Savannah native commands USS Kitty Hawk
By Polly Powers Strammfor the Savannah Morning News
Being the commanding officer of an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf is an "awe-inspiring" experience for a native Savannahian who assumed command of the USS Kitty Hawk in February.
"It's the chance of a lifetime, and a privilege," said Navy Capt. Tom Parker, a 1970 graduate of Savannah High School.
Parker spoke via telephone from a room just outside the bridge of the Kitty Hawk.
The Kitty Hawk has been in the Persian Gulf for about a month in support of troops involved in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Planes taking off from the carrier have been "dropping bombs on Iraq" in an effort to "remove this cancer in the form of Saddam Hussein," Parker said.
"I want to assure everyone that we're doing everything we can to support President Bush," he added.
The Kitty Hawk, with a crew of 3,500, is usually based in Yokosuka, Japan, where Parker's wife, Ann, and their teen-age son, Jacob, live. The carrier is four acres long and is akin to a "floating city," Parker said. "It's like a big house with a flat roof with 80 airplanes on board.
"We're truly the 911 carrier," Parker said. "We go where we're needed. My phone will ring and I'll pick it up and talk to George (Bush)," he joked.
When word came down about Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Kitty Hawk left Japan and traveled 18 days to the Persian Gulf.
A graduate of Virginia Military Institute, Parker was commissioned a Navy ensign in 1976 after completing Aviation Officer Candidate School.
"It was just like the movie, 'An Officer and a Gentleman' but my drill instructor was meaner," Parker recalled.
After completing flight training, Parker was assigned to Norfolk, Va., to fly the E-2C Hawkeye.
Additional tours included time as an instructor in Norfolk; tactical action officer on the staff of a Norfolk-based destroyer cruiser squadron taking part in the liberation of Grenada and the capture of the Achille Lauro hijackers; and carrier combat information center training officer for naval aviators in the Atlantic fleet. During this tour, he earned a master's degree in international studies from Old Dominion University.
Parker took part in Operation Desert Storm aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt and was selected for a Federal Executive Fellowship and assigned to the RAND Corporation in California.
The Kitty Hawk is the third ship under Parker's command. In 1999 he took the helm of the USS Belleau Wood, a Marine helicopter carrier, in Sasebo, Japan and the following year assumed command of the USS Essex, another carrier. He has logged more than 3,500 hours and 650 arrested landings in the E-2C Hawkeye.
Parker is one of seven children of Morrise Parker and the late Robert Parker, a career Marine. Tom Parker was born in Savannah and moved away with the family shortly afterward until his father retired in 1961 and the family returned here.
His brother Pat says the family is "definitely proud" of Tom's accomplishments but "a little concerned, obviously."
"I can't imagine what he's going through," Pat Parker said.
Tom Parker said he's "doing great but not getting as much sleep as I used to."
But, he added tongue-in-cheek, he has discovered that sleep is "overrated." He spends most of his time on or near the carrier's bridge. As commanding officer, his room is nicer than it used to be but "you get to spend much less time there."
Being at sea for long periods of time isn't difficult because "it's what I'm trained to do," he said. As captain "there are responsibilities, but the reason you're an officer in the United States Navy is to command.
"It's mostly great fun," he said.
Parker attended Blessed Sacrament Catholic School from the second through the eighth grades. His life growing up, he said, was all tied into the "Catholic experience."
"We lived on 49th Street so we walked across Daffin Park to Blessed Sacrament," Parker said.
He remembers playing football at Blessed Sacrament on a team that included Johnny Power and Joe Herb.
"We played the eighth-grade championship against St. James at what was then the new BC (Benedictine High School)," he recalled. "I think we tied six to six."
"My memories of high school are football and Boy Scouts," said Parker, who became an Eagle Scout and twice served as chief of Tomochichi Lodge of the Order of the Arrow.
Being involved with the Boy Scouts was "great from my perspective," he said. "It was a major influence on my upbringing."
At SHS he played football under Coach Arvel Holmes with "great guys" like Mike Garrett, Cary Geiger and Howie Leon. He received a football scholarship to VMI.
Parker and his family spent Christmas with relatives in Savannah and said what he misses most about being home is Lowcountry boil.
"You can't get it anywhere like they make it in Savannah," Parker said.
Click here to view Capt. Parker's impressive career biography (Archived from USS Kitty Hawk website)
Click here to visit the official USS Kitty Hawk website
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Capt. Tom Parker has logged more than 3,500 hours and 650 arrested landings in the E-2C Hawkeye.
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U.S. Navy Capt. Tom Parker, a Savannah native and Savannah High School graduate, is commanding the USS Kitty Hawk.
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USS Kitty Hawk
By the numbers:
Commissioned: 1961
Length: 1,069 feet
Total height above waterline: 201 feet
Engines: Four, geared steam turbine, eight boilers
Speed: 34.5 mph
Propellers: Four, 21 feet wide
Anchors: Two, 30 tons each
Crew (with airwing): 2,800 (5,500)
Doctors: 4
Dentists: 5
Lawyers: 2
Chaplains: 3
Barber shops: 2
Average annual payroll: $63 million
Eggs served daily: 9,600-12,000
Milk served daily: 400-600 gallons
Loaves of bread baked daily: 800-1,000
Closed circuit television: 6 channels