Figured that I would get in a quick post before I hit the rack. I have to get up early tomorrow to be outside Sloan Hall (where I have most of my classes) at 6:00 a.m. This almost reminds me of meeting outside the NEX mini-mart at oh-dark-thirty in Pearl Harbor to go for a bus ride to the shooting range for weapons qualifications. Instead, I am going on a field trip tomorrow to Hanford. For my senior design project, we are trying to come up with a way to optimize a particular method in the processing of radioactive liquid.
One thing that I thought was kind of odd is that we are not required to be U.S. citizens to go there, or at least to see the nuclear-type of areas. Two of my classmates are foreign nationals. One is Japanese and the other is Mexican. Of course, I am sure that neither one of them has any sinister designs. In fact, one of them is giving me a ride to school tomorrow since we have to leave before the bus starts running in the morning. All in all, I am happy that they get to go with us.
I spent 20 years in the navy working as a nuke. Then I went to college to broaden my horizons. Now in the span of just a few weeks, I got to tour a naval shipyard and tomorrow I get to visit a nuclear reservation. I can feel my horizons broadening as I sit here typing this post.
Well, I guess the navy and/or the nuclear world is my calling. Things could be worse. At least there are some good job prospects out there for me.
One thing that I thought was kind of odd is that we are not required to be U.S. citizens to go there, or at least to see the nuclear-type of areas. Two of my classmates are foreign nationals. One is Japanese and the other is Mexican. Of course, I am sure that neither one of them has any sinister designs. In fact, one of them is giving me a ride to school tomorrow since we have to leave before the bus starts running in the morning. All in all, I am happy that they get to go with us.
I spent 20 years in the navy working as a nuke. Then I went to college to broaden my horizons. Now in the span of just a few weeks, I got to tour a naval shipyard and tomorrow I get to visit a nuclear reservation. I can feel my horizons broadening as I sit here typing this post.
Well, I guess the navy and/or the nuclear world is my calling. Things could be worse. At least there are some good job prospects out there for me.
6 comments:
We never had any weapons qualification. I never fired a weapon the whole time I was active or active reserve.
I certainly believe you did. I wonder when things changed. I don't think they really trusted us with firearms. We did hold a .45 for topside watch.
On my first boat, a fast attack out of Groton, nukes didn't have to qualify with a weapon. My second boat was a Trident and pretty much everyone had to qualify on a weapon.
I went back to fast boats after that, but after 9/11, everyone had to qualify to shoot some kind of weapon.
*chuckle* Had to laugh at the "broadening your horizons" comment. Funny how things work isn't it? At least you can be "big man on campus" when it comes to nuclear knowledge!
I have a cousin who has been working for Bechtel at Hanford for the last twenty years. He expects to retire there.
If the opportunity ever presents itself for you to visit Lawrence Livermore Labs, I HIGHLY recommend it. They have some REALLY cool stuff there... and probably WON'T allow your foreign national classmates to go.
Blunoz: Funny that you should mention that. I actually did get the opportunity to tour Lawrence Livermore Labs. We decommissioned my first submarine in Mare Island back in 1989/1990. We had a ramped up training schedule and somehow, someone finagled a trip out to the labs for a day of "training". I don't remember if our tour was unclassified or classified, so I won't talk about what they showed us. But it was pretty cool. I can only imagine what new stuff they have developed in the last 20 years. I know I wouldn't turn down another look at it.
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