Best in the Atlantic: Carrier USS Truman shines in sea trials — and wins the ‘Battenberg Cup’

Coming back from a deployment in the Middle East to a pandemic-hit United States kept USS Harry S. Truman at sea for months longer than expected — and with much on the minds of its crew.

“This time, we were the ones who were OK, and it was our families that were on the front line,” said Capt. Kavon “Hak” Hakimzadeh. “But we knew we were in a community that would look out for them.”

So last summer, the Truman’s crew just buckled down for a new, post-deployment mission at sea — exercising on the Navy’s role of keeping Atlantic sea lanes open, including working alongside Canadian colleagues.

Then, finally cleared to head into Norfolk, they headed straight into Norfolk Naval Shipyard, instead of taking the usual three months to do pierside maintenance, and train for the new, unfamiliar roles a ship’s force takes on when it works side-by-ship with shipyard employees.

It was the kind of spirit that won the Truman this year’s “Battenberg Cup” — the 114-year-old honor, in the form of a trophy that looks a lot like hockey’s Stanley Cup — as the best ship in the Atlantic fleet for 2020, Hakimzadeh said.

The Truman was busily working on sea trials after its shipyard stay when the award was announced, so the crew had to wait until their return to Norfolk over Memorial Day weekend to actually get the Cup.

During their 18 days of sea trials — which, like their arrival at the shipyard last summer, did not allow for the usual preparation time — the flight deck crew conducted 1,040 arrested landings, some 200 more than usual during sea trials. The Truman’s air wing recertified itself. The Truman also qualified several other aviators for carrier operations.

The flight deck, navigation, damage control and engineering systems and teams were certified. The crew conducted high speed turns, practiced recovering small boats, tested its foam sprinklers and did a replenishment at sea — running alongside a 680-foot supply ship, just 180 feet away, as it topped up on jet fuel for its planes.

Truman has also earned the 2020 Battle Efficiency Award, the 2020 “Golden Anchor” Retention Excellence Award for the sixth consecutive year and the 2020 Admiral Flatley Memorial Award for aviation safety.

The Battenberg Cup itself was for some four decades awarded to the winners of the battleship and cruiser teams that raced their one-ton, 30-foot, eight-oared cutters, in a competition much like the America’s Cup. It was presented by Prince Louis of Battenberg, father of Lord Louis Mountbatten, when he commanded a five-ship Royal Navy squadron on a series of U.S. port visits in 1905. The rowing races stopped in the 1940s, and since 1977, the Cup has been awarded to the ship whose crew has most distinguished itself through outstanding performance in annual “Battle Efficiency” competition.

Hakimzadeh said the Truman’s edge goes back for decades, to the days when the carrier was under construction at Newport News Shipbuilding, more than two decades ago, as the plank-owner crew set a standard for the sailors who followed.

“I think it’s culture, built up over many generations,” Hakimzadeh said.

“The culture here is get it done, right,” Hakimzadeh said. “And when people come to see us, they always comment on how nice everyone is; how it’s always, ‘Can I help you?’ ... That’s what makes the difference.”

Dave Ress, 757-247-4535, dress@dailypress.com