ATLANTIC OCEAN (March 17, 2023) Boatswain's Mate 3rd Class Shawn Stillson, in yellow, signals how close pallets are to the deck as the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Normandy (CG 60) conducts a replenishment-at-sea with the Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo and ammunition ship USNS William McLean (T-AKE-12) while underway as part of the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group in the Atlantic Ocean, March 17, 2023. The Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group is underway in the Atlantic Ocean executing its composite training unit exercise (COMPTUEX), an intense, multi-week exercise designed to fully integrate a carrier strike group as a cohesive, multi-mission fighting force and to test their ability to carry out sustained combat operations from the sea. As the first-in-class ship of the Ford-class aircraft carriers, CVN 78 represents a generational leap in the U.S. Navy's capacity to project power on a global scale. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Malachi Lakey)