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Submarine Commissioning
Hi! I've been kinda MILJ lately--or is that MFLJ? Anyway, just been ducking my head in, squirreling away foxy tidbits, then quick like a bunny hopping away, and also trying to ferret out how many animals I can monkeywrench in a sentence without becoming a cheatah. 8? Anyway, thank you for replying to my questions and thank you for your vid recs; I'm going to get back to each of you. Hopefully having watched some! If we had an email conversation going I'm about to get back to you too. If you've posted anything of importance and I haven't commented, please direct my attention.
So, today was the commissioning of the USS Texas. A big submarine was there, the First Lady was there, and, courtesy of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dlgood, so was I!
Since Dave couldn't come all the way to Galveston, he sent me the tickets he got. I was going to go with my friend, but she got sick, and the other friend who had wanted to go before had to go to a funeral, so I lugged my dad along with me. It was very neat getting to use Dave's Very Important Person passes, and we got pretty good seats, even though it was pretty hard to see the speakers. Some Navy guys spoke, the asst. Secretary of the Navy, iirc, and the new captain of the vessel, and some more Navy guys. The two Senators of Texas also spoke, one of whom is Kay Bailey Hutchinson--big favorite in this state. Even if I'm not sure why that is, it was cool to hear her talk, and she's a great speaker.
She's from Galveston, so everyone was getting their Texas spirit on, which you've experienced if a. you live in Texas, or b. havestoney321 friended. They talked about A&M and then the UT game tonight and then because it was football and I didn't know what they were talking about it reminded me of Dave. (eta) And there was a speaker who apologized if you didn't know what he meant, because he was from the northeast and they talk faster there than in the south--which was funny because everyone else was all, "I'M FROM TEXAS" (which is also funny because that's what my friend says when she cuts people off when she's driving). And the slogan of the submarine is, "Don't Mess With Texas," which is why we never litter here, and which is what all the sailors said after they broke the flag (I don't know what that means, either).
The jets kinda zoomed out of nowhere, made a bunch of loud noises, and were very cool. But as you can see, it was a cloudy day. It rained all the way there, but stopped right when I got there. Then it stayed stopped, so it was nice and cool but not wet, which was just amazing. Still, it was pretty crowded, and difficult to get a good view, which is why I don't have one. At the end they said you could go up to the barge for a closer look, but I think about all 10,000 headed up there--right as it started to pour--so . . . we didn't do that. There was also a reception tent but did I mention the pouring?
But what we saw looked cool, and when they manned the ship these guys popped out of it and stuff came out the top. Plus, it has 1,350 dozen eggs on it and 500 pounds of coffee. And the total crew size is 134, but there are only 118 bunks, which just makes me think things, you know? Except that there is apparently extra room for sleeping in the torpedo room, which could make some people just as uncomfortable. It only goes 2 ft above the water when surfaced, and it weighs a whole freakin' lot. Did I mention the 1,500 pounds of chicken? With the chicken and the eggs you could have...a mother and child reunion sandwich! I hope they weren't serving that at the reception or else I'm sorry I missed it.
And the First Lady talked. You know, maybe her husband is wearing off on her, because I've seen her before and she seemed very articulate. But she stumbled all through the first half of her little speech. She looked very, very sharp though. She had on a white suit. As did many other Navy guys, because, you know, that's what they wear. And they look so good doing it. I wore a suit too and was very impressed with myself, because it's from highschool and still fits perfectly.
So, it was cool. Plus there were pelicans. Thank you todlgood. The rest of you, don't mess with Texas. ...Get it? It's like a play on words. 'Cause how Texas could mean two things. It tickles me.
So, today was the commissioning of the USS Texas. A big submarine was there, the First Lady was there, and, courtesy of
dlgood, so was I!Since Dave couldn't come all the way to Galveston, he sent me the tickets he got. I was going to go with my friend, but she got sick, and the other friend who had wanted to go before had to go to a funeral, so I lugged my dad along with me. It was very neat getting to use Dave's Very Important Person passes, and we got pretty good seats, even though it was pretty hard to see the speakers. Some Navy guys spoke, the asst. Secretary of the Navy, iirc, and the new captain of the vessel, and some more Navy guys. The two Senators of Texas also spoke, one of whom is Kay Bailey Hutchinson--big favorite in this state. Even if I'm not sure why that is, it was cool to hear her talk, and she's a great speaker.
She's from Galveston, so everyone was getting their Texas spirit on, which you've experienced if a. you live in Texas, or b. have
stoney321 friended. They talked about A&M and then the UT game tonight and then because it was football and I didn't know what they were talking about it reminded me of Dave. (eta) And there was a speaker who apologized if you didn't know what he meant, because he was from the northeast and they talk faster there than in the south--which was funny because everyone else was all, "I'M FROM TEXAS" (which is also funny because that's what my friend says when she cuts people off when she's driving). And the slogan of the submarine is, "Don't Mess With Texas," which is why we never litter here, and which is what all the sailors said after they broke the flag (I don't know what that means, either).  |
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| Here they are on the sub. | Here is the band! | Here are some jets. |
The jets kinda zoomed out of nowhere, made a bunch of loud noises, and were very cool. But as you can see, it was a cloudy day. It rained all the way there, but stopped right when I got there. Then it stayed stopped, so it was nice and cool but not wet, which was just amazing. Still, it was pretty crowded, and difficult to get a good view, which is why I don't have one. At the end they said you could go up to the barge for a closer look, but I think about all 10,000 headed up there--right as it started to pour--so . . . we didn't do that. There was also a reception tent but did I mention the pouring?
But what we saw looked cool, and when they manned the ship these guys popped out of it and stuff came out the top. Plus, it has 1,350 dozen eggs on it and 500 pounds of coffee. And the total crew size is 134, but there are only 118 bunks, which just makes me think things, you know? Except that there is apparently extra room for sleeping in the torpedo room, which could make some people just as uncomfortable. It only goes 2 ft above the water when surfaced, and it weighs a whole freakin' lot. Did I mention the 1,500 pounds of chicken? With the chicken and the eggs you could have...a mother and child reunion sandwich! I hope they weren't serving that at the reception or else I'm sorry I missed it.
And the First Lady talked. You know, maybe her husband is wearing off on her, because I've seen her before and she seemed very articulate. But she stumbled all through the first half of her little speech. She looked very, very sharp though. She had on a white suit. As did many other Navy guys, because, you know, that's what they wear. And they look so good doing it. I wore a suit too and was very impressed with myself, because it's from highschool and still fits perfectly.
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So, it was cool. Plus there were pelicans. Thank you to
dlgood. The rest of you, don't mess with Texas. ...Get it? It's like a play on words. 'Cause how Texas could mean two things. It tickles me.
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The Torpedo Room is one of the more spacious places on the sub. The deal with the bunks is that they do 'Hot Racking'.
Which is -- Submarines have to be manned 24 hours a day, so some people are always on duty, right. The way it works is, you'll get three guys assigned to two beds - and it works because there's never a time when all three guys are off duty. They just call it hot racking because when you get to go to bed, your bunk is warm because someone else was using it while you were working.
And also, for every chicken and egg, there's like a case of tabasco sauce on board.
And I'm sad that you didn't get a chance to walk aboard the ship because of the pouring rain, and the crowds...
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Now I want to know how many pounds of tabasco there is.
You couldn't really walk aboard the ship. Just the barge beside the ship. Which would've been cool for a better view, but not much else, you know? It was just cool being there, anyway.
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