An Amphibious Assault Ship Captain's Dream Track
Lu Yongjun
my ship
April 23, 2021, is a day I will never forget as the captain of the Hainan ship.
On that day, the Hainan ship hoisted its flags in accordance with the highest etiquette of the navy, and all the crew lined up in divisions, and held a handover ceremony at a military port in Sanya, Hainan.
President Xi personally awarded us the August 1st military flag, issued a naming certificate, and inspected the Hainan ship.
From that day on, the domestically produced amphibious assault ship officially joined the battle sequence of the People's Navy.
I used to be the captain of the Wuzhishan ship.
The Wuzhishan ship has a displacement of more than 20,000 tons and is already very large, but in front of the Hainan ship, it can only be regarded as a "little brother".
Just above the water surface, the Hainan ship is more than 15 stories high, and is called "small aircraft carrier" by netizens.
In fact, I don't envy aircraft carriers at all.
Although we are a little "slim" than it, our cab and flight deck are taller than it.
As the saying goes, "stand tall and see far".
In addition to the "little aircraft carrier", netizens also called us "little flat roofs" and "big slabs".
This is actually talking about our flight deck.
The Hainan ship has a large through deck, which is equivalent to 20 standard basketball courts.
This greatly increases the working area of the deck—here, multiple carrier-based helicopters can take off and land at the same time, and can be dispatched quickly and in multiple waves, greatly enhancing the combat capability.
There are more things hidden in the belly of the Hainan ship.
We have a large hangar that can park many aircraft of various types.
There are two lifts in the front and rear. The dispatcher can dispatch multiple helicopters at one time through the joystick remote control like driving a toy racing car, which is very efficient.
In addition to the hangar, we also have loading cabins such as docking cabins, which mainly load hovercraft, tanks, armored vehicles, etc.
Hovercraft can be used to transport reloads and deliver them ashore at high speed.
We are not only an airport on the sea, but also a dock and a base on the sea.
The equipment carried by the Hainan ship can cover the moon in nine days on the top, and catch turtles in the five oceans on the bottom—more than 1,000 cabins, large and small, with a cable length of more than 1,500 kilometers, which is equivalent to a distance from Beijing to Shanghai.
All in all, the structure is very powerful.
When I just graduated from the military academy, the tonnage of the troop ships was relatively small and the conditions were not good.
The current Hainan ship is very different: central air conditioning and 24-hour hot water are the basic guarantees. Supermarkets, post offices, hospitals, laundry rooms, gyms, etc. are all available. It is a mobile "sea city".
The hospital hardware facilities on our ship are equivalent to the standard of a second-class hospital, which can have more than 100 beds at the same time. If it is expanded and strengthened in wartime, it can perform the task of rescue and rescue of war wounds at sea, which is equivalent to a medical ship.
But this progress cannot be underestimated.
For amphibious assault ships, support power is combat power.
my voyage
Being able to drive such a mighty and domineering warship now is something I never dared to imagine when I was a child.
I was born inland and never saw the sea before I joined the army.
But since birth, I have had an inexplicable fate with the army.
My name is Yongjun, which is the name my grandfather gave me, which means brave soldier.
I have had a military dream since I was a child.
I remember that when I graduated from high school, because the recruitment was unsuccessful, I wrote in the memorial book: "I want to join the army, I can't fly a plane, and I have to fly a warship..."
Later, I was successfully admitted to the Dalian Naval Academy of the Navy and became a glorious member of the Navy.
After graduation, I was assigned to the landing ship unit and participated in major tasks such as multinational joint exercises and escort in the Gulf of Aden.
In the process of communicating with foreign militaries, I have seen foreign amphibious assault ships many times, and I am very envious of the powerful combat capabilities of amphibious assault ships.
At that time I thought: When will our country have such an amphibious assault ship?
When will I be able to drive a domestically produced amphibious assault ship?
In 2019, I led a team to participate in the multinational naval activities of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy.
Soon after, I received a notice to go to Shanghai to receive the first domestically produced amphibious assault ship.
I will never forget that day.
On September 10, 2019, I saw the Hainan ship for the first time.
As a captain, picking up a new ship is like taking a child.
I have two children myself, and the Wuzhishan ship was also picked up by me, which is my "three babies".
That day, I finally saw my "four babies" - the Hainan ship.
At that time, the Hainan ship had not yet launched.
I was so excited, eager to embrace it, learn about it, and travel everywhere I could.
After walking through, I found that the gap between "Four Baby" and what I imagined was a little big——
Most of the equipment and equipment are not in place. At this moment, the Hainan ship is like a "rough house" with a big iron lump, and the follow-up construction has a long way to go.
According to experience, it takes at least two to three years for a foreign country to receive an amphibious assault ship.
At that time, this domestic amphibious assault ship was a "three-no-product" for our country - no experience, no information, and no professionals.
We plan to receive it in more than a year.
"Can we complete such a complex system project and such a arduous construction task on time?" I couldn't help asking myself.
At that moment, I felt "a lot of pressure".
How to do?
I told myself and my comrades in arms: "Two horizontal and one vertical, roll up your sleeves and work hard!"
During that time, the whole ship was under construction, dust and debris were everywhere, and dust masks and hard hats became the daily essential equipment for me and my comrades.
After a busy day, we left 3 obvious black marks on our nostrils and mouth. The shape is very cute. The crew joked: "This is our exclusive 'bear biscuit'." Because of wearing hard hats for a long time , we drew a circle of "tightening spells" on our heads.
Many female sailors are covered in dust all day long, and we affectionately call them "Cinderella"...
When receiving the ship, we are faced with a new problem: how to quickly learn to use the new equipment?
Today, the degree of informatization of modern warfare continues to increase, and the characteristics of intelligence are increasingly prominent.
Profound changes have taken place in the concepts and methods of winning wars.
Hainan Ship is one of the cross-generational equipment of the People's Navy to deal with future high-tech operations. It is networked, informatized, and highly automated. Most of the equipment can be monitored and managed through the network.
A high-tech warship requires a large number of high-quality talents.
We must have experts in network information to operate, manage and maintain the network.
As the captain, I have to study all the majors on the ship.
If the learning materials in the room are stacked, they must be nearly two people tall.
During that time, I was very stressed.
Not every sailor loves to learn.
Some crew members "spit out": "I thought that being a soldier is training, and I don't need to study. I didn't expect that I would learn more than before after coming here." Others ridiculed: "If you studied so hard in high school, you would have learned so much earlier. Go to a good university."
One day, a soldier came to me with a sad face and said, "Captain, I don't want to learn anymore, I really can't learn it. You can let me do something else, I'm not afraid of hardship, just let me clean the toilet!"
I told him seriously: "It's okay if you didn't learn it before, that's your personal behavior. Now you wear this military uniform, and your identity is different. It's the duty of a soldier to learn to use the equipment well. We have a gun for a hundred people. , a radish and a pit. If you don’t learn well, it may affect the performance of the equipment, and we may defeat the battle!”
After listening to these words, the soldier corrected his attitude, and the results of his later studies were not bad.
That's it, in order to make the domestic amphibious assault ship join the battle sequence as soon as possible, we have been racing against time and fighting against difficulties.
my deep blue dream
On August 5, 2020, I piloted the Hainan ship for the first time.
Standing in the high cab, I felt the heroic view of the mountains.
The giant ships of great powers set sail from the Huangpu River and sailed to the wider ocean.
Watching the sea water slowly change from yellow to blue, at that moment only 4 words came to my mind: excitement and pride.
To be honest, I am already an old captain, but driving the Hainan ship is still a big challenge for me.
A normal boat with the cab on the centerline.
The Hainan ship adopts the structure of the side island type superstructure, and the cab is on the starboard side.
This is equivalent to driving at the back door of the bus, with a large blind spot.
This requires the cooperation of all crew members to drive the giant ship, which puts forward high requirements for collaborative command capabilities.
When it comes to the real driving, the stability of the Hainan ship is beyond the imagination of my comrades and I.
The Hainan ship is very large, but its maneuverability is very good. It is a "flexible fat man".
In a test to test the minimum turning radius, the ship needs to drive a complete circle at sea, which we call "the pancake at sea".
There is no intuitive feeling when driving, but after seeing the aerial video, there is only one word in my mind: "Cool!"
It is so beautiful that the giant ships of the great powers draw perfect arcs at sea.
The original planned 30-day test mission was completed in just 18 days.
After enlisting, we quickly turned to combat training.
As the first amphibious assault ship, the Hainan ship has no ready-made experience to learn from. Everything starts from scratch, and we need to explore and practice.
In June last year, for the first time, we organized multiple carrier-based aircraft for continuous dispatch training.
When the carrier aircraft takes off and land, the ship needs to sail against the wind.
Sometimes the wind on the sea surface reaches level 5 or 6, and if the speed is increased a little, the deck composite wind reaches level 7 or 8. It is difficult for people to walk on it, and we still need to work.
The feeling of deck operators is that the wind is strong, the temperature is high, and the time is long.
In fact, the largest airflow is generated when the carrier aircraft takes off and lands.
In the video shot by a security station, the picture shakes very much. This is not due to the cameraman's hand shaking, but the airflow disturbance generated by the carrier-based aircraft when taking off and landing.
The operators on the deck are called "Rainbow Squad".
The positions they are in are the hardest, most dangerous, and also the most honorable positions on our ship.
The great powers and giant ships on the sea chop the waves, the iron wings in the air swirl straight into the enemy's rear, and the iron currents on the land roll straight to Huanglong.
The Hainan ship was born for war and marched towards war.
Our oath is: "Wherever the interests of the country are, the mission of the 'two attacks' will be achieved."
We are always ready, as long as the party and the people need it, we will use our youth and blood to defend the country's sovereignty and rights.
Figure ①: The Hainan ship travels on the sea.
Photo ②: Captain Lv Yongjun of the navy ship Hainan.
Photo by Chen Yunpeng and Zhan Tianyu
Catch up, the mission of a generation of soldiers
■Our reporter Yang Yue
On the bank of the military port, a new domestically produced amphibious assault ship, the Hainan Ship, is quietly moored.
In front of the battleship, stood the captain Lu Yongjun, who had personally experienced the battleship sailing to the dark blue.
On April 23, 2019, the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Navy, it was Lu Yongjun's 40th birthday on the lunar calendar.
This fateful coincidence made him feel a wonderful fate, as if he was born for the navy.
On May 4, 1992, Lu Yongjun was still sitting quietly in the classroom of the first year of junior high school.
On this day, the first edition of the "Liberation Army Daily" published such a message: "All our navy destroyer formations are localized".
It will take many years to join the Navy before Lu Yongjun can understand what this news means for his career.
In the coordinate system of world navy development, the "time difference" between the Chinese navy and the navies of world powers is real.
"This step, we have to hurry up and finally catch up." Lu Yongjun still remembers what an old expert said with tears in his eyes when he took over the ship: "Hundred-year Navy, this step is not easy! "
Catch up, the mission of a generation of soldiers.
Thirty years later, the officer who was born in 1979 and grew up with the spring breeze of reform and opening up has entered the captain's room of the most advanced domestically produced amphibious assault ship.
In the growth process of a whole generation, the development of the Chinese navy, like the development of this country, has begun to catch up with the world by surprise.
"China Aegis", "10,000-ton drive"... The "Internet celebrity" battleship has been continuously upgraded, and it has become an uncommon sight on the rapid development of the Chinese navy.
Singapore's "Lianhe Zaobao" said: "This scene is also rare in the history of world shipbuilding."
Today, standing on the Hainan ship at full speed, Lu Yongjun seems to see the dark blue track where he and the People's Navy have grown together.
On February 26, 2022, Lu Yongjun appeared on CCTV's "Let's Talk" program, dressed in white waves and confident.
In the program, the captain of the Hainan ship led the audience to approach this powerful weapon known as the "Amphibious Combat Knife", and shared the story of a team of sailors and a warship.
On CCTV's "Let's Lecture", a group of soldiers' era puzzle——
They stand for their dreams
■Our reporter Yang Yue
Looking at her father wearing a white spray uniform on TV, Lu Yongjun's daughter felt a little strange - she didn't know the majestic Hainan ship behind her father, but she knew that it was the stage that her father loved.
On February 26, on the night of Saturday, the captain Lu Yongjun, who was in charge of the giant ship, took off his military uniform, sat in front of the TV with his wife and children, and watched the CCTV "Let's Talk" program that he was speaking.
The first episode, more than 40 minutes, condensed the captain's growth and struggle.
When Lu Yongjun faced the sea breeze and told the story of the Hainan ship to the audience, he also reviewed his growth years of fighting the wind and the waves, showing the great era of the rapid development of the People's Navy that he witnessed.
Since the launch of the "Let's Talk" program, more than 20 Chinese soldiers have appeared on the stage.
Standing under the spotlight, they told the audience about the growth, struggle and dreams of Chinese soldiers in the new era.
This stage, witnessing their love——
"I like test flights, and I like this exciting feeling. As long as there is one test pilot left in the Chinese Air Force, it must be me." In a quiet sky and a fast sprinting fighter plane, hero test pilot Li Zhonghua has been on the "tip of the knife" time and time again. Dance", challenging the limits of flying in the vast sky.
With the most sincere love and loyalty, he wrote his own footnotes for the Chinese Air Force to fly further into the blue sky.
This stage, witnessing their bravery——
"It's hard to choose, but when the motherland and the people need you, you must focus on the overall situation, and you must do it without turning back." After receiving the order, Xi Shuanzhu, an armed police officer, and his comrades in arms rushed to a foreign country for the first time.
For 403 days and nights, he and his comrades carved the image of the Chinese Armed Police on the world stage.
This stage, witnessing their feelings——
"The great motherland is the position we stick to, and national security is the dream we will always pursue." When Wang Ximin, the then brigade commander of a certain Rocket Army brigade, described the lonely years of the officers and soldiers sticking to the depths of the mountains, we seemed to have witnessed those silences with our own eyes. figure.
They raised the "red sun" on the cardboard, and with their selfless dedication, brought every beautiful dawn to the motherland and the people.
On the stage of "Let's Talk", the figures of Chinese soldiers standing upright and the touching military stories are like puzzle pieces scattered in every corner of the motherland.
Along the projection of the camera, these story puzzles are connected by thousands of gazes, splicing together a magnificent picture of strengthening the army and rejuvenating the army.
Among them, there are the airborne warrior Li Zhenbo, who calls himself "a drop of water in the sea", the aircraft carrier captain Liu Zhe, who says "the bow of the ship is the Great Wall", and the academician Qian Qihu who "casts a shield of peace for the country". .
On this stage, we heard Wang Jiaquan, a brigade commander of the Marine Corps, talk about how the special forces were tempered into steel, how the people's military doctor Bian Xiuwu in snow-white "combat uniforms" adhered to the medical front, and also heard the battle hero How Wei Changjin traverses the battlefield of blood and fire
A firm and confident figure, showing the appearance of Chinese soldiers in the new era.
Standing on the battlefield, they guarded the vast land of China, the mountains and rivers, the sky and the ocean.
Standing in the center of the stage, they spoke for their own dreams, the dreams of this army, and the dreams of this great nation.
"Looking back on my military career, I have received new ships again and again, witnessed the upgrading of ship equipment again and again, and witnessed the leap-forward development of the navy again and again." Lu Yongjun said.
Today, driving the Hainan ship, an advanced amphibious assault ship, Lu Yongjun has personally experienced the gift of the rapid development of the times.
This big country and giant ship breaking the waves is carrying the dreams of him and his comrades in arms, heading towards the deep blue and the future.
Stepping out of the spotlight, Lu Yongjun and the Hainan ship started a new departure.
"I hope that the Hainan ship will go to the ocean as soon as possible." Talking about his current dream, Lu Yongjun said with anticipation.