The First and the Finest: Aboard the USS Enterprise

I'm sure that somewhere, someone has written it so I won't even pretend I am the first to say it, but on Sunday at Michigan a nice guy finished first. The win for Carl Edwards was a popular one among the fans and certainly an important one for Carl and all of Roush Fenway Racing. But if you don't mind, I would like to follow up on a story we aired on TNT at Pocono and share with you why it might also be an inspiring victory for 5,500 men and women you may never meet.

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They are the crew of the USS Enterprise. And if you saw the story on our coverage, you know why they are special. But now allow me to take you behind the scenes of our little trip.

It began early on Wednesday morning, two days after Memorial Day. We met up with Carl, Busch Series crew chief Pierre Kuettel and a few friends at the Naval Air Station in Norfolk, Va. I really did not know what was ahead except that somehow we were going to get from Norfolk to the USS Enterprise. And since the ship was off of the North Carolina coast, I was pretty sure we weren't going to swim. Carl didn't seem to care, so I pretended to be cool with everything.

"Yeah, I'm real excited about today," Carl said. "We get to go meet these sailors. They're getting ready to go on a deployment [to the Persian Gulf] and they're out there doing sea trials, testing the ship. It's going to be really cool to go out and be on the tallest, longest, fastest aircraft carrier in the world."

Ah, what about the "getting there" part, Carl?

"Yeah, the getting there is going to be pretty exciting," he said. "To get to fly on this airplane and do a tail-hook landing on an aircraft carrier, I mean that's crazy."

And when Carl says "crazy" his eyes light up. And he's a pilot. I try to stick to the Cups and Saucers ride at Asbury Park.

So we climb onto an old military airplane, they even told us it was old, but very reliable. That was good. The seats are facing the wrong way. That was bad. I assume the pilot and co-pilot seats were facing forward but I never got up there to check. Our seats, about 12-15 of them, faced the rear of the plane, for safety! Good. I feel MUCH better now. We wore life jackets and ear plugs, plus ear muffs and goggles.

The plane was actually a C-2 Greyhound attached to the VRC-40 of the "Rawhides." No, I have no idea what that means. Actually I do because I asked the command master chief. VRC is the squadron designator. V means fixed wing (not helicopter); R means resupply; and C means composite (they are a "grouping" of small detachments or teams into one large squadron, kind of like lending your Nextel Cup pit crew to a Busch team for the day, or eight months). When the ships go overseas they will have one of these "teams" with them permanently, a "detachment" of two planes and crews assigned to the ship. "Rawhides" is their squadron name. Good, I like tough names.

I can tell you it is called a "COD" for carrier on board delivery. And that is exactly what it was going to do, deliver us to the Enterprise. Now, just so you get the feeling, these seats are tiny, two on each side of a very small aisle down the middle of the hull. Hey, on this flight every seat feels like a middle seat, and no movie!

The fuselage has no sound insulation like the commercial planes have. And those big propellers are out there humming away.

Lap-by-Lap

Carl Edwards took the lead with 35 laps to go and and never looked back in the Citizens Bank 400 on Sunday. Follow how he went from a pit-road penalty to Victory Lane.

• Complete story, click here
• Video highlights, click here

We got a detailed explanation of what to expect on landing before we left the ground. We, indeed, were going to do a tail-hook landing, where the plane basically hooks a steroid infested rubber-band that keeps us from tumbling off the bow of the ship. Nice, huh?

Well, it was awesome, or as Carl said: "I heard somebody say that landing on an aircraft carrier was like putting a postage stamp in your living room and diving from the hallway and landing on it with your tongue."

Well, we did it. We were now on board the USS Enterprise, and before I go any further I just want to point out that the ship is nicknamed "The Big E." Perfect place for a guy like Carl.

The day started at 9 a.m. It was 10 hours that would change your life. And here's why:

The "Big E" was involved in war games, trying to secure an oil tanked captured by the bad guys, while also attacking the state of North Carolina.

Or as Adm. Dan Holloway put it: "Today you rolled in on the final two days of the battle problem. We have enemy submarines, we have enemy ashore. Right now there's a merchant vessel 10 miles down the coast that has oil and they are taking that thing and threatening to damage our shores and beaches by spilling the oil ashore and our seals and our special operations officers and our explosive ordinance team is putting in place a mission to take it down. So that environment can be protected."

Yeah, North Carolina was sounding pretty safe to me.

On this ship, everything on board moves at a dizzying pace. Certainly, there were light-hearted moments, but even the "games" were intense.

"Let me tell you, I came here a little bit naive," Carl said. "I thought I understood what went on here. I thought I could imagine how hectic it is up on that flight deck. But I'm telling you sitting there and watching those jets go off, I mean my heart was pounding. Those guys are brave. That is a crazy job.

"You know, no matter what people think of the political situation or what their beliefs or whatever, the fact is that these folks are out here sacrificing and they're doing the best that they can. And it really, it really makes me look up to them for what they sacrifice."

There were 18-year-olds and 48-year-olds on board. We were told some were younger and some were older. The teamwork was unbelievable.

Capt. Steve Posey is the navigator on the Enterprise. Always good to have a navigator on board.

"My job here is really two-fold," Posey said. "Number one to keep the captain safe and not run into anything. Number two is really to put the aircraft carrier in a position to support the air wing, whether it be off the coast of the Carolinas in support our operational training or off the coast of Afghanistan when we're supporting operations for the troops overseas.

"We've got eight different reactors, while most other carriers only have two. We're unique in that we have four rudders while the other carriers only have two. Our ship is a little bit longer by 10 feet and about a foot narrower. We're built on more of a cruiser hull, so rumor has it we're a little bit faster than the other carriers."

I think that's military jargon for bragging.

Carl got the tour from stern to bow, lowest deck to the bridge.

He met the people that defend our country, and they could not have been more polite. Sure, there were TV cameras and a PR person there, but I really don't think it mattered. Here was a guy, a pilot, a successful racecar driver, a pretty busy person, taking a day to fly backwards for 75 minutes and land on a postage stamp, just to say hello to the troops. Good stuff.

He did everything. Well, almost everything. I don't believe they let him steer the ship.

He hung out with the air boss. What does an "air boss" do?

"I'm responsible for the two bow catapults, the two waist catapults, and there's five arresting gear back aft, four of the wires that you see there, [that catch the "hook" on an aircraft] and then an emergency barricade which is a big net that would catch the aircraft if they can't get on board any other way."

Glad we didn't get to test that!

By the way, 620 people work for him. A normal flight day for his "guys?" Twelve hours.

Carl got to meet the handler; he's the traffic cop on the "Big E." Not a job I would want. A lot of planes. Not much room. And they land and take off from the same place.

Carl got to launch Hornets. Or Super Hornets. The Super Hornet is an F-18 carrier-based fighter/attack aircraft. Impressed? I Googled it. I'm just glad it was on our side.

Carl got to sit in the cockpit of an aircraft below deck and get "checked out."

He signed 350 autographs in 55 minutes. I think that is six a minute. He took pictures. He shook hands. He talked to the assembled crew.

"We're going to go do the best we can this weekend, all season, and I want you to know that for the rest of my career, I'll be thinking about you guys and you'll be my inspiration when I gotta dig down deep so I really appreciate you guys," he said to the crew.

That was my favorite part. As for Carl?

"To stand up there on that deck and see those planes take off and see the environment that these folks work in," he said. "And I mean today is a beautiful, calm day. It's spectacular. And then we sat down and they catapulted two F-18's literally over my head. I had to duck ... that's crazy. That's one of the most exciting things I've ever done in my life.

"It means a lot to me to be here. I thought I knew how hard the folks in the armed forces work and what they sacrifice, but these young men and women have been at sea for 13 of 16 months, they work at minimum 12 or 15 hour days. The air boss said some days they go with just two hours of sleep at the most for weeks at a time. They all have a smile on their face, they're all excited about their job and they really love our country enough to come do this and that's amazing."

Want to know something else that is amazing? They felt the same way about Carl. I talked with many of them. Some were race fans; others could not have cared less about racing, until that Wednesday afternoon in late May off the coast of North Carolina. They were so glad he was there, so happy to meet him. Even the people that didn't get a picture or an autograph told us how inspiring it was to have Carl Edwards on board.

At 5:30 p.m. we did a catapult takeoff from the deck of the USS Enterprise, an unbelievable moment, and it only takes a moment. Then we flew the 90 minutes back to Norfolk, still facing the wrong way. Ninety minutes to think about what just happened, and the people that live on the USS Enterprise and all the men and women that protect our country.

Carl Edwards didn't win at Dover that week, or Pocono the following week. But he did win Sunday at Michigan, the 100th start in his Nextel Cup career. The USS Enterprise doesn't sail until after the first of July. When the crew gets back on board, I bet they'll be talking about that racecar driver that came to see them, because on that day at Michigan he was The First and the Finest, the motto of the USS Enterprise.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.