--- title: "Carrier Captain On How His Up-Beat Tweets Would Have Needed To Change If Houthi Missiles Struck His Ship" date: "2024-08-14" modified: "2024-08-14" authors: - name: "Howard Altman" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://www.twz.com/authors/howard-altman.md" url: "https://www.twz.com/news-features/carrier-captain-on-how-his-up-beat-tweets-would-need-to-change-if-houthi-missiles-struck-his-ship" categories: - "Around The Globe" - "Carriers" - "Middle East" - "Navies" - "News & Features" - "Nimitz Class" - "Red Sea" - "Sea" - "U.S. Navy" - "USS Nimitz (CVN-68)" --- # Carrier Captain On How His Up-Beat Tweets Would Have Needed To Change If Houthi Missiles Struck His Ship ![Captain hill on how his tweets would have needed to change if the ship was hit.]() *@Chowdahhill X account* When unfounded rumors began to circulate online earlier this year that the aircraft carrier USS *[Dwight D. Eisenhower ]()*was sunk by Houthis missiles, its captain, Chris “Chowdah” Hill, took to social media to let the world know the *Ike* was perfectly fine. Not with a direct denial, but with a tweet showing him eyeing pastries in the massive ship’s bake shop. But that didn't mean that Hill didn't worry about how his up-beat social media presence would have to abruptly change if the ship was indeed struck by the enemy. https://twitter.com/ChowdahHill/status/1796571065902346580 A few days earlier, after similar rumors, Hill posted about Taco Tuesday. But unlike the latter tweet, he wasn't delivering a message, he told Michael Villahermosa, an Army captain who hosts the [*It’s A Blast Podcast*]() in his spare time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iKZIIJdLww "The first time was just an accident where the enemy claimed that they had sunk us," he said. "...despite every attempt that they may have made, they did not. And so it just happened to fall on a Tuesday, and I love Taco Tuesday." https://twitter.com/ChowdahHill/status/1795352907568885939 https://twitter.com/ChowdahHill/status/1782715011598631315 He also retweeted a story about the Houthi disinformation campaign that he subtly helped to counter. https://twitter.com/ChowdahHill/status/1797181500418642425 Perhaps the most known aircraft carrier skipper of his generation thanks to his popular [@ChowdahHill]() Twitter/X account, the taco-loving Hill explained that his social media presence would have been significantly different had the *Eisenhower* really suffered damage. **“**If the ship had been hit, then what would the tenor of my social media have become at that point?” he asked Villahermosa rhetorically. “Am I going to still talk about Taco Tuesday when there's a gaping hole in the side of the ship?” https://twitter.com/EODHappyCaptain/status/1822659259693138001 At the time, the rumors of the *Ike* being struck sparked wide concern, with reporters reaching out to sources to debunk or confirm the claims. It was the kind of news that could spread panic among the families of the 5,000 sailors on board. Given that, Hill's Twitter account became the front lines of an information warfare battle waged by the Houthis to stir up fear over the deployment of combat assets to the region. It's a unique but glaring example of the challenges and opportunities militaries face in an age of social media, where disinformation can spread like wildfire and tweeting from a deployed warship can present unique pitfalls and tactical benefits. Hill said he had some trepidation after those tweets because he’d “received negative feedback” that his plethora of posts about daily life aboard ship “might have been revealing too much.” They included images of deployment patches, his morale-building invitations to sailors to have a cookie on the bridge, Captain Demo, *Ike*'s roving therapy dog, and of course his beloved Red Sox. https://twitter.com/ChowdahHill/status/1812641807647318209 https://twitter.com/ChowdahHill/status/1806637759240585715 https://twitter.com/ChowdahHill/status/1799772383693127682 https://twitter.com/ChowdahHill/status/1799295504607739954 https://twitter.com/ChowdahHill/status/1797694241625272343 https://twitter.com/ChowdahHill/status/1765320779388932356 “So I did worry about that a little bit,” he told Villahermosa, who stressed that the Army neither endorses nor sponsors his podcast. “I'm like, ‘Please God, let us get through this. Go back through the Red Sea, through the Suez Canal, and get out of here at some point because we were so successful up till that point.” That was an understatement. While the Houthis claimed they destroyed the *Ike*, its strike group delivered a lot of hurt to the Houthis. The strike group, [as our story at the time noted](), “fired 155[ Standard-series missiles]() and 135[ Tomahawk cruise missiles]() in operations against Iranian-backed Houthi militants based in Yemen during a recently concluded nine-month deployment.[ Aircraft from the strike group]() launched another 60 air-to-air missiles and 420 air-to-surface munitions in the course of their operations in and around the Red Sea. Collectively, the IKECSG used its various weapons to destroy a bevy of Houthi[ aerial drones](),[ missiles](),[ uncrewed surface vessels]() and[ undersea vehicles](), and[ different kinds]() of[ targets ashore]().” ![The Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group expended 770 missiles and other munitions at Houthi targets over the course of a recently concluded nine-month deployment.]() *The Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group expended 770 missiles and other munitions at Houthi targets over the course of a recently concluded nine-month deployment. (Capt. Chris “Chowdah” Hill/USN)* Hill said his social media presence was a happily accidental offshoot of his efforts to build morale on an old ship out at sea for a long period of time. “So a guy who doesn't care about social media, I'm nervous about it, right?” he said of his first forays online beyond his personal Facebook page. His public affairs officer "set me up on a Twitter account, and I started posting stuff, and didn't really go anywhere for that first month," Hill remembered. Then he responded to a tweet about someone wanting a GI Joe aircraft carrier toy. "That was last November, and there was the thing that popped up that said it was about the GI Joe aircraft carrier from back in the 80s. I said, 'you know, I always wanted this thing. I had to wait till I was almost 50 years old' and that thing went viral, went everywhere, and I started getting some followers on X." He now has over 89,000. https://twitter.com/ChowdahHill/status/1737481803743543682 Hill said that before what turned out to be a very busy deployment, he thought it might be somewhat routine. “Leading up to deployment, I said, ‘Hey, we could go into some serious stuff,’” Hill explained. “I didn't know what that stuff was, but I also said, ‘Hey, it looks like it's going to be a pretty normal deployment.’” The improved morale helped the crew perform better during inspections, which happened even as they were underway in the Red Sea. “I said, ‘Thank you for coming for this inspection,’” he told the inspectors. “We're looking forward to kicking ass on it, and we would. So we just got better and better. And of course, we did well in combat. As you can see, we came back unscathed despite what the enemy said.” *Contact the author: [howard@thewarzone.com]()* ## Author Howard is a Senior Staff Writer for *TWZ*. He writes frequently about conflict, focusing heavily on the Middle East and Ukraine, and interviews with military and intelligence officials and industry leaders from around the globe. He lives near Tampa, Florida, home of U.S. Central Command, U.S. Special Operations Command. ### Author social links [Twitter]() [LinkedIn]()