There’s a daily rhythm built on heavy lifting and sweat deep within the decks of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73). The numbers alone are staggering: 5,200 Sailors, three meals a day, seven days a week. That’s more than 15,000 meals served every 24 hours. Standing between the crew and an empty galley is a mighty force: a small team of just 18 Sailors known as the cargo team.
When people picture life at sea, the flight deck often claims the spotlight. It’s the heartbeat of the ship, and everyone sees it, but cargo operations take place in the background. From organizing massive storerooms below deck, to manually transporting heavy food items throughout the ship, the cargo team keeps wardrooms and enlisted galleys supplied.
For Culinary Specialist 1st Class Mario Hawthorn, living outside of the spotlight is simply part of the job.
“Most people don’t think about how the food actually gets to the galley. They just expect it to be there when they’re hungry,” Hawthorne said. “Without my guys putting in that work, nobody on this carrier has fuel to do the job.”
The ship is a floating city, and in order to keep that city thriving, replenishment-at-sea evolutions are essential. Supply vessels pull alongside George Washington to transfer a mountain of goods through helicopter lift, highline stretched between both ships, or a combination of both. Out of the hundreds of pallets brought aboard during a typical replenishment, as many as two thirds belong to cargo.
It’s an evolution that demands 16 hours or more of physically demanding labor in the heat.
“When you’re 14 hours in, pulling your five-hundredth pallet of the day, your body wants to quit,” Hawthorne said. “You’re running on empty. But that’s exactly when you find out who you are and what team you actually have.”
Guiding a crew of 300 Sailors during working parties, that level of exhaustion requires a unique kind of leadership. Hawthorne views the division’s demanding workload not as a burden, but as an opportunity to build resilience.
“As a leader down here, you aren’t just managing inventory–you’re managing exhaustion,” Hawthorne said. “I’ve got Sailors from every background you can imagine. Getting them to push through when they’re completely exhausted–that’s the real challenge. It breaks you down, but it builds the kind of character you carry with you for life, long after you take off the uniform.”
Though the flight deck may capture the public’s attention, it is the Sailors of the cargo team who keep the carrier moving–one heavy pallet at a time.
George Washington is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations to support maritime security and stability in the Middle East.