Vernon County family joins Tiger Cruise

Before heading back to San Diego aboard the USS Ronald Reagan, Lt. C.J. Hayes, his grandfather and his father take in some of the sights in Pearl Harbor, including the historic USS Missouri battleship. --submitted photo

They're called Tiger Cruises. U.S. Navy personnel can have family come aboard an inbound aircraft carrier and share the final leg of the cruise from Hawaii to California. Recently, some members of a Vernon County family got to take advantage of one.

On the trip, Lt. C.J. Hayes had his father, Craig, and grandfather, Jack, on board his ship, the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan, for a trip into San Diego. The Reagan is a Nimitz class aircraft carrier, the flagship of a carrier strike group, and home to more than 4,500 sailors.

"Dad and granddad flew to Hawaii and came back to San Diego," Hayes said. "It was a six-day cruise and they got to stay in crew quarters and while they were there, there was an air show and a sea-power demonstration."

Hayes isn't sure when the Navy started the cruises but they are available to family of enlisted men as well as officers and the families stay in the same type of quarters as their family members in the Navy do.

"The families of enlisted stay in enlisted quarters and the families of officers stay in officer's quarters," Hayes said.

During the time the families are on the ship, there are a variety of activities for them to enjoy. Along with basketball games on the deck and tours of different sections of the ship, there also were some flyovers by different aircraft, some of which dropped dummy bombs and fired into the ocean.

"There were lots of activities," Hayes said. "There were tours of the medical and dental area and tours of the engineering space.

"They had Hornets and Super Hornets do flyovers. The destroyer came along side and fired the five-inch guns."

The Hayes family wasn't the only group with a tie to Vernon County.

Hayes said Charlie Jenkins was visiting his brother and Lt. Commander Paquin, the son-in-law of William Cox, pastor of the First Baptist Church, was on board.

Hayes is a dentist and went to the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Dentistry on a Navy scholarship. He is now serving his four year commitment, he had one year at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center and will spend two years on the Reagan.

"I've been on the ship for five months," Hayes said. "I flew to Japan and joined the ship there."

Hayes isn't sure what he will do once his commitment is fulfilled -- only time will tell.

"I'm just not sure right now," Hayes said. "My wife, Jill, and I have a one-year-old son and another baby on the way so I'm not ready to make that decision."