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RONALD
REAGAN (CVN 76) BUILDER'S SEA TRIALS
It’s
about
9:30 a.m.
May 5 and
the ship horn wails,
echoing across the
James River
and
throughout the shipyard. The Ronald
Reagan aircraft carrier is getting underway.
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(From
left to right) Tim Rugani, along with coworkers Nicole Wood
and Elizabeth
Ferry, all of Test
Engineering, wave good-bye as they look down at various
shipyard employees who surround Pier 2 as the Reagan departs
on May 5..
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Shipbuilders,
sailors, and personnel from Naval Sea Systems Command as
well as Supervisor of Shipbuilding crowd the
edges of the flight deck.
“Oh,
we’re moving,” says Elizabeth Ferry of E31 Test
Engineering. “It’s so slow going.”
Music
blasts through the ship’s speakers, underscoring a sense of patriotism
about the event. It’s builder’s sea trials. It is the first time
the nation’s newest and most advanced nuclear powered aircraft
carrier Ronald Reagan
(CVN 76) will head to sea. The overcast chilly weather fails to
dampen the spirits of those on board the ship. The
patriotic song,
Fanfare for the Common Man,
plays.
“It
sounds like it’s a movie,” says Nicole Wood of E31 Test
Engineering.
About
3,000 — including about 450 Northrop Grumman Newport News
employees — are on onboard for a four-day excursion that will
ensure the warship will operate
in defense of freedom around the world for the next 50 years.
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Gatling
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Allen
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X42 employees Kenny Gatling and Louis Allen, Jr. are among
those who line the ship’s flight deck. They helped build Reagan’s
fire main and magazine sprinkler systems. This marks Gatling’s
sixth time on sea trials and he says it’s just as exciting as his first.
“I feel great being able to see it completed and to see everything
operate,” Gatling says.
This
is Allen’s second time on sea trials, where he will spend most of
his time testing the systems he helped to build. “I’m very
satisfied with the systems we built, and it’s rewarding to test
them at sea." |
The
ship steadily picks up speed now as it moves away from land.
Shipyard employee Steven
Clouse of X43 helps
sailors dismantle the bow flagpole, responding to the command,
“Underway, shift colors.”
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Though
many observe the ship’s departure from the flight deck,
many others either have already concluded or are in the
midst of conducting tests and demonstrations. The day before
departure, the first riders of sea trials began to board the
ship and sea trials work commenced. It’s just after
10 a.m.
and a voice shouts out to raise a jet blast deflector.
Sailors encircle the jet blast deflector to form a safety
barrier and signal by raising their arms that it’s about
to go up. They do the same as it’s lowered.
E31
Test Engineer Andy Gibbs (center holding
notebook) is among them taking notes
during the demonstration.
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Steven Speight of X76
helped checked in riders of sea trials, providing them
information on their assigned berthing, mustering,
mess and abandon ship locations. |
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Moments later it begins to rain and the carrier
passes the Monitor Merrimac bridge tunnel. Most disappear
from the flight deck. And within the hour just before lunch
a Navy helicopter breaks through the gray sky, making the
first landing on the Ronald Reagan.
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It's
just
after
1 p.m.
when Capt. J.W. “Bill”
Goodwin welcomes everyone aboard, singling out the shipbuilders
and in particular Northrop Grumman Newport News President Tom
Schievelbein, Bob Gunter, senior vice president of the Aircraft
Carrier Program, and Ken Mahler, CVN 76 program director.
Goodwin
turns his attention to the sailors. “Be ready mentally and
physically for the next event on the schedule. Keep the focus and
level of professionalism in everything we do on builder’s sea
trials. You are plank owners of the newest
nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the world’s greatest Navy.
I’m proud to call you shipmates. As always, let’s do it
safely, professionally and on time.” |
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