Newport News Department: Ops Author: Arch Era: 1985 Date: 09/30/06 Condiments from a Cop I got a telemarketing phone call at home one day, they wanted me to buy jams and jellies to support the NN police department. The cop even said "I'm not a professional solicitor ...". I said "Yeah, I can tell. You couldn't sell fire to an Eskimo." So I was feeling kinda chipper, and said, yeah ok, I'll buy some. When the package came, I also got a FOP bumper sticker with it that said "Don't Drink and Drive". I plastered that baby on my back bumper, and drove around tanked for the next 18 months. Never got pulled over even once. And the jellies were pretty good, to boot.

Newport News Department: Ops Author: Arch Era: 1986 Date: 09/30/06 Mogul Paperboy I've always been an avid reader, subscribing to several magazines (remember how cool the now defunct science mag Omni was ?) as well as the daily local newspaper. A cool little black kid was the paperboy for the apt. complex, this kid would come by to collect on Saturday afternoons, and typically I'd be drunk - I'd tip him $5 or $10 bucks a week, way back in '86. The friggin' paper itself probably only cost a few bucks a week. I swear the kid came by collecting for the same period more than once, hell if I could keep it straight. I also paid him to run errands for me on his bike up to the 7-11 or auto parts store. Cool and enterprising kid.

IN THE NEWS Department: Engr Author: Sol The Bull Era: 2006 Date: 10/05/06 From hamptonroads.com...... Overhauled Eisenhower prepares for deployment after six years off NORFOLK - The aircraft carrier Eisenhower is going to sea again after being sidelined for nearly six years for a major overhaul and a nuclear refueling. It and four other Norfolk-based ships and submarines carrying 6,500 sailors leave Tuesday for a scheduled deployment. Traveling with the Eisenhower will be Carrier Air Wing 7, Destroyer Squadron 28, the guided-missile cruiser Anzio, guided-missile destroyers Ramage and Mason, and the fast-attack submarine Newport News, according to a Navy news release. Rear Adm. Allen G. Myers will lead Carrier Strike Group 8. The "Ike" last deployed in February 2000 and returned that August. The Eisenhower, nearly 29 years old, entered the Northrop Grumman Newport News Shipyard in May 2001 for a $1.5 billion midlife refueling of two nuclear reactors and an overhaul. That was completed in March 2005.

Good Luck Ike Department: AIMD Author: Jake Era: 1983 Date: 10/05/06 Haze gray and underway, Good Luck Ike, Fair winds and following seas and all that other squid talk. Hope you have another good 29 years.

Haze Grey Department: Ops Author: Arch Era: 1985 Date: 10/10/06 Just before the 1985-1987 yard period while the ship was still at NOB, Drew and I drove in to work one morning. It was a dark and misty morning, and walking from the car to the pier, Ike looked bad as hell, with the fog enveloping her, and the various lights here and there piercing the darkness and casting shadows around her. I also remember about this time the waterline kept moving lower on the ship. Not only was old equipment already being removed by yard personnel, but anything useful that wasn't nailed down was being "acquired" by ship's company. I know my toolbox increased healthily around that time. Once, I had had stashed a Fluke voltmeter in an unused office desk, intending to retrieve it in a day. A great score, I thought. Somebody else beat me to it.

Who said it has to be nailed down? Department: Engr Author: Sol The Bull Era: 2000 Date: 10/10/06 The day we pulled in from the 2000 cruise our shop lost conection with the server for email, internet, supply system, job orders, everything. After the stand down we put in a trouble call to the computer guys and a few days later they told us that when the airwing departed the ship they took a bunch of the routers and hubs with them. The guy's exact words were "They ripped them right off the wall." I asked if they had contacted the airwing, if they were going to get them back, what trouble would the culprits be getting into. The Ike was not going to do anything about it. They did not want to damage the relationship with the airwing, we were told. We were also told that they were not going to replace the hubs and routers because we were so close to going to the yards. I also know of a guy that put a bottle of freon in his seabag when we pulled in. It is amazing what has found it's way down that peir.

Department: AIMD Author: Jake Era: 1982 Date: 10/10/06 I Remember after the 82 Med we all chipped in and bought a refrigerator (used of course) off of some guy on Tidewater Dr. Buying it was the easy part, getting it back on board was another thing because Capt Clexton didn't want anything like that brought onboard they said it would attract rodents and what not, but being the resourceful squids that we were we weren' gonna let that stop us. Ike was at pier 12 and she was docked bow facing in so the trash conveyor was all the back on elevator 3 so we pulled up to the pier "borrowed" a hand truck off of one of the yard birds and wheeled it down the pier going right by the officer and enlisted brows with no one even noticing, all the way back to the elevator with the conveyor on it, turn on the conveyor for the opposite direction and up went the fridge one of the guys rode with the fridge up to the top the rest of us went up the brow and no one even noticed, all the way thru the hangar bays and up the tunnel and into the shop. I doubt if you could do something like that today.I wonder if that thing is still onboard? If anyone onboard reading this assigned to shop 1 AIMD let me know if its still there

What? Department: Rx Author: Troy Butler Era: 1988 Date: 10/10/06 So if the yard period ended in Mar 05, why are they just now deploying? A few months for quals and stuff i understand but 18 months?

Conveyor OPS Department: Engr Author: Sol The Bull Era: 1996 Date: 10/12/06 Jake, In my day that conveyor was used by the guys on restriction to get on and off the ship. Untill a couple got caught. Then they would detatch the conveyor from the elevator at night or when not in use. I am sure that a high amount of "contraband" went up and down that conveyor as well. As for fridges, almost every shop had one back then.

18 months? Department: Rx Author: Flounder Era: 2006 Date: 10/12/06 Hey Bisonhead - How's it going? Good to see ya! I remember you well from RE Div. My ship is going into drydock in Charleston, SC next month. We only get 2-3 weeks up on the blocks, and we're back on the job when we're done; any problems left over, we have to fix ourselves. Of course, if we even get 10 years' useful service out of this floating heap of Asian scrap iron, I'll be amazed...