She is also referred to as the ‘The Lady in Gray’ or ‘The Big “E”‘. What follows are what I had written when I had Arion’s Home up way back in the day.
Shipyard/Reactor Training
I reported on board the U.S.S Enterprise on August 26, 1994 after a month of vacation. The Enterprise was moored in Portsmouth, Virginia, the shipyards. It was in the yards for a 5 year overhaul to upgrade many of the ships systems and to refuel the reactors as well. The Commanding Officer was Richard Naughton, who will later be known as Dick “The Storm Chaser” Naughton. He was a former A6-E Intruder pilot who did not like us nukes at all.
The ship was strewn with ventilation trunks and thick bundles of wires, and civilian shipyard workers were grinding the decks like there was no tomorrow, or time to sleep. There was dust, dirt and insulation everywhere. There were holes in the deck everywhere to lower various equipment to the bowels of the ship. If you were a neat freak you would have thought you were in hell. For most of us, regardless of the fact, it was our personal hell and was just as clean. If hell on earth was to be given a name it would be U.S.S Enterprise or the U.S.S Evil Rise as we would refer to her affectionately. When people would check on board for the first time we would say “Welcome to Hell. Shipmate. It only gets worse.”
I reported on board to the Reactor Training Division. We had 2 months to complete the pretraining prior to going to our respective divisions. The 2 months consisted of a review of the previous 2 years of school and a complete overview of all of the ships reactor and propulsion systems. I had to memorize many electrical and mechanical drawings. Aarrrgghhhh!! At the time we were still in the shipyards and we spent most of our time cleaning or rehab(ilitating)’ing a space. We were being “bitched” or pimped out to who ever needed help in their rehabbing projects. This made it a little bit difficult to actually do our job of the moment which was learn the ships systems. Needless to say there was a bit of bitterness and discontent in the newbies to the reactor department.
Eventually they kind of trained us and we were shipped to our respective divisions ready or not. I was shipped off to Reactor Controls Division 22 (RC 22). I was very fortunate to be apart of RC 22.
Sea Trials
During my stay onboard the Enterprise I went through 3 Commanding Officers (CO’s).The first CO I had was Captain Richard Naughton. He was CO through the overhaul and then through the initial sea trials of the Enterprise. During my first year on board The Big “E” I saw the roughest seas that I would see in 4 years of sea travel. Captain Naughton had the pleasure of taking the Enterprise out on it’s initial sea trials after having been in the shipyards for 5 years. I’m sure this gave him some form of perverse pleasure. To take the flagship of the US Navy and test it at her limits to ensure it is ready for combat. That is an awesome responsibility. To test the “Lady in gray and not destroy her or her crew. (Is it starting to sound like Star Trek yet!!!) We began sea trials, of course, as luck would have it, during hurricane season.
I could see Captain Naughton standing on the bridge of the Enterprise with a maniacal gleam in his eye; staring intently at the storm front and saying “Ahead flank – Cavitate!!” and then unleashing a laugh that borders on insanity and parallels that of the best villain. I swear every time we went to sea he made a “Bee-line” for the nearest hurricane or storm front. I did not mind the incessant rocking of the ship, it helped rock me to sleep Many other people, however, ended up hurling themselves to sleep, and they weren’t drunk. Your surprised, yes, I know, a sailor puking that is not drunk. Seas sick sailors?? It should be an oxymoron. Sailors puking and not being drunk is not natural. I happened and only Captain “the Storm Chaser” Naughton. I never thought waves would ever wash over the flight deck and the spray topping the Island. I instilled a sense of mortality and awe. It showed how powerful the forces of nature were and how, if anything were to go horribly wrong, how dead we would all be. Swallowed by the lightless depths never top be heard from. Victims of the storm. (Sorry! Flashbacks to my days on the Titanic!)
I was in Damage Control Central getting an oral board from the Reactor Officer, Captain.. There were monitors there that showed camera’s on the flight deck with waves washing over Wow is all I could think. After, that the rest of my sea timed seemed like cake. I had earned my sea legs in the best possible environment (or worst depending on you point of view). Try walking up a ladder with the ship rolling at forward – left side – backward – right side at 20 degree angles. Fun!!!!
Originally posted on August 24,
2002 on my original site.
The day before I leave for the Czech Rep (Aug 24rth, 2002) I have my ten year class reunion. To which I do not know if I will be welcome, because the check that I wrote to be able to attend has not been cashed. I am in the process of finding out whether this is a problem or not.
I was, unfortunately, unable to make it to my five year class reunion. At the time I was in the Navy, stationed on the USS Enterprise out of Norfolk, Virginia, and unbeknown to me, leave should be arranged for well in advance during the summer, because everyone wants time off. Go figure! Silly me! So I was not able to go. Lesson Learned!
Now there is my 10 year reunion which I am very much looking forward to attending. To be able to see how the former jocks and beauty queens have fared in the real world; to see how the bullies, and seeming wonderful people have turned out. Life has a strange way of changing people, or not. I am hopefully not sounding trite here but in many cases “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” I am curious to see how true this is with my classmates. To see how the journey to find oneself in the seeming vast and incomprehensible reality set before us after graduation has effected them, especially in light of how it has effected me. Some of us have a plan and some do not. For some of us life turned out as we expected, for better or worse. Some are completely held aghast and brought to there knees in surprise and horror at how their life has happened before them, seemingly with out control or the ability to forge it to their will or likeness. I think I have rambled enough….
Edited: 11/06/02
I have recently survived 10 weeks of of traveling abroad. I have had two and a half months wandering about 4 European countries: The Czech Rep, Germany, Belarus, and Russia, and now get the chance to write about my class reunion. Well, it was very interesting. Seeing people that I have not seen for 10 years. Most people were mellowed out versions of their high school selves, which in many cases is a great thing. Many were still the same, but just a bit older – keeping to their clicks and aloofness.
Much to my extreme horror, I felt much as I did in high school, shy, reserved and found it very difficult to start talking to people. I found that very disturbing. I have changed a lot since high school, too much, to allow myself to return to that type of behavior. I believe it was brought on merely by the fact that I will be around the people from high school, possibly having the same subconscious expectations that I had then. UGH! Most of the people were much more approachable, but some kept to the same cliques that they had in high school; but some wandered outside the confines of the clique or social group. That is a good thing! I talked to some people that I would normally have talked to and few that I would not have had the courage to speak to. It was quite the learning experience.
The way I felt during this kind of scared me, especially with my trip coming up. I cannot afford to have this shyness dominate me during my trip overseas. My primary goal in going there is to see friends and to get to know the people. I will not be able to do that if I feel this way. It did not bode well. Fortunately, I did not let it bother me too much. For much of my trip I was, well, rather brazen. That is a story for another page…
I enjoy writing small fantasy stories,
especially of the Dungeons and Dragons sort. Writing is not easy and I struggle with keeping my verb tenses and point of views consistent. For those of you who are not familiar with D&D or its tropes may find it a little hard to follow since most of it is written with the D&D player in mind and so does not go into explaining what an orc or otyugh is as that is common knowledge amongst the players. If you can follow some it great. If you have questions feel free to post them and I will be more than happy to address them.
Should I proof read and spell check more? Definitely. IF you have corrections or suggestions let me know.
Hopefully you will find some enjoyment in it.
