Bullethead
09 Sep 06, 17:33
Off the RJW topic but I figure this would be of interest to most readers of this board....
An old friend of mine used to serve aboard boomers in the USN. One of his old shipmates, who stayed in, is now the chief engineer aboard the USN's latest and greatest attack sub, USS Texas (SSN-775). This ship is so new, in fact, that it was only commissioned this morning in Galveston, Texas. Anyway, my friend's friend invited us all to the show, so naturally I jumped at the chance.
Being a guest of a crewman, I got to go inside the thing yesterday. Of course, they wouldn't let me take pictures inside, but I can describe some of it. For instance, this sub's torpedo room is all modular: they can put racks for different types of weapons in there, or the space for bunking extra personnel, such as divers and SEALs. This is a new design feature. Another new feature is that this sub doesn't have the classic periscopes penetrating the pressure hull and going into the control room. Instead, all the imagery is wired in and displayed on a bigscreen TV so everybody in the control room can see it. That sounds like such a useful feature I'm surprised it's never been done before.
The outside of the ship looks like this (after the crew had jogged aboard when ordered to man the ship):
http://people.delphiforums.com/jtweller/Texas02.JPG
As this was happening, 2 F/A-18s blasted by and we also had a flyover by a formation consisting of an SBD, and F4U, and an F6F from the local air museum.
Security was quite impressive and something of an ordeal. This wasn't just because of the uber-secret sub itself, but because of the amazing collection of brass and VIPs who turned out for the show. Everybody in the crowd of about 6-7000 had to go through metal detectors, have their cars searched, etc., and there were guards all around on the pier, in boats in the harbor, and in the air above. I was quite impressed, however, with the efficiency, speed, and courtesy of the personnel handling the crowd screening.
Here's why the security:
http://people.delphiforums.com/jtweller/Texas01.JPG
On this podium, we had the 1st Lady (sponsor of the ship), both US Senators from Texas, the Assistant Secretary of the USN, the CNO, the admiral in charge of all subs, assorted admirals with less than 4 stars (each with a staff of captains and commanders to carry his briefcase), the governor of Texas, the mayor of Galveston, and the CEOs of both the GD Electric Boat and Northrop-Grumman Newport News shipyards. And in the front few rows of seats there were a dozen or so US Congressmen and a bunch of Texas legislators.
Given all this AND the sub itself, the fact that it only took a couple hours to run the whole crowd through the screening process AND have ushers take them to their seats was just amazing. The airport screeners need to take lessons from the USN :).
An old friend of mine used to serve aboard boomers in the USN. One of his old shipmates, who stayed in, is now the chief engineer aboard the USN's latest and greatest attack sub, USS Texas (SSN-775). This ship is so new, in fact, that it was only commissioned this morning in Galveston, Texas. Anyway, my friend's friend invited us all to the show, so naturally I jumped at the chance.
Being a guest of a crewman, I got to go inside the thing yesterday. Of course, they wouldn't let me take pictures inside, but I can describe some of it. For instance, this sub's torpedo room is all modular: they can put racks for different types of weapons in there, or the space for bunking extra personnel, such as divers and SEALs. This is a new design feature. Another new feature is that this sub doesn't have the classic periscopes penetrating the pressure hull and going into the control room. Instead, all the imagery is wired in and displayed on a bigscreen TV so everybody in the control room can see it. That sounds like such a useful feature I'm surprised it's never been done before.
The outside of the ship looks like this (after the crew had jogged aboard when ordered to man the ship):
http://people.delphiforums.com/jtweller/Texas02.JPG
As this was happening, 2 F/A-18s blasted by and we also had a flyover by a formation consisting of an SBD, and F4U, and an F6F from the local air museum.
Security was quite impressive and something of an ordeal. This wasn't just because of the uber-secret sub itself, but because of the amazing collection of brass and VIPs who turned out for the show. Everybody in the crowd of about 6-7000 had to go through metal detectors, have their cars searched, etc., and there were guards all around on the pier, in boats in the harbor, and in the air above. I was quite impressed, however, with the efficiency, speed, and courtesy of the personnel handling the crowd screening.
Here's why the security:
http://people.delphiforums.com/jtweller/Texas01.JPG
On this podium, we had the 1st Lady (sponsor of the ship), both US Senators from Texas, the Assistant Secretary of the USN, the CNO, the admiral in charge of all subs, assorted admirals with less than 4 stars (each with a staff of captains and commanders to carry his briefcase), the governor of Texas, the mayor of Galveston, and the CEOs of both the GD Electric Boat and Northrop-Grumman Newport News shipyards. And in the front few rows of seats there were a dozen or so US Congressmen and a bunch of Texas legislators.
Given all this AND the sub itself, the fact that it only took a couple hours to run the whole crowd through the screening process AND have ushers take them to their seats was just amazing. The airport screeners need to take lessons from the USN :).