Posted on 06/27/2002 7:14:45 AM PDT by Stand Watch Listen
ABOARD THE USS JOHN F. KENNEDY -- In the stairwell a partially opened vent blows cool air on our soaked shirts. A sailor is propped in the doorway, one leg in the breezy stairwell and the other inside her sweltering work space."You wanna come in here?" she says with a smile.
Her face is covered with beads of sweat and her white T-shirt is stuck to her back, but we curiously follow anyway. A blanket of suffocating heat covers my bare face and forearms as I step through the hatch of the washroom.
These utility-size washers and dryers spin about 7,400 pounds of clothes per day, kicking up a heat index well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
"Stick your hand down there," she says as she points to a shaft that leads to the room just below. After they are washed and dried, uniforms are dropped down this chute to be pressed.
A thermometer in the pressroom downstairs reads 110 degrees Fahrenheit.
Temperatures vary drastically on the carrier as we walk from passageway to passageway. Air-conditioning is spotted throughout the ship, usually concentrated in the office spaces and sleeping quarters.
The north Arabian Sea feels more like warm bath water, making it more difficult to keep the heat out and the cool air in. To keep some spaces at a manageable temperature, the air is sucked out, cooled, recycled and reused.
Aunt Jemima Waffles and bagels from Pompano Beach are stacked to the ceiling in the food freezer seven decks below the flight deck. Boxes of cheeses, yogurt and onions from Australia cover the ice-cold floor.
About 16,200 meals are served in the food galleys each day, which tabulates to a daily bill of $30,000.
In the freezer the 12-degree temperature is a shock from the humid hallways, but one sailor doesn't seem to mind. He's wearing a dark T-shirt and long pants, no gloves, no jacket, no hat.
Three minutes inside and my hands are trembling, making it more difficult to take notes. My nose is frozen, the hairs on my forearms are standing on end.
I suggest we head for the heat.
Sorry Rachel but there aren't any "stairwells" on U.S. warships.
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