[misanthrope]

I floated on CVN-65 1981-1985. Back on the fantail during flank speed ops was an awe inspiring thing.

[fredhead]

I served 20 years in the Navy, retiring in 1998. My ships were Nimitz, JFK, and Ike. My first job after retiring was with a company installing the LAN on the Big E. Pulling cable. MILES of cable. Got to go underway on her then. I now work doing tech assists on comm systems on the ships. The last time I was on Enterprise was just before the decommissioning, removing some antennas. It was depressing to see a ship die.

After JFK’s decommissioning she was towed to Norfolk and sat at a pier for about 6 months before being towed to Philadelphia. It was a sad sight every time I had to go down there.

[rlmorel]

On one of my transits in the Kennedy across the Atlantic, we had pulled out of Norfolk, and were into the first night out at sea.

I hit the rack (my rack was DIRECTLY under the #3 wire, top rack...with a 1MC between me and the underside of the deck!) and woke up sometime around 0300 in the dark, and I heard this very loudly:

"WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM"

I just did this experiment to recreate it exactly: That is 26 "WHAMS" and do that in six seconds. Time it! Now imagine hearing that in the dark, and the guy in the rack below you is hitting the underside of your rack with a large encyclopedia with each wham...that is what it felt like!

I got dressed and went down to the fantail...it was awesome.

A mountain of white water...(they wouldn't let us go out there, but they let us Airdales walk up to the roped off part and look...:)

And I fully expect the Big E was even more impressive!