The US Navy's base at Norfolk, Virginia is the largest in the world. It can berth a vast number of ships. On 20 December, the station was packed with five aircraft carriers and four amphibious assault ships:
Five aircraft carriers, four big-deck amphibious assault ships, a full cast of “small boy” surface warships, along with nuclear submarines and support ships, are crowding the base, giving a comfortably snug feeling to the waterfront. Similar scenes — although not with the gathering of flattops seen here — are taking place at other fleet concentration areas like San Diego and Pearl Harbor.
The Navy makes a point of trying to gives its shipboard crews a chance to spend Christmas with their families, and for a few days the percentage of ships underway drops to the lowest point it will be all year. But many of these ships will be gone in two weeks as the pace of operations picks up again.
You can see more aerial photos of the big ships side by side at the link.
Link -via Glenn Reynolds | Photo: US Navy, Ryan J. Courtade, Ernest R. Scott and Kevin J. Steinberg.