ABOARD THE USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN — Call it shock and awe, part two.
Navy families got a chance to see where their sailors have lived for almost 10 months after the Nimitz-class carrier arrived in San Diego Friday and the warship was opened to visitors.
Some were amazed at how such a large vessel could be so cramped inside. And many marveled at the labyrinth of passageways on the 1,092-foot-long carrier, or descended delicately down the ladders between decks that sailors slide down with ease.
Lt. j.g. Jim Pupplo, a naval flight officer with Sea Control Squadron 35, gave the grand tour to his fiance, Wendy Prenner.
They will be married in three weeks in Mission Bay, Calif.
"It’s like a maze," Prenner said while exploring the 03 deck of the Everett-based carrier.
Prenner had never been inside the warship and had only seen it last year, just before the carrier deployed. Dark except for the lights on the tower, the warship was a scary sight, she said.
Seeing the ominous bulk looming in the night sky frightened her.
"I was really OK up until that point, then I started getting hysterical," she recalled.
The couple made a special trip back to Naval Air Station North Island to tour the carrier.
The "Gray Wolves," Pupplo’s squadron, left the Lincoln earlier this week to return home, and the Navy pilot actually beat his fellow fliers back by leaving the week before.
He was given permission to leave early to help set up the wedding of another aviator in the squadron, Lt. Dave Kozminski.
Many in America saw that march down the aisle. Kozminski’s wedding was shown on the television program "Good Morning America" on Wednesday.
Now back on board the ship, Pupplo wanted to show his future bride his past before finishing up the plans for their wedding. After the visit to the carrier, the couple would be heading to a tasting for their wedding cake.
Prenner would have to wait for a few minutes, however. Her fiance had left the ship to go to his car. In the excitement of showing Prenner his home since last July, Pupplo had forgotten his room key.
Still, Prenner said she was OK with waiting. She was eager to see Pupplo’s living quarters, the place where he practiced the guitar and wrote songs such as "Cornish Game Hens," inspired by the chicken that seemed to be on every menu in the Lincoln’s mess.
"I want to see the room where he’s lived for the past 10 months," Prenner said.
Later, her opinion of Pupplo’s digs on the ship was simple.
"It’s pretty drab. Needs a woman’s touch," she said.
The chance for families to tour the ship was short.
The Lincoln arrived at the port Friday morning, a one-day stopover to unload the crews and equipment for the carrier’s eight squadrons. Visitors had until 9 p.m. to see the ship.
The ship is returning to its home port in Everett from one of the longest carrier deployments since 1973. But the historic nature of the deployment — one in which the Lincoln was involved in both the war against terrorism in Afghanistan and the effort to oust the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq — was eclipsed over the previous two days by the visit of President Bush.
Many of the sailors who brought families and friends aboard to tour the ship took them to the Lincoln’s flight deck, where Bush addressed the nation Wednesday night to tell the country that the war in Iraq was over.
The flight deck was the second stop on the tour for Petty Officer 2nd Class Rachael Wilber. She was showing her cousin Angela Berent and her husband, Jonathan, around the 4.5-acre flattop.
Wilber, an information systems technician who has been in the Navy 3 1/2years, was returning from her first deployment, and she wanted to show the pair the ship that has been such a big part of her life.
"It’s everything I’ve seen, it’s all I know right now," Wilber said.
Her cousin was amazed at the cramped conditions in Wilber’s sleeping quarters.
"All of those women in one little place," Berent said. "They have no space.
"To go 10 months with that many women … and no place to get away. I’m impressed. I’m in awe," she added.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Scott Gobble brought one of the larger groups to the warship’s airfield, still slick enough with oil that it left black streaks on the legs of the sailor’s dress white uniform.
Accompanying Gobble was his wife, Christina, and 3-year-old daughter, Stephany, as well as his mother, Joan Gobble.
The family reunion on the flight deck also included an unfamiliar face — the sailor’s cousin, Sherri Gagliardi.
The cousins hadn’t seen each other in 22 years, but reunited after Gagliardi saw the sailor on television during the war in Iraq.
She wrote him an e-mail, and they started exchanging messages.
Then, on Wednesday, she saw him on television again and decided to meet him at the pier. She brought her husband, Michael, and the couple’s two girls, Marina, 9, and Dawn, 11.
Gobble had been standing behind Kozminski, the lieutenant that tied the knot on "Good Morning America."
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