college for the holidays.

After six years of organizing, a Baltimore group is set to take on Tampa, Fla., in an effort to land the retired aircraft carrier USS Forrestal as a museum in the city's Inner Harbor.Chaired by former crewman Frank J. Eurice of Abingdon, the USS Forrestal Museum Inc. will submit its bid to the Navy Sea Systems Command in Washington on Wednesday, the final day of the submission period."Our clock would start at that point, for anyone else to get in," Eurice said. Under the Navy's Ship Donation Program, once a party submits an application, others have six months to file competing bids.

The eighth-graders in Team 7 at North Carroll Middle School aren't getting graded on most of the work they do tracking the course of the USS Nimitz and corresponding through e-mail and regular mail with their "crew pals" on the aircraft carrier as it monitors the Persian Gulf.And that might be why they love it so much."It's fun learning this way," said Tracey Redmond, 13, of Hampstead. "This [project] has people you can talk to and understand it better."And it has improved their grades, said she and classmate Jessica Robertson.

SAN DIEGO - After 41 years, 21 overseas deployments and eight combat tours, the aircraft carrier Constellation left San Diego Bay yesterday for the final time for a long, slow journey into retirement. For sailors who had served aboard the giant ship known as "Connie," it was a sorrowful occasion. "Connie is my girl," said Chief Petty Officer Efren Ponce, one of a group of sailors who sang "Anchors Aweigh" as the ship departed. "She's where I learned how to be a sailor. I'll miss her." Tugboats pushed the 1,069-foot-long, 80,000-ton ship away from the dock at North Island Naval Air Station.

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - The motion alarms on Newport News Shipbuilding's huge gantry crane began blaring their familiar "BEE-OOOH, BEE-OOOH" warning as it set about another chore. Dangling from the crane's tentacles of thick steel cables was another piece of the shipyard's 29th aircraft carrier, the Ronald Reagan, named for the former president. It was a preassembled rectangular section of the flight deck, with a V-shaped channel called a "cat trough." The German-made gantry, fittingly called Goliath and one of the world's largest, gingerly carried the section to another part where helmeted workers waited to apply finishing touches before it was to be added to the ship.

A good ship if there ever was one, the U.S.S. Coral Sea recently was tugged up the Chesapeake Bay to be scrapped here in Baltimore by Kurt Iron and Metal.The huge aircraft carrier was authorized during World War II, joined the active fleet in 1950 and saw action in Vietnam, where its planes flew the first and last sorties of that conflict. It also took part in many other missions.It was named for one of the most epic naval battles ever fought. Here is Martin Gilbert's thumbnail account of the Battle of the Coral Sea:"On May 2 [1942]

* Marine Lance Cpl. Bryan P. Elliott, son of Shirley T. Elliott of Mount Airy, recently reported for duty with Marine Tactical ElectronicWarfare Squadron-Two, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, Cherry Point, N.C.He joined the Marine Corps in July 1988.* Navy Seaman Recruit Jason W. Vogel recently returned from deployment to the Middle East in support of Operation Desert Storm while serving aboard the destroyer USS Caron, homeported in Norfolk, Va.The son of John K. and Marsha D. Vogel of Westminster, he joined the Navy in December 1989.

Whether it's playing pickup basketball games at the White House, watching college basketball on an aircraft carrier or seeing his brother-in-law's Oregon State Beavers take on Towson University, it's clear President Obama loves sports. It was even more impressive the way he jumped out of his seat and helped honor the Towson football team at halftime of the game. The pictures were great. It probably drove the Secret Service guys crazy. More than a few earpieces were squawking when he did that.

In an effort to honor those who lost their lives during the attacks of Sept. 11, U.S. Naval Academy midshipmen will take part today in the second annual Project Green: 9/11 Day of Service & Remembrance. The event is organized by the Volunteer Center for Anne Arundel County as a way to honor the victims of the attacks as well as the Marylanders who have died in service to the country. It's also a way to give back by cleaning up the shoreline at Jonas Green Park in Annapolis. As many as 50 midshipmen are expected at the event, which begins at noon with an opening ceremony at the Maryland World War II Memorial on Ritchie Highway overlooking Jonas Green Park.

It was with tears in my eyes that I read the touching article in last week's Towson Times, "Heroes past and present honored at Dulaney Valley" (June 1, 2011). My 90-year-old sailor's mind flashed back to my tour of duty (1943-45, U.S. Naval Reserve officer) aboard the aircraft carrier the USS Enterprise in the Pacific, where we were involved in 13 major engagements as we moved westward, recapturing the islands and naval bases. During the course of battle, enemy planes naturally attacked the carriers first in order to hopefully gain an advantage.

Regarding the story in the June 8 edition of the Towson Times ("Pet licensing fees take a bigger bite"), I have no objection to the increase in fees for pet licensing. It's probably long overdue, and the joy that pets bring is much more than worth the licensing costs. My problem, this year, has to do with an inequity in the fee schedule. My husband and I are both in our early 70s, and have two, 2-year-old cocker spaniels. When you look at the fee schedule, you see that owners younger than 60 with an unaltered pet are to pay $15. Owners older than 60 will pay $9. OK so far. Now comes the problem.

Charles Pavlos, a retired Baltimore businessman and former owner of the Jeppi Nut & Candy Co., died Jan. 27 of kidney failure at St. Joseph Medical Center. He was 89. The son of Greek immigrants, Mr. Pavlos was born in Richmond, Va. He spent his early years in Miami until moving to Baltimore at the beginning of the Depression with his family, who settled in Hamilton. After graduating in 1939 from City College, he went to work at the old Glenn L. Martin Co. plant in Middle River, where he was eventually promoted to supervisor.

The Navy hospital ship Comfort discharged its last remaining patient last weekend and is anchored in Port-au-Prince harbor, empty but for its 993- member crew, waiting for military leaders to decide whether it still has a role in the U.S. response to January's deadly earthquake in Haiti. Pentagon officials won't say what the ship's next step is. But as signs mount that the floating medical center is preparing to leave Haiti six weeks after it arrived, so is the clamor rising from doctors on the ground in the battered country who say earthquake victims still need the Comfort's equipment and skills.

Capt. Joseph F. Enright, 89, the skipper of the submarine Archerfish, which sank the largest aircraft carrier of World War II, a Japanese ship whose existence had been unknown to the United States, died July 20 at his home in Fairfax, Va. For directing the sinking of the Shinano, Captain Enright, then a commander, was awarded the Navy Cross, the service's second-highest award for valor. Shortly before 9 p.m. Nov. 28, 1944, while the Archerfish was on surface patrol near the entrance to Tokyo Bay, its radar picked up a ship 12 miles away.

CHASE J. NIELSEN, 90 `Doolittle Raider' Lt. Col. Chase J. Nielsen, a member of the famed "Doolittle Raiders" who bombed Japan in 1942, died Friday at his home in Brigham City, Utah, his family said. He was a navigator in one of the most daring air raids in American history, when 16 B-25 bombers took off from an aircraft carrier and bombed Tokyo on April 18, 1942. Colonel Nielsen and his crew ditched their plane, which was running out of fuel, off the coast of China, and he spent more than three years as a Japanese prisoner of war. He was one of four POWs from the raid to survive.

WASHINGTON - President Bush, delivering a televised farewell to the nation last night, attempted to summon a collective sense of "gratitude" for years of safety following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, that shaped his presidency. In a measure of the impact the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon had on his administration, Bush touted one signal success during his time in office: No further attacks occurred. The president acknowledged that his anti-terror policies had prompted "legitimate debate."