I started not to mention this, because it may make me appear to be something I am not. Although I was once a Petty Officer in the Navy, I was not what anyone would call "salty". The only ship I served on was a training vessel that never left the pier. The rest of my time was spent at shore commands, learning about the sea from the men who had been there and done that.
I have always had a love for things naval. I guess I get this from my dad, who was the real thing. Until I joined the Navy, I had never seen an active duty warship; my experience had been limited to a viewing of the USS Yorktown, a WWII carrier that looked almost small compared to her grandchildren. So when I first drove down by the piers at main base in Charleston, I was blown away. Even the frigates, small by Navy standards, were huge to my eyes. The ships were grey and stately and built for a purpose. I loved them all.
When I still thought I was going to successfully graduate from NPTU, I talked to my dad about my options. Most nukes ended up on submarines; what little time I spent on one told me that wasn't an option. I only had two other choices: aircraft carriers and nuclear-powered cruisers. Dad told me to go with cruisers, because he knew that carriers spent more time at sea. In a protracted conflict, a carrier's escorts (cruisers, destroyers and frigates) could be rotated home. But carriers are few and far between; every at-sea record was held by an aircraft carrier.
At that time, there were still 9 nuclear-powered cruisers in the fleet. That was all that had ever been built. Three of them were unique, two others were twins and the last four were a class (I had to look this up; my memory's not THAT good). I wanted to get on one of those last four because they were the newest and, thus, would probably be in service longer.
While still in Nuclear Power School, I had asked my section adviser, a weird Senior Chief named Cates, about cruisers. He had served on the grandaddy of all nuke cruisers, the USS Long Beach (CGN-9). Affectionately called the "Long Bitch", she was a monster---nearly 800 feet long with a superstructure that made her look top-heavy. She had been built as a life partner for the USS Enterprise (CVN-65), the Navy's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. In fact, the Enterprise, Long Beach and Bainbridge (CGN-25) had gone on a round the world cruise together, the first modern warships to do so without refueling.
Flash forward to last night. I was watching the History Channel out of the corner of my eye when I saw the area of Puget Sound where the Navy sends most of its ships to be mothballed and eventually cut up for scrap. Lo and behold, there was the Long Beach and the South Carolina (CGN-37), tied together. Only, it was just their hulls. The rest of them had already been cut up for scrap. I only knew them because of the white numbers still painted on their bows.
Now, don't get the idea that I got weepy for two ships that I never even set foot on, much less served aboard. But it was sad. First, it reminded me that I'm getting old. Second, it seemed almost sinful that two things of such awesome beauty (and they are beautiful, in their way) should be turned into scrap that will be hauled away in trucks. They were the vanguards of the Cold War; now that we don't need them, they are being kicked to the curb. Because of them, and hundreds of other ships, we never fought the "inevitable" war with the Soviet Union. There will never be a monument to those years, but those ships were the best investment this nation ever made.
Posted by Matthew at February 3, 2004 05:07 AM