Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Grant Haller -- Aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln

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Aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln

M.L. Lyke
P-I photographer Grant M. Haller spent most of March as an "embedded" journliast aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, alongside reporter M.L. Lyke.

Grant contacted the P-I photo desk whenever he could, and his messages frequently offered some levity during difficult times. We decided to share some of his observations and asides with you.

See Grant's photo gallery
Read M.L. Lyke's Weblog
Read more war-related Weblogs

Looks like we're coming home
Posted on Wednesday, March 26, 2003 at 12:06 PT (Permalink)

Listen in on a phone conversation Grant Haller had with photo editor John Dickson:

Haller: Looks like we're coming home. We hope to catch a COD plane on Friday.

Dickson: What does COD stand for?

Haller: Here they say it means Crash On Deck, but it's really Carrier On Deck Delivery. Takeoff is described as the worst part of the whole trip out here. Landing is a controlled crash.

Dickson: What about the ride itself?

Haller: A boring ride with no windows. It's an airplane that's as comfortable as a tank. But it gets us home, that's the important thing.

-- Grant Haller

Standing on steel in a lightning storm
Posted on Tuesday, March 25, 2003 at 15:18 PT (Permalink)

"I'm standing in the pouring rain, on the ship's steel deck, in a lightning storm. And then I look over at the bombs next to me. Cool, let's go up for a better look! And I was drenched, because I didn't want to wear my new coat because of the JP-5 (jet fuel). JP-5 is everywhere ... on your clothes, and you can taste it. Funny though, you get used to it."

-- Grant Haller

Enough energy for a billion years
Posted on Tuesday, March 25, 2003 at 15:00 PT (Permalink)

Every time I turn off a light (trying to conserve energy you know) I remember that this boat is powered by nuclear energy. So I figure there is enough energy for a billion years. So I have been leaving the lights on!! Take that City Light. (I really live in PUD country, but I can't afford to make them angry.)

-- Grant Haller

Seagull wings for dinner
Posted on Monday, March 24, 2003 at 15:18 PT (Permalink)

15 days, 22 hours, 17 minutes. Bahrain seagull wings for dinner. Its pizza night. All the pizza and seagull wings you can eat. I know they advertise them as chicken wings, but the editor of the underground newspaper, The Onion, claims they are seagull wings. We lose two members of the media tomorrow, they say they are going to send them back on the COD but I think I they were putting up a plank on the stern (that's the back of the boat). The information officer, at lunch, laughed, dry-washed his hands and said, "two down, 26 to go." Boy will he be happy to see us go. I think the secretary of the Navy is going to present him with a purple heart when this is over.

-- Grant Haller

Gee-Dunk is going to kill me
Posted on Monday, March 24, 2003 at 15:17 PT (Permalink)

Gee-Dunk (the ship's store where you can buy candy, ice cream and other sweets) is going to kill me. And my photo on Page 1 of the Penny Press (the ship's newspaper) was bumped out of the paper because the war happened. And I'm watching training films on how to shave fast. One low-flying airplane and it's goodbye beard. The other photographers have suggested a combination of duct tape and peanut butter. The concept worries me.

-- Grant Haller

Even a perspiration stain would work...
Posted on Monday, March 24, 2003 at 15:16 PT (Permalink)

A pilot returning from her first real combat mission was asked, "How'd your stuff work?" "Everything worked." she responded. No more reaction than one would make if they had just stepped off the elevator at the P-I. What I wanted was at least one high five, one smile, one sign of emotion, one expression that she'd looked in the devil's eye and survived. (Four-letter �S� word), I'd have settled for a perspiration stain under the arm.

-- Grant Haller

Continue

INSIDE SEATTLEPI.COM

Day in Pictures
Bears on trial and more

David Horsey
Speaking of appeasement...

The week's best photos
Great shots from the P-I staff

MULTIMEDIA
A Ship at War Relive the experience through never-before-seen photos and all-new audio. (Requires Flash 6)

PHOTO GALLERIES
Wartime See Grant M. Haller's images of life aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.

Homecoming See Grant M. Haller's photos of the Lincoln's journey back to homeport.