Sure Does.

Today had a bit of a slow start. Despite all my efforts, I am struggling to convince my body that 10pm is a good time to go to sleep so I can get up at 5am. Needless to say 5am seemed too early this morning. After some internal arguing I made it off the air mattress, to the shower, into clothes, and on the bus. There was of course a cup of coffee included in that process.

Change of subject in class today. We began discussing surface ships ie: air craft carriers, battle ships, cruisers, sub tenders, and many more. This was just plain cool. I mean really cool. I think this goes back to my fascination with ferries. We looked at tons of pictures and discussed the development of many of the surface crafts alongside the development of the shipyard. We learned about the several different purposes the shipyard has served through out its history. From building ships from the keel up to reparing many of the ships bombed at pearl harbor and being chosen to be the second nuclear shipyard on the west coast.

Above is a picture of the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt during construction at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. This is prior to the nuclear years obviously and at a time when ships were constructed here.

This is a picture of the Kitty Hawk as she sits in port at Puget Sound. She was just decommissioned in January and replaced by the Navy's newest nuclear aircraft carrier the USS George H. W. Bush.

Commissioned in 1961, the USS Enterprise CVN-65 became the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier. Following her construction she and other nuclear powered vessels of the US Navy circled the globe without refueling just to say, "Hey look what we can do." The picture above was from this trip. We saw another picture of the Enterprise in class today that had all the sailors spelling out E=mc2 x 40 for the 40th anniversary. The Enterprise is currently the oldest ship in the navy and she will be decommissioned at the age of 53 around 2014.

The USS Ronald Regan conduction rudder tests. Traveling at high speeds the rudder is set full one direction and then full the other direction. At around 78,000 tons she can perform this in around 3 minutes. Pretty darn cool.

There are a ton more pictures and countless stories to tell, but I'll let you do the researching if you want. All the pictures I've provided are available to the public at www.navsource.org and most of them have descriptions alongside. Go. Look. Be amazed.

Today's instructor pointed out that there has been two major transistions at the shipyard. When the shipyard went nuclear many practices had to change. Most of the shipyard mechanics were accustomed to taking over a ship from the forces afloat, bringing her in to dry dock, diagnosing the problem, making the needed repairs, testing her, and handing her back over to the sailors. With the nuclear transistion, practices became much more restrictive. Shipyard employees were no longer allowed to pilot or control the ships, forces afloat had to be on hand to do this, and every operation or test had to have descriptive documentation authorizing the process. "These ship experts who were used to doing everything on their own had to wait for a written test process from kids just out of college like you guys. Many of them decided to retire at this point rather than adjust."

The second transition is something I probably wouldn't have thought of had he not pointed it out. Around 1994, the shipyard went digital. "Can you believe that in 1994, there were people in building 850 and 850-A that didn't know how to turn on a computer or print a document?" It was around this time that every test process, tag out, and authoriaztion had to be written up and printed from a computer. I know there have been vast technological advancements in my life alone, but I also know that I often take these for granted. I'm sitting here communicating with people upwards of 2000 miles away, and I can take my communication medium virtually anywhere I want. I remember windows 98 and the ski game that entertained me for hours in the basement. I remember the mac we had growing up with the alphabet search game and glowing green screen. This is technology that has grown up with and faster than I have, but I had never thought about the stress it could cause on an enviornment such as the shipyard.

After work I grabbed a drink with Joe and Andrew so I missed the ferry take home bus, and the next bus wasn't scheduled to be in till 5pm. I could have waited around, but the weather was nice so I just walked. As I approached the Mannette Bridge, I saw what looked like a sea gull chasing an eagle. I thought that was a little strange; I would expect the roles to be reversed. When I got to the bridge I noticed a man and his dog looking over the side into a tree, "hey, check it out." I looked. Not 50 feet way on a tree branch sat a bald eagle calming looking up at us and ignoring the sea gull making a racket overhead. Another passerby stopped to look with us, and as the eagle spread its giant wings to glide away toward some distant trees (presumably a sea gull nest), the woman said, "Its things like that that make you glad to be alive."

Sure does. It sure does.

Thanks for reading! Much love to you all!